It’s hard not to play favourites when it comes to a show like Love Island - across eight years, we’ve had over 300 contestants ranging from the completely forgettable to the forever iconic. So, with Love Island: All Stars attempting to bring back as many of the latter as possible, it was obviously a no-brainer that OG Love Islander Hannah Elizabeth was in the starting line-up.
And as it happens, not only did Hannah star in series one of the hit ITV show’s reboot, but she was actually the first to ever be recruited for the show. This was way back in 2015, when Love Island first returned from it's original 2005 run (which, if you're unfamiliar, only included celebrities). It was a controversial reboot at the time, but one that clearly went on to prove very successful.
‘I didn’t really want to go on telly initially, but my manager thought I’d be good for this upcoming programme called Love Island,’ Hannah recalls when we sat down to talk all things All Stars. ‘I was actually the first person ever interviewed for the show, which is pretty cool. Next thing I know I’m on the show. I just tried to be myself for every minute of it and it seemed to work.’
Before shooting to fame on series one of Love Island, Hannah’s work as a glamour model and Playboy Bunny had already seen her rubbing shoulders with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Brody Jenner (she’s done a shot of Patron off him) and of course, Hugh Heffner. While plenty has now come out about the darker side of the Playboy Mansion, Hannah had nothing but fond memories of her time in LA.
‘I modelled for Playboy, then I was one of the "painted ladies" [a Playboy tradition where models attended events with only paint on their bodies to appear like clothing] and got to attend various red carpet events with Hugh,' Hannah says. 'It had always been a dream of mine to be a Playboy Bunny – my whole look is modelled on the Playboy Bunnies of the 1990s like Pamela Anderson – and the experience completely lived up to my expectations.
‘It was such a great experience and we were like a little family,' Hannah continues. 'Everyone always assumes that I’ve slept with Hugh, but I haven’t. I wasn’t one of his girlfriends, plus he was so old when I was in the Playboy Mansion I’m not sure he was sleeping with anyone by then! Whenever I met him, he was always so welcoming, although I’m not entirely sure that he understood my accent.’
Hannah’s background in the entertainment industry (and the fact that she had a manager prior to appearing on the show) helped her ride the wave of overwhelming fame that came with her appearance on Love Island. Attending multiple events every week, navigating the rise of social media and dealing with the tabloids commenting on her, all came relatively naturally to Hannah.
‘Having had that experience with "fame" – I hate that word so much, I cringe whenever anyone calls me famous – beforehand, I was able to deal with a lot of things that were thrown at me. I felt quite comfortable in that environment, especially as I’ve never really cared what anyone thinks of me.’
During her first stint in the Love Island villa – in which viewers hailed her the ultimate girls’ girl - Hannah marked off another first on the show when she got engaged to her partner, Jon Clark, ahead of the final. While Hannah says she had fallen head over heels for the Essex-based builder, with hindsight she’s realised that their romance (which only lasted a few months on the outside world) wasn’t all it seemed.
‘Jon never got me a real ring, even when we were outside the villa,' Hannah recalls. 'He loved the whole reality TV scene and the attention that he was starting to get in clubs and at events, and I started to realise that we were in different places... If you ask some of the other people that we were on the show with, the general consensus is that Jon only proposed to me in order to try and win the show. That’s never a nice thing to hear.’
Since 2015, with her TV stint coinciding with the rise of Instagram, Hannah has pursued a career as an influencer and returned to her roots as a glamour model by starting an OnlyFans account – something that seemed like a no-brainer for her, considering how much she’d loved it before Love Island.
Then, in 2019, she became a mother, welcoming her son Reggie with former fiancé George Andreetti. But days before her birth, she split from Andreetti and has been balancing her career and life as a single mother ever since.
Of course, being in the public eye, Hannah has faced misogynistic criticism, particularly around her decision to pursue OnlyFans as a mother. ‘I was always going to get those comments, but I don’t really give a s**t because I’m a single mum and that’s how I provide for my son,' Hannah says. 'It’s not that different from when I was doing men’s magazines and my boobs were in the supermarket, however now I have autonomy over what I’m creating and it’s more empowering. When Reggie starts school properly and has more awareness of my career then I'll stop, but I've got no plans to stop at the moment.'
Thanks to Love Island: All Stars, series one Love Island fans were able to experience the return of Hannah’s down-to-earth nature on our screens (admittedly not for long enough) while younger viewers were introduced to the OG Queen of Love Island.
Indeed, Hannah's recent stint on Love Island: All Stars has massively boosted her social media presence, with her gaining over 450k Instagram followers during her appearance.
Of course, Love Island is a completely different beast to when she went into the villa. 'There are so many rules now and the whole villa has had a glow up,' she says. 'It felt like walking onto a movie set.' Knowing how big the show became after her 2015 series, Hannah admits that she occasionally feels jealous of the stars who come out to six-figure deals.
‘Josh [Ritchie] and I joke that we walked so Molly-Mae [Hague] could run!' Hannah laughs. 'Love Island has made so many millionaires and I’m still living in a little house, so I do sometimes feel jealous. On the flip side, we had such a ball because there wasn’t any pressure on us.’
With said increased public presence comes trolling, which this time around consisted of picking apart Hannah's appearance. Luckily, as with everything it seems, Hannah’s attitude is incredibly refreshing.
‘I know I’ve had loads of surgery – I own it and I think I look great,' she says. 'I don’t give a crap what people think. It’s never nice to deal with, but I’ve got a tough skin and those kind of opinions don’t matter.’
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film meaning that you can count on Daisy for the latest (and best) recommendations.