Love Island champion Jess Harding has openly criticized her former partner Sammy Root’s performance on All Stars in anticipation of her appearance on the ITV2 program. The 25-year-old was set to join the South African villa this week for the show’s premiere on Monday, but ITV declared yesterday that filming would be postponed due to local wildfires.
Although ITV has not specified the return date for All Stars, Jess will join other participants like Whitney Adebayo, Millie Court, Ciaran Davies, and Shaq Muhammad. Following her victory with Sammy on Love Island in 2023, the couple split up a few months later.
Sammy competed in the second season of All Stars and finished fifth with Elma Pazar. Their relationship ended just four months post-show, as seen on TOWIE.
Expressing her views on Sammy’s All Stars journey, Jess shared with The Sun: “I think he was overly focused on Elma during that period. He didn’t explore other options like he did when he was with me. He learned that interacting with girls requires transparency.”
Jess noted differences in transparency between her Love Island experience and Sammy’s time on All Stars, mentioning that Sammy appeared more reserved on the latter.
She mentioned that she would welcome Sammy back to the villa, highlighting that there are no hard feelings with the 2023 cast members.
Despite the initial plan for All Stars to start airing soon with Maya Jama’s return, ITV had to postpone the launch due to wildfires in South Africa.
According to a source from The Mirror, the crew has been advised to remain in their hotels for safety reasons amidst the wildfire situation.
ITV later announced the delay of All Stars, emphasizing their commitment to health and safety and promising a new transmission date.
Love Island: All Stars is scheduled to be broadcast later this year on ITV2 and ITVX.