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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Love Island's Olivia reveals secret connection with castmate in unaired scenes

Love Island star Olivia Hawkins revealed she had a secret connection with a fellow castmate during her time on the show.

The ring girl, who was dumped from the series on Friday, said she grew close to Shaq Muhammad in South Africa.

However, none of their scenes together ever made it to the final cut.

She was coupled up with Maxwell Samuda before being eliminated from the dating competition.

Olivia was previously coupled up with Kai Fagan before Casa Amor.

None of her family and friends had any idea that she formed a connection with Shaq.

"Me and Shaq had a really good friendship," she admitted.

Olivia and Shaq formed a friendship in the villa (ITV)

Olivia added to The Sun: "I think he mentioned that as we left and quite a lot of my family and friends were shocked because I don't think it was shown."

The TV personality was hit with criticism due to the comments she made in the Love Island villa - with a charity calling out her 'toxic femininity'.

She said arguments in the villa are "inevitable" as charity Mankind highlighted the "gaslighting and manipulation" towards the men in the villa.

The charity shared a statement after scenes showed the fallout of Casa Amor, which saw Shaq, Tom Clare and Will Young reduced to tears.

Meanwhile, Kai was seen being confronted by Olivia over his decision to recouple with Sanam Harrinanan, despite her coupling up with Maxwell – but Olivia has since admitted she was a "hypocrite" for her anger at Kai.

As the scenes unfolded the charity shared a statement with MailOnline, which read: "Love Island has once again showed that when it comes to abusive behaviours against partners such as manipulation and gaslighting, it affects men as well as women as victims.

She recently responded to claims of 'toxic femininity' (ITV)

"The producers need to make sure they apply the same standards to the male contestants as they have been forced to in recent years for female contestants. We and our supporters are monitoring the show closely."

She denied the claims and responded: "It was never about the girls bashing the boys.

"I had many times when I was in tears that wasn’t shown on TV. There were real emotions."

She added that the feuds could be due to "big personalities clashing" as the villa was "intense" due to contestants being in a "confined space together 24 hours a day".

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