‘Mental health crisis’ at heart of reality TV

A TOP psychologist and former beauty queen has called for better mental health provision for contestants on Love Island amid what she says is a reality TV “mental health crisis”.

- David Stephenson

Dr Rachael Molitor from Coventry University, who has studied reality TV and its effects on audiences and contestants, wants tighter controls online to prevent rampant cyberbullying.

“We need to protect these people. Ideally, some online abusers, those so-called ‘keyboard warriors’, need to be prosecuted as a deterrent.”

The current series of Love Island, the eighth, ended on Monday night, clocking up millions of viewers, including an extraordinary 250 million internet streams on ITV Hub, a record.

The victors, Davide and Ekin-Su, may have won the £50,000 prize but the season was again blighted by controversy.

Women’s charities deplored the introduction of male “bombshell” Adam Collard who had previously been on the show, and been accused of “gaslighting” female islanders.

Women’s charity Refuge has again highlighted “controlling behaviour, manipulation, gaslighting, and double standards” in a show with a “pressure-cooker environment”.

It’s also been revealed that Jacques, who left the last series in tears and into a barrage of online trolling, entered the Villa with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He said he had “death threats”: “I was scared for my life. All I wanted to do when I left the show was get a hug from my mum and go into hiding.

“But I’ve now started talking about it otherwise I would have stayed in such a dark place.”

ITV says it has welfare producers and psychological support at the villa at all times.