Love Island host Laura Whitmore has appeared on screen for just THREE MINUTES so far this season despite £500k mega deal
LOVE Island host Laura Whitmore has appeared on the reality show for just three minutes despite being paid £500,000 to present this year’s show.
Laura, 37, married to the show’s voiceover star Scottish comedian Iain Sterling, 35, has only popped into the Majorca villa once during the 14 episodes so far.
Usually, Love Island’s presenters regularly appear at the dramatic re-couplings and dumpings around the firepit.
But last night she was nowhere to be seen – having only appeared for the show’s very first episode.
It means Laura has only been on screen for just three minutes 43 seconds out of the series’s 925 minutes so far – only 0.3 per cent of the show.
Earlier this year The Sun revealed the Irish former model had signed another £500,000 one-year deal as the host of Love Island.
Most read in TV
Last year she was only seen on the show for 33 minutes in total over the eight weeks it ran.
She had explained that the coronavirus pandemic had made it tricky for her to jet to Majorca as often as she’d like.
‘WHERE IS LAURA?’
But with no such excuse this year, fans have been taking to social media to blast the star’s attendance.
One fumed: “When are you actually gonna make an appearance on Love Island? I thought you were the host?”
With another adding: “Laura Whitmore is not the presenter for love island at all. The islanders are doing her job just by reading out texts.
A third said: “How much is Laura Whitmore getting paid to do nothing? They presenting it themselves out here.”
At this point in the show last year – two weeks in – she had appeared thrice more than this year, with 11 minutes and 51 seconds.
Laura recently addressed the criticism in an Instagram reel where she said: “The Villa is in Mallorca and Aftersun is London. This is the situation for any host, always has been. If I could stay in Mallorca I would.”
She added: “It’s the same every year. Producers mix it up when I come in to keep it a surprise.”
VILLA ‘STINKS’
It comes as Laura last week revealed that the Love Island villa absolutely stinks.
The host, who is back to present her third series, said as many as fifty Islanders make the Majorcan sunspot their home during the run.
And the mum-of-one said the stench of body odour, or B.O., can be extreme.
Laura said: “It smells so bad. If you think about it … that amount of people, it starts off with about ten or twelve and then more keep going in.
“About forty or fifty Islanders go through it the whole summer.
“And they’re like 18 year olds – the carpet, the fake tan, the make-up, the B.O….it stinks!
“It smells like Lynx Africa, you know when they try to cover the B.O? That’s what it smells like.”
Laura first covered the show’s winter edition in South Africa in January and February 2020.
She was back for the ITV2 programme’s return to Majorca after the pandemic in summer 2021.
A Love Island spokesperson said: “As regular viewers of Love Island will know, the host has never appeared in every episode of the series.
Read More on The Sun
“As always, Laura’s next arrival will be a surprise to the Islanders and viewers alike.”
The Sun has approached Laura’s management for comment.
