Women’s Aid has encouraged Love Island producers to look into complaints of ‘controlling’ behaviour by one of the show’s new singletons.
This summer, George Fensom joins the villa as one of the new Islanders looking for love, with Maya Jama returning as host after her success in the winter season.
Fans discovered tweets from the business development executive’s social network that contained homophobic insults before his Love Island voyage even began.
Furthermore, an ex-girlfriend claims she suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of George’s behaviour during their relationship.
Katie Hewitt, 24, who dated George for 18 months after first meeting in 2017, told The Sun that ITV should listen to her and another former girlfriend, Ebony Keeley, who had made similar charges.
She demanded that George, also 24, be fired from the dating programme.
Katie alleges her ex-boyfriend made her eat and dress, and she suspects he cheated on her.
This made her feel ‘worthless,’ and she stopped eating entirely. She reportedly claims George would yell insults at her in public.
Katie said: ‘At the beginning it was lovely. But after six months I started to see how awful he was.’
‘I was terrified to speak out but I hope I can show why it’s important for women to have a voice and not let men like George win,’ she added.
Now, in a statement shared, Women’s Aid has stressed the severity of the allegations.
Teresa Parker, Head of Media, Brand and Relationships at Women’s Aid, said: ‘Considering the amount of concern that viewers have raised about unacceptable behaviour in relationships during previous series of Love Island, at Women’s Aid we hope that the producers will be taking these allegations of controlling behaviour seriously, and looking into them as part of their due diligence before the new series begins.
‘We know only too well that people who can be abusive can be charming and convincing in public and are able to manipulate others into disbelieving allegations.’
The statement continued: ‘We know from speaking with the team at Love Island that they have recently introduced guidance and training around mutually respectful behaviour in relationships for incoming Islanders, and information on controlling and coercive behaviour, and hope this will help inform how this situation is handled.
‘It is vital that contestants are safe in relationships formed on the show, and not exposed to potential partners who have previously been abusive in relationships.’
In response to the allegations made against him, George’s family said in a statement: ‘This is a one-sided account of a relationship George had six years ago when he was 18, and this is not behaviour we recognise.
‘We have been very reluctant to speak about this as we have no desire to in any way cause distress to George’s ex-girlfriends, but given George has no right to reply, and because of the strength of these unsubstantiated claims being made against him, we feel we have no choice.
‘These claims are false, unjustified and hurtful, and George would absolutely refute these. It has been very upsetting to see our son labelled using such damaging terms.
‘We know our son better than anyone and we also had close insights into these two relationships, and this isn’t the full story. George only ever wanted to end this amicably and move on in a civil manner so it is very sad it has come to this.’
They concluded by encouraging viewers to ‘give him a chance to prove he is not the person he is being portrayed to be.’
ITV also said that they have spoken to George in regard to the allegations.
‘The safeguarding and ongoing welfare of our contributors is always the top priority. As part of our duty of care process, all Islanders undergo psychological evaluation prior to being selected for the show, and we also stipulate that all Islanders participate in our training programme around language and behaviour – this is a very important part of our pre-entry procedure,’ they said.
‘We have zero tolerance of any discriminatory language in the villa and we speak to all of the islanders to remind them of what we condone to be acceptable behaviour during their time on the show. They are also spoken to daily by our welfare team to ensure they remain comfortable in their relationships.’
Women’s Aid has already commented on Love Island.
Last summer, the group addressed the response to the villa’s’misogynistic and dominating’ attitude.
It happened after Luca Bish was spotted yelling at Gemma Owen and accusing her of ‘flirting’ with Billy Brown, despite her insistence that she wasn’t ‘entertaining’ the bombshell’s overtures.
Despite straying and kissing Coco Lodge at Casa Amor, Davide Sanclimenti called Ekin-Su Cülcülolu a ‘liar’ amid heated disagreements.
‘At Women’s Aid, we are being tagged into a flood of Twitter tweets, with viewers of Love Island noting the sexism and controlling conduct portrayed on TV,’ stated the organisation at the time.
‘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.’
Love Island returns tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
