Love is in the air ahead of the Love Island: All Stars final – but so is chaos. It all kicked off during Sunday night's episode when the dumped islanders returned to the villa to vote off the weakest couple.
Straight off the bat, Olivia Hawkins took the opportunity to say she didn't think any of the three couples at risk of leaving should be stood there, but it should have been Luca Bish and Grace Jackson instead.
Her reason? She claims to have seen messages between Grace and a mutual friend where Grace allegedly said she would do anything to win the series. On hearing this, Grace looked genuinely shocked and was quick to defend herself, adamant that those messages don't exist and that she does not care about winning. 'On my life, I have never written that sentence in my life,' Grace objected.
Olivia then said, 'I've seen the messages' and 'I've got the receipts'. Understandably, this caused a lot of commotion in the villa, especially given that it was not relevant to the voting challenge and Grace was unable to defend herself.
The messages were allegedly between Grace and former Love Islander Joey Essex, who Grace was previously romantically involved with. In the DM screenshot, Grace allegedly said 'I am being dead serious we can bet on it...' before adding 'I will win this!!'. Joey then allegedly replied saying, 'Grace we shall see' with a crying with laughter emoji. Even if these messages are real, which they might not be, Grace's tone is evidently jokey and there is no suggestion that she has a ten-point, calculated plan to steal the prize.
It's also worth noting that these are seasoned reality stars who have all gone back on the show that made them famous for a reason. This close to the final, it's likely that winning is something that has crossed all of their minds, even if that wasn't their sole motivation for going on in the first place.
Olivia's decision to bring up the rumoured messages in that environment was ungenerous at best. Grace does not have access to her phone and was not told who said 'mutual friend' was, so she is now left to deal with the fallout with no clarity on the situation or ability to clear her name.
Saying that, it is a reality TV show where producers play a hand in the drama. Olivia left the show several weeks ago and obviously viewed her return as a chance to confront Grace, which she is entitled to do even if she went about it in the wrong way. What she does not deserve is the barrage of abuse and death threats that she has received in the past 24 hours.
She shared screenshots of her DMs on her Instagram story where viewers said, among other things, 'horrible person go die', 'you deserve to literally die' and 'kill yourself'. The reason we have included these messages is to show the extent of the incessant trolling these contestants still face on a daily basis from strangers. Despite the fact two former islanders and the former host, Caroline Flack, have all died by suicide.
There is no world in which this behaviour should be condoned or normalised. They might be reality stars, but they are also ordinary people and there is no excuse to treat them as anything different. Whether Grace wants to win or Olivia was right to cause a scene in the villa are two inconsequential storylines in a reality show designed for our entertainment, they do not provide reason to attack either of these women. Will we ever learn?
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).