Love Island star Shaq Muhammad is the brother everybody wants, he’s the friend who everybody deserves, the father we never had… OK, that’s a bit weird, but we don’t know a better person. Or do we?
Shaq is winning a lot of praise from viewers for his “green flags” – namely calling out Ron Hall for playing Lana Jenkins and for being half of the villa’s strongest couple. He’s even dropped the L-bomb! But we’ve been burned so many times before, we’re starting to worry he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
King Shaq confronted Ron about going back and forth between Lana and the new bombshells in front of the boys, saying, “The way you’ve treated [Lana], I feel like it’s out of order. That girl has serious feelings for you and you’re taking complete advantage of her, because you know that she’s such a nice girl and that she’s going to be there for you.”
And where’s the lie? Love Island 2021 graduate Chloe Burrows showed her love, tweeting, “This is a Shaq Stan account”, and another fan said, “Shaq is the first and only man I’ve ever seen on this show regularly and consistently call out other men for their toxic or misogynistic behaviour towards women. The women in his life did good.” Another astutely suggested, “Shaq for the face of the £20 note.”
It’s fair to say, the Shaq stakes are high. And on Love Island, we love to watch the mighty fall. Well, Sam Thompson does anyway. The co-host of Aftersun exclusively tells heat that he’s not convinced. “Shaq is saying exactly what needs to be said by holding the boys accountable, but he’s playing a bit of a game,” reckons Sam. “Who falls in love with someone after two-and-a-half weeks?”
And he’s not the only sceptic. Ex-islanders Anna May Robey and David Salako revealed on heat Dates on the heatworld YouTube channel that Shaq’s head turned for Zara Lackenby-Brown when she first came in, and they can picture it happening again, with Anna saying, “I think he might disappoint Tanya.”
Not that she’d be disappointed for long, as they both shared that they could see Tanya Manhenga turning, too, with Anna May telling heat she thinks they could be one of those couples who splits up in Casa Amor, but then gets back together.
It’s a Love Island tale as old as time, but we still have a duty to take Shaq at face value – a face worthy of the £20 note at that!
