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Wild way Love Island’s Helena Ford was cast on series 12 revealed

10 June 2025, 12:51 | Updated: 10 June 2025, 15:16

By Abbie Reynolds

Love Island's creative director has revealed air hostess Helena Ford was cast in the show in the "weirdest" way.

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Love Island is officially back on our screens and 12 hopeful singles, plus one bombshell, have started looking for love. The likes of taxi driver Ben Holbrough and payroll specialist Megan Moore make up the cast, which was deliberately selected to be more relatable to the every day viewer.

The show's creative director Mike Spencer told Capital: "I think they're a jaw-dropping cast, I think they're exciting personalities, I love the job roles. It's not a lineup of 12 social media content creators, even though I don't mind social media content creators."

Speaking about the "real people" in this year's lineup, he added: "I like watching relatable people on telly."

And it turns out, one person on the cast actually secured their spot on Love Island because of their '9-5'.

Read more: Love Island insider announces major 'never-been-done-before' twist for week one
Read more: Who's coupled up with who on Love Island 2025? Series 12's couples revealed

Helena was Love Island's creative director's air hostess — Helena on Love Island s12. Picture: Instagram

After being asked which islander was cast in the "weirdest" place, Mike revealed: "Let's just say an airplane... on one of my flights."

Confirming that it was Helena Ford, 29, who works as cabin crew, he went on: "I met her on a flight a few years ago... she's fun, she's really really fun."

Talking about how that chat came about, the former TOWIE street caster said, "once you are a street caster, it never leaves you" but he added that Helena then went through the application process like the rest of the cast.

Helena on Love Island s12 — Helena was Love Island's creative director's air hostess. Picture: ITV

On the first night of Love Island series 12, Helena coupled up with Irish rugby player Conor Phillips, 25, after sort of picking his profile before even seeing what he looked like.

Once the girls were stood behind their chosen profiles, it was clear Helena wasn't best pleased with her match as she declared she didn't like "rugby boys" and even told Conor it was an ick.

In Helena's defence, Conor has told her blondes aren't his type - so at least the feeling's mutual!

Lucky for Helena and Conor, Mike has confirmed this series is going to see a lot of bombshells, way more than last year. So their Mr and Mrs right might be just hours away from walking into the villa.

Helena is in a couple with Conor. Picture: ITV

Ahead of her Love Island stint, Helena said she's looking for someone to 'laugh her into bed'. She told ITV: "Somebody funny or Northern. I feel like Northern people have much more banter than Southerners.

"If you look through my previous dating history, you’ll see I clearly go for personality. You can pretty much laugh me into bed."