Love Island's Jacques O'Neill was met with a barrage of social media messages after he decided to leave the hit ITV2 dating show - some good, some bad. The 23-year-old has now opened up about some of these 'bad' messages that both him and his mother, Janet Wright, received. He was talking about his Love Island journey on former Love Island star Scott Thomas' podcast, Learning About Judgement.
Breaking down in tears, Jacques told Scott: "The hardest thing was... sorry, mate. Just seeing my mum, how she was. Seeing her in a state. I couldn't even leave the house..." The Love Island star, who was coupled up with former Welsh paramedic Paige Thorne in the villa, quit the villa because he was struggling with his mental health. He has been vocal about his ADHD diagnosis since he left Love Island.
When asked by Scott about what his mother struggled with following his exit, Jacques emotionally revealed: The death threats, man." After leaving the villa, Jacques spoke out about some of the messages that his mother had received during an interview with The Sun. During an interview with the publication, his mother said: "I started to get horrible private messages on Facebook, people were saying they wished my son and I were dead, it was awful," before she described how the abuse was soon targeted at her. "The messages really hurt, strangers were saying to me that I was a bad mother and a bad parent. It was awful, especially as I brought him up by myself."
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As Jacques wiped tears away from his eyes during the recording of the podcast, he said: "When I got out the villa, I had to go into a holding villa. My mum was like, 'Get out, Jacques. Just get out right now, get home. Just leave'. "I was kicking off and was saying, 'Get me a flight right now, I just want to be with my mum'. I knew she was in a bad place, she was breaking down on the phone."
"When I got home, she went, 'Jacques, we can't go out. We can't go out. Like, everyone hates you'. I just wanted me and my mum to be okay," Jacques told Scott. He then detailed how, following his return home, he struggled to get out of bed before 3pm every day. He also said that he was "comfort eating" in order to deal with the pain. "I was so numb after the villa. It killed me to see the way my mum was," he said. "I couldn't speak to her about deep stuff because I'd just break down. It took me two weeks to give her a cuddle."
Love Island is set to return to ITV next year with two series planned. A winter version of the show is planned for January 2023. You can get more celebrity news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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