Jacques says Love Island ‘broke’ him and he was so low he asked producers for a cuddle

In his first interview since quitting, Jacques said ‘doing Love Island was the worst decision of my life’

2 years ago

Love Island 2022
UK

Jacques O’Neill has given his first interview since leaving the Love Island 2022 villa. Jacques, who quit the show last week, has spoken of his regret for going on the show, and has said the experience broke him and left him feeling lower than ever.

Jacques left the villa after an argument with new bombshell Adam Collard. In an interview with The Sun since leaving, he has said he feared for how far that argument could have gone. “I thought if I don’t get myself out things could go horribly wrong and I could get physical,” he said.

“At home you can remove yourself from situations, but in there you had to deal with every situation, and in that moment I took my microphone off, and walked straight through the front doors because I just wanted to get out of that place.”

Jacques O'Neill has spoken in an interview since leaving the Love Island 2022 villa

via ITV

Jacques has also spoken about how he felt with his journey, saying he had got to the point where he “couldn’t cope” in the villa and has said “doing Love Island was the worst decision of my life.”

“I was ready to break down,” he added. “I was feeling so mentally drained, I just wanted to go home and get myself right. It broke me and I was already broken. I was crying my eyes out. I couldn’t cope. I was literally feeling awful. It was the worst I’d ever felt in my life.”

He has also said producers attempted to get him to stay on the show, but he wouldn’t. He said: “Producers tried coming to me, they were like, ‘Jacques, are you OK?’ I was saying, ‘I don’t want to speak to you or anyone. I want to be left to myself.’ It was too much. I was saying to them, ‘This is more than a TV show to me’, it was genuine feelings involved and my headspace wasn’t right to be in a TV show. I dealt with stuff in there that I’ve never dealt with in my life.”

Jacques continued: “That morning, I spoke to Mike, the big boss, and said I wanted to leave, ‘I’m ready to go, I want to get out of here.’ He calmed me down a bit and was like, ‘Mate, we don’t want to see you go, you’re doing great in there, you’ll be fine.’” Jacques said he had a “welfare chat” but in the end decided he “couldn’t deal with it”. “I was crying, saying to them, ‘I’m ready to go home’.”

via ITV

Jacques said that he left the villa on the Sunday night, and viewers found out on the Tuesday. In a further interview, Jacques said after he left the Love Island villa he was placed in an apartment with security guards and wasn’t allowed his phone back. He said he accessed the internet through the TV, and Googled himself.

“I just literally just wanted to be by myself,” he said. “They went to bed and I stayed up watching TV and there was a fire stick there and I thought I’ll just search my name. And I wish I didn’t because the way I felt Googling my name and seeing everyone hating me I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t sleep that night I just stayed awake, because I was so scared of going out that villa and going home and even facing people in the street.”

He said that “rocked” him, and he got so upset he had to knock on one of the producers’ doors and just have a cuddle from them. “I just felt like it was all negative and everyone hated me,” he said.

He has also spoken about having ADHD, and how that affected his time in the villa. “I know the way I spoke to Paige was wrong,” he said. “I tried to apologise and she kept asking why I did it. ADHD isn’t just about not being able to concentrate. It’s also about feeling anxious quite a lot, being on edge a lot.”

He has said he will wait for Paige until after the show, but will never watch Love Island ever again. “I can’t do it,” he said.

Love Island 2022 continues on ITV2 at 9pm tonight. 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.