Celeb goss 14th August 2022 by Slaine McKenna
Laura Whitmore Opens Up About ‘Exhausting’ And ‘Tough’ Trolling Over Her Work On Love Island
“With stuff with Love Island, it’s just a bit exhausting”
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As one of the biggest reality shows around, hosting Love Island is quite a prestigious job. But the day to day of the work is far less glamourous than it would seem as host Laura Whitmore knows all too well.
Opening up on the Distraction Pieces podcast, the Wicklow woman shared just how draining her job is. Explaining: “With stuff with Love Island, it’s just a bit exhausting sometimes because some of the stuff is just mental.”
“As a host, this takes up not a huge amount of my time compared to my other work. It’s over eight weeks.”
It seems the hardest part is dealing with the negativity she receives over her work. Highlighting how the host only appearing in the villa a handful of times, leads to a lot of scrutiny around those moments.
“The host only comes on three or four times, it’s always been the way, but it gets the most attention. It’s a bit exhausting and it’s tough.” she shared.
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Laura took over hosting duties from the late Caroline Flack in 2020, and has noticed similarities in the way they are treated.
“You know what’s hard? I’ve seen other women talked about online the way I’ve been talked about online.”
“I saw when Caroline worked on the show what she got every year and I never knew how she handled it. I always thought, ‘Jesus, she’s so strong.’ And people aren’t as strong as you think they are. It’s scary when you start, you get the exact same stuff that she got like, ‘Where’s the presenter? They’re never in there.’”
“I get that some of it you have to take with a pinch of salt, but then some of it is a bit exhausting.”
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Since taking on the gig, Laura has been target by many trolls, bashing her work on the show, something which she believes is quite misogynistic.
“It’s very specific people in this industry that get talked about that way. I know I’ve been talked about a bit differently whenever I was single to then suddenly having a child.
“My male co-presenters – it was always talked about what I was wearing when I started working – no one’s talking about what they’re wearing. They’re not getting this.”
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Highlighting how she is simple trying to get on with her work, she added: “I’m doing my job, that’s the most important thing and I’m doing my job well and I’m being professional.”
“Meanwhile, the outside world will talk about how you look, what you’re wearing, who you’re dating, do you have a child, should you be doing this and all these things are talked about constantly.”
“You have to remove yourself or you’ll just go crazy after a while. But I see my male counterparts not being talked about in the same way and that’s hard and unfair.”