Laura Whitmore has hit back at former Love island contestant Rachel Finni who slated her presenting skills.
The 36-year-old Irish TV presenter appeared to be left shocked and aghast when 29-year-old Rachel accused her of being a below-average host and suggested Laura only ever got her part on Love Island because she’s married to show narrator Iain Stirling, 34.
Laura has hosted Love Island since January 2020 – when the first and as yet only winter edition of the show aired – taking the reins from the late Caroline Flack who tragically took her own life aged 40 one month later.
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Rachel suggested other established TV presenters were overlooked in favour of Laura to replace Caroline as she discussed her time on Love Island on Murad Merali’s YouTube channel.
Rebecca told the host: “I'm kind of gutted Laura Whitmore is hosting it though, I thought we'd get a Maya Jama or AJ Odudu.”
She then cuttingly quipped: “The benefits you get from being married to the narrator, ‘cause she’s not a great host.”
Clearly Rachel’s comments struck a nerve as Laura then issued a rambling statement via Instagram Stories as she fielded questions from fans and the topic of Love Island was inevitably raised.
Defending herself, the mild-mannered TV star said: “I’m not going to give too much energy to it because there's always stuff like this and you kind of just brush it off but I think we need to be careful when we discuss women and their work.
'I've worked in telly for 14 years. I won a competition to be the face of MTV and have stayed working from job to job.
“I’ve done incredible things all over the world, I’ve worked with the best teams, but I've never got a job because of a guy I dated.”
She continued: “And it's horrible when you see if coming from other women because for so many years women have talked about who they are going out with.
“They're only defined by who they are going out with, despite all the work and build up leading up to that and they are their own individual person, with their own experience.”
She added: “It's a shame because I think we're never really going to have full power and empowerment as a sex if we keep doing that.”
YouTuber Murad, however, also didn’t hold Laura in high regard and said her appointment as the host of the show reeked of nepotism.
While fans of Love Island have been divided over Laura’s hosting skills since she took control of the show back in January 2020 – with some complaining she doesn’t feature on the show enough, while some critics branded her hosting skills as “rubbish”.
Fans won’t have too long to see Laura back in action in the sun, however, as Love Island is due to return on Monday 6 June on ITV2.
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