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\n\tLove Island <\/em>Season Seven bombshell Cierra Ortega has been removed from the villa. During Sunday night\u2019s episode, narrator Iain Stirling announced that the 25-year-old \u201cleft the villa due to a personal situation.\u201d In the episodes leading up to her departure, viewers noticed that Ortega was receiving significantly less screen time. The production edit appeared to coincide with the surfacing of old social media posts from 2015 and 2020 in which she used a racial slur toward the Asian community to describe her eyes.<\/p>\n \n\tOrtega is no longer in the villa, but has not yet returned home from Fiji, where the show is filmed. On her official Instagram account, her parents have posted a statement pleading for \u201ccompassion, for patience, for basic human decency\u201d from the show\u2019s viewer base, which has grown more intense since expanding due to the success of Season Six.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs Cierra\u2019s parents, this has been one of the most painful weeks of our lives,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the posts, the headlines, the hurt and the hate. And while Cierra hasn\u2019t seen any of it yet, we have. And so have the people who love her. We\u2019re not here to justify or ignore what\u2019s surfaced. We understand why people are upset, and we know accountability matters. But what\u2019s happening online right now has gone far beyond that. The threats. The cruel messages. The attacks on her family, her friends, even her supporters, it\u2019s heartbreaking. It\u2019s uncalled for. And no one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what mistake they\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDuring her stint on the show, Ortega\u2019s social media accounts were being handled by her friend MJ Hedderman. After the posts surfaced, Hedderman stepped away from her role. \u201cI cannot speak for anybody or make any statements besides my own, and decided to take a step back from running her account,\u201d she said on her own account. \u201cI was asked by her family to turn off comments and refrain from speaking on her behalf. This situation has been really difficult, and I\u2019m still processing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tViewers advocated for Ortega\u2019s removal with the same fervor, if not more, as they did for the removal of Season Seven contestant Yulissa Escobar. Escobar made it through one episode of the show before being quietly dumped from the island after clips surfaced from a podcast appearance during which she used the n-word multiple times. Producers would have opened the show up to even more criticism for not responding to both instances in an appropriate manner.<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, some viewers have questioned whether the more hardcore and invested sector of the fanbase saw Ortega\u2019s racial insensitivity as an easy way to remove an obstacle between two other islanders they wanted to bring together, instead. Ortega was in a couple with Nic Vansteenberg since her first week in the villa. When she was removed, he was left \u201cofficially single.\u201d This was bad news for those who were rooting for their couple, but considered a win for viewers who have wanted Vansteenberg to further explore his connection with fellow islander Olandria Carthen.<\/p>\n \n\tVansteenberg and Carthen briefly explored their connection after they were both dumped during the Casa Amor section of the show, only to be offered a lifeline to remain in the villa by coupling up. They ultimately agreed they didn\u2019t feel a spark after sharing a passionate (and now viral) kiss, despite what viewers and even host Ariana Madix seemed to believe. When the official post-Casa recoupling occurred, Vansteenberg and Ortega picked up where they left off and later \u201cclosed off\u201d their relationship, meaning neither would explore other potential connections. With Ortega gone, Vansteenberg and Carthen are now in a couple together once again.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the villa, islanders do not have access to their phones or any other means of connecting with the outside world. The reason for Ortega\u2019s removal has not been revealed to them, and they\u2019re likely unaware of just how intense their viewer base has come to be. In June, Love Island <\/em>issued a warning about cyberbullying. \u201cPlease just remember they\u2019re real people \u2014 so let\u2019s be kind and spread the love,\u201d a social media statement from the show read.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tMadix issued a warning of her own during an \u201cAftersun\u201d episode, the weekly recap of the show with former contestants filmed while the ones inside the villa get a break from the cameras. \u201cI do want to say something to some of those people that are online,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t be contacting people\u2019s families. Don\u2019t be doxxing people. Don\u2019t be going on Islander\u2019s pages and saying rude things. You still have time to delete all of that, because the Islanders don\u2019t have their phones, so we\u2019re giving you a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOrtega hasn\u2019t yet \u201chad the chance to process any of this or speak for herself,\u201d her family said, \u201cbut we know our daughter. We know her heart. And when she returns, we believe she\u2019ll face this with honesty, growth, and grace.\u201d Her parents continued, \u201cWhile she\u2019ll always be our little girl, she\u2019s also a woman, one who will take responsibility in her own time and her own voice. Until then, we\u2019re simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency. Not just for her, but for everyone caught in the middle of this. Thank you to those who\u2019ve continued to show love, even when it\u2019s not easy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
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