“It killed me to see the way my mum was.”
Love Island star Jacques O’Neill has spoken more about his time on the reality show, and he has shared that he has been the target of online abuse.
During a recent appearance on Scott Thomas’ Learning As I Go podcast, Jacques, who left the villa to protect his mental health, revealed that he was hit with death threats after coming off Love Island.
He added that the threats, coupled with seeing his mother afterwards, were the “hardest thing” he took from the experience.
The rugby player explained that after he left the show, he had to stay in a holding villa. During this time, he repeatedly asked to be put on a flight and sent home.
He said: “I was kicking off and was saying, ‘Get me a flight right now, I just want to be with my mum’. I knew she was in a bad place, she was breaking down on the phone.”
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“When I got home, she went, ‘Jacques, we can’t go out. We can’t go out. Like, everyone hates you.'”
Jacques added: “It killed me to see the way my mum was. I couldn’t speak to her about deep stuff because I’d just break down. It took me two weeks to give her a cuddle.”
When Jacques left the villa, he said that he could no longer feel like he could be himself. After his departure, he issued a statement saying that he plans on working on his mental health.
However, in the weeks after, fans accused Jacques of bullying Tasha after a video emerged of him mocking her final speech to Andrew. Additionally, Remi alleged that Jacques bullied him during his time in the villa.
Jacques addressed these claims with a post on Instagram in which he apologised if his “behaviour has caused offence or been misinterpreted”.
