Love Island Camilla
From war zone to a star of reality TV
CAMILLA Thurlow came second on Love Island in 2017. Being locked away in the glamorous villa in Majorca for seven weeks can be a culture shock – but for Dumfries-born Camilla it was extreme.
Just weeks before, she was finding and destroying the landmines that litter former war zones around the world.
Now 31 and expecting a child with Love Island boyfriend Jamie Jewitt, she has written a book about her life called Not The Type. In an exclusive extract, she reveals what it was like on the hit ITV show – and why she risked her life to work for mine-clearing charities.
There is considerable speculation about the period just before Love Island. What happens is your chaperone picks you up from your home and takes you to the nearest airport, from where you both fly to Majorca. Once there, none of you are in the same hotel.
Each time you go out for dinner or to the shops, your chaperone messages the others to make sure you won’t bump into anyone else from the programme.
It’s true that your phone is taken away, mainly so you won’t see who the other Islanders are when they are announced in the press – as this happens in the days prior to the start.
During the castholding period, we had one shoot that was for the opening credits, for which we did our own make-up and wore our own swimwear.
It was carefully orchestrated so each future Islander arrived and left the shoot location without bumping into any others. A huge amount of effort is put into ensuring no one meets before that first day in the villa.
There were various regulations and guidelines that had to be followed. We were allowed one wash bag with toiletries and one make-up bag and all items had to fit in one case.
We couldn’t take in anything sharp, so if you needed scissors or anything you had to request them in the Beach Hut – a small room with a chair and a camera.
The Beach Hut is where you see contestants talking straight to camera in a diary-style manner.
The show did not have a clothes sponsor that year (I believe they do normally have one now).
We all ended up sharing the clothes we’d each brought, so we had different things to wear each evening. We were asked to dress up in the evenings, mainly so viewers would understand the passage of time and when certain conversations and events took place. This was all explained to us individually by our chaperones in advance of going into the villa. It was also explained we’d be allowed a maximum two measures of alcohol a night. One
unit was either two small cans of beer, one glass of white or rosé wine, or one glass of prosecco. Some nights we wouldn’t receive any.
If any night seemed to be getting out of hand, and we’d already received one measure of alcohol, they’d not put the second in the larder.
That was in the kitchen and had two separate doors, one accessed by the Islanders and one open to the outside for the crew. Food and other items we needed would be placed in the larder by the crew – during which time the Islanders’ door was locked so we couldn’t go in at the same time.
On the day we were to enter, each Islander was taken separately by their chaperone to a hotel near the villa, where we were to get ready.
We were all in separate rooms – you couldn’t leave in case you bumped into anyone. There was some confusion over timings and I actually didn’t find out the time I was meant to leave until an hour before, so it ended up being a bit of a rush.
Even then, we had a final security check of our bags to make sure we weren’t taking in anything we weren’t meant to have.
You’re then taken by your chaperone to the where the villa is.
Although the hotel was close to it, I recall the drive still took about 40 minutes, during which time I became more and more nervous.
When we arrived, our chaperone took us to a small tent at the foot of a steep drive, with the villa visible in the background. Each of us was in a separate tent so we didn’t meet.
It was bizarre knowing the next person was in the tent just metres from mine. We moved through the tents as each person went in the villa – and then it was my turn to enter.
I was put in a car and taken close to the entrance, then transferred to one of the open-top vehicles you see in Episode 1.
I was told to look excited and happy and I really tried to, but I was so nervous.
I remember very little after that, apart from someone opening the prosecco, and me promptly spilling a glass all down my front – and then panicking that this would be the first thing to be caught on camera!
So that’s how I found myself, a few months after returning from Kabul, standing among the opening cast of Love Island 2017, being told about the rules of “coupling up”.
The contrast was palpable. I’d gone from an environment where every day I was covered from head to toe, to being somewhere where it was more common to wear a bikini all day.
■ Not The Type: Finding My Place In The Real World by Camilla Thurlow, published by Metro Publishing, £16.99. ■ Extracted by Rhian Lubin.