Reality TV Fame: A Dark Warning from Elisha-Jade

For some, like and , stepping into the Love Island villa led to lucrative brand deals, social media stardom and overnight fame.

But for others, it started the darkest chapter of their lives.

In 2017 Ellisha-Jade White was a 22-year-old marketing graduate with dreams of working in broadcasting when producers from ’s Love Island asked her to appear on the show’s third series. She claims she was told that it would help her launch a career in showbusiness and provide an opportunity to find love.

For many of the season’s contestants, like , and , life beyond the villa did indeed bring fame and fortune.

But nine years later, Ellisha-Jade, now 31, has told the Daily Mail how the experience triggered her debilitating battle with agoraphobia - and how challenging it was to rebuild a normal life once the cameras stopped rolling.

‘The dark truth is that nobody prepares you for the aftermath,’ she says. ‘These production companies do not educate young, naive contestants on the psychological cost of the reality-TV meat-grinder.’

Ellisha-Jade claims she was used as a ‘guinea pig’ for Love Island’s infamous 'Casa Amor twist'.

In the first few seasons, all the contestants remained in one villa for the duration of the show. They had to ‘couple up’ – meaning they chose someone to be their romantic partner – to stay on the programme. Meanwhile, singletons were kicked out of the villa while new stars were introduced throughout the season to challenge existing partnerships.

But in the third season, producers New singles then had to couple up with existing contestants – many of whom were already in relationships – or face being sent home.

Ellisha-Jade says she felt she was used as a guinea pig because she wasn’t informed of the Casa Amor twist by producers and expected to join the normal villa. When she was sent home, after only a few days, she was given £200 in compensation and no further support.

Before going on the show, Ellisha-Jade hoped that it would transform her life. Of course, it did, but not in the positive ways that she’d hoped for.

She said: ‘My journey with the show started in 2016. An ITV producer messaged me on Facebook after finding me on social media, asking me to go into the second series. I said no. But when they came back to me in 2017, I eventually said yes.

‘I thought my life was about to change forever. At the time, the premise of the show wasn’t what it is today. Now, people go in to boost their careers as influencers. Back then, it was framed as a genuine way to find a relationship and launch your TV career. My dream was to be a TV presenter. And this felt like the perfect way to break into the industry.

‘Producers told us that we’d be famous and that agents would be waiting for us. They don’t warn you about what happens if it doesn’t go well.’

After a gruelling application process, interviews, and publicity days, Ellisha-Jade was flown to Mallorca to enter the first-ever Casa Amor as a ‘bombshell’ – that's an attractive new contestant sent to disrupt existing relationships.

Ellisha-Jade said: ‘I was told I’d be dropped into the villa to shake up the storylines. I flew out to Spain, but before even seeing the cameras, I was put into solitary confinement in a hotel for three days. None of us had any idea what was coming. We assumed we’d be walking straight into the normal main villa.

‘Then, six of us girls were piled into a car and the second we saw each other, my heart sank. We realised there were six boys and six girls split across two different houses. Everyone from series four onwards knew about the two villas, but we were the first guinea pigs. With that many people competing for a tiny fraction of airtime, I knew it wouldn’t go well.’

At the end of the Casa Amor period, only two of the six new girls were chosen to go to the main villa and the rest, including Ellisha-Jade, were sent home.