Love Island secrets on a Friday? Life is lush.
It's no secret that Love Island producers are quite strict with their Islanders, particularly when it comes to what they can actually bring into the villa.
We're assuming it goes for what they bring OUT of the villa, too - we can't imagine Love Island bosses are massively chill with their hotties sneaking neon wall signs out of the gaff in suitcases.
We also now know for a fact that Love Island producers are pretty uncompromising when it comes to Islanders requesting certain items during their time in the villa. In fact, according to former Love Island star, Mike Boateng – who starred alongside Shaughna Phillips and coupled up with Priscilla Anyabu in the 2020 winter series (which is officially coming back, FYI) – Islanders can only get three items guaranteed, day or night.
"They were really strict about what you can ask for"
When heat asked Mike what Islanders could actually request from producers in the villa, the former police officer said, "Not a lot. They were really strict about what you can ask for."
That being said, Mike did confirm the three items Islanders can have whenever and wherever, adding, "Apart from anything to do with safety and safe sex, or if you needed to speak to a psychologist, something like that. They were really strict about what you could bring on. [Condoms] were the only commodity we had; if we were trading, that’s all we had."
So, first aid, condoms and 24/7 emotional support. That seems sensible.
"So, other people had sex"
Naturally, we had to ask Mike if anyone actually had safe sex during his time on the show (did we mention we were interviewing him to promote his new partnership with MAGNUM condoms?), to which he revealed a bombshell, "So, other people had sex, right? But whether they had safe sex, honestly, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I would like to think they did."
"People didn’t really enjoy it as much"
Just days after our Zoom chat with Mike, Love Island bosses confirmed that Winter Love Island would be returning in the New Year. As one of the Winter Love Island OG's we had to ask Mike how he felt about the possibility of the series returning.
He said, "I feel like our winter season was great; just the circumstances around the season [weren't]. We got hit with COVID straight after, so people didn’t really enjoy it as much."
ITV confirmed this week, "2023 is officially the year of love! Love Island will kick start the New Year with a fresh batch of Islanders heading to South Africa, then we'll be back to Mallorca for eight love-filled weeks in the summer."
Mike is currently working with MAGNUM™ by TROJAN® Brand Condoms as their celeb partner to celebrate hitting UK soil.