Love Island’s Mitch Taylor ‘lost tens of thousands of pounds’ over homophobia allegations
Love Island’s Mitch Taylor has said he lost “tens of thousands” over allegations that he was homophobic. (ITV)
Love Island alum Mitch Taylor claims that he lost out on “tens of thousands of pounds” after he was accused of displaying homophobic behaviour last September
The reality star, who appeared in season ten of Love Island, came under fire shortly after his time on the ITV series wrapped, when influencers who attended an event hosted by Space NK alleged that two Love Island stars had shown up uninvited and acted “extremely homophobic” before being kicked out.
In an apology video, Taylor admitted that he hadn’t conducted himself well at the event, but insisted that he wasn’t “homophobic.”
Taylor’s video came shortly after reports that he had been dropped by his management company.
Now, the influencer, who is set to appear on a Love Island All-Stars spin-off series, has detailed just how much the allegations impacted his career.
“I’m happy to speak about this now but I was never homophobic, it absolutely crushed me that I got labelled as that, and not only that, the LGBT+ community thought I was that as well,” he told The Sun.
“I know the producers and the producers know me, they had a microphone on me for eight and a half weeks, they know I’m not homophobic.
“I’ve never been and I never would be homophobic. If I was, I wouldn’t be on this conversation speaking about this now.”
Now, Taylor claims that the people who made the allegations did so “to get a bit of clout because [he] was very relevant at the time.”
The reality star, who was nicknamed ‘Messy Mitch’ during his stint on Love Island, went on to reveal that the allegations “did cause a lot of damage.”
He admitted: “I lost tens of thousands of pounds worth of work.
“It kind of sucked but I just thought the truth would come out eventually.”
Attendees of the Space NK event had detailed how two islanders were obnoxiously walking around the event, claiming to be the “most famous people” there, despite being in the company of well-known actors, presenters, TV stars, and models.
Influencer Ash of Ash’s Life Stories alleged that he had witnessed the islanders throw money at a homeless man at one point, and then proceed “to be extremely homophobic” inside the event, at which point they were kicked out.
While the culprits weren’t named publicly, it wasn’t long before fans began speculating.
After being questioned by fans, Taylor broke his silence on social media and confirmed that he and his castmate Zachariah Noble had attended the event, and were the cast members that attendees were referring to.
However, he insisted in a video posted to TikTok, Noble had “nothing to do with” the incident and had been “dragged straight into” the allegations that were “solely about me.”
Taylor went on to argue that, while he did make the “most famous people” comment, he denies throwing money at a homeless person.
Addressing the homophobia claim, Taylor claimed that he had made an awkward comment to an influencer, telling her that he “fancied [her] when [she] was straight”, and could “see how that can come across as homophobic.”
Taylor concluded his video at the time by insisting that he was “not homophobic” but was just “bad with [his] words sometimes.”
