Love Island Season Seven bombshell Cierra Ortega has been removed from the villa. During Sunday night’s episode, narrator Iain Stirling announced that the 25-year-old “left the villa due to a personal situation.” In the episodes leading up to her departure, viewers noticed that Ortega was receiving significantly less screen time. The production edit appeared to coincide with the surfacing of old social media posts from 2015 and 2020 in which she used a racial slur toward the Asian community to describe her eyes.
Ortega is no longer in the villa, but has not yet returned home from Fiji, where the show is filmed. On her official Instagram account, her parents have posted a statement pleading for “compassion, for patience, for basic human decency” from the show’s viewer base, which has grown more intense since expanding due to the success of Season Six.
“As Cierra’s parents, this has been one of the most painful weeks of our lives,” they wrote. “We’ve seen the posts, the headlines, the hurt and the hate. And while Cierra hasn’t seen any of it yet, we have. And so have the people who love her. We’re not here to justify or ignore what’s surfaced. We understand why people are upset, and we know accountability matters. But what’s happening online right now has gone far beyond that. The threats. The cruel messages. The attacks on her family, her friends, even her supporters, it’s heartbreaking. It’s uncalled for. And no one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what mistake they’ve made.”
During her stint on the show, Ortega’s social media accounts were being handled by her friend MJ Hedderman. After the posts surfaced, Hedderman stepped away from her role. “I cannot speak for anybody or make any statements besides my own, and decided to take a step back from running her account,” she said on her own account. “I was asked by her family to turn off comments and refrain from speaking on her behalf. This situation has been really difficult, and I’m still processing everything.”
Viewers advocated for Ortega’s removal with the same fervor, if not more, as they did for the removal of Season Seven contestant Yulissa Escobar. Escobar made it through one episode of the show before being quietly dumped from the island after clips surfaced from a podcast appearance during which she used the n-word multiple times. Producers would have opened the show up to even more criticism for not responding to both instances in an appropriate manner.
However, some viewers have questioned whether the more hardcore and invested sector of the fanbase saw Ortega’s racial insensitivity as an easy way to remove an obstacle between two other islanders they wanted to bring together, instead. Ortega was in a couple with Nic Vansteenberg since her first week in the villa. When she was removed, he was left “officially single.” This was bad news for those who were rooting for their couple, but considered a win for viewers who have wanted Vansteenberg to further explore his connection with fellow islander Olandria Carthen.
Vansteenberg and Carthen briefly explored their connection after they were both dumped during the Casa Amor section of the show, only to be offered a lifeline to remain in the villa by coupling up. They ultimately agreed they didn’t feel a spark after sharing a passionate (and now viral) kiss, despite what viewers and even host Ariana Madix seemed to believe. When the official post-Casa recoupling occurred, Vansteenberg and Ortega picked up where they left off and later “closed off” their relationship, meaning neither would explore other potential connections. With Ortega gone, Vansteenberg and Carthen are now in a couple together once again.
In the villa, islanders do not have access to their phones or any other means of connecting with the outside world. The reason for Ortega’s removal has not been revealed to them, and they’re likely unaware of just how intense their viewer base has come to be. In June, Love Island issued a warning about cyberbullying. “Please just remember they’re real people — so let’s be kind and spread the love,” a social media statement from the show read.
Madix issued a warning of her own during an “Aftersun” episode, the weekly recap of the show with former contestants filmed while the ones inside the villa get a break from the cameras. “I do want to say something to some of those people that are online,” she said. “Don’t be contacting people’s families. Don’t be doxxing people. Don’t be going on Islander’s pages and saying rude things. You still have time to delete all of that, because the Islanders don’t have their phones, so we’re giving you a chance.”
Ortega hasn’t yet “had the chance to process any of this or speak for herself,” her family said, “but we know our daughter. We know her heart. And when she returns, we believe she’ll face this with honesty, growth, and grace.” Her parents continued, “While she’ll always be our little girl, she’s also a woman, one who will take responsibility in her own time and her own voice. Until then, we’re simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency. Not just for her, but for everyone caught in the middle of this. Thank you to those who’ve continued to show love, even when it’s not easy.”
