Love Island’s Sharon Gaffka says show cut her opening up about her sexuality
Sharon Gaffka said a her coming out moment was cut from Love Island. (YouTube/ Love Island)
Love Island contestant Sharon Gaffka has revealed that she spoke about “exploring” bisexuality in the villa, but the moment was cut from the show.
Gaffka, a 25-year-old civil servant from Oxford, opened up about having threesomes with men and women during her time in the villa, telling her fellow islanders: “Well I don’t know if I’m supposed to find out if I like girls and boys if I don’t find out for myself?”
In a new interview, however, she revealed that she had a more serious talk about her sexuality with fellow contestant Faye Winter.
She told Metro: “I had a conversation with Faye about it and she asked: ‘Are you bisexual?’
“And I said: ‘It’s something I’ve explored but I’ve never been in a relationship with a woman.'”
This coming out moment wasn’t Gaffka’s only conversation that was cut from Love Island.
She added that she had also had deeper discussions about race and modern dating which didn’t make the edit, with producers apparently favouring chats about last night’s “football results”.
“A lot of the conversations I had were about modern dating on the show were never aired,” she said, “but I was very open about sexuality and being a mixed-race woman in modern dating.”
Gaffka was ultimately dumped from the villa on 18 July.
Love Island bosses said queer people are ‘logistically difficult’
In June, 2021, ITV commissioner Amanda Stavri told Radio Times that including LGBT+ Love Island contestants would present too much of a “logistical difficulty”.
Although Stavri said the show’s creators wanted to “encourage greater inclusivity and diversity”, addressing “rumours” about the show including gay islanders in the future she insisted it would be a “challenge” because of the “format of Love Island”.
She said: “There’s a sort of logistical difficulty, because although Islanders don’t have to be 100 per cent straight, the format must sort of give [the] Islanders an equal choice when coupling up.”
But even if a queer version of Love Island were to materialise, it may not be enough to turn Sharon Gaffka’s head.
“I think putting myself through something like that again is quite intense, but I’m always open to seeing what opportunities happen,” she said.
