Love Island is in for some big changes this year, with a new batch of singletons, new villa, and a new host following Laura Whitmore’s exit from the series this summer.
Laura had hosted the hit reality series since 2020, and her exit shocked fans across the globe. But now the Wicklow woman is opening up about why she decided to leave Love Island.
Explaining that it was challenging for her to not engage with contestants when they needed her.
Speaking to Psychologies magazine, Laura said: “There was only so much I can do as a host – I couldn’t support them or not support them. I couldn’t say anything.”
Continuing: “So you kind of have to go quiet, and that was hard for me because I like to be able to have those conversations.”
“If I could [have done] things the way I wanted to, I’d probably still be doing it.”
When announcing her exit in August, Laura kept things fairly vague as to why she was leaving, citing, “certain elements of the show” as very difficult and scheduling conflicts.
But she later told ES Magazine: “Love Island is a show that I love to watch, and I always want to work on shows that I enjoy. But there’s nothing more that I can do with it. There are parameters.”
“When you work on the show, you can’t really talk about certain things. But I’m really proud of what I did, and proud to leave on what I think has been a brilliant series, with great winners.”
In October it was announced that Maya Jama would be taking over hosting duties.
Love Island’s official Instagram posted a picture of Maya with her water bottle and suitcase ready, in the caption they said, “Okay, the rumours are true 😉 Say hey to your brand-new #LoveIsland host @mayajama! 💘”
With Maya commenting on the post: “SO BLOODY EXCITED 😜GET ME ON THAT ISLAND🏝 ❤️.”
