Following changes to the line-up of Love Island 2022 as producers attempt to make the ITV2 dating show more diverse and inclusive, former Love Island star Sharon Gaffka has insisted that the popular reality show has not done enough to represent body diversity.
Sharon, 26, appeared on Love Island in 2021 alongside winners Millie Court and Liam Reardon, and while she's happy to see more diversity in terms of ethnicity in this year's cast, she has said that producers could have done a lot more to include contestants with 'normal' body types.
During an appearance on TalkTV’s The News Desk, the former reality TV star suggested that she's tired of seeing men enter the villa with 'stereotypical' six-packs and only seeing petite women making it onto the screen.
"We stereotypically see men with six packs, women being very, very petite," Sharon told.
"There are still midsize and plus size people out there who are looking for love and would make great contestants on the show so I feel like they're still being overlooked."
Sharon also went on to criticise the show’s absence of Asian contestants in the original line-up.
"Diversity comes in lots of different boxes," she said.
"It's not just ethnicity and what I do think it's great that you know, close to 50% of the cast will be diverse or from a different background I still think we're not seeing any Asians in the original line-up."
During her appearance on The News Desk, Sharon, who was a civil servant before entering the Love Island villa last year, commended this year’s show having contestants from different career paths and not just social media influencers.
"I feel like I went into the wrong series a little bit," Sharon explained.
"You know, it's no secret that my love life gets impacted by my career."
"So, I think one of the criticisms that people have watched the show, they say that everybody is a wannabe influencer or is an influencer. I think it's great to have a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds," she added.
Watch The News Desk, TalkTV, 7pm Monday - Friday (Sky 526, Virgin Media 627, Freeview 237, and Freesat 217) and live and on demand on the TalkTV app and at Talk.TV.
