Love Island season eight has arrived, and we’re waiting with bated breath for a text. On the surface, the premise of the television franchise—escaping to a villa in Fiji for a couple of weeks to mingle with hot singles, plus a cash prize of $100,000 and social media stardom—may sound like a dream. But add in being completely isolated from the world—unaware of what’s happening with your family, countries going to war with each other, or things even as trivial as the latest White Lotus casting—and having your life picked apart during the online discourse, and it may no longer seem worth it.
Love Island is one of the many reality dating shows in which people compete for a chance to find love. Audiences watch as relationships and friendships flourish or break down (sometimes simultaneously) and use an app to reward the behavior they see by helping choose who stays and who goes. Contestants are not allowed to have their cell phones, read books, or talk politics; all they can do is work out, navigate relationships, have a few cocktails, and see if sparks fly.
But as the show, produced by ITV America and streamed on Peacock, has grown in popularity—Deadline reported that last season saw slightly more than 1 billion minutes viewed from June 6 to 12, 2025—the floodgates have opened for toxic online discourse and concern for contestants’ mental health.
In the wake of the public discourse around season seven, ITV America confirmed to Vogue that Love Island USA has an entire team supporting the cast members before, during, and after filming. In addition to producers, managers, and HR, the show provides a duty-of-care representative, two on-site licensed psychologists, and a full-time welfare manager who oversees participants’ daily care and addresses any concerns or questions.
Prior to arriving at the Villa, potential contestants, a.k.a. the Islanders, go through multiple rounds of assessments with a psychologist to better understand their backgrounds and current mental health. Deb Chubb, a contestant on season four of Love Island USA, said on her TikTok that each contestant must obtain written approval from their doctor to appear on the show. Once somebody officially becomes an Islander, they are assigned a psychologist whom they will see throughout their time in the Villa.
Contestants also disclose all prescribed medications to producers, as Chubb explained in her video. Once you’re in the Villa, producers will take possession of your medications (she said they were allowed to keep Tylenol and birth control on them) and oversee their daily distribution at the scheduled time.
Production told Vogue that each participant is briefed on the potential downsides of being cast on the show, such as possible negative reactions on social media and in the press, as well as limited or no access to electronics. The team adds that contestants will have an initial check-in with their psychologist and then see them weekly. The psychologist is also on call whenever a contestant needs them.
But many past contestants have expressed that more is needed from the mental health support team. Caro Vie Lacad, a contestant on season one of the series, took to her YouTube channel in 2022 to discuss how Love Island could better support the contestants’ experiences. While Lacad acknowledged that the psychologists on set were available at all times, she felt the counseling was superficial at best. “It wasn’t anything digging deep,” she says. “[It] felt like I was just talking to another producer.”
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