Love Island after care
Olivia Attwood has defended Love Island after claims show runners aren't offering enough aftercare to Islanders.
Attwood starred in the 2017 series alongside Mike Thalassitis who died suddenly last week.
Mike and Olivia had been coupled up together in the villa at one point.
She thinks blaming the show for his death is, 'totally ludicrous.'
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Olivia has opened up to The Sun following the death of her co-star.
'People are angry and they want someone to blame.'
'Mike was in turmoil and a lot of his problems weren’t to do with Love Island at all.'
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She believes, 'It isn’t an aftercare situation but a before care. You live in the villa for a very long time.'
'You’re away for ten weeks in total including the lock-down period and you end up feeling institutionalised.'
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Atwood continued, 'Even though when I came out everything was crazy, I was ready to be free.'
'If producers had said, ‘Once a week we are all going to get together at ITV and have a support group’, I wouldn’t have wanted to go.'
'You need to be obligated to do a certain amount of therapy before going on Love Island to prepare you.'
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Olivia says Love Island saved her life
Olivia has admitted that Love Island saved her.
'The year before I went on to Love Island I was on antidepressants and I had a really tough time.'
'I was a model and had been panicking about getting older and I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do? I only have a few more years that I can milk this’.'
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'I got a lot of heat in the villa for the way I was but after I came out so many girls said how they related to me.'
'I finally found this sense of self-acceptance that I never had before.'
She continues, 'I remember that I am living a seriously privileged life.'
'Yes, I still have weeks and days where I’m not OK but I’ve learned to keep it all in perspective.'
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Olivia's been facing backlash online
Attwood shared a picture with Mike on Instagram after she heard the news of his death.
She wrote, 'Literally don’t know what to say. Another one gone too young.'
'Thinking of Mike’s family and friends at this horrendous time. You will be missed terribly.'
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She faced backlash from users accusing her of not having said enough about him in her post.
Speaking to The Sun she said, 'Very few things get my back up but those messages really annoyed me.'
'Don’t tell me what I need to post on my Instagram. What is this weird culture?'
'For me it would have been wildly inappropriate to post anything more.'
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'Mike isn’t my ex-boyfriend and we weren’t friends after the villa.'
'It would have been disrespectful to his close friends and family.'
'You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.'
'If I had done a big, long tribute, trolls would have said I was doing it for Instagram likes.'
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Montana Brown also opened up about Mike's death this week.
She appeared on This Morning to chat to Phillip and Holly. Watch the full interview here.
