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 menial as the latest White Lotus casting—as well as have your life picked apart during the online discourse on top of that, 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 on their screens 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, whose streaming rights are currently owned by Peacock and produced by ITV America, has grown in massive popularity (Deadline reported that last season hit slightly more than 1 billion minutes viewed from June 6 to 12, 2025), the floodgates have opened for toxic online discourse as well as worry for the contestants’ mental health.
In the wake of the public discourse around season seven, ITV America production confirmed to Vogue that Love Island USA has an entire team supporting the cast members before, during, and after filming. In addition to the 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 the daily care of participants and addresses any concerns or questions contestants might have.
Prior to arriving at The Villa, potential contestants, a.k.a. the Islanders, go through multiple rounds of assessments with one of the psychologists 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 is required to get a letter from their doctors giving them the okay to go on the show. Once somebody officially becomes an Islander, they are assigned a psychologist whom they will see throughout their time in The Villa.
Chubb goes on to explain in her video that contestants also disclose all their prescribed medications to producers. Once you’re in The Villa, producers will take all your meds (she said they were allowed to keep medicine such as Tylenol and their birth control on them to take on their own) and oversee their daily distribution at the scheduled time.
Production told Vogue that each participant is briefed on the potential downsides should they be cast on the show, such as possible negative reactions on social media and in the press, and having little to 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 1 of the series, took to her YouTube channel to discuss how Love Island could better support the contestants’ experience. While Lacad acknowledged that the psychologists on set were available at all times, she felt that the counseling was superficial at best. “It wasn’t anything digging deep,” she says. “[It] felt like I was just talking to another producer.” Leah Kateb, a contestant on season six, has been vocal about her struggles inside The Villa. In an interview on the podcast Call Her Daddy, Kateb said she thought about leaving at various times throughout her stay, out of fear of how her behavior was being perceived by the public, and that she had to see the on-set psychologist three times a day.
