Cierra Ortega exits ‘Love Island USA’ villa following backlash over resurfaced racial slur posts

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cierra Ortega, a contestant of this summer’s “Love Island USA” left the villa just a week before the finale of the hit reality series is set to air on Peacock.

Her departure, announced Sunday, followed weeks of uproar from viewers after old posts from Ortega resurfaced that contained a racial slur against Asian people. The show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, announced Ortega had departed “due to a personal situation” early in Sunday’s episode.

Ortega becomes the second contestant this season to depart the show amid controversy due to past social media posts. Yulissa Escobar abruptly exited last month in the second episode after clips of her using racist language resurfaced online. Her departure was also not explained in the show.

A spokesperson for the show declined to comment Monday.

Ortega’s family posted to her Instagram story Sunday evening following the announcement of her departure, asking the public “for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency.

“While Cierra is not in the villa anymore, she is still away. She hasn’t had the chance to process any of this or speak for herself,” her family wrote. “But we know our daughter. We know her heart. And when she returns, we believe she’ll face this with honesty, growth, and grace.”

Her family said they, along with Ortega’s friends and online supporters, have received threats, attacks and cruel messages on social media, noting that “no one deserve that kind of hate, no matter what mistakes they’ve made.”

“Love Island USA” is an American spin-off of the original U.K. series and is airing its seventh season. The show airs daily except Wednesdays and brings young singles together in a remote villa in Fiji to explore connections with the ultimate goal of finding love.

Couples undergo challenges and are encouraged test their romantic connections as new contestants are introduced. Islanders are routinely “dumped” from the villa throughout the series as stronger couples form. The winning couple receives $100,000.

The show, which strips contestants of their phones or access to the outside world, has previously asked fans to avoid cyberbullying contestants. Host Ariana Madix called for fans to stop doxxing and harassing the show’s stars in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Ortega entered the villa at the end of the first episode as a bombshell, one of the first in a steady stream of new contestants who come in after the show began, often expected to disrupt existing couples and create new relationship dynamics.

Ortega quickly coupled up with Nic Vansteenberghe, whom she remained with up until her departure. Her exit broke up one of the few consistent couples of the season. The couple had just announced a few episodes prior they were “closed off,” a popular “Love Island” phrase to indicate neither contestant was interested in exploring a connection with any other islander.

“Before Cierra had left, my mind was clear. I knew what the future would look like, and now, I’m lost,” Vansteenberghe said during Sunday’s episode.

Vansteenberghe stayed on the show as a single islander after Ortega left, and he ultimately re-coupled with fellow contestant Olandria Carthen before the end of the episode.

Belle-A Walker, a contestant who was dumped earlier this season, took to Instagram to express heartbreak over Ortega’s resurfaced posts. Walker, who is Asian American, said she is “deeply appreciative” of the show’s producers “for taking a stand and making it clear that racism of any kind is not tolerated.”

“Asian hate is oftentimes overlooked and dismissed. But being a first-generation American, I have personally witnessed and experienced how real and hurtful comments like these are,” Walker wrote on her Instagram story page. “It is my hope that this situation can help shed light on how big of an issue anti-Asian hate really is.”