Love Island's Shakira breaks silence on how Helena treated her in the villa

27 August 2025, 11:33

Shakira Khan pictured at the Love Island reunion party and Helena Ford pictured before. — Shakira slams how Helena treated her in the Love Island villa. Picture: Instagram

By Lily Bell

Love Island's Shakira Khan has spoken out on how Helena Ford treated her in the villa amid Harry Cooksley triangle and 'bikini-gate'.

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Love Island star Shakira Khan has spoken out about how fellow islander Helena Ford treated her in the villa, during their love triangle with Harry Cooksley.

Despite finding an initial connection with Harry, Shakira quickly became exhausted of his antics and decided to move on, leaving him to pursue things with Helena.

Harry and Helena remained coupled up for many weeks, even becoming exclusive, but he couldn't ignore his persistent feelings for Shakira, so they rekindled things in the final weeks and landed second spot in the final.

Shakira has now revealed how she truly felt while Harry and Helena were cracking on.

Harry Cooksley at the firepit, choosing to recouple with Shakira Khan or Helena Ford. — Harry choose to recouple with Shakira after he learns she still has feelings for him. Picture: YouTube

Speaking to Fabulous, Shakira said that she was respectful of Helena while she was coupled up with Harry, but the same couldn't be said for Helena.

Shakira said: "I don’t think Helena gave consideration to my feelings, I’ve said that to her a few times. When it was the other way around, I knew how I felt and I wouldn’t have wanted her to feel that way. I guess that’s why I was quite annoyed with her – she didn’t really care."

The Northern lass continued: "When Harry and I were back on again, I didn’t want to be all in her face, because I knew it would be hurtful. But bikini-gate really irked me. I was like: ‘Is she f---ing for real?’ Come on now.

Although it wasn't aired, Shakira revealed that she called them out twice in the first week, she said: "When it’s your turn, I really hope someone doesn’t treat you that way, because it’s not nice."

Helena reacts to Love Islanders' unforgettable quotes

Bikini-gate refers to the infamous moment when Helena was caught wearing Shakira's bikini, and joked about doing it on purpose, this moment sparked backlash online, as she was already in the process of 'stealing' Harry away from Shakira.

When Helena joined us to play a game of 'Who Said That?', she set the record straight on bikini-gate. She said: "I never took Shakira's bikini and everybody seems to think I stole it...like, yeah, I think I did try and steal her man but I defo didn't steal her bikini."

Adding more clarity to the bikini swapping, she revealed it was common to swap clothes in the villa, explaining: "When all our stuff goes in the wash, we'd get the bags back and we'd kind of put all the clothes in the middle of the room and then everyone just takes whatever everyone else has worn already."

Despite external appearances, Shakira concluded in her interview that they "don’t actually have any beef". But added that being "caught in conflict with boys" meant a friendship wasn't possible for them.