middle aged love island

There’s an older generation Love Island coming – here’s how to nominate your parents

Tasha Ghouri is already begging her dad to take part


We’ve had mere days of winter Love Island 2023 and already ITV is gearing up to launch its next soul mate hunting mission: The Romance Retreat. Pegged as a middle-aged Love Island, contestants spend time together in a luxury villa abroad with the goal of finding their soul mate. So, essentially, the same concept as Love Island— but for single parents.

In order to take part, single parents hoping to find a match on the show have to be nominated by their children. Last night, ITV urged “people from across the UK to nominate their vibrant and single parents to join the search for love” and even former Islander Tasha Ghouri was begging her dad Tarek to get involved in the new series: “Dad this is your moment to shine,” she wrote. “The entertainment joker king x”

Currently, we don’t know whether contestants on The Romance Retreat would be competing for a cash prize or whether they’d take part in the same coupling up and Casa Amor chaos as the main show. But Davina McCall, who has been in chats with ITV about presenting, recently said on the Diary of a CEO podcast:

“I could fill a villa in Love Island with middle-aged people with the best backstories you have ever heard in your life. They’ve lived a life – they’re widows, they’re people who have been through horrific divorces. They are people who have split up with somebody and decided they want to try going out with somebody the same sex as them.”

ITV’s casting call for The Romance Retreat is officially live now and, according to the website description, they’re looking for “vibrant single parents from across the UK who are in search of love” until applications close at the end of March. So, if you think your mum or dad has the chat to survive a long hot summer, get registering now.

Love Island 2023 continues at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX. 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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