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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Kate Ng

Love Island’s Remi accuses Jacques and Luca of bullying: ‘These guys are not good role models’

ITV

Former Love Island contestant Remi Lambert has accused Islanders Jacques O’Neill and Luca Bish of “bullying” him during his brief time on the show.

Lambert, 22, entered the villa during the second week of this year’s series, but the aspiring rapper and model became the second contestant to be dumped from the show.

On Monday night (8 August), following an Instagram Live stream between Jacques and Luca, Remi took to Instagram to accuse the close friends of having “some serious issues they need to sort out”.

It came after Jacques and Luca mocked Remi’s rapping during their livestream in reply to a question from another user with the handle @remilamb0.

Remi clarified that handle was not his own and therefore a fake account, but added: “Don’t know why these guys have such a problem with me.”

He continued in his caption: “Everyone said I lied about the way I was treated in that villa, but this here is an example of what was going on whilst I was in there.

“Don’t know why they wasn’t [sic] kicked out for their behaviour to be honest. It’s not banter, it’s clear signs of bullying.”

The model previously spoke out about clashing with Jacques during his time in the villa, but said the rows were unaired.

Appearing in an episode of the podcast Reality with Will Njobvu, released on Friday (24 June), Remi claimed that he and Jacques “got into quite a lot of arguments” and it “ruined” the Love Island experience for him.

In his new Instagram post, Remi claimed that Jacques would say “bad things about my appearance and the way I speak”, while “Luca encouraged it”.

“I’ve tried avoiding this guy multiple times and he always ends up starting again. I don’t know when it will stop.”

He added: “These guys are not good role models or good people. They have not once thought about my mental health. If I wasn’t so strong-minded I could’ve done something stupid to myself by now, but they don’t care at all.”

Luca also faced accusations of bullying fellow Islander Tasha Ghouri while on the show, particularly during movie night and the Snog Marry Pie challenge.

Last week, former contestants Billy Brown, 23, and Josh Le Grove, 22, accused Love Island producers of “allowing” bullying to take place.

Speaking to Johnny Seifert, host of the Secure The Insecure podcast, Brown said Luca and Dami Hope would “constantly go for Tasha”.

He added: “They might see it as banter, but when I spoke to Tasha, one night she was crying… She responded: ‘I’m fed up. Everyone’s just going at me. I’m trying to do what’s best for me and no one’s understanding’.”

Le Grove added that producers could have “easily stepped in” and stopped it, but he felt like they would “sit back and happily let something come across a certain way”.

The Independent has contacted ITV, Jacques’ and Luca’s representatives for comment

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