Andrea-Jane ‘AJ’ Bunker claims Love Island changed her name before she entered the villa

Former Love Island contestant Andrea-Jane ‘AJ’ Bunker has claimed that Love Island producers asked if she could go by AJ when in the villa, despite her not going by that name.

Andrea-Jane was a bombshell in 2021 and although trying at a romance with Hugo Hammond, nothing went to plan and she was eventually dumped from the villa. Speaking with OK, Andrea-Jane said she was given a new name for her time on the show.

While being called AJ on the show, the bombshell’s real name is Andrea-Jane and said that people either call her “Andrea, Jane or Janey. No one ever calls me AJ.” When filling out forms for the show, she said she had used her full name and so her suitcase and water bottles said Andrea-Jane.

However, Andrea-Jane explained that producers used her initials before she entered the villa “in order to keep my identity secret.” However, the former Islander has claimed “minutes before” she entered the villa, she was asked if it was okay if she was called AJ.

via Instagram @andreajanebunker

She said: “I thought he was speaking about the code name and wanted to keep my real name underwraps. I didn’t realise they were actually going to change me name. When I first went into the villa, my friends and family didn’t know I’d got a place on the show because I couldn’t tell them.

“Then when they saw my photo they thought it looked like me but that it must’ve been a different person because that wasn’t my name. My friends have told me it took a few minutes for them to actually realise I was on the show – even my best friend running my social media account was confused.”

Andrea-Jane said she cried her eyes out when she saw everyone was calling her AJ. The former Islander said she had “loads of messages” from her friends and family asking her why she had changed her name to go on the show but managed to convince them that she didn’t. Two years on, Andrea-Jane said she doesn’t mind being called AJ because that’s how everyone knows her now.

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Featured image credit via Instagram @andreajanebunker.