Love Island fans have been left convinced that there is a reason Gemma Owen's famous dad has still not been brought up inside the villa after two weeks of the ITV2 dating show.
Viewers have been waiting for the moment everyone finds out 19-year-old Gemma's father is football legend Michael Owen – but Gemma still hasn’t spilled the beans, despite dropping a number of hints.
Fans of Love Island now think they know why the most high profile contestant hasn’t revealed her famous family connection and suggested it could have been a prerequisite to her appearance on the show.
Love Island fans on Reddit think they’ve cracked the code, as one fan theorised: “If her family paid [ ITV ] money not to air [Gemma talking about Michael] then we won’t see it. I think it’s pretty obvious that some sort of deal was struck regarding her time on the island.”
Another responded: “There’s no way someone with that much money and power enters into a competition like [Love Island] without insurance.”
Although there is no clear evidence any such agreement is in place behind closed doors, Love Island fans have long been speculating on how Gemma came to be on the programme.
One ITV2 fan suggested: “Gemma will have had a sweetheart deal struck up somehow between her lawyers and ITV to ensure she gets x-amount of attention per episode, is only shown favourably, one of her clothing lines is pushed.”
Another suggested: “I reckon Michael Owen has paid Love Island a fortune to get Luca out of his daughter’s bed!”
A fellow viewer wrote: “Low-key convinced Michael Owen has paid ITV to give Gemma all the screen time to try [and] make her the new Molly-Mae.”
This comes after Love Island producers are said to be pulling out all the stops to get Michael Owen to appear in the villa during the final week’s “meet the parents” task.
Blazing Squad’s Marcel Somerville, who appeared on the ITV2 show in 2017, says producers are desperate to give Gemma Owen a positive storyline arc after some viewers took an initial dislike to her.
“What Love Island want to do is have Michael Owen walk through the doors – that’s going to be TV gold,” says Marcel, speaking at the launch of Poke House Covent Garden.
“Their goal is to have a hero arc and I feel like it’s coming along. She’s a person they want to turn into a main character – they put her ex-boyfriend in the villa for a reason, as she’s got more dimensions to her.
“At first, she came across snotty and like she’s entitled, but now she’s coming across more normal.”
As the series approaches its finale, the contestants’ families enter the villa and they get to meet their relative’s new partners.
In 2018, Danny Dyer appeared via Skype to tell his daughter Dani he approved of her boyfriend.
Love Island airs every night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
