‘Love Island’ contestant Jonny Mitchell has been criticised by the CEO of charity Women’s Aid, Polly Neate, who has blasted his behaviour as “possessive and controlling”.
The organisation work to raise awareness of domestic abuse, while helping women who have gone through it, and Polly has highlighted the danger of classing some of Jonny’s comments about Tyla Carr as “banter”.
In a blog published on HuffPost UK, Polly wrote: “When Jonny said that Theo would have to prise Tyla from his cold, dead hands’, it was not romantic.
“It did not demonstrate just how much he liked her and it certainly wasn’t funny. It was possessive and controlling.
“For a survivor of domestic abuse watching, it would have been a chilling moment.
“The underlying sentiment was that this man believes he owns this woman. Often batted away as ‘laddish behaviour’, or ‘just a phrase’, in isolation one comment seems innocuous, but it’s not.
“Statements like this normalise the objectification of women and men’s power over us. They normalise sexism so that we accept it.”
Jonny’s comments came ahead of a recent recoupling, which saw villa newbie Theo Campbell choose Tyla - who Jonny was paired with - to be with.
Jonny was less than pleased by Theo’s actions and hit out at his rival, labelling him a “gigantic bellend”. He later apologised when Tyla said he “came out of it [the situation] looking a bit childish”.
Since then, Tyla has grown closer to Theo, and Monday (10 July) night’s episode saw her call things off with Jonny.
Women’s Aid’s Polly continued: “When Tyla heard about Jonny’s words, they rang alarms bells for her.
“She clearly had experience of this already - hardly surprising given that controlling abuse is very common.
“She told another islander of a previous relationship that was ‘so controlling I just wanted to run away’.”
‘Love Island’ fever has taken the UK by storm in recent weeks, with the programme recording record high viewing figures, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has even revealed his favourite contestant.
Read Polly’s full blog here.