This year's series of Love Island has been a wild ride - and we don't just mean for the contestants. As loyal viewers of the decade-long dating show, we can safely say that Love Island 2025 will go down in history as an unforgettable season.
Whether you love them or hate them, this year has been brimming with Islanders that have been a thrill to watch; it's not every year the producers land themselves a Harry Cooksley or a Yasmin Pettet.
Another contestant who is set to enter the 'Love Island Legends' hall of fame is Shakira Khan, and yet, as we fall more in love with the part-time princess, we find ourselves battling with the driving force behind the show.
It is clear now, more than ever, that whoever is behind bringing Love Island to life has a vendetta against Shakira and we are desperate to understand what it is about the 22-year-old romantic that ITV producers are so afraid of?
Is it the way she has shown women everywhere it's okay to be mad when the man you are falling for lies to you? Is it how she supports her hurt best friends when other women are calling them 'bitter'? How about the manner in which she acknowledges her indiscretions and apologises? How she holds other people – men especially – accountable for their poor behaviour? Dare a twenty-something marketing girl stand up to these Love Island lads?
Or was it that Shakira was evidently upset when Harry, who had claimed to only be for her, was whispering sex propositions in Helena Ford's ear? With Shakira being the last to find out? Perhaps they didn't like how she cried and was vulnerable on TV, when the likes of Harry, Ben Holborugh and Dejon Noel-Williams made nasty comments about her.
Or was it when she was honest with Ty Isherwood regarding her feelings, despite knowing that they had been voted most popular couple and she could easily have made it to the final with him? Had she lied to him and pretended to still be into him.
Yet all the ITV producers do is go out of their way to put Shakira in uncomfortable situations, share her personal talks to the villa, and edit clips to make her seem like a 'mean girl.'
We won't sit here and claim Shakira is an angel, but the thing is, neither does she. Shakira even told Meg Moore that none of them have 'halos' around their heads, but the amount of scathing comments the likes of Helena, Meg and Megan Forte Clarke have made about Shakira, Toni and Yasmin is unparalleled.
Not only that but Shakira and Toni's rebuttals come from a place of pain; their witty remarks and sometimes harsh comments only occur in retaliation to other people being unpleasant.
Why did Helena have to steal Shakira's bikini as she went and flirted with Harry, who Shakira was with? Why did Megan shout that Yasmin was 'boring' and 'irrelevant' after Harry kissed her?' Why did Meg glare at Toni and Shakira across the villa and mutter malicious words behind their backs?
But none of this is edited or presented in a negative manner to the rest of the villa and when challenges, games and now The Grafties come around, the producers jump at the chance to paint Shakira as the worst kind of girl.
The outside world is begging for Shakira to be given just an ounce of respect or support and social media is full of people demanding justice for the OG as they wonder, like us, what the producers have against her.
'If this is Shakira’s last straw and she leaves because of it.. this will be the last episode I’ll be watching,' one person commented on the most recent Love Island Instagram post.
'Oh joy, yet another episode where Shakira gets bullied - really hoping she can heal from the experience,' another wrote with someone else adding, 'any reason you have shown no bad clips of Meg but made Shakira look like the villain?'
Sending Megan (who is best friends with Meg and Helena) back into the villa despite her being voted by THE VIEWERS as 'least popular girl' felt like telling Shakira she was done for, but than The Grafties teaser was revealed and it's apparent that it's only going to get worse for her.
It feels as though Shakira's best interests are at the back of the producers' minds while their wish for Meg and / Helena or to be in the final at the forefront of, well, everything.
In a world of misogyny, oppression and insincerity, it is refreshing to see Shakira, a 22-year-old, be the most genuine person on the dating show.
Whether she is dumped from Love Island, quits the villa, or goes ahead and wins the dating show, we hope Shakira knows she is always welcome here at heat.
WATCH : Love Island’s Andrada Pop reveals what Shakira Khan is REALLY like in the villa 👀
Emily Vierke is a digital writer who has dabbled in the world of celeb, beauty and fashion. She enjoys stalking Love Island girlies Indiyah Polack and Grace Jackson for outfit inspo nearly as much as she enjoys rewatching the clip of Maura Higgins confronting Tom Walker for gossiping about her to the Love Island lads.