Jacques O'Neill left the Love Island villa earlier this week in emotional scenes on the ITV2 dating show.
The rugby player had been in a couple with paramedic Paige Thorne but they were finding it hard to get past the antics of Casa Amor. During the time of the twist Jacques showed interest in another girl, who outed Jacques as he reunited with Paige around the fire pit.
After spending several nights in the doghouse, Jacques made the decision to leave the villa. At the time, a Love Island spokesperson said: "Jacques has made the decision to leave the Villa. He will explain his reasons to the Islanders during tonight’s episode. We fully support his decision and look forward to seeing what’s next for Jacques."
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Now, he has his personal phone and social media accounts back and has made a statement to fans of the show. Taking to Instagram, he said that he has had time to watch the episodes back and "understands" why he received so much hate from the public. He also said that he was "taking responsibility" for his actions and his ADHD diagnosis was "no excuse."
In full, the statement said: "Where do I start.. What a rollercoaster of emotions that was from start to finish! Since leaving the villa I’ve had time to reflect on my time being in there and if I’m going to be completely honest I wasn’t mentally prepared for how it was going to be at all - underestimated it massively!
"The first two weeks of my experience was probably the happiest I’ve been in a very long time. On the other hand the last two weeks was definitely the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. I was finding myself feeling worse and worse every day and if I didn’t leave when I did I was scared I would never have got back to my normal self!"
He added: "I’ve watched back the episodes that I got the most hate for and listen I understand why I did. I’ve got a lot of work to do for myself to become a better person. I know my family come out and said about my ADHD while I was in the villa but that is no excuse for me. Yes, I might find certain things a lot more difficult than others but at the end of the day I need to take responsibility for my own actions and I’ll hold my hands up."
"I sometimes couldn’t watch how I was speaking and acting in certain situations but I’m actually glad I’ve watched it because now it’s really opened my eyes up and it’s time to work on myself for myself..
"I want to finish off and just say how overwhelming it is to see how much support I'm getting from you people. If it wasn’t for yous I would be in such a worse head space than I am right now so thank you so much for that. You people that have had my back and messaging I have been reading them every night laid in bed overthinking everything and thinking the worst about everything but you people got me through it. I do really appreciate the love, honestly thank you so much."
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub. Episodes are available the following morning on BritBox
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