Los AngelesA week before the popular reality show’s finale airs on Peacock, Ierra Ortega, a contestant on this summer’s Love Island USA, left the resort.
Following weeks of audience outrage after previous Ortega posts that contained a racial slur targeting Asian people resurfaced, she announced her retirement on Sunday. Early in Sunday’s program, Iain Stirling, the show’s narrator, revealed Ortega had left because of a personal matter.
Because of her previous social media statements, Ortega is the second participant this season to leave the show amid controversy. After videos of Yulissa Escobar spouting racist words circulated online last month, she unexpectedly left the second episode. The show did not provide an explanation for her departure either.
On Monday, a representative for the show declined to comment.
Following the revelation of Ortega’s departure, her family asked for sympathy on her Instagram story on Sunday night. for endurance. For human decency’s sake.
Cierra is still away even though she is no longer in the villa. Her relatives added, “She hasn’t had a chance to speak for herself or process any of this.” We are aware of our daughter, though. Her heart is known to us. And we think she’ll handle this with grace, honesty, and maturity when she gets back.
No one deserves that type of vitriol, regardless of their sins, according to her family, Ortega’s friends, and online supporters, who also said they had received threats, attacks, and nasty words on social media.
The seventh season of Love Island USA, an American spin-off of the original British series, is currently airing. With the ultimate objective of finding love, the show, which airs every day but Wednesdays, brings young singles together in a secluded villa in Fiji to explore connections.
As fresh candidates are introduced, couples are urged to test their romantic relationships while overcoming obstacles. As stronger partnerships emerge during the series, islanders are frequently kicked out of the villa. The victorious pair gets $100,000.
Fans have previously been advised to refrain from cyberbullying candidates by the show, which deprives competitors of their phones and access to the outside world. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, host Ariana Madix urged viewers to refrain from harassing and doxxing the show’s stars.
At the conclusion of the first episode, Ortega made a shocking entrance into the villa. She was one of the first of many contestants to join the villa after the show started, and it was frequently anticipated that she would upend established couples and establish new dynamics in their relationships.
Ortega partnered with Nic Vansteenberghe right away, and they were together until she left. One of the season’s few stable couples was shattered by her departure. A few episodes before, the couple had declared that they were closed off, a common Love Island term that denotes neither contestant is interested in pursuing a relationship with another islander.
My thoughts were clear before Cierra left. “I’m lost now, even though I knew what the future would look like,” Vansteenberghe stated in Sunday’s episode.
After Ortega left, Vansteenberghe remained on the show as an islander without a partner, and before the episode ended, he reconnected with fellow competitor Olandria Carthen.
Contestant Belle-A Walker, who was eliminated earlier in the season, expressed her sadness on Instagram about Ortega’s rediscovered posts. Asian American Walker expressed her gratitude to the show’s creators for standing out and stating unequivocally that racism of any type is not acceptable.
Asian hate is frequently disregarded and ignored. However, I have seen firsthand how genuine and damaging remarks like these are as a first-generation American,” Walker stated on her Instagram story page. “I hope that this situation will help highlight the extent of the problem of anti-Asian bigotry.
