Former Love Island contestant Savanna Darnell has issued a warning to future hopefuls of the ITV2 dating show ahead of the new series which kicks off tonight.
The Casa Amor bombshell, 26, who appeared on the show in 2018, has revealed that being on the show is not all that it's made out to be, and once your time in the villa is up, it can be an incredibly deflating experience.
Savanna was lucky enough to have been selected by producers from thousands of hopefuls to join the lineup in 2018.
However, her time in the villa didn't go as had of hoped, and she left the show battling mental health issues after her disaster villa stint.
The 26-year-old star was contacted 'out of the blue' by producers who discovered her on Instagram - and she was then invited to ITV's head office to meet more producers - an experience she has described as 'pretty intense'.
"I was meeting with various producers, and having conversations with them. They were all telling me constantly how much they loved me, how amazing I was going to be, and how they appreciated how different I was because I wore Vans to the auditions, when most of the other girls were in heels," the former reality TV star explained.
However, Savanna soon realised that her expectations of appearing on the show were nothing at all like the reality of it.
After she made the difficult decision to put her musical theatre career on hold, she flew to Spain and went into super strict quarantine at the hotel where she felt isolated and 'out of control of her own life'.
She was soon told that she wouldn't be included in the show's original lineup - after being told that she would be - and Savanna was flown back to the UK.
But three weeks later she was flown back out to Spain as a Casa Amor contestant.
After the stressful experience, Savanna was reassured by producers that she would get plenty of airtime - however, after she failed to make a connection with any of the contestants, she was evicted from the villa after just a number of days, and was barely featured in any scenes.
Savanna's experience on the ITV2 show caused her to suffer with mental health issues, and she has since sought out therapy after taking part in the show.
"I fell into a deep black hole of depression," she told OK! Magazine.
"I would see on Instagram some of the other islanders like Dani Dyer and Zara McDermott doing these amazing collaborations with brands and attending cool events, while I was doing nothing.
"If I could go back I wouldn’t have made my whole life about Love Island. It can’t be your be all and end all because it’s not real life. Some people are going to have their life transformed after taking part, but there's also the people like me who are going to go back to their normal lives.
"I’d say to any contestant going in this year: be smart and remember there's more to life than just this show. It's great if it works out, but if it doesn't, you want to be able to still have a life to go back to.
"In other words, please don’t put all your eggs in one basket."
Since appearing on the show, Savanna is doing well in her musical theatre career and she has now finally found love.
