'I’ve been watching Love Island for 10 years. This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.'

As a diehard reality TV fan, nothing beats the summer season of Love Island UK for me.

It's the Super Bowl of reality dating shows. From the iconic islanders to the real-life love stories that blossom and, of course, the dramaaaaa — it's the best reality TV can get.

But there's been something off about the 2025 season. In my 10 years of watching it, I have never been more infuriated — like, literally every single episode I have a furious expression perpetually painted across my face.

And that's saying something from a gal who has survived every season of Married at First Sight, The Bachelor and Big Brother.

This season of Love Island UK has been dominated by the disgraceful actions of three men, whose bad behaviour has sparked a national conversations in the UK about the rise of misogynistic rhetoric in young men, viewer outrage, and a public statement from Women's Aid.

These men! Image: ITV.

The show has been hit with over 1,000 complaints. Most of the complaints registered with Ofcom have been related to alleged misogynistic behaviour by Harrison Solomon, Dejon Noel-Williams and Harry Cooksley, along with the bullying being targeted at Shakira Khan, which has raised concerns about her mental health.

A recent episode featuring Dejon and a kissing challenge could be the worst I've seen. And believe me, that's saying something.

All the women were instructed to kiss a line of blindfolded men. Throughout this process, Dejon made disrespectful and disparaging remarks about the women who were instructed to kiss him.

Watch the painful scene below. Post continues after video.

After the task, one of the contestants, Yasmin Pettet, asked him to have a conversation. He refused to speak to her, instead choosing to eat a bowl of pasta alone, a move she later referred to as "entitled."

The following day, the only explanation he could offer her was: "I was just making jokes, I didn't think anyone would take it seriously."

To be clear, none of his comments were made with any hint of humour. Of course, none of the other men called him out for this, a scary trend in this villa.

On the show, Dejon's relationship with Meg Jones has been a huge talking point. He spent the bulk of their time refusing to commit to her and flirting with other women, before finally asking Meg to be her girlfriend… a few weeks from the finale (lol what a coincidence?).

Dejon is one of three men who have been a topic of debate. This brings me to Harry. This. Man. Harry was initially matched with Sophie, but after expressing interest in Shakira, he rematched with her.

Despite a clear spark with Shakira, he engaged in a flirty relationship with Helena — with the two spending a night together in the hideaway.

Harry's on-off relationship with Helena has dominated the drama. Image: ITV.

Then, when he had switched to Helena, he turned his attention to bombshell Yasmin, and they shared a steamy kiss in the hideaway.

All the while, he continued making disrespectful and hurtful comments about all the women, often outright lying, deflecting blame or trying to manipulate them.

After Casa Amor, Harry ended up choosing to recouple with Helena, who he remains with currently. But that doesn't mean he's stopped making inappropriate comments to all the other women. In a recent episode, Harry asked Shakira, "Do you think your experience on Love Island would have been better if we had stayed together?"

He's shown nothing but disrespect towards Helena. He previously made a demeaning remark about her on a boys' night, where Harry debated if Helena was suitable for a relationship because she had admitted to him privately that she had a threesome with two men — an admission that Harry later decided to tell the rest of the men in the villa.

Harry and Dejon. Image: ITV.

This is the same man who said in a later challenge he had slept with an entire women's football team. The double standards aside, this was a clear example of slut-shaming and breaching her trust.

After finding out what Harry had done, Helena soon forgave Harry, telling the other women: "I'm proceeding with caution." Harry has continued to manipulate and make flirtatious comments to multiple women behind the back of Helena — even after the couple became exclusive.

When it comes to Helena, she has endured a hell of a lot of disrespect from Harry, with minimal repercussions. But more on her later…

But the man who has caused the most controversy has to be Harrison, who was entangled in a messy love triangle with Toni Laites and Lauren Wood.

Harrison found an early spark with Toni, as the two bonded over both living in the US. However, he soon turned his attention to Helena, playing the two women against each other while lying to them both.

He eventually chose Toni, but then came Casa Amor, and he recoupled with newcomer Lauren. Then he, well… played the two women against each other while lying to them both.

Harrison truly destroyed Toni on the show. Image: ITV.

It all came to a head when Harrison convinced Toni to pick him in a recoupling ceremony, neglecting to tell Lauren, who he had been intimate with the night before, a detail he didn't tell Toni.

Anyways, both Lauren and Toni were left devastated and crying, with viewers accusing him of cruelly playing with their feelings. As if things couldn't get worse, Harrison then switched back to Lauren.

He was confronted by both women in a powerful scene. "Take accountability for the fact that you hurt people," Toni told him. "You can say sorry 100 times, but do your actions or your words line up? No."

She continued, "Your morals and ethics don't align with mine… you treat people like sh**."

Lauren was dumped from the villa, and Harrison decided to follow her, an exit that many fans online had speculated was encouraged by producers.

For many, the damage was done. Harrison's actions prompted Women's Aid, a prominent UK charity, to release an unusually strong statement condemning the behaviour of Harrison and the underlying misogyny exhibited by the other men on the show.

"We still see unhealthy patterns of behaviour on these shows, showing just how steeped in misogyny and sexism our society still is. Women are often lied to, slut-shamed and manipulated, as well as laughed at behind their backs," they stated.

"Misogyny and sexism lay the foundation for the tolerance of abuse and violence – it reinforces a culture that excuses and trivialises violence against women and girls. More must be done to educate contestants on sexism and misogyny…"

Since his departure, Harrison has apologised for his actions, but disagreed with the Women's Aid statement. "I would disagree with a lot of it in terms of my respect for women, I do respect women," the 22-year-old said.

"[I] just went about situations in the wrong way, but the Women's Aid statement wasn't nice."

Harrison left the villa with Lauren. Image: ITV.

The most troubling thing about Dejon, Harry and Harrison is how these three work together: condoning and encouraging each other's behaviour, and never holding each other accountable.

In some instances, they've even ganged up on other women in the villa, such as several altercations between the toxic trio and Shakira and Toni, who they mock or laugh at like a cackle of hyenas.

There's also rising internalised misogyny in the villa. Helena is often seen laughing with Harry and Dejon when they make cruel comments about other women in the villa.

When Dejon was venting to Meg about the women in the villa who, he says, had been 'bashing his name' (aka holding him accountable for his horrendous behaviour, often directed at Meg), Meg turned to him and said: "Sometimes there's jealousy in the world and jealous people… they want what we have."

Thankfully, the season does have some amazing women, like Toni, Shakira, Yasmin and Billykiss Azeez calling out the men, along with some other fellas who joined the show for Casa Amor, and have, so far, behaved relatively respectfully.

But in 2025, a few good men is not enough.

Feature image: ITV.