Greg O’Shea has said he thought about taking his own life after starring on Love Island
Greg said he felt like a ‘fool’ on the show
Love Island winner Greg O’Shea has admitted he thought about taking his own life after dealing with trolls and death threats following his time on the reality TV show. Greg won Love Island alongside Amber Gill after a short time in the villa and while he was starring on the show, Greg found out that his grandmother had passed away. Greg revealed in an interview that during filming for the reality dating show, he was grieving the death of his grandmother, something that many Love Island fans may not have noticed.
Speaking with Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show, Greg said he was “pulled out of the villa” and his mother broke the news of his grandmother’s death to him over a Zoom call. He said he felt like a “fool and an idiot” when his grandmother passed away while he was on Love Island. After he left the villa, Greg said he was told a by a friend he was being cancelled and at the time, he didn’t know what it meant.
He said: “I really struggled that I felt like I lost my identity. All I did was go in and train for the guys and when you’re a professional everything is done for you. I’ve lost all that and lost all my mates that I saw everyday. I went on the biggest show in the UK and won it and I’ve been cancelled for the last two years and I haven’t allowed myself to process that.
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“In those two years I’ve been getting abused with death threats, losing thousands of followers every day. And then they start texting my mum, sending messages to my parents and my sisters and my teammates. I remember one teammate got a message saying ‘when you get to training you should stab Greg in the back.'”
The former Love Island winner said he began to process what he was dealing with after he retired from spot. Greg O’Shea said he “lost the reason to get up in the morning” when he was living in London. “On the face of it I had everything and what they say to do is talk to people, but we don’t and it’s such an issue. Men don’t speak to each other”, he added.
He said: “It’s quite upsetting but I was driving around Rathfarnham and I’m in convulsions of tears and I just wanted it all to end. I was just so done and I was like ‘what’s the point?’ It was then that I decided I was just going to talk to a medical professional.”
Greg isn’t the first Islander to admit they have struggled with their mental health after leaving the villa. Faye Winter, who was on the 2021 series, said she still had “dark thoughts” a year on after starring on Love Island. Faye revealed that while she was in the villa, her sister had to block specific words on Faye’s Instagram due to all the hate messages she was receiving and it was because of that Faye fell into a “dark place”.
She said: “When I go on the words that my sister had to block on my Instagram and you look. When you get told enough that your life isn’t worth it and that you shouldn’t be here, that takes its toll and I was in such a dark place and I’ve only recently been able to talk about it.”
Winter Love Island 2023 starts on January 16th. For all the latest Love Island news and gossip and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.
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• ‘I wasted so much time and energy’: Islanders who say they regret going on Love Island
Featured image credit via Instagram @gregoshea.