I was on Love Island – here’s the REAL reason I quit after 4 days & what really goes on behind the scenes during dates
WHEN Liam Llewellyn announced he was quitting the villa just four days into the show, his fellow islanders were stunned.
Now the Welsh student, 22, has opened up to The Sun on why he couldn’t stand to stay a moment longer.
Having told his fellow contestants he felt he hadn’t been giving “100% Liam”, he admits he was unable to relax because he was so paranoid about being filmed 24-7.
He explains: “I was always aware of anything I do, anything I say, any step I take, any action I make is recorded at all times and it’s out there for the world to see forever.
“When that is always at the forefront of your mind, it makes it a very hard place to let yourself go and be your true authentic self.
“I think a lot of people can go in there and they can sort of push that to the back of their mind and offer themselves a lot easier and a lot quicker than others.
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“I just don’t think its a place for someone who actually processes and thinks like I think.”
One element Liam – who was initially coupled up with Gemma Owen – struggled with was the busy behind-the-scenes action going on while he was on dates.
He admits to being distracted by the “30-odd” crew members running around, and his conversations being interrupted mid-flow by producers.
He says: “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t get to see.
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“On TV all you can see is two people on a date – but there’s like 30 people running round as you’re dating, getting camera angles right, getting the lighting right.
“And if they make a bit of noise you’ve got to pause for a second and then go again.
“Maybe that was a big factor in my decision and maybe I wasn’t comfortable with all that going on and people not knowing what you’re having to deal with at the time.”
He adds: “It’s tough to meet a girl for the first time, sit down and date when there’s all that going on in the background.
“It’s not a natural environment to do it in, you’ve got all these voices listening in, the cameras floating around, zooming in, zooming out.
“So that was definitely a shock – obviously you know it’s filmed, but to that extent? It was definitely a surprise to me.”
Mind was ‘doing overtime’
Liam says the Love Island producers “made it very clear” they didn’t want him to leave, but when he informed them of his decision, they were “good as gold” and supported him.
He explains: “I made them aware early doors how I was feeling, that I can’t really chill out, relax, wasn’t really sleeping that well to be able to switch off when I needed to.
“I guess my mind was just doing overtime in there. I made them aware of that.
“I had loads of chats with the welfare team and the psychologists and the producers.”
Liam adds that producers were “absolutely gutted” when he announced he wanted to go, and didn’t want him to leave, but “back him all the way”.
Beach hut secrets
Liam says he became good at telling the time from the sun, as the Islanders are woken up by the lights turning on in the bedroom and deprived of watches.
While they make their own breakfast, they are later provided with catering for lunch and dinner, which isn’t shown on TV.
Liam says: “We don’t know the time. We were looking at the sun, I got quite good at it, we could sort of guess the time.
“Roughly two-and-a-half to three hours after breakfast we have lunch and it’s different themes every day, Italian or whatever.”
It’s not a natural environment to date in, you’ve got all these voices listening in, the cameras floating around, zooming in, zooming out… obviously you know it’s filmed, but to that extent? It was definitely a surprise to me
Liam Llewellyn
At the end of every evening, Liam says the Islanders all have to wait around to do their beach hut interviews.
He adds that Islanders involved in the most drama are “back and forth” from the hut “like a yoyo”.
“Depending on the storyline of the show you can get called in there quite a lot,” Liam explains.
“On TV it looks like everything’s going on and then you cut to your beach hut, but that’s like two hours after it’s happened, so you’ve got to recall what went on.”
The hunk adds that the girls take three hours to get ready while the boys “chill” outside.
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He says: “They would say to the girls, ‘You should probably go and start getting ready now because we know how long you take,’ so they’d be gone for like three hours.
“We’d probably start having our showers like an hour before call time ready to go out for the night.”