Treasure island!
Couple scoop £50,000 in surprise Love Island victory – first of many pay days for reality show’s stars
AMBER Gill and Greg O’Shea shocked viewers last night as they were crowned the winners of Love Island.
Six million people were expected to tune into the hotly anticipated final.
The 21-year-old beautician and 24-yearold Irish professional rugby player were the surprise winners of Britain’s most popular reality show after being a couple for only ten days.
They beat the favourites, boxer Tommy Fury, 20, and social media influencer Molly-Mae Hague, also 20, to the £50,000 prize money.
Amber had become a firm favourite among viewers after being dumped by Michael Griffiths.
Shortly after winning, Greg was presented with a gold envelope containing £50,000 and given the choice of keeping the money or sharing it with Amber. He opted to share the prize, and the pair embraced as the series came to an end.
After leaving the show, all the couples in last night’s final can expect to make sensational amounts of money from their social media following.
Ahead of the episode Amber had 1.6million followers on Instagram and could make £4,634 from just one Instagram post, according to digital marketing experts Rise At Seven. Although her partner Greg was a late arrival to the show and last night had just 363,000 followers, he can still expect £501 from each uploaded photo.
They also beat contestants Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard, who came fourth, and Ovie Soko and India Reynolds, who came third.
Tommy and Molly-Mae had been odds-on favourites to win the fifth series with the bookmakers at 4/5. Amber and Greg were second favourites at 11/8, India and Ovie were third at 5/1, while Maura and Curtis were the rank outsiders at 50/1.
Viewing figures are expected to be even higher than last year’s final which saw an all-time ITV2 record of 3.6million viewers tuning in to watch Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham crowned winners.
It beat the 2017 final by almost one million, with the show enjoying an audience share of 19 per cent – more than six times the ITV2 average.
In last night’s episode all four couples attended the Love Island 2019 summer ball where they each offered their declarations of love.
Dressed in a tuxedo, Greg reveals he has written a poem for Amber, reading: ‘I’m going to keep this short and sweet, just like when we first came to meet. Up in the Hideaway sheltered from the trouble, we instantly connected and formed our own little bubble.’
In response Amber, who wore a long white fitted dress, said: ‘It would be fair to say that I’ve had quite a journey in the villa this summer. There have been so many highs and then some lows, but then along came Greg. Thank you for helping to build me back up. You’ve always been so sweet and lovely to me and you’ve managed to bring out my soft side.’
This year’s series received its fair share of Ofcom complaints throughout the eight-week show.
In June, the media watchdog received 486 complaints when ‘predatory’ Maura Higgins, 28, tried to get boxer Tommy – brother of fellow boxer Tyson Fury – to kiss her. She straddled him and continued to pursue the kiss, even after he politely refused.
Early this month, a further 200 complaints were made relating to the fallout from a recoupling which saw air hostess Amy Hart, 26, sob uncontrollably after discovering her ‘half-boyfriend’ Curtis, brother of Strictly’s AJ, had kissed another woman.
The most watched episode of the series on July 3 was seen by more than six million people and we can expect the same to tune in for the final.
The record-breaking episode showed the fallout between the group after they were reunited following the girls’ return from Casa Amor – an alternative villa where they could couple up with a new set of boys, while their counterparts stayed in the original villa and also met potential new partners.
According to ratings body BARB, more than 4.7 million people watched the episode on TV sets, with another 1.4 million saw it on mobile devices.
Ofcom will introduce rules to protect reality television stars from ‘unjustified distress’. The media watchdog is proposing stringent guidelines to ensure TV and radio participants are properly cared for by broadcasters.
ITV came under pressure after Love Island stars Sophie Gradon, 32, and Mike Thalassitis, 26, took their lives. The broadcaster announced an enhanced duty of care process, which includes a minimum of eight therapy sessions.
The watchdog will issue its final decisions this winter.