Love Island's Whitney to make history if she wins and becomes first black winner

30 July 2023 , 08:42

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Love Island's Whitney to make history if she wins and becomes first black winner

Love Island’s Whitney Adebayo could make history as the first black winner of the ITV dating show.

The 25-year-old, who entered the villa as a bombshell in the third episode, is currently coupled up with Lochan Nowacki, who she met in Casa Amor week. Since then the pair have taken their relationship to the next level with Lochan, also 25, asking Whitney to be exclusive.

And the pair seem to be favourites in and out of the villa as they have consistently been voted most compatible by fans and their fellow islanders. Viewers will have to wait until the nail-biting final on Monday July 31 to find out who will take this year’s Love Island crown – and the £50,000 prize money. But fans are already rooting for Whitney to win and took to social media to call for the public to make it a reality when they come to cast their all-important votes.

Whitney and Lochan are bookies favourites to win this year's Love Island (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

One wrote: “Guys, I know everybody doesn’t want to make this about race but I BEG LET’S MAKE WHITNEY THE FIRST BLACK WINNER OF OG LOVE ISLAND.” While another commented: “We might be witnessing history y’all... Whitney will be our first black winner.” A third said: “I can’t to wait to see our first black woman winner. I can’t wait to see Whitney win.” While a fourth added: “Guys Whitney is going to be our first black winner.”

Although the show has had mixed race winners before – like Amber Gill in 2019 – it has been accused of racism bias in the past. Even in this year’s series when viewers chose which contestants should be coupled up, one viewer observed: “The general public cannot be trusted. EVERY year they couple people up together by race.”

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Kai and Sanam were the first non-white couple to win the show earlier this year (Jonathan Hordle/REX/Shutterstock)

Yewande Biala, who appeared on the show in 2019, said the fact fellow contestant Lucie Donlan kept mispronouncing her name was “another form of racism”.

In an open letter, she shared: “I corrected her multiple times, I didn’t mind, because you are going to get it right. There was a moment just before a challenge. This was after 3 weeks in. She mispronounced my name, I correct her again and her reply was ‘yeah whatever you know what I mean’. I remember one of the producers put her arms around me. Being black on TV means not rising your voice, not being too defensive, because you don’t want to create the narrative of being an angry black woman.”

She also spoke about being asked to change her name to Elizabeth – her middle name – so it was easier for others to pronounce when she was younger. Calling for more understanding on the issue, Yewande added: “I encourage everyone to be aware of radicalised re-naming and name-based teasing. I think we should all be working towards being better advocates and creating a different dynamic around these narratives.”

During the 2021 series it was discovered contestant Danny Bibby had previously used a racial slur on social media, but was given an opportunity to apologise.

This was seen as an example of double standards when black contestant Sherif Lanre was removed without a second chance in season five for using the c-word is an alleged comment towards Molly-Mae Hague.

Earlier this year Sanam Harrinanan and Kai Fagan became the first non-white couple to win the show after starring in the winter series. Speaking after her win, Sanam said: “I’ve had a lot of girls from the Asian community come up to me and say, ‘I saw you on TV, we never get any representation.’”

If Whitney does triumph in this year’s series of Love Island, it is also set to please ITV bosses who consider it a ‘big win’ for the channel. A source told the Daily Mail: “Whitney has won over the nation and ITV bosses could not be happier. She has topped the public vote time and time again so the prediction is that she will go all the way and be crowned champion.”

The Love Island final will air at 9pm on ITV2 on Monday July 31

Katie Wilson