Love Island star Luca Bish’s family has responded after he stormed out of the villa and removed his microphone pack due to a clash with Gemma Owen in the latest episode.
The Brighton fishmonger’s family swept to his defence after he pushed the 19-year-old international dressage rider during the Mile High-themed challenge on Tuesday evening.
Dressed as Cabin Crew, the girls prepped the boys for departure, gave a full safety briefing and offered refreshments before joining their chosen passenger for a private Mile High Club moment.
Luca became irritated when Gemma licked Adam Collard and Andrew Le Page during a saucy challenge and when she approached him he shoved her to the side and stopped her from kissing him.
Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Indiyah Polack were quick to tell Gemma what they saw back at the villa, leading to a confrontation between the couple.
Gemma, 19, spoke to Luca afterwards, saying: "You can sit here and say you're not in a mood, you are in a mood. When I came up to you in the challenge, you pushed me off."
Defending himself, Luca insisted it was "just banter" as she added: "It wasn't banter."
The moment sparked a flood of Twitter complaints from fans slamming the rash shove in a challenge, with many insisting the star should be removed from the villa.
One wrote: "Luca calling his physical abusive behaviour “banter” and that he’s “protective” to dismiss any concerns. Love Island producers, you should have locked that door when he left earlier. Big red flag."
A second added: "Nah because Luca is actually emotionally abusive, this is grim to watch," as a third chimed: "PETITION to remove Luca out of the Villa, he’s emotionally abusive not just to Gemma but he bullied Tasha too."
Following the episode, Luca's family took to his social media account to respond to the scenes and the subsequent comments online.
Posting on Instagram Stories, they posted: “9/10 weeks of no contact with family. It's a crazy intense environment where emotions are heightened.
“Learning to have disagreements and resolve them it is part of all successful relationships. Society preaches men not to bottle things up and to open up???
“So proud of how vulnerable and in touch with his emotions he's been. Nothing but real.
“First to admit if he's being a little "f**k. But really don't feel he's done anything wrong here at all. Would do anything to hug him right now.”
Gemma later said that she had just acted in the “heat of the moment” during the Mile High challenge and that she did not want to hear him sulking about the situation.
She said: “I can understand in other challenges but in dance challenges you have to do that.”
In later scenes during the evening, the couple again addressed the situation in a private chat that saw little progress as they continued to disagree over whether the behaviour was acceptable in a challenge.
Luca explained why he was angry, saying Gemma was the girl who “went for it the most” despite Paige also licking him in the same challenge and ultimately winning the challenge in the boys’ opinion.
Love Island airs every night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
