The dating show tweaked how the first couples of its new season were made
A Loose Women star has branded Love Island 'hypocritical' following a major change in the dating show’s first episode.
The ITV reality programme returned on Monday night (June 9) as a new crop of singletons headed to the villa looking to find love.
It was a busy opening episode of the series celebrating its 10th anniversary, which is once again being presented by Maya Jama.
The first twist of the series arrived when bombshell Toni, the first-ever American contestant to appear on the UK version of Love Island, chose to steal taxi driver Ben from marketing worker Shakira.
Maya told Sharkira that she has just 24 hours to find a connection with one of the boys in the villa and convince them to couple up with her, with one of the other girls being dumped in her place.
Earlier in the episode, the girls had to pick who to couple up with based on dating profiles from the boys.
Rather than going off of looks as seen in previous years, the girls had to choose someone based only on their name, age, height, job and a cheeky tagline.
Once the girls made their decision, the boys entered and went over to the person who chose them. In Conor’s case, he was quick to admit that Helena wouldn’t be who he normally goes for as he isn’t normally drawn to blondes.
It remains to be seen if the new way of coupling islanders up is a success, but one Loose Women panellist wasn’t in favour of it.
Speaking on Tuesday’s (June 10) episode of the ITV panel show, Mariella Frostrup had her say on the format change.
“I think all elements are important, it’s like creating a recipe. I think it’s quite amusing, hypocritical some might say, to say this is now not about looks on Love Island.
“When they’re all standing there in swimsuits and the guys have bodies that look like they have to do seven hours of working out a day."
Opening up about her marriage to Jason McCue, Mariella said she ‘would never have picked him’ if she saw a picture of him on the dating sites.
She explained: “Not in a million years. He was not my type. I liked dark hair, moody looking, sort of Mediterranean type. He did not qualify, he looked like a potato.
“In all the other factors, he ticked an awful lot of boxes and because of that I found him attractive and we’ve been together for 23 years.”
Mariella added: “My friend showed me Raya, the thing I was struck by was the amount of lying that goes on. There was one guy who said he was 6”2’, my friend quite likes a tall man.
“She turned up and he was like 5”7’, he was like Tom Cruise. What’s the point in that because all you’re saying is that you’re a liar.”
The segment concluded with Ruth Langsford calling for ‘an over 60s version’ of Love Island, with Janet Street-Porter declaring she’d ‘wear her wet suit'.
