IT'S getting steamy on Love Island... at least for one couple.
Fans were left flustered last night after Will Young and Jessie Wynter spent the night in the Hideaway, before admitting they had sex.
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While their most intimate moments were not broadcast, that hasn't always been the case on the ITV2 show - as series two contestant Emma-Jane Woodhams knows all too well.
Fans gasped as she was shown having sex with Terry Walsh in full view, on top of the covers, in front of all their co-stars in 2016.
The influencer - who was only 19 when she ventured into the Love Island villa - believed their romp wouldn’t be shown if they got it on publicly, but she was wrong.
Producers’ choice to show it prompted seven complaints to watchdog Ofcom, but Love Island was cleared.
Now 25 and a mum to five-year-old son Alfie, Emma tells The Sun how she struggled to come to terms with how a “private, personal thing” had been shown to the nation.
She also says she wouldn't wish the trolling and abuse that followed on her worst enemy, but can see the show has taken better steps in its aftercare.
'I regretted it for a long time'
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Emma was contacted by producers asking if she wanted to be a bombshell halfway through the second series - as she’d posted on Twitter about being fellow contestant Tom Powell’s ex.
She struck up a romance with Terry on the show - which lasted for eight months - but wishes their sex scene had remained private.
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“I would have preferred it not to have been shown,” Emma says.
“I was speaking to Olivia and the other girls and they said that doing it openly was the way that they'd been able to stop their time in the hideaway being aired.
“And obviously I appreciate the fact that it's a show at the end of the day and they're going to try and make it as exciting and entertaining as possible, but I think it is better now for the girls - and the guys - where that sort of thing is concerned, especially with some of them being quite young.”
Emma continues: “With me being as young as I was, it does stay with you and you do have to carry it with you, and I wouldn't wish what I went through when I came out on my worst enemy.
“For a long time, I regretted it and I regretted going on Love Island, and I felt sad every time I thought about it.
“It took a real toll on me, being so young and getting so much hate and judgement.
“And I really struggled to come to terms with the fact that my family had been subjected to that as well, because of what I'd done.”
Unexpected overnight fame
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The second series was the first to get such high ratings, so no one, including Emma, knew what they were letting themselves in for.
In fact, Emma - who was working for her dad’s construction business at the time - told him she’d only need three weeks off.
“I literally thought it would be a case of I'd go in there, it would be sort of like a bombshell episode and then I'd come back out again,” she laughs.
She caused controversy by shacking up with Terry after he had already coupled up with Malin Andersson.
Emma claims the worst part of coming out of Love Island was the fact that she and her fellow contestants didn’t get any aftercare from producers in helping them navigate the fame and the trolling.
“We got none at all,” she claims. “I know that they've massively improved it now, which is great, but I wouldn't personally wish on my worst enemy how it was for me back then.
"Having been portrayed as the villain of my series, and to come out, at 19 years old, to a life that wasn't my own anymore.
“We had very, very little aftercare. They didn't really check in.
“They said to us, ‘We're here if you need us,’ but there wasn't the follow-up that there is now.”
ITV has put in much stricter aftercare guidelines since Emma was on the show, in part due to the tragic death of Emma's co-star Sophie Gradon - who sadly took her own life in 2019.
An ITV spokesman says: "Welfare and duty of care has always been our biggest priority on the show and it is untrue to suggest we haven’t offered aftercare.
"Our protocols have evolved with every series, as attention around the show and the Islanders has magnified, but we have always had processes in place to provide support before, during and after filming."
Social media freeze
For this year’s series of Love Island, ITV producers have frozen the social media accounts of all the contestants, so that they’re not targeted with abuse while on the show.
Emma backs the idea - especially for the family and friends who would usually control the accounts while their loved ones are on the show.
She says: “I think people do forget that there are real human beings behind those accounts who have family that love them.
“Obviously, not everybody's going to like you in life, but for the people in my life that love me and accept me and care about me, it was awful for them to have to read the things that were being said.
“So I think it not only protects the contestants, but it also protects the people close to them as well, having to see and read all that sort of stuff because it's not nice.”
Mum to Alfie
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Over six years on from her Love Island stint, Emma is now a self-employed influencer and model - and is grateful to the show for allowing her to have a job that she can work around her son Alfie, who turns five this month.
Emma fell pregnant with childhood sweetheart Jordan just five months after her split from Terry, but the pair split up shortly after she gave birth.
“It took me a long time to come to terms with it,” she says. “But I look at it now as it was what it was and it was a good experience.
“It taught me so much about myself and about the world around me and it paved the way for me to be a lot more independent and work around myself.
“When I had Alfie, I loved that, because it meant I could just spend as much time with him as I wanted.
“I had the freedom to be a mum as much as I wanted to be with him, and could still earn a decent living to be able to support us.”
She finishes: “As I've got older, I've just learned to be more accepting of myself and of other people.
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“There's no point living with regrets because it's not going to change anything. I can't go back in time and do it differently.
“All you can do is learn from the experiences that are not as good, and be grateful for the ones that you remember fondly.”
