Eliminated Love Island star Yewande Biala has dismissed the suggestion the show has an issue with race.
Yewande was sent packing earlier this week after her partner Danny Williams chose to couple up with Arabella Chi, leaving her single and therefore without a spot in the villa.
In the last few series of Love Island, some viewers have suggested the show has some problems relating to race, highlighted by the fact that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) contestants can receive less screentime and are often overlooked in recouplings.
This suggestion resurfaced earlier in the current series, when the last three contestants to be chosen in the first coupling were all black or mixed race, though Yewande has denied the suggestion her ethnicity was at the root of how things played out in the villa.
“The race issues never crossed my mind at all,” she told Digital Spy. “I don’t think that there is a race issue on the show at all.
“I was fortunate enough to find someone and connect with someone, it was just unfortunate that he kind of broke my heart. And that’s why I was dumped.”
She added that she still believes “it was the right decision for me to go on Love Island”, noting: “What better way to break down your walls than to go on a love show that forces you to open up a little bit more? And that’s what I did, [but] it did take me a while…”
Similarly, ITV chief Dame Carolyn McCall recently dismissed the suggestion that white contestants are at an advantage on Love Island, saying: “I don’t see the evidence for that genuinely and if there was we would take that very seriously.”
Yewande said shortly after leaving the villa that she doesn’t see a future for Danny and Arabella, predicting things will fizzle out between them when they get to know each other a little better.
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.