After quite a slow start, Love Island has become increasingly explosive as we rocket towards the final – but it’s not just the Islanders in the villa that are causing all the drama.
One former contestant who has set tongues wagging is Clarisse Juliette, who has been accused of liking somewhat shady comments about her fellow Islanders, Kaz Kamwi and Tyler Cruikshank.
You can watch a video of Clarisse sharing her side of the drama here.
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For those of you who need a quick catch-up, Tyler coupled up with Clarisse when the boys were sent to Casa Amor – and while he brought her back to the main villa, he found himself torn between herself and villa OG, Kaz. After much to-ing and froing, the estate agent chose to couple up with Kaz – seeing Clarisse booted out the villa.
And Clarisse has been vocal about the way she was treated, giving several interviews about her confusion as to why she wasn’t chosen, as well as liking comments on her Instagram page from fans saying they were confused as to why Tyler chose Kaz over her.
But while many Love Island fans on Twitter have called out Clarisse for what’s perceived to be a negative attitude, relationship expert and psychotherapist Sally Baker explains that it’s all part of the break-up ‘grieving’ process.
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“When you’re stalking your ex on social media, or you’re screenshotting their posts and sending them to your tribe, you’re in a high-energy state,” she tells Tyla. “You’re in the relationship grieving process, and you haven’t let go and moved on.
“This sense of aggrievement Clarisse may be feeling suggests there’s something unresolved, not finished and not processed. You have to sit through those feelings, process them and work through them.
“The problem is social media bubbles. Clarisse has curated her own bubble to share her thoughts with her own friends and followers. When you’re mates, you don’t want to be the harbinger of bad news, so you tone down your responses. You might think, this is a bit much, but you’d be a brave friend to turn around and say: ‘You’ve spoken about this enough now.’
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“So when viewers are telling her this, they go to the other extreme. There’s no measured response on social media anymore, unless its incandescent or infuriated. Everything gets very polarised.”
Sally adds that she doesn’t feel Clarisse has feelings for Tyler, despite the fact he did “lead her on” by bringing her back into the main villa.
“She’s miffed,” she says. “Clarisse is sounding off. She is obviously incredibly beautiful, which is a vital currency in Love Island. I don’t think she’s used to being turned down, and this is how she’s working through it. For people like Clarisse, rejection can be quite hard to get your head around – unlike for us mere civilians.
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“Kaz is beautiful too, and her and Tyler get on so well they laugh with each other and they have a great connection. What they share is more multi-dimensional.”
While we know Clarisse will have a queue of men falling at her feet, Sally urges people who find themselves in a similar position to the former Islander to continue to work through their feelings.
“It’s normal to speak about your ex a lot after a break up,” she says. “Give yourself lots of time. Be kind to yourself, try and eat well, get proper rest. We need REM sleep to process pain and emotional discomfort.
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“You’re in pain. It’s okay to be in pain. There’s this notion of toxic positivity that you need to be okay and get back out there – that’s not the case at all.
“If you don’t work through the pain, as we’ve seen with Faye, it colours how you approach your next relationship – and results in problems.”
But it looks as if we could have been wrong all along, as Clarisse herself has since clarified the Instagram drama herself.
"I just wanted to come on here and clear some things up," she wrote on Instagram. "There were comments that were replied to and liked from my page. They weren’t done by myself but they were done by someone who had control of my account whilst I was in the villa.
"But that’s not an excuse and I just want to apologise to anybody who’s been offended by this because they should have been more wary on whose comments they’re responding to and engaging with, especially when it’s any negativity towards anybody else.
"Kaz and I have no problems with each other at all and I definitely don’t agree with any negativity towards her."
Love Island continues weeknights and Sundays at 9pm on ITV2 and the ITV Hub. Episodes are available the next day on BritBox.
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: TV And Film, Love Island, Sex and Relationships