Jacques O’Neill’s mum has revealed she was forced to move out of her home, after the Love Island star received death threats.
The rugby star sensationally quit the show last week, after an emotional few days in the villa following Casa Amor.
The 23-year-old has since admitted doing Love Island was “the worst decision of my life”, and that it was “the worst I’d ever felt in my life”.
Jacques’ mum Janet has since opened up about the “horrible” messages she received online about her son while he was on the show, and said she moved out of her home as a result of death threats.
She told The Sun: “During the first two weeks Jacques was so funny, I think everybody loved him. Then it started to change. I started to get horrible private messages on Facebook, people were saying they wished my son and I were dead, it was awful.”
“I just didn’t get why people have to message such nasty comments. The messages really hurt, strangers were saying to me that I was a bad mother and a bad parent. It was awful, especially as I brought him up by myself.”
Janet added: “I had to go and stay with my sister for a week and a half because of the abuse I got.”
“I was relieved when he finally left the villa as I couldn’t watch it live. I had to get my sister to text me every night to say if it was OK to watch. I knew how much it was upsetting me.”
Speaking about his decision to leave the show, Jacques told the publication: “I thought if I don’t get myself out things could go horribly wrong and I could get physical… Doing Love Island was the worst decision of my life.”
“I was ready to break down. I was feeling so mentally drained, I just wanted to go home and get myself right,” he admitted.
“It broke me and I was already broken. I was crying my eyes out. I couldn’t cope. I was literally feeling awful. It was the worst I’d ever felt in my life.”
“At home you can remove yourself from situations, but in there you had to deal with every situation, and in that moment I took my microphone off, and walked straight through the front doors because I just wanted to get out of that place.”
Jacques continued: “Producers tried coming to me, they were like, ‘Jacques, are you OK? I was saying, ‘I don’t want to speak to you or anyone. I want to be left to myself.’ It was too much.”
“I was saying to them, ‘This is more than a TV show to me’, it was genuine feelings involved and my headspace wasn’t right to be in a TV show. I dealt with stuff in there that I’ve never dealt with in my life.”
“In the end I couldn’t deal with it, I wanted to get out of the place. I was crying, saying to them, ‘I’m ready to go home’.”
