Tyler Cruickshank has revealed his close friend tragically died just before he entered the Love Island villa last summer.
The 26-year-old joined the ITV dating show as a bombshell, and struck up a romance with Kaz Kamwi.
The reality stars finished in fourth place on the show, but split just three months after leaving the villa.
In a new interview with OK!, Tyler revealed he mourning the death of a close pal while on the show, after he sadly took his own life just before Love Island started.
He said: “I’m an advocate for mental health and that’s largely down to the fact that one of my mates did the unthinkable and took his own life just before I went into the villa.”
“We used to always speak about how his mental health was doing, and he used to tell me he was suffering and things like that. I think I thought to myself that I could have done more to actually help him, but he was saying he was getting better and all of a sudden, it happened.”
“You kind of feel in yourself you could have done more for them, so it was really hard,” Tyler admitted.
“That’s been a catalyst for me to speak about mental health — especially amongst men. Sometimes men feel like they can’t really speak about their feelings.”
Tyler went on to say he prioritises mental health “over everything”, and said that he thinks other people “need to make it a priority”.
“If you’re feeling down, speak about it. A lot of people have been there before, and you never would know,” he added.
“The last two years with Covid hasn’t really helped. I’ve got mates who haven’t seen their parents for the best part of a year and a half because they live in another country, and it’s just hard with borders and stuff and things with Covid.”
“It’s horrible when you hear some of the stuff that people are going through.”
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