Laura Anderson's Dubai trip
Love Island's Laura Anderson has opened up about her decision to travel amid the pandemic, and its consequences.
The reality star broke down crying in an interview on the Talking Success podcast.
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Like many influencers, Laura has been facing major backlash for travelling to Dubai amid the pandemic.
She's spoken out about it numerous times since, insisting she travelled legitimately.
And defending that she has family over there and has plans to launch her own business in the city.
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Laura spoke about the backlash during a chat on Nicki Chapman’s podcast.
She admitted, "This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with."
"It was so hard to stick up for myself. I understand the whole pandemic, I am not you know, some silly little girl."
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"It is really hard and it still goes on now... It was a really hard decision to go over."
"I’ve lost followers, I’ve lost jobs," the social media star revealed.
Laura said the online trolling got so bad that it, "made [her] reconsider [her] future in this industry."
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Travel restrictions
The Love Islander explained she travelled, "during the UK’s approval of an air bridge."
Although she added, "I don’t think the UK should have had an air bridge. But they did and as I say, I'm only one person."
She went on to reveal, "I am not very close with my mum, I just have my dad here."
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"My sister is probably my whole life, you know, my niece, and they're in Dubai."
"And I knew there was a lockdown coming in, and I just thought, 'I need that emotional support...'"
"I didn’t think I could be in the house again by myself for a third time," Laura said.
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Laura insists she was working
She added, "It was frustrating to try and explain why I was there, what I was doing."
In addition to reuniting with her family, Laura insisted she was also working over there.
"I am planning on moving back. I am planning on opening businesses there."
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"But I didn’t want that out there at the time, so it's hard at times to always defend yourself."
"Because there's some things you don't want the public to know."
"For example, things happening with my family, I don't want to share that, so it's difficult to sort of defend yourself."
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Laura recently admitted she, "felt guilty the whole time," she was in Dubai.
She made the revelation while answering fan assumptions about herself on Instagram Stories.
Read more here.
