I Went On Love Island For REVENGE! | We’re Talking LOVE ISLAND

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0:28Welcome to We're Talking. Every Thursday, we'll bring you the most unforgettable moments from We Need to Talk. The stories that sparked debate, made you pause, and most importantly, got everyone talking. Every summer, there's one show that takes over our screens, and that's Married at First Sight. But then second to that is Love Island. I am a Love Island fan. And I think what we do is we end up getting fixated and sucked in to what becomes this obsessive treat for us. And in particular, there's three people who have truly stood out over the years. Maura Higgins, Faye Winter, and Megan Barton Hanson.

1:10They have a lot to say about their experience on the show, what happened behind the scenes, but more importantly, what happened when the cameras stopped rolling. A quick heads up, some of the conversation includes suicidal thoughts, so please take care while watching. Without further ado, today we're talking Love Island.

1:44maura i did not realize that you went to love island basically as a revenge revenge i was on a revenge strike is that why you walked into love island so bold because yeah epic walk-in when you came in i i went in there like guns blazing internally i was so angry i was like i've just been cheated on i was like your she's gonna be trouble this one right here is going to be trouble that's how you felt all right let's talk a little behind the scenes because i i've been in reality tv for some time and i know that normally when you have someone who comes in late they're there to stir things up yeah i was actually meant to be starting lineup and they moved me I think when they got to know me a bit they were like oh send her in a bit later so so you felt as if you were intentionally sent in there to stir things out I think my first interview I was really drunk yeah I was really drunk and I remember the brief said dress how you would on a first date and I rocked up in a in a track suit and trainers and I was steaming Absolutely steaming.

2:54I did not care. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Strategically, though, because at the end of the day, to stay, it is about audience voting. But it's also about you coupling and being in what feels like or what presents itself as a loving relationship. So does that become part of the strategy? You're in a house. You're in there for X amount of time. you're gonna start liking people that you wouldn't normally like not to be mean but you are you're in there i'm pretty sure it'd probably be the same on big brother you're locked in that house you're not seeing any other men you're gonna be like oh why not you know so there's a bunch of why not men in there well yeah i mean they're not your dream man are they but like it's the aim of the game it is it is so there was no man in there that was a dream man it was they were all why not absolutely not that's fair yeah no could i say though what you're speaking is science actually it is called the law of proximity and also the law of propinquity oh wow where the longer you spend time with someone especially under stressful situations, the more that you become endeared and connected to them.

4:14Yeah. So this is why you drop anyone on an island, they're having sex. They think they're going to fall in love. They think they are in love, but they're not, because the minute they go home, they're going to kill each other. You know? Yes. And this happens on Love Island all the time. Yeah, it does. So that series also happened to be, I'm sure you know, it was the most watched series of all time in the UK, Series 5 of Love Island. what do you think it was it was is that when you got into that villa the public wasn't on your side no immediately no Pierce Morgan said on live TV that you should be dragged out of the villa by the head of your hair and I was like god I love Pierce Morgan I loved it oh yeah I loved it I just thought it was hilarious and I was I was branded a predator I also found it very funny I was like I remember Mammy going that is not funny and I was like that is a bit like I'm not a predator now like but it is funny but yeah I was not very well liked obviously I didn't know that thank god but I know I mean you are without question and I knew you would be this way before meeting you now I can fully say you're incredibly resilient there's no doubt about that you're resilient yeah but it still must feel draining in a way to to to know and feel as if the public is is against you or feels a certain way about you i don't i really don't like it's weird like if i go on to the daily mail comments like I do it because I just want to laugh okay I don't really read the comments and go they don't know me sure they're not my family they're not my friends I don't really care interesting what what are in the comments what do you see um mostly I see um she can't keep a man that's one of the lately that's one of the biggest ones like I think it's quite empowering to know when to walk away and not put up with that shit and I just won't put up with that and maybe I'll never have a man because of that I don't feel I need one do I want one?

6:42yeah, that'd be nice I want a family, I'd love a husband I don't have a husband, great but I don't need one I genuinely don't if it doesn't happen I'm absolutely fine like I've got enough self-love so I'm like whatever yes yes so then take me to the moment that you walk out of Love Island because that's a moment that a lot of people you know on these on these projects look at because their life changes. Do you feel like your life changed when you walked out? Massively. How so?

7:26Very, very hard time in my life. Like, never spoke about it. I was just dropped to the UK. It was like someone just picked me up, dropped me to the UK and I was in the public eye. I had nowhere to live. I had no friends, no family nobody I could trust and I'm a very very like I've done everything by myself I've been independent my whole life but that was a lot that was scary very very scary and I remember a lot of times I was faking a smile work was so busy I was getting barely any sleep I remember my girlfriend back in Ireland. I was in a hotel. I don't remember any of this because she had to fill me in.

8:24All of a sudden, I'm outside my hotel room. Door is shut behind me and I'm on the phone to her. I have no recollection of how I got there, where I was, what I was doing. And she was crying and she was going, Maura, are you okay? And I remember going, what the hell is going on? She was like, no more, you're actually scaring me. And she was like, where are you? And I was like, I'm outside the hotel room. What is going on? And she went, you were asleep. I called you. You woke up and all you kept saying is, I'm not allowed to sleep. I can't sleep. I can't do this. And I was, I was like, obviously just not mentally okay.

9:05I think I was just so overworked and And I just, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. Yeah, yeah. How many, like, what was your Instagram following jump? I think I went in there with like 40 ,000. I came out with, I don't know, it must have been 2 million maybe? See, I mean. Yeah, it was wild. It's just wild. So you have paps following you, et cetera. Yeah. You're probably being booked to do public appearances every week. So you feel like you almost had a breakdown. You did have a breakdown. I had a breakdown. I, yeah, I had dark thoughts, very dark thoughts. People are probably looking from the outside and saying, she like, she hit the lottery.

9:55Like, I wish I could trade places with her. I wish I could be here. And you're saying that you were in a very dark place. If I was to turn back time, I would have not taken on as much as I did. I didn't realize this waited so much on you, that period. How dark was it? Pretty dark.

10:22Is there anything, because you've come out the other side,

10:28it well you know I'm gonna go there just cause I think this is gonna be helpful

10:38when you say pretty dark what is pretty dark I didn't wanna be here anymore I thought that was it's gonna be the best thing I cottoned I couldn't keep, I felt like there was so much expected from me. And because I was there on my own, I was like, I've just nobody to help. You know, people say moving house is stressful. Moving house is very stressful. Moving country while being thrown into the public eye is terrifying. Yes. In that moment, you wanted to take your life. Mm-hmm. so this is going to be so helpful to so many people how did you go from that moment of wanting to take your life to that space a year later talking to your mother and she said that you're back what were those steps my girlfriend back in ireland um she called my agent at the time behind my back she's a queen yes and um she basically demanded that i come back to ireland for a break and i got to go home i can't remember how long for and i just had my home comforts you know my my mammy my family my family my best friend i slept i remember i shot a Grazia cover magazine.

12:16Okay. And I couldn't believe I got, I was like, I'm shooting a Grazia? Like, I was like, oh my God, how? Like, that was like, how the hell am I doing this? I don't remember most of it. I do not remember most of it. I was, I was falling asleep on a stool while I was getting my makeup done. I didn't get to take it in. I didn't get to enjoy it. I was miserable. Like, just yeah it's it's a lot of it is a blur yeah yeah it really is you're i mean gosh god bless your your friend what a woman i'm telling you she literally could have made the difference between you being here and not yeah it was just a lot all at once i feel it i could feel it but i tell you from the outside looking in you would have never known never would have known i would have thought that was you were at the top of the world i wish i was i wish

13:24say can we talk about love island for a second but more so how do you get to love island one i said to my mom and my dad and my sister i said don't worry i won't be on it very long i said they'll have me out in a week i said they won't like me they won't like my personality no one will pick me no one will fancy me don't worry about it i'll be back in a week i took a sabbatical from work i said don't worry about it i'll be back why not and your and your friends and family were supportive yeah mom dad not so much but he didn't really understand it he's fine so clearly there was a little argument that happened there there was a few arguments yeah there were a few arguments you know so what i did is i you know what i find interesting is how we in society we attribute we associate people with events times and many people associate you with one specific argument that happened i want to hear from your perspective a few years removed when you think about that argument knowing what then transpired how do you view it

14:41i came out and i i didn't know at the time i had no idea that obviously it had blown up to the point that it had um i didn't i was really i was really embarrassed when i felt like i was i and I still to this day I'm really embarrassed that actually why didn't you just let people know you're really hurt Faye um so I'm annoyed I'm not annoyed because it's it's happened now and I've I've spent years owning it and apologizing for it and I that was my biggest thing when I came out I said I'm gonna own it and regardless of if that is the end of my career in TV I'm going back to state agency anyway it's fine like i don't mind people laughing with me but don't laugh at me don't make a mockery of me um i saw some a young woman who was in who was hurt and was in pain and was acting out all that pain it's almost like you know when people say when you get cornered you feel like you're cornered when you feel like you're cornered you then lash out yeah because there's nowhere else for you to go now there were 25 000 offcom reports so this is one of the most reported incidents in reality tv history yeah i mean that must weigh on you it felt like there was 25 000 people against me but i also had to put on a brave face and just get on with life because life doesn't stop I just remember feeling like I'd let everyone down I'd let mum down let my dad down I'd let my sister down like everyone close to me I just remember being like oh my god I've let everyone down and I then need to try and find a way out of it I need to try and find my way through it but it got a hell of a lot worse before it got better you were you said that you were not in devon no so you had you moved in with your partner from the show yeah you two moved in okay so despite the argument you reconciled yeah like i think he was he was he was fine about it in the end like i had apologized i think also on the show it didn't really show like the way my full apology and the way that I had apologized to him for it I spent 18 months trying to make up to him and like prove that I wasn't that person and that I'm not somebody that's always on the defensive but at the same time I wasn't that I didn't I didn't trust him I was in just a real vulnerable vulnerable state when you come out of love island you've already got a path that's been carved for you and it's very one-dimensional it's very fast fashion beauty hair and I didn't want to do any of that whereas my partner at the time he I would say he thrived on it a bit more than I did but again I went back to the person that I would rather be at home um but it never didn't feel like home so your partner wanted that you didn't want that is is that one of the reasons why the relationship didn't work yeah I think certainly that was one of the massive reasons there was always question marks over if I if if I trust him I would resent him for going out because I didn't know what messages or videos or anything that I was going to get by the end of that night and that was a really shit place to be in interesting because he's now a public figure yeah so people are spotting him with other people sending you messages sending you videos yeah so you were able to split up with your partner.

18:51Did you move back to Devon at that point? Okay. And I lived on my own, just me and Bonnie. And it's the least lonely I've ever felt in my whole entire life. I don't feel lonely at all. And then everything just started to fall into place.

19:21Megan you were invited to Love Island early that and and you decided not to go on or or what happened so the season before they wanted me on but as like a cast of a mall girl and I was like still shy still too shy to do but I'm not trying to like go in there and be a bulldozer and I just physically can't as much as I did gain so much confidence I still am like an introvert like I I don't want to be the center of attention all the time, like going and like, fuck shit up. I was like, oh, it's a no, it's a no, it's too much pressure. Okay. It come knocking. Again, was it your objective to try to use this to then what propel everything?

20:00Only fans, everything. So I was, I kind of got sick of webcam at this point. So bear in mind, I'd been at the strip club at 19, started, I'm now 24. So that's, what's the mouse? Five. Yeah. That's why she's a stripper. It's all good. It's all good. We all have different talents, you know? Yeah, quick mums is a mess. So, yeah, five years in the sex industry, I'm over, webcaming, dancing, just hearing men's comments on my body at this point. I'm shy. I'll be in there a week, but my following is going to go through the roof, and that means I can charge more for my OnlyFans. Okay. That was all I was there for.

20:42Now, the focus was how can you grow more OnlyFans subscribers? Make money because I don't really have a job at this point. We're just trying to get the money. Okay, fair. So now, real question here. How many other people do you think on Love Island were there for the money as well? 95%. Who would admit it? One. Me. You. Right. So 95%, according to you, right, are there for the money. but because of that because we know the industry right we know that okay so that means that you have to you know you you need a storyline right so did you go in thinking okay i need to really almost own a character the producers were like you and wes have like a little something why didn't you chat to him was like no no no it's with laura like i don't want to do that like don't you think it'd be kind of iconic though if you did that's that yeah actually who would so you were thinking iconic yeah yes yes but i didn't think obviously he was a lot younger than me i was 24 he was 21 and i just thought he's probably in here for the same sort of reasons i'm in here to be famous to be nine to for whatever he wanted to do it as the end goal i didn't know and you couldn't really discuss on camera but i thought we was on the same sort of age done that I didn't expect to like catch feelings for him but I did it's weird I was in there for eight weeks and yeah I did fall in love which is kind of not annoying it was beautiful and I love it and I don't regret it but oh I just feel bad then people actually go in there for love and don't find it and there's me just trying to boost the old um I'm you fans when I come out like oh Oh my God, I love enough.

22:30And you fell in love. Yeah. You fell in love. Do you feel as if, so you loved Wes. Do you feel as if he loved you? I think he did. I think to go through that sort of experience where you're both normal people and then you come out with newfound fame and opportunities and experiences that can be overwhelming and scary. I remember doing things and I think if it wasn't for him the first time we walked through an airport there were crowds and paps and my hands were shaking and his hands were shaking I was like oh I'm so glad I'm not doing this on my own yes and I think for that I'll always like treasure like him and them times we had but I think really he was about 21 I think he's an amazing wonderful guy but age and life you know but but when you got out then when you both got out you're now in a relationship right you're trying to make it work but at the same time your original goal was i mean i'm here to make money i thought there'd be a bit of backlash for the sex work the only fans but it was so much hate so they call me muggy megan on like the front page of the sun and it wasn't just about being a sex worker it's about my looks and my appearance and i really was like it felt to me like public enemy number one like everybody hated me they were like headlads in her sleazy past this that i mean at that point i can't imagine how you're feeling because you had the this plan right and the plan is now just falling apart in in front of you uh and what and do you feel like the press was playing you're the bad girl wes is the good guy yeah but not even about playing me against him it's just me by myself like they don't like to see a woman that's confident goes for what she wants i don't think it was very nice of people to see that i was with a really respectable beautiful man like eal before and then things didn't work out with eal and then i got with wes they thought oh who does she think she is she's just a stripper oh, like this, bring her down a few notches maybe.

24:41They're don't like assertive women, I feel. No, this is where I have some experience in this, right? Because, I mean, I've had countless articles, you know, written about me that are not positive, but never to the degree that I've seen articles written about you, especially like front page, you know. And what I also find interesting is that these were folks who were writing articles, not about what you were saying, but about how you looked. It feels like we're right back at you in childhood. So reading those, how are you feeling reading that? Like, awful, honestly. It was hell. And it was even before my feet had even touched down in the UK, was all allowed out after the final party to be in this holding villa.

25:39We put on YouTube to play music. What's on there? Megan, before and after. How vile she was before. And it's like the picture they'd used, I was 16 or 17. I was a child. Yes. So I'm just lucky that like God or whoever was just watching over me. It was like, let me give this poor cow a break and let her like at least fall in love for a minute while she's going through this shitstorm. It was the love that got you through. Reality stars are often put under a microscope. and it's easy to forget they're real people with real feelings. I think my biggest takeaway is that we all need to be a bit kinder.

26:16These shows are entertainment, yes, but the impact of those involved is very real. If you want to hear the full, unfiltered conversations with Maura, Faye, and Megan, you can find those episodes by searching for their names on the We Need to Talk page. Thank you so much for watching.

26:38Thank you.