Love Island’s Jacques O’Neill has spoken out about the backlash he’s received since leaving the show.
Appearing on Scott Thomas’ podcast Learning As I Go, the 23-year-old broke down in tears as he confessed he “couldn’t even leave the house” once he returned to the UK.
The former rugby player said: “The hardest thing was… sorry, mate. Just seeing my mum, how she was. Seeing her in a state.”
Later in the interview, Scott asked what his mum had been struggling with, and Jacques clarified: “The death threats, man.”
Speaking about his shock decision to leave the show, Jacques said: “When I got out the villa, I had to go into a holding villa. My mum was like, ‘Get out, Jacques. Just get out right now, get home. Just leave.'”
“I was kicking off and was saying, ‘Get me a flight right now, I just want to be with my mum’. I knew she was in a bad place, she was breaking down on the phone.”
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The 23-year-old continued: “When I got home, she went, ‘Jacques, we can’t go out. We can’t go out. Like, everyone hates you.'”
“It killed me to see the way my mum was,” he explained. “I couldn’t speak to her about deep stuff because I’d just break down. It took me two weeks to give her a cuddle.”
During the interview, Jacques also said he was working on being a “better person”, after he was accused of “bullying” two other Islanders.
Last month, fans slammed Jacques for “mocking” Tasha Ghouri in a video that emerged online.
This y’all’s Jacques? #LoveIsland #jacques #TashaGhouri #Andrew #ekinsu #davide #Indiyah #dami #Damiyah #EKINDE pic.twitter.com/FlCgLADda8
— 🍒 (@aygfhdbli) August 4, 2022
The clip was allegedly posted on his private Instagram Story the night of the Love Island final.
In the video, Jacques was seen watching the show’s final episode with a friend when he appeared to mock Tasha during her love declaration to Andrew Le Page.
As the dancer read out her speech, Jacques impersonated Davide Sanclimenti by shouting at the TV: “You are a liar, an actress, go the f**k out.”
The video went viral on Twitter and Reddit, as fans called out the rugby player for “belittling” Tasha.
Fuelling rumours of a feud between them, Tasha and Andrew have since unfollowed Jacques on Instagram.
That same week, Jacques was also accused of “bullying” fellow Islander Remi Lambert.
Remi called out Jacques’ behaviour in a post shared on Instagram, after he appeared to mock his rapping skills during an Instagram Live with Luca Bish.
In the lengthy post, Remi claimed Jacques picked on him in the villa, and said he and Luca should have been kicked off the show for their alleged behaviour.
