Women's Aid 'In Talks' With Love Island About 'Controlling Behaviour' In This Year's Contestants

Women's Aid has confirmed it is in talks with the Love Island team after recent episodes of the ITV series saw some of the male islanders display 'misogynistic behaviour'.

The reality show has faced a heavy wave of backlash from viewers over more recent episodes, subsequently catching the attention of Women's Aid.

During Mad Movies night, fans watched in horror as Tasha Ghouri faced teasing and intense criticism from Luca Bish and Dami Hope, leaving her in tears.

Elsewhere, Luca sparked concern when he lashed out at his partner Gemma Owen when he saw a clip of Billy flirting with her, despite seeing evidence that she hadn't entertained his advances.

Billy pushed the fallout further when he suggested he wouldn't have tried his luck with Gemma if he didn't think he had a chance with her.

Viewers also shared their disdain for early favourite Davide Sanclimenti when he repeatedly hit out at his partner Ekin-Su Culculoglu after suspecting that she had been up to no good in Casa Amor.

Ekin tried desperately to assure Davide that she had been on her best behaviour while she was away - all while Davide had been caught carrying on with bombshells Coco and Mollie.

And finally, Dami Hope had fans at a loss for words when he yelled at former partner Summer Botwe for being 'fake' after she opened up about a three-way kiss she shared with him while Indiyah was away.

ITV

Earlier episodes of the reality dating series had also sparked serious concern for Paige Thorne, after watching how she had been treated by former partner Jacques O'Neill before he dramatically exited the villa.

As a result of all the noise online, domestic abuse charity Women's Aid has announced it is currently in discussions with the ITV team about their duty of care process.

A statement from Teresa Parker, head of communications and media relations, read: "At Women’s Aid we are being tagged into a stream of Twitter posts, with viewers of Love Island highlighting the misogyny and controlling behaviour being shown on screen. 

"This is clearly more than talking about any individual contestants, and a programme based around the formation of romantic relationships must have guidelines on what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable in those relationships.

‘We are talking to ITV, and they have shared with us information on their inclusion training, but what appears to be missing is specific information on abusive relationships and an understanding of controlling behaviour in relationships."

ITV

She continued that Love Island producers must be able to recognise when to 'intervene and challenge unacceptable behaviour', which Women's Aid has offered to help with.

"We have a new campaign called Come Together to End Domestic Abuse about the role everyone has to play in ending abuse. 

"ITV can play an important role here, by dealing with something that is clearly an ongoing issue for the show, and at Women’s Aid we want to help where we can."

Meanwhile, ITV has also released its own statement, assuring Love Island fans that its contestants' welfare is 'always [its] greatest concern'.

"We have dedicated welfare producers and psychological support on hand at all times, who monitor and regularly speak to all of the Islanders in private and off camera."

Despite this, fans were disappointed once again on Tuesday (19 July) night when Tasha was reduced to tears after some hurtful comments were made by Luca and Dami during a game of Snog, Marry, Pie.

Luca's family has even issued an apology on his behalf for his 'insensitive behaviour', assuring fans that he will be 'deeply embarrassed' when he eventually watches these episodes back.

Elsewhere, Danica Taylor was forced to confront her partner Billy after it was revealed that he had told the other boys about the sexual activity they had gotten up to that week. While speaking to Billy about the incident, Danica was thrown when he laughed in her face and told her to 'chill out.'