George Fensom has addressed his resurfaced homophobic tweet, days before Love Island viewers will see him enter the villa.
The 24-year-old is hoping to find his future wife on the programme but his future has been placed in jeopardy after tweets including homophobic slurs resurfaced.
Bedford-born George found himself under fire from social media users after a string of comments reappeared on Twitter following the news he was entering the villa.
As well as homophobic slurs, an ex-girlfriend has addressed their relationship and claimed he was "controlling" over her choices of clothes.
She added that he would "constantly lie to others" and branded him a "narcissist".
One tweet from his now deleted account read: "Shut up you f****t," and a second read: "Same gay tweets day in day out."
George was informed by bosses at ITV that the footage and comments had resurfaced before he entered the villa and engaged in media chats.
Speaking to the Mirror, George said: "In regards to the account, it's really unfortunate that it's been brought up because that isn't the person that I am today.
"Looking back on those tweets, I was really naive and really young to think that was the right thing to say.
"It's one of them situations, it doesn't show the man that I am today in any way, shape or form and that's pretty much it."
Social media users have called for him to be removed from the villa but George claims the tweets which were from over ten years ago have helped "him learn".
"In regards to people maybe saying that I'm not right for the villa," he said before adding: "All I would say is everyone's made mistakes, everyone has said things that they regret, the difference in the way I would defend myself is I am owning that.
"I am admitting that was the wrong thing to say."
Discussing his ex-girlfriend's TikTok, which George had been briefed by ITV over, he responded: "In this scenario, I just want to be as respectful as I can towards her, I appreciate that she isn't in the public eye.
"It's really unfortunate and quite upsetting on my behalf that this picture has been painted about me in that light.
"I'm looking forward now to moving forward with things and going in the villa and providing a new wave of energy, people can see that, that isn't the George, he isn't that way."
George is certain that no other ex-girlfriends or former friends will come out and share negative stories about him.
"I'm confident that everything else will be smooth sailing from here and there'll be nothing else to report," he commented.
When asked whether his previous behaviour emerging would alter his behaviour in the villa, he stated: "It's the opposite, I'm glad I have the opportunity to speak about it.
"It gives me the opportunity to defend myself and explain what the situation is and how it all came about, rather than me being in there and saying 'You don't know what's right from wrong', which is completely understandable.
"What happens now is it gives me the opportunity to explain the situation and hopefully you guys can understand from me what I'm speaking about right now.
"Hopefully we can move forward in the villa and I'll be acting as I do now."
