Love Island contestant Faye Winter needed therapy after appearing on ITV reality dating show

Love Island and Celebrity MasterChef contestant Faye Winter has opened up about her struggles on the hit reality dating show. The TV personality, who appeared in the seventh series of the reality dating series in 2021, has spoken out about her struggles after becoming a household name due to controversy on the hit ITV show.

Faye, 30, hit the headlines after a row between her and Teddy Soares - who she had been partnered with on Love Island - garnered 25,000 complaints to Ofcom.

However, the pair recovered and stayed together, finishing in third place at the series finale. They went on to appear in Love Island: Aftersun and on the couch of morning host Lorraine to discuss their experience, where Faye apologised for her behaviour on the show. She went on to make the semi-finals of Celebrity MasterChef in 2022 and has now revealed how big an impact her behaviour - and the public reaction to it - has had on her.

"I've been through so much, to be able to get to a point to be able to talk about it," she told ITV News. "There were times where I wouldn't leave the house and I did have to go to exposure therapy and I did genuinely believe that the whole world was against me and that I was unsafe to go out and that I couldn't go out alone. That was a very difficult time."

The pair stayed together for two years after Love Island, before a reported split in 2023, with Faye later telling The Sun she had taken a two-year break from relationships.

Now, revealing how she is now moving back to her native Devon, Faye said she wishes she could "hug" the person she was when appearing on Love Island. "In a way, I had kind of done what I set out to do," she went on.

"People didn't know me, people didn't know the true me and in a way, me being that way inclined is what hurt me the most. Me being so shut off and so closed off and not letting people in is actually what damaged me the most in regard to the general public, because they saw the side to me that I thought was a good side to portray when actually it really wasn't.

"I wish that I could just hug that girl and be like, 'Just show people that you're upset, it is okay. You are human and you're allowed to be embarrassed, you're allowed to be upset, you're allowed to feel that you are heartbroken in this instant. You don't have to shy away from that’."