Love Island host Laura Whitmore has responded to ITV2 viewer criticism that she tried to “humiliate” dumped islander Remi Lambert by asking him to rap during his Aftersun appearance on Sunday.
Remi was the second islander to be axed from the Love Island villa on Sunday night, after none of the girls chose him in the second recoupling.
The 22-year-old model, who hails from Manchester, was left devastated as he appeared on the spin-off show after his early exit from the series.
He officially entered the villa on Tuesday - but his time was cut short as he sadly waved goodbye to fellow islanders on Sunday.
The model and rapper had been happy to show off his lyrical flow when he entered the villa and fellow contestant Jacques O’Neill asked him to rap, much to the amusement of Luca Bish.
When Remi then appeared on the Love Island spin-off show last night, he again performed for ITV2 viewers, to the applause of last year’s islanders Chloe Burrows and Toby Aromolaran.
But a number of Aftersun viewers at home were left cringing over the “awkward” moment and took to Twitter to call out host Laura and the ITV crew for engineering the moment.
One fan posted: “Why did they make Remi freestyle on live TV? As if the man hasn’t suffered enough!”
Another tweeted: “Hope Love Island supports Remi. He looked broken on Love Island Aftersun. Asking him to rap was done in bad faith and to humiliate. I thought Laura Whitmore & crew were supposed to ‘BE KIND’.”
But the Love Island host subsequently hit back at the comments, taking to Twitter to respond to the accusations that she and the crew had “humiliated” him.
She wrote: “Remi is a rapper and asked in good faith in advance if he’d rap and prepare something which he did.”
She added: “Live Telly is nerve wrecking, believe me, so maybe he was a bit nervous but he deserved to have his time. Also I want to make Remi & Afia happen!”
Following his exit from the villa, Remi admitted it was “gutting” to have left so soon.
He said: “I wish I could stay longer to get to know Indiyah and Danica mostly. At the same time, I feel like it was my time to leave. I was getting mixed signals and I wasn’t getting a clear answer from the girls.”
It appears Remi was fine following the interview, as he posted to his Instagram Story: "Grateful for all the support from yous all. It's not easy being in there. I tried my best."
Love Island airs every night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
