Love Island sex row: Miss Great Britain organisers defend decision to de-crown Zara Holland after accusations of sexism

20-year-old has now been told of the decision but has chosen to stay in the show, says an ITV spokesperson

Zara Holland (Getty)

The organisers of Miss Great Britain have defended their decision to strip the current Miss Great Britain of her title after she had sex on a reality television show.

Those behind the beauty pageant were accused of slut shaming after they said they were left with “no choice” but to de-crown Zara Holland, who slept with fellow Love Island contestant Alex Bowen.

The 20-year-old had no idea her title had been revoked, but a spokesperson for ITV has since told the Independent: “Zara was informed of the news off camera this morning. She is now back in the villa and has chosen to remain on the show.”

Following the announcement, many social media users criticised Miss Great Britain for “slut-shaming” Holland and branded the decision to de-crown her “misogynistic”.

Organisers insisted the had "no problem at all with sex” but claimed they allowed Holland to take part in the series “under the stipulation that she did not have sex on TV”.

They also denied they had slut-shamed Miss Holland and said they would treat a man in the same way.

Here is the full statement issued by organisers to The Independent:

“We feel it important to explain that we have no problem at all with sex and our contestants/winners being sexually active and exploring their sexuality with another consensual adult; this has never, and will never be a problem, however we simply cannot condone a reigning title holder doing so on TV.

"To put it into context, for those outside of the pageant industry, if a school teacher took part in the show, that person would have a level of responsibility they would be expected to uphold because of their role, and are certain they would face similar consequences if they took part in similar actions on National television.

“For those saying ‘going into Love Island, it’s inevitable that she would have sex', that is not true, it is not a prerequisite of the show that you have sex. We gave our permission for Zara to enter, as our current winner, under the stipulation that she did not have sex on TV. Zara fully agreed to this and knowingly went against our wishes.

“Those stating we are ‘slut’ shaming: we have never, and would never ever use this word to describe Zara, it is a huge shame that people are attempting to put words into our mouth.

"Zara is a lovely girl, we understand that this is out of character for her and that she truly regrets her actions; however, the decision simply comes down to the fact that she has broken the rules of the competition. Miss Great Britain works with charities, children & young, impressionable people; our title holder must be an ambassador and this public behaviour does not support the ethos of our brand.

“For people claiming : ‘You wouldn’t do this if it was Mr Great Britain’ and ‘No one’s said anything about Alex’s part in this’, We most certainly would take the exact same course of action had our brand representative been male and this is why we have not mentioned Alex, as he is not an ambassador of our brand.

"The same goes for the other people within the villa (men & women), we wouldn’t pass comment on their actions or decisions as they are not there as a representative of Miss Great Britain, in a ‘current’ position.

“We did not take the decision to make this announcement whilst Zara was still in the show lightly, and agonised over it for almost 24 hours.

"We fully understand people’s feelings regarding this. But we had to act quickly with our statement as the press were already made aware of the decision and were going live. Of course, ideally we would have preferred to let Zara know face to face, but as we are allowed no contact with her whilst she is in the villa, this was taken out of our hands. Zara could potentially be in the show for another three or four weeks, we could not leave this amount of time before making an announcement.

“We wholeheartedly agree, that other than the incident that has forced our decision, Zara was, and is handling herself very well on the show and we still hold her in the highest regard as a friend, and are thrilled to see the support she is now receiving.

"We genuinely hope she goes on to win the show; she is a lovely girl with a great future ahead of her. Whilst we fully expect Zara to be upset when she learns of our decision, she also knows the pageant industry well and we’re confident she will completely understand why we have taken this course of action in time. Zara is not going to be erased from our history, she will always be one of our winners, but her reign has been cut short at this time and we will be standing by our decision.”