“They were all women of colour."
Shakira Khan said her time on Love Island was marred by toxic beauty standards and isolation tied to her ethnicity and heritage.
Speaking on Paul C Brunson’s podcast, We Need To Talk, Shakira shared how the glossy edits masked the reality of being judged because of her skin colour.
Throughout the series, the 22-year-old clashed with Megan Moore and Helena Ford, and there was a divide in the villa.
Both Megan and Helena denied there was a split but Shakira disagreed:
“That’s bulls**t. As much as people want to deny it, the separation was clear.”
According to Shakira, the divide was rooted in race and appearance, explaining how she and other women were treated as outsiders for not fitting the traditional mould of “white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes”.
She told Paul: “Me, Toni and Yas call ourselves the outcasts.
“But you could collectively add Billykiss to that, Malisha, Andrada, Emma… and there’s a pattern here which I don’t think anyone wants to talk about. Women of colour.”
Inside the villa, Shakira said a troubling dynamic developed quickly, recalling how she and fellow islanders gravitated towards one another after recognising the shared exclusion.
Shakira insisted: “They were all women of colour.”
She said the boys were “oblivious” as to what was really going on, adding that she and other women of colour found themselves excluded from the dominant girl group.
Paul agreed: “This is exactly what I saw happen”, and acknowledged the divide that many viewers also discussed on social media.
For Shakira, the experience carried echoes of her childhood in Burnley, when she faced bullying due to her Pakistani heritage.
She reflected:
“It boils down to childhood; people were banned from the community, even in my hometown.”
“We talk about the segregation of white communities, Asian communities… people find community in their own and people they have shared experiences with.”
On the podcast, Shakira admitted the villa drama and isolation chipped away at her confidence:
“If you get told 100 times a day, ‘You’re wrong, you’re irrelevant’, that’s what you start to internalise. You believe that’s the opinion on the outside because you’ve got nothing else to go off.”
At one point, fans feared Shakira would walk away from the show.
Yet she found support in Toni Laites and Yasmin Pettet. The trio have gone on to become close friends.
Shakira stated: “We banded together, the outcasts.”
She also spoke about her relationship with Harry Cooksley and admitted that he gaslighted people during his time on the show.
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