Laura Whitmore has responded to claims by a former Love Island contestant who said she had landed the presenting job on the reality show because of her husband Iain Stirling. Ex-contestant Rachel Finni slated Laura's skills as she said she was 'gutted' the star was cast to host the ITV2 show.
The 36-year-old Irish TV presenter appeared dumbfounded over the accusation and highlighted a toxic culture of women slamming other women. Laura, who is married to Love Island narrator Iain, 34, has hosted the programme since January 2020 - when she took the reins from Caroline Flack, who tragically took her own life.
But Rachel, 29, discussing her time on Love Island on Murad Merali’s YouTube channel, said she'd hoped for the show to be fronted by someone else, the Mirror reports. She said: "I'm kind of gutted Laura Whitmore is hosting it though, I thought we'd get a Maya Jama or AJ Odudu.”
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She then cuttingly quipped: “The benefits you get from being married to the narrator, ‘cause she’s not a great host.” Her comments hit a nerve, as Laura then took to her Instagram stories in response as she answered questions from fans.
Defending herself, the 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 it 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."
The mum-of-one 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 also didn’t hold Laura in high regard and said her appointment as the host of the show reeked of nepotism.
Her presenting skills have divided Love Island fans in the past. And viewers won't have to wait too long to see her in action again, as the reality dating programme is set to return on June 6 on ITV2.
