Love Island is back, which means here at Closer HQ we're spending a good chunk of our working week grilling dumped Islanders in our studio and doing everything we possibly can to get them to spill copious amounts of scalding hot All Stars tea.
Luckily, this week's Islanders were Hannah Elizabeth and Liberty Poole who were more than willing to give Closer a sneak peek behind the curtain and share some secrets about those elusive wizards pulling the levers in the South African villa – Love Island's producers.
Not to burst any bubbles, but Love Island is a tad produced – not like TOWIE produced, but yeah, it's not exactly early days Big Brother. Although you're watching reality in the sense that everyone is who they say they are, there are a team of producers working their magic behind the cameras and getting involved in absolutely EVERYTHING. Here's a classic example to help paint a picture of their involvement...
During our chinwag with Hannah and Liberty on Wednesday 7 February (the girls had literally just touched down in the UK) we asked them whether they had to re-film any scenes during their three weeks in the villa. While Love Island doesn't make a big song and dance about doing this, Closer has spoken to countless Islanders over the years who have all confirmed retakes are a necessary – and somewhat painstaking – part of the show's production.
Hannah instantly recalled the very first episode where Islanders arrived in those boujie open-top jeeps, shouting, "Walking out of that car." To be fair, that whole first episode was practically in slow-mo, so we can imagine a few retakes were a requisite that day.
Liberty then revealed another time when she was made to re-film a scene by producers. She told Closer online, "Me and Han, we were getting our nails done in the villa and I was chatting. You know like when you're getting your nails done with the nail technician and we were having a goss? They did make us redo that chat because they can't film us getting our nails done on the show."
She explained, "If we started chatting about the boys, [producers would] just shout at us right away, 'Stop the chat! Change the chat!'"
Obsessed.
In the same juicy chat, Hannah revealed she had a meltdown in the villa and we had no idea about it. During an exclusive chat with Closer Online, she admitted, "Lots of stuff wasn't aired. I had three big meltdowns..."
Speaking of behind-the-scenes secrets, we also caught up with All Star Demi Jones recently, who exposed a secret cast fight that wasn't shown on TV and revealed the real reason she didn't tell Kaz Kamwi about that Luis Morrison kiss.