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The charity Women’s Aid Federation of England has called upon ITV to investigate one of this year’s Love Island contestants following abuse allegations from his ex-girlfriend.
George Fensom, 24, has been accused of controlling behaviour by his ex Ebony Keeley.
The Business Development Executive from Bedford is due to enter the villa tonight for the start of the show, but he has already faced public backlash following his ex’s claims of abusive behaviour.
Today, Women’s Aid took to Twitter to share an article quoting Ebony, where she described feeling suicidal after her relationship with George.
Alongside it, they wrote: “We hope the producers will be taking allegations of controlling behaviour seriously.
“And look into them as part of their due diligence before the #LoveIsland series begins,” they added.
It comes after Ebony created a TikTok video in December last year, where she branded him as “controlling”, “a narcissist” and “a cheat”.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, George spoke about his ex’s claims insisting he wants to be “respectful”.
He explained: “I want to be as respectful as I can towards her because I appreciate that she isn’t in the public eye as I am in this scenario.
“It’s really unfortunate and actually quite upsetting on my behalf that a picture has been painted about me in that light.
“I’m looking forward to moving forward with things and going into the villa and just providing a new wave of energy and to prove that the things that have been written about me aren’t true. People can see a different light to me.
He added: “Every day is a learning day and everyday you learn things, no matter if it’s regards to a work aspect or relationships and things. People react differently to different things and people feel a certain way about different things as well.”
Despite his response, many Love Island fans don’t want George to appear in the new series.
ITV’s Duty of Care protocols for Islanders, which train contestants around language and behaviour, can be found here.
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ITV told Express.co.uk: “All Islanders will complete video training and guidance across a range of topics to include mutually respectful behaviour in relationships, behaviour patterns associated with controlling and coercive behaviour and language around disability, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and microaggressions before they meet their fellow Islanders.
“The inclusion training consists of conversations chaired by BCOMS (Black Collective of Media in Sport) founder Leon Mann MBE with DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) consultant Hayley Bennett, disability specialist Shani Dhanda and broadcaster Sean Fletcher.
“First introduced ahead of Series 8 in 2022, these discussions will tackle topics including inclusive language and behaviour, creating safe spaces and being a good ally.”
A representative from Love Island also told Express.co.uk: “We have spoken to George and his family with regards to the allegations being made on social media.
“His family have responded with a statement. The safeguarding and ongoing welfare of our contributors is always the top priority.
“ As part of our duty of care process, all Islanders undergo psychological evaluation prior to being selected for the show, and we also stipulate that all Islanders participate in our training programme around language and behaviour – this is a very important part of our pre entry procedure.
“We have a zero tolerance of any discriminatory language in the villa and we speak to all of the islanders to remind them of what we condone to be acceptable behaviour during their time on the show.
“They are also spoken to daily by our welfare team to ensure they remain comfortable in their relationships.”
Meanwhile, George’s family said: “We have been very reluctant to speak about this as we have no desire to in any way cause distress to George’s ex girlfriend, but given George has no right to reply, and because of the strength of these unsubstantiated claims being made against him, we feel we have no choice.
“These claims, which relate to an on/off ten month relationship, are false, unjustified and hurtful, and George would absolutely refute these. It has been very upsetting to see our son labelled using such damaging terms.
“We know our son better than anyone and we also had close insights into this relationship, and this isn’t the full story. George only ever wanted to end this relationship amicably and move on in a civil manner so it is very sad it has come to this. We would implore everyone to give him a chance to prove he is not the person he is being portrayed to be.”
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