Love Island star Jacques O’Neill has told how he was left 'broken' by the hit ITV2 dating show but claims producers urged him to carry on. Rugby player Jacques, 23, quit the TV villa last week after clashing with new arrival Adam Collard over his partner Paige Thorne.
He admitted bosses were concerned before the show about his ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) which was diagnosed when he was nine. But he told The Sun he didn’t expect it to be such an issue after he stopped taking the medication Ritalin for it seven years ago.
Love Island says it has 'rigorous and extensive checks in place' to assess Islanders' mental health before being cleared to enter the villa, set away from the outside world in Mallorca. And the show says it would never put pressure on someone to stay after Jacques claimed he was coaxed back by ITV bosses the day after his exit before saying 'I’m ready to go home.'
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Jacques says he 'couldn’t cope' on the show, which pairs-up singles in the sunshine with the winning couple scooping £50,000, and said: "Doing Love Island was the worst decision of my life.”
He recalled: “I was ready to break down. I was feeling so mentally drained, I just wanted to go home and get myself right.
"It broke me and I was already broken. I was crying my eyes out. I couldn’t cope. I was literally feeling awful. It was the worst I’d ever felt in my life.”
Jacques, who had just been through a rocky time with paramedic Paige, 24, after he kissed bombshell arrival Cheyanne Kerr during the Casa Amor relationship test, was rattled by the arrival of hunky Adam, 26, who made his interest in Paige clear. He said: “I thought if I don’t get myself out things could go horribly wrong and I could get physical.
“At home you can remove yourself from situations, but in there you had to deal with every situation, and in that moment I took my microphone off, and walked straight through the front doors because I just wanted to get out of that place."
He added: "Producers tried coming to me, they were like, ‘Jacques, are you OK? I was saying, ‘I don’t want to speak to you or anyone. I want to be left to myself.’ It was too much."
Jacques left the villa last Sunday night, although viewers only found out on Tuesday that he had gone, but he says he was coaxed back the day after his exit. He said: “That morning, I spoke to Mike, the big boss, and said I wanted to leave, ‘I’m ready to go, I want to get out of here.’
He added: “He calmed me down a bit and was like, ‘mate, we don’t want to see you go, you’re doing great in there, you’ll be fine.’” Jacques then says he had a 'welfare chat' and was getting called to the Beach Hut to speak to producers.
He explained: “In the end I couldn’t deal with it, I wanted to get out of the place. I was crying, saying to them ‘I’m ready to go home’." After leaving the main villa, Jacques says he stayed in a separate apartment with a security guard and two producers. And he says it was two days before he got his phone back and could speak to his mum Janet Wright.
In the meantime he says he managed to get on to the internet to search his name and was horrified to see what had been written about him. After flying back home on Tuesday night he went to rugby training with his old team Castleford Tigers and was comforted by the club’s welfare officer.
A Love Island spokesperson said: "We cannot comment on any individual's medical records owing to confidentiality and our own duty of care towards the Islanders, however we have rigorous and extensive checks in place to assess Islanders' physical and mental health in advance of being cleared to enter the Villa. This is something we take extremely seriously.
They added: "As we said at the time, Jacques made the decision to leave and we respected that decision. Islanders are welcome to leave should they choose to do so and we would never put pressure on someone to stay in the villa."
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