Love Island fans devastated over lack of tribute to Caroline Flack in 10-year special

Fans wanted more of Caroline Flack in the Love Island anniversary show (Picture: Getty)

Love Island fans have expressed their disappointment after the show’s 10-year special episode didn’t include a dedicated a Caroline Flack tribute.

The summer dating show started 10 years ago this week and became one of the defining reality series of the 2010s, attracting audiences of almost six million at its peak.

Originally hosted by TV star Flack, Love Island made stars of Molly-Mae Hague, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Maura Higgins, Wes Nelson, and Amber Gill, among others.

Flack proved a hugely popular presenter with viewers, with Love Island’s 2015 revival seeing its viewing figures almost double after 10 years off the air.

In 2020, Flack took her own life at the age of 40, with the Love Island host found dead at her home a month after experiencing personal issues away from the show.

Laura Whitmore replaced Flack as host for the 2020 series and the show continued to pull in high audiences on ITV2 – the 12th edition of Love Island begins on June 9.

Flack hosted the first five editions of Love Island (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

Before the series returns this year, ITV broadcast a 10-year anniversary special episode on Sunday night, celebrating the successful history of the long-running reality show.

Amid the celebrations, several fans expressed their disappointment that tributes weren’t paid to Flack and late Love Island stars Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon. Thalassitis took his own life in 2019 at the age of 26, and Gradon died by suicide in 2018 aged 32.

However, some viewers acknowledged how happy it made them to see old footage of Flack presenting the show featured on the programme.

@MisTintehotbabe said: ‘At the end of the day, without Caroline there would be no Love Island. They could have done a slideshow or something to acknowledge her but they didn’t.’

Viewers also wanted tributes for Mike Thalassitis (Picture: ITV/Rex) Fans were disappointed not to see a tribute to Sophie Gradon either (Picture: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

The discontented viewer continued: ‘They could have paid tribute to Mike and Sophie [too] – I’m so disappointed, it’s as if none of them even existed.’

@TheCommentariat added: ‘I don’t like that they didn’t do a mini-tribute to Caroline Flack, she was basically responsible for the show coming back.’

@RebeccaMaria said she expected something different: ‘Did anyone else think there would be like an in memoriam thing at the end for Caroline Flack? Kind of weird there wasn’t?’

While some fans were disappointed at the lack of Flack, the 10-year special did feature brief appearances from her, Thalassitis, and Gradon.

Flack ‘was Love Island’ according to people watching at home (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

Viewers were moved by the clip, which showed Flack hugging former contestant Molly-Mae Hague, with @EmilyAmy saying: ‘Aw, Caroline. She was Love Island. She genuinely cared about everyone.’

@TVReality93 said they ‘loved’ seeing Flack on screen, while @TwellyWatcher confessed that the hardest part of watching the special was seeing how happy Flack was in her brief highlight.

The clip wasn’t enough for some people watching at home, with @ConnieSpanners asking for more: ’10 years of Love Island and no sign of Caroline Flack.’

Flack quit Love Island shortly before her death after being charged by police with assault, saying at the time: ‘In order not to detract attention from the upcoming series I feel the best thing I can do is to stand down for series 6.’

She added that there had been a ‘significant number of media reports and allegations in regards to my personal life’ but that she had ‘never experienced such kindness and love in my whole life’.

Metro has contacted ITV for comment.

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