🔥 LOVE ISLAND’S SECRET WORLD REVEALED: The Hidden Villa, Strict Rules And Untold Drama Fans Never Get To See
AFTER finding love in the Love Island villa, this year’s contestants could be forgiven for thinking the best part was finally about to begin.
Away from the cameras, the newly loved-up couples might expect a luxury hotel, some much-needed privacy and the chance to enjoy intimate alone time together. But instead, they faced a bizarre final twist…
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What viewers see and what happens are two very different things, as we revealCredit: ITV/Shutterstock
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The holding villa is where dumped Islanders are kept under strict lockdown until their exit airs on TVCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
…that meant some were forced to spend up to FOUR days apart – with no contact with each other or the outside world.
While viewers see a separate timeline where dumped Islanders appear to head straight back to the UK, we can reveal the reality is very different.
Contestants are instead taken to a secret “holding pen” where they are kept completely out of sight until their exit airs on television.
But rather than being able to celebrate their new romances together, couples are given separate rooms and banned from sharing a bed, while their phones remain confiscated.
And despite leaving the villa hand-in-hand, those who have just found love are suddenly forced to put the brakes firmly on their romance.
Speaking to The Sun after their own Love Island exit, this season’s Sean and Lola lifted the lid on the mysterious “missing four days” viewers never get to see.
Sean revealed: “We went to the holding for four days. We were watching films all day, listening to Christmas music. Watched some Gaelic football.”
The biggest frustration, however, wasn’t the boredom.
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Dumped Islanders don’t head straight home – they’re secretly whisked away to a lockdown villa for up to four daysCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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There are four days of relaxing and fun before heading homeCredit: Jonathan Hordle/ITV/Shutterstock
“Except we couldn’t share a room, which was annoying,” Sean laughed.
It seemed particularly cruel for the couple, who avoided any intimacy inside the villa during the series due to Sean’s job as a primary school teacher and his concerns about how it might be perceived.
But so keen are some couples to finally get intimate once they’re released from lockdown that they’ve resorted to some very unconventional locations.
And we can reveal how some Islanders have bonked in a disabled loo at the airport, while one All Stars contestant is believed to have joined the mile-high club on a plane home from Cape Town.
While the restrictions may be annoying for the horny couples, they are put in place by producers to avoid spoilers for viewers.
Love Island is filmed up to two days ahead of broadcast, meaning if contestants were spotted in an airport, hotel or even grabbing a coffee, the results of the latest dumping are blown.
Instead, Islanders are given around 20 minutes to throw toiletries, pyjamas and valuables into a suitcase before being whisked away, while the rest of their belongings are packed up later by the contestants still inside the villa.
And it isn’t just intimacy and phones that are off the menu – internet access is banned and even the TV remote is removed.
Former Islander Shaughna Phillips previously revealed: “You’re not even really allowed to watch telly, you can maybe watch a movie, but the chaperone is in charge of the remote control! You can’t watch any news.”
The ban on TV and phones is designed to stop contestants from seeing what the public have been saying before their debrief with an ITV aftercare team.
But the experience has left some feeling stir crazy, including series three star Jonny Mitchell.
He explained: “They have a lockdown villa in the middle of nowhere in Mallorca.
“The second villa has the same restrictions as the main one – no mobile phones or laptops, no contact with the outside world – and dumped Islanders have just a chaperone for company.
“It’s boring, there’s nothing to do there. I’d just had five weeks of sunbathing so I didn’t really want to do anymore. I was going out of my mind a little bit.”
Meanwhile former Islander Zara McDermott revealed she didn’t even realise what time it was until after her dumping because contestants lose all sense of time inside the villa.
She recalled looking at a clock for the first time in weeks and seeing it was just after 5am following her exit.
She said: “What a lot of people don’t realise is the recoupling and dumping scenes are actually filmed during the early hours of the morning. I remember sitting in a little cabin on the Villa site after I had been dumped, looking at a clock for the first time in weeks and seeing the time as 5:03am.
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Sean and Lola revealed they were forced to sleep in separate rooms despite leaving the villa togetherCredit: Smart Pictures uk
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Some former Islanders have reportedly wasted no time making up for lost time once they’re finally released from the “horny holding pen”Credit: ITV
“During lockdown, it can get boring, and frustrating. Once the episode has aired, Islanders fly back to the UK the following morning with a chaperone.”
Following their time in the holding pen, contestants meet with the show’s psychologists to process their experience before re-entering the outside world.
Before phones are handed back, producers warn them about any online trolling and explain how they’ve been received by viewers.
It’s a carefully managed transition after weeks cut off from reality.
Former contestant Amy Hart praised the welfare team for helping her return to normal life.
She said: “The Welfare team were really supportive after I left. I also had a lot of therapy with the Therapist I had in the villa, so it was lovely to have that continuation of care, and ITV were really supportive of that.”
