Love Island's George reveals reason why he left the villa in new interview

9 June 2026, 19:12 | Updated: 10 June 2026, 12:47

Why did George Knight leave Love Island? His reason revealed. Picture: ITV2, The Sun

By Lily Bell

Why did George Knight leave Love Island? The 2026 bombshell has addressed his exit from the show in a new interview.

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Love Island's George Knight has explained why he left the villa following his sudden exit last week.

Yesterday (Jun 8), George posted a video on Instagram, addressing his exit and thanking fans for their support. He's also shared some more details in an new interview, and explained how it all happened.

George entered the villa with Yasmin Hadlow as the first bombshells of the series but his summer of love was cut short after less than a week, when he sadly left the villa for "private family reasons".

He's already shared a short statement on Instagram, as well as his video, and now he's opening in an interview with The Sun.

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Why did George Knight leave Love Island?

Love Island's George Knight and Robyn Langton pictured in the villa together. — Love Island's George and Robyn were getting to know each other. Picture: ITV

Opening up to TV editor Felicity Cross, George revealed that the executive producers asked to speak to him and shared news that ultimately made him decide to leave the show there and then.

"They said that my parents had been in touch and that they had some news for me and that they were going to give me a call," he said. "It is all very private. But it was a health concern with a member of the immediate family.“

"They said they felt like they weren’t doing their role as a parent if they didn’t let me know. And with what was said, I just felt like it was the right thing to come home."

He continued: "I was obviously aware [of the health issue], but it was not something that we needed to concern ourselves about in the eight week period that I could have been away or even longer than that."

"There was no second guessing my decision to leave," George added. "You’ve got to remind yourself that as much as reality TV is fantastic and great, the priority is your family and who’s close to you and has been in your entire life. And that’s why I came to that conclusion."

He also shut down any 'conspiracy theories' about him and his family having a secret code so they could pull him out if he was deemed unpopular by the public.

View this post on Instagram

Elsewhere, George thanked fans and ITV for their support in his Instagram video, saying: "I just wanted to take a moment and come on and say a massive massive thank you to every single person who has reached out over the past two days wishing me their love, their support and all their well wishes.

“It has been completely overwhelming and I am trying to get back to every message, which is proving pretty much impossible, but thank you so much."

He continued: "Moments like this give you a massive point of perspective on the bigger picture, and as fun and as great as my six days in the villa were, it’s obviously important for me to be here with my family.”

After news broke that George had left the villa, he shared a photo with his sister and the family dog, along with a statement.

His statement read: “Family comes first, always. Leaving the @loveisland Villa was a decision made in order to be with my family.

“Out of respect for them, I'd prefer not to go into any further detail. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with kind messages and support! It genuinely means a lot.”