Laura Whitmore is ready to give her all to Love Island this summer as she gets set to enter the famous villa for and present the addictive ITV reality series for a third time.
While the rest of us watch the drama unfold from the comfort of our couches, Laura will spend the next eight weeks flying over and back between London and Mallorca to provide us with all the juicy Love Island and After Sun content we've been craving.
Coming off the back of two rather unconventional seasons of the beloved dating series, the Irish beauty and self-confessed Love Island obsessive is ready for a 'normal' series this year. Well, as normal as you can get with a show like this.
Speaking to Tyla about returning to the island for a third time, Laura admitted: “It’s been a whirlwind.
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"In the first year I was stepping in and it was very last-minute and it was very overwhelming. I was a big fan of the show and I just wanted to get through each episode and do it the best I could do."
After joining the winter series at the eleventh hour as a substitute for the late Caroline Flack, Laura returned the following summer, only to be met with severe pandemic restrictions.
Recalling the bizarre experience, she said: "I’d go over, film for three days, go back to the UK to do After Sun, and then isolate for five days.”
While the presenter says she's "so happy" that Love Island got to air at all last year, there's no question that a new season without any hitches would be a nice change.
"I’ve never really had a normal year. I’ve always enjoyed it but there’s always been something else going on. So I’m looking forward to having it all work out so we can just enjoy it."
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Like many of us, Laura has been a fan of Love Island from the beginning, and shared that she can't wait to binge the new series along with viewers at home.
"I am obsessed because I’m a fan of the show – I have been since before I worked on it" she said.
“But I remember last year when Casa Amor happened – because I go in quite late to the villa, it must have been, like, 2 in the morning – it was when all this s**t hit the fan about Liam and Millie and Lillie and Faye and Teddy. I dropped all the news, it all happened and they [the producers] were like ‘Laura, get out, get out!’”
Hardly able to tear herself away from the explosive fire pit re-coupling, Laura confessed that she stayed in the ITV production office for another hour to watch it all go down on the live feed.
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We're definitely not jealous at all...
While fans have been patiently waiting for the next red-hot season to return to our TV screens, other reality dating shows (Love Is Blind, Too Hot To Handle, The Ultimatum, Celebs Go Dating, the list goes on) have been working hard to achieve Love Island status, but the ITV series is determined to keep its top spot.
“I don’t blame them because look at the success of Love Island", says Laura.
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"We love watching relationships. We love gossiping and talking about people and the these are people who have given consent to be talked about on the show. We follow their journey, we fall in love with them.
“Other networks and production companies will try and do the same but you’re never going to beat the OG."
Love Island begins tonight at 9pm on ITV2
Topics: Celebrity, Love Island, ITV
Ali Condon