Love Island: former Islanders spill the tea on show secrets and we had no idea

Love Island 2024's Jessy Potts revealed that the Islanders would know when they'd get a text. She exclusively told Closer Online, 'You'd get called in over the Voice of God and they'd be like, "Can you discreetly take your phone out? You'd be so nervous, and even when you got the text the genuine shock was genuine shock. You'd be so on edge.'

Series 11 bombshell Hugo Godfroy also revealed that sometimes the Islanders have to refilm scenes due to the weather conditions.

Series four turned All Stars contestant Georgia Steel has spilled the tea and revealed that the Islanders do get time off from filming when they're in the villa.

Love Island 2020's Connagh Howard revealed that when the Islanders eat dinner,the boys and girls are separated.

Series six turned All Stars contestant Eve Gale revealed that the Islanders are filming late into the night. She exclusively told Closer Online, 'Sometimes we would go to bed and it would be getting light outside, the birds would start, so it was late nights sometimes. Although that's me guessing, because we didn't know the time. Sometimes we would get lie-ins if we were up quite late, but usually we'd get up quite early.'

If you cast your mind back to Love Island 2018, you may remember that the World Cup was on at the same time which must have been torture for a big fan like Josh Denzel but it turns out he didn't miss much. Speaking on the Prevayl: Better Begins Here podcast, he admitted, 'One of the runners was like a big football fan. So sometimes we'd go and get a drink in the evening. The runner would pop his head around and he'd show me a highlight of like something. So, I found out [football updates] at that point, but he wasn't there all the time.'

Love Island 2019's Danny Williams revealed that producers call them to the beach hut by talking over speakers that are placed all around the villa. He told us, 'There's a tannoy. There's speakers everywhere and production will speak over the tannoy.'

Jourdan Riane spoke about what the Islanders get up to on their Love Island phones inside the villa and honestly, it doesn't sound like a lot. She told us, 'The only thing on our phones is the gallery and a camera to take pictures with and you can message each other within the villa but everything you message - production can see anyway. Every other setting on the phone is completely locked.' Although Tom Clare and Casey O'Gorman managed to find a way around it...

They might look like they're living their best lives in their bikinis but they're actually not. Kendall Rae Knight from Love Island series four told us, 'The first week it might have looked really warm but it was freezing. For the whole first week all I wanted to do was put jackets and hoodies on.'

According to Islander Sam Bird, viewers don't get to see all the couples in the hideaway. He told us, 'You don't really see every single person in there because there's 24 hours in the day there's not enough time. When there's like 20 people in the villa they've got to go somewhere.'

Eyal Booker spilled the tea on producers entering the villa. He told us, 'The only time we saw producers was during challenges, when we needed to know what was going on and what we were doing. We also saw them during dates, when we left the villa and there was a camera crew and chaperones there.'

Zara McDermott revealed the real reason you rarely see the contestants in the pool and it's actually to do with their microphones. She told us, 'It's amazing in there but because you're in the pool you can't have a mic on. So usually if [you] were going to get in quite a lot of people get in together. You're not allowed to really talk or have any conversations if you don't have a mic on. So obviously if you're going to have a chat you're encouraged to get out and then that's when they'd film.'

Love Island 2016 star Scott Thomas revealed that during his series the contestants actually left the villa but it wasn't show on TV, he told Closer magazine, 'Every two weeks, we had a beach day, where the producers would take the girls and the boys separately to spend a day on the beach to relax away from the cameras and switch off. When you've been in one house for such a long time, I think it's healthy to get out so you don't get cabin fever! Other than that, you're under villa arrest.'

He also went on to reveal that sometimes the producers would give the contestants 'pep talks', he explained, 'They would egg you on or encourage you to go after the girl you liked – they'd kind of give you a confidence boost. If you had a good chat with someone in the villa, the producers would sometimes ask for you to have it again so they could film it properly or from a different angle.'

It's safe to say that Love Island series three's Theo Campbell was the most outspoken contestant during his time in the villa in 2017 and it seems that the producers may have had a little to do with that. He said, 'You know if you're liked. The producers told me I was doing well, and encouraged me to keep going.

He even admitted that when Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood split in the villa, the producers 'banned them from speaking' before claiming they were told 'they needed to do a big reunion scene, otherwise no contact.'

It sounds like things have definitely changed since series two because according to Zara Holland, two producers lived in the villa with the contestants. She told us, 'We had two producers and they lived downstairs. We regularly chatted to them throughout the day. They had to come in around dinner and change our mics. They'd ask us how we were doing. They'd also create scenes by asking a group of us to go and sit down in a specific place and have a conversation about a specific thing. It did sometimes feel very controlled.'

Kem Cetinay has insisted that looks aren't everything when it comes to choosing Love Island contestants. He said, 'I'm sure we'll have loads of great characters they're really good the casting team. They don't just pick on looks and models, they really pick on personality.'

If you're wondering why you never see the Love Island contestants drunk it's because they don't get much while they're in the villa. Jess Shears told us, 'We were rationed with alcohol – they didn't want us to get out-of-control drunk, so we'd only be allowed three small glasses of wine a night. On the nights where there was a celebration or new Islanders, we got a few bottles of bubbly for the group. My co-star Olivia Attwood and I would always try to sneak a few more glasses than everyone else. One-on-one dates would always have more booze, though, especially a first date. They wanted to loosen you up a bit and be more flirtatious.

She was unlucky in love during her time on Love Island 2018 but Alexandra Cane has revealed why we never see the contestants eating lunch or dinner. She said, 'We do have to be monitored on what we eat. This is to make sure everyone in the house is eating sufficient amounts of food and no one is going to get ill. So, lunch and dinner times were never shown because we had to eat certain amounts. Sometimes we would be split up so the girls would sit on their own and the boys would sit on their own to eat food, but it was mainly for monitoring purposes'.

So Alexandra revealed the reason we don't see the Islanders eat during their time in the villa and Paul has spilled the tea on what they actually eat. Chatting to Closer Online, he said, 'Diet wise isn't so great in the villa. In the morning you have breakfast - cereal, eggs, bacon - but you can actually request food and they'll put it in the fridge overnight.' He went on to reveal that the catering team go into the villa for their lunch but described the food as bland.

After Amy Hart sensationally quit the show following her brutal dumping by Curtis Pritchard, she revealed exactly what happens when you're dumped from the villa. She told us, 'I watched a video featuring former Islanders Samira Mighty, Dr Alex and Jamie Jewitt explaining what life will be like.'