After ten series and countless Islanders, fans know all too well that the Love Island experience can be the gift that keeps on gifting for some and the curse that keeps on cursing for others.
Take the winter Love Island 2023 series as an example; Islanders such as Tom Clare, Samie Elishi and Will Young have come out of the South Africa villa as telly heroes, while the likes of Olivia Hawkins and Tanya Manhenga have returned to the UK as 'villains'.
To be fair, both are arguably better options than being completely forgotten about like those poor Casa Amor bombshells who basically just get edited out of the series entirely. But still, the villain life is a rocky one.
As much as it is fun to assign series roles like 'hero' and 'villain' to our Islanders, the weight of said villainy needs to be appreciated, according to Tanya, as the experience can be altogether "traumatising".
In a recent interview with Murad Merali, Tanya opened up about how she feels "traumatised" by Love Island, so much so that the experience has left the former Love Island super-fan feeling unable to watch the series entirely.
When asked whether she felt traumatised by the events of Love Island series 9 and its aftermath, Tanya replied, “I think I am, you know. I was saying to someone the other day, 'Maybe I should start commenting on the show because it will make me feel better', but I do think I am a little bit traumatised. Just a little bit. Traumatised from what people don’t know.”
She added, “The things I went through on Love Island are way more than anyone’s little comments on my Instagram. It won’t even scrape me.
“The way I dealt with it was swipe and delete. You guys don’t know and if you knew, you’d all love me. But you don’t know, and if you did know, nobody cares.”
Tanya concluded, “When Love Island is on I am mad. I’m really mad.”
Earlier on in the interview, Tanya opened up about she felt being dubbed the series' villain, saying, “Honestly, it’s crazy that I was actually a villain, because if you were in my head before going on to Love Island, I never would’ve thought that’s how it would’ve been. I was like, 'How are they not going to like me?' I’m a nice girl. I’m a decent girl. I want to be friends with everyone. Like, I try to be as honest as I can be. But then I quickly realised when I was in there that it’s not about how nice I am because they chopped bits of me – they chopped interesting bits of me. But, it was entertaining, so…”
Tanya went on to explain that as such, she believes she was "misrepresented" by Love Island producers and editors.
Tanya Manhenga was an OG on winter Love Island 2023. She was heavily criticised on the show for her treatment of now boyfriend Shaq Muhammad and for shacking up with bombshell Martin Akinola in Casa Amor, although according to Tanya, much of this was influenced by producers.