Georgia Townend Praised For Being 'Honest' & 'Vulnerable' About Love Island Struggles

6 June 2022, 16:55 | Updated: 7 June 2022, 11:34

By Capital FM

@CapitalOfficial

Ex-Love Islander Georgia Townend shared an inspiring message about body positivity ahead of tonight’s first episode.

Love Island star Georgia Townend - who appeared on the 2021 series of the ITV2 dating show - has shared a powerful message about her feelings from last year ahead of the first episode tonight.

The former contestant, who was also a fan-favourite on the show despite only being in the villa for two days, shared her Love Island promo photo on Instagram, telling her 151,000 Instagram followers: “Nearly one whole year since this. I very rarely even talk about it because as soon as you do, someone starts yapping on about trying to stay relevant or clinging on to 15 mins.

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“Anyway I digress, the reason I’m posting this is because I’m currently sat in an airport, knowing I’ll be in a bikini shortly and how that always fills me with dread.

“And this day wasn’t any different. I remember seeing my promo pic for the first time on my villa phone and thinking oh my god I look so fat and ugly, no-one will pick me, I was so embarrassed that this was what people were going to see of me for the first time.”

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Georgia continued in her post about body confidence: “I’ve put on weight since those pictures were taken and now wish I looked like that, but at the time I thought I was fat. Make that make sense.

“They wanted me to wear a bikini, and I begged them to let me wear my own cossie because I wanted as little of me on show as possible, because the less that people saw the less I would get criticised.

“As I stood and posed, the echolalia in my head was going like the clappers 'breathe in… make sure your thighs aren’t touching… don’t have your arms down by your side it will make you look bigger… stand up straight'."

The ex-contestant went on to say: “But it stemmed much earlier than that, I can’t actually remember a time I liked my body, how sad is that. Didn’t matter what size I was, I always picked fault.”

Wrapping up her post, Georgia then added: “There isn’t really a point to this, just wanted a reminder for myself that while I was busy hating the way I looked, I now look back and wish I’d made the most of it.

“Don’t spend your life waiting for your body to look ‘perfect’ all the while missing out on buying the dress you love because it’s not the size you want on the label, or skipping the holiday because you don’t want to stand next to your skinny friends.

“You’ll look back and think those were my best years and instead of enjoying them, I missed out on making memories, sheltering myself away. I’m not getting another body, neither are you. So you may aswell love what you have.”

Georgia’s post was flooded with messages of support from fans and former co-stars, praising her for being ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ and was applauded for her honesty.

Love Island starts at 9pm on ITV2.

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