This year’s Love Island finals have taken a swipe at ITV bosses as they claimed they were made to ‘look like villains’ during the series.
Last month fans watched as the 12th series of the dating show came to an end as Maya Jama announced Toni Laites and Cach Mercer were this year’s winners during the live final from the villa.
Toni, who was the first American contestant to star in the UK version, was joined in the top three with Shakira Khan and Yasmin Pettet.
In a new interview nearly a month after leaving the Majorca mansion, the three women have now accused ITV of making them look like ‘villains’.
Love Island fans had criticised how scenes were edited, particular the highly anticipated Movie Night.
Shakira told The Sun’s Fabulous mag: ‘Yeah, they’d never show the other side of things, which was frustrating.
This year’s Love Island finals have taken a swipe at ITV bosses as they claimed they were made to ‘look like villains’ during the series
Last month fans watched as the 12th series of the dating show came to an end as Maya Jama announced Toni Laites and Cach Mercer were this year’s winners during the live final from the villa
Yasmin (pictured), Toni and Shakira have now accused ITV of making them look like ‘villains’ after fans previously slammed the show’s edit
‘We constantly felt like villains. Every chance they got, they tried to kill us off.’
Toni added: ‘During the first public vote, Shakira and I were both in the bottom. We spent weeks thinking that it was us against the world, because that’s how everyone in there made us feel.’
While this series was one of the more fiery fans have seen in recent years, the women admitted how a lot of the Islanders genuinely didn’t get along ‘for weeks’.
Toni admitted: ‘A lot of us really just didn’t get along. For weeks and weeks, there were no solid couples, because no one could even stand to speak to each other!’
It comes after the women previously revealed how the villa was ‘frosty’ and ‘really tense’ over the summer.
The divide among the female contestants on the ITV2 show became a talking point among fans, with Toni, Shakira and Yasmin feuding with the likes of Meg Moore and Helena Ford.
Speaking to i-D magazine, the three ladies insisted the tension was very real and there was often an uneasy atmosphere in the villa.
Shakira said: ‘When you come around the corner and they stop talking, you feel isolated, it feels frosty, really tense, and it’s not nice. It wasn’t a bad edit; we tried to fix it, but that was our experience, we lived it.’
Shakira told The Sun’s Fabulous mag : ‘Yeah, they’d never show the other side of things, which was frustrating. We constantly felt like villains. Every chance they got, they tried to kill us off’
The women also revealed how the villa didn’t get along ‘for weeks’ which resulted in no real couples shining through until later in the series
Toni, who won the show, and Yasmin, who entered the villa as bombshells, both felt animosity from some of the other girls.
Yasmin described it as ‘classic high school’ behaviour and said she made an effort to be nice to other new bombshells when they arrived in the billa.
She added: ‘We felt like outsiders compared to everyone else, so when bombshells would come in after that, we would befriend them—we didn’t want anyone else to feel that way.’
Shakira feels she, Toni and Yasmin were always honest about their feelings in the villa which sometimes rubbed others the wrong way.
She said: ‘If you say it how it is, and you’re honest, you’re called “a b*tch”, you’re “nasty”.
‘No, I think it’s nasty to speak about someone behind their back, then rally together in groups and target them.’
Toni went on to win the show with Cach Mercer. Shakira was runner-up with Harry Cooksley while Yasmin finished in third place with Jamie Rhodes
Shakira arrived in the villa on Day 5 and bonded quickly with Toni but felt judged by some of the other girls for how quickly she started chatting with the guys.
She told Toni: ‘I’m not joking, getting ready then the vibes felt so off.
‘So it’s not enough to like pick up on and say something about because it’s nothing that is being said, but it’s the energy.’
Toni replied: ‘You know everyone is interested in you.’
Toni went on to win the show with Cach Mercer. Shakira was runner-up with Harry Cooksley while Yasmin finished in third place with Jamie Rhodes.
