Love Island’s Danica Taylor has opened up about Luca Bish’s behaviour in the villa towards Gemma Owen after the Islander came under fire for his ‘controlling’ behaviour.
Love Island 2022 received a total of 466 Ofcom complaints in its final week of the ITV2 dating show, with 286 complaints on July 26 in relation to Luca’s behaviour towards his partner Gemma.
Luca and Gemma were runners up in the 2022 final as Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti were crowned the winners following a public vote.
As Love Island fans were left outraged by Luca’s treatment of Gemma, they called for her to dump him, prompting the Brighton fishmonger’s family to issue an apology on his behalf.
However, Danica has now explained that while she understands viewers' concerns “in some sense”, she chalked his behaviour up to the fact he’s “besotted” by Gemma.
Speaking to OK! Magazine with partner Jamie Allen, Danica explained: “Luca’s just besotted by the girl. He’s fallen hard. He’s lost his head a little bit. He doesn’t deserve the negativity, he’s a great guy.
“Yeah, there’s parts of everybody that we might not get along with and I do see what the viewers are saying in some sense. He loves Gemma so much, he doesn’t want to see her necking on with another guy, or doing anything.”
Jamie added: “But they’re being very hard on him.”
Agreeing, Danica continued: “They are! He is a really nice boy. Despite the situation with me [she coupled up with him] and he took time to calm down, he was actually quite nice to me and said, ‘Sorry, I’m into Gemma’.
“He doesn’t deserve the hate he’s getting. People will see it in time to come, a reality TV show is very edited.”
Yet the notoriously provocative Movie Night on the ITV2 dating show saw huge fallout both inside the villa and among the viewing public, as many slammed the boys – including Luca – for their treatment of the girls.
The episodes even prompted domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid to call out the behaviour, confirming that they were in conversation with Love Island producers over the show’s duty of care.
Women’s charity Refuge also released a statement, posting: “The misogyny and casual sexism witnessed on this series of Love Island is extremely concerning. The double standards, gaslighting and coercive control being displayed by the men in the villa is hugely problematic.”
