Former Love Island contestant Sharon Gaffka has slammed this year's line-up for its lack of Asian contestants.
The line-up for the ITV2 series was released on Monday, with the series signing up its first deaf contestant.
However, Sharon criticised the line-up and questioned both the lack of Asians as well as the lack of plus-sized contestants.
Speaking on The News Desk for TalkTV, the 26-year-old explained: "Diversity comes in lots of different boxes. It's not just ethnicity and what I do think it's great that you know, close to 50% of the cast will be diverse or from a different background I still think we're not seeing any Asians in the original line-up.
"And again, there is a little bit of more diversity than other previous series in terms of body size."
Sharon is of Indonesian and Polish heritage herself and appeared in the 2021 series of the series.
Other Asian contestants over the years include Shannon Singh, Priya Gopaldas and AJ Bunker.
Malin Andersson, who appeared on season two back in 2016, and Thai contestant Kaz Crossley, who starred in season four, are among the Asian women who have participated in the show.
Male contestants include Omar Sultani (from season one) and Nas Majeed (from season six).
Love Island being slammed for its diversity and lack of plus-sized contestants is nothing new. The ITV2 series was previously called out for being 'too white' and lacking in 'body diversity' after fans labelled the show as 'toxic'.
However, a Love Island spokesperson insisted the 'only stipulations are that applicants are over 18, single, and looking for love.'
Last year, Love Island bosses claimed they would unlikely include gay people in future series due to 'logistical difficulties'.
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ITV commissioner Amanda Starvi explained producers did try to include more diversity but it would not work with the show's current format.
She said the popular programme's creators "want to encourage greater inclusivity and diversity in terms of gay islanders".
"There’s a sort of logistical difficulty, because although Islanders don’t have to be 100 per cent straight, the format must sort of give [the] Islanders an equal choice when coupling up, Stavri told RadioTimes.
“With our dating shows, such as The Cabins, there is much more sexual diversity. The formats don’t have as much restrictions as Love Island.
"So we’re very sort of mindful of that across our programming on ITV and dating series. But that’s the difficulty with Love Island," she added.
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