Gemma Collins thinks Love Island should be ‘pulled off air’ following the tragic death of Caroline Flack.
The former reality star wants TV bosses to have a ‘rethink’ about bringing back the show at all after three people who had a connection with Love Island have lost their lives to suicide: Sophie Gradon, 32, Mike Thalassitis, 26, and Caroline, 40.
‘Maybe they should pull it off air,’ Gemma began to Guardian. ‘They’ve had three people pass – it’s got a taint over it.’
After hearing Caroline had taken her own life, Gemma said she couldn’t stop thinking about the Love Island presenter.
‘It’s absolutely devastating,’ she sighed. ‘No one knows exactly what went on, but it did affect me…’
Sophie’s mum Deborah Gradon has also called for Love Island to be scrapped after her daughter took her own life at the age of 32.
Deborah admitted that even today the Love Island advert ‘wrenches’ her gut as she questioned ‘how many more families must be destroyed?’
‘I want Love Island taken off the air,’ she began. ‘How many more families must be destroyed like this? There’s our family, there’s Mike’s family and now there’s Caroline’s family.’
‘To lose your child is to suffer unspeakable loss. And too many parents have lost their children because of this three-ring circus,’ she exclaimed.
‘The question that haunts me is whether they could have done more to help her. I feel they owed Caroline and our daughter the same duty of care when they left the show,’ she added to the Daily Mail.
Caroline had previously spoken out about Love Island and asserted the show was not the ultimate cause of either Mike or Sophie’s deaths as she explained it was a ‘much bigger issue’.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan at the time in 2019 Caroline said: ‘It’s dangerous and I’m really, really angry. It’s not just that you’re blaming a TV show, you’re blaming people and their jobs. ‘In life, we all have a duty of care to look out for each other, but I don’t think it’s fair to point fingers of blame. ‘
This is a much bigger issue than just a reality TV show, and when something this bad happens – and I’m talking about Mike – when something this horrible and sad occurs, it’s so dangerous to point fingers within hours and minutes of it happening.’
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Love Island returns to ITV2 this summer.
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