Is it OK to have sex on TV?
After a year and a half away, ITV2’s Love Island returned to our screens this week with a bang and the new contestants are set to be the raunchiest yet. The sexy singletons, who have been quarantined in Spain for the past two weeks, will undoubtedly be feeling frustrated and flirty after lockdown – and as Closer went to press, it seemed this year’s show could be the sexiest to date, with an OnlyFans star and former glamour model set to enter the villa.
Love Island has made a name for itself over its 16 years running as one of TV’s most X-rated shows – and the contestants aren’t strangers to controversy. Series 1 saw stars Hannah Elizabeth and Jon Clarke get hot under the covers, but in series 2, almost every couple got intimate. Terry Walsh and Emma-Jane Woodhams shocked viewers by having sex above the covers – thinking they wouldn’t be filmed.
Series 4 saw Megan Barton-Hanson and Wes Nelson barely keep their hands off each other, with the couple even getting frisky during the daytime. And Wes recently defended his decision to have sex on TV, saying it was “natural” and “fine” to do so, as he was in love.
But there hasn’t always been a happy ending – former Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has said her steamy session with fellow Islander Alex Bowen in 2016 “ruined” her life – after she was stripped of her pageant queen title as a result. She faced public backlash and ended up taking antidepressants and having therapy to get over the ordeal.
And fans seem to still be split over whether having sex on TV is OK. One fan posted online, “It sets a really bad example”, while another wrote, “Imagine if their gran was watching!”. But others posted, “The only reason anyone watches it is to see if the contestants will get freaky on TV” and “I hope this season is a steamy one!” Here Closer asks two former Islanders their opinion…