Love Island secrets: Why the cast are allowed one day off filming to leave the villa
30 May 2019, 15:03 | Updated: 30 May 2019, 17:27
A former Love Island contestant has spilled the beans on some hidden secrets about the show.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past few weeks, you’ll know that Love Island is back with a fresh new bunch of singletons.
And with the likes of Tyson Fury’s brother, Tommy, and AJ Pritchard’s sibling Curtis confirmed for the line-up, we can already tell it’s going to be a good series.
But have you ever wondered what really goes on when the cameras stop rolling?
Well, apparently there’s a lot viewers don’t get to see - including the fact contestants are actually given some time off of filming.
Former Love Island star Chris Williamson was the first boy in the villa on the rebooted series back in 2015, and last year he revealed he was allowed one day a week to leave the villa.
Speaking on his podcast, Chris said: “Once a week we were allowed to leave the villa and weren’t filmed so none of the viewers would ever know.
Read More: How much are the Love Island cast paid to be on the ITV2 reality show?
“There was a day every week when footage wasn’t needed, which was liberating as you could talk about anything.”
ITV2 viewers have spotted Islanders leaving the villa a fair few times in the past.
Photos of Tyla Carr, Gabby Allen, Olivia Attwood, Amber Davies and Montana Brown heading to a hair salon emerged back in 2017.
Terry Walsh from series two was also taken out of the villa with Scott Thomas in 2016 where he was confronted by ex Malin Andersson.
While Chris Hughes and Liv went out shopping before making the rest of the contestants lunch.
Following the revelation, ITV later confirmed that there have been occasions when stars of the show have been allowed to get away from the Majorcan villa, but it’s judged on a case-by-case basis.
A spokesperson explained: “Occasionally in the past, some Islanders have been taken out of the villa – for example last year all of the girls were taken out for beauty treatments – but this is at the producers’ discretion and it is very much done on an ad hoc basis (as opposed to a set day each week).”
They added: “The majority of the dates, which are filmed, take place away from the villa.”
The Islanders are also chaperoned at all times when they leave the premises, so viewers won't miss anything major.
Meanwhile, Chris also revealed some other behind-the-scenes gossip, including the extreme lengths producers take to make sure they don’t find out the time.
"That's probably the craziest thing,” he said.
“When you wake up, when you go to bed - you never know the time.
"Even when you go out the villa, the car clocks get changed and even the driver's watch! It's really confusing!"
Love Island returns on Monday 3rd June at 9pm on ITV2.
