LOVE Island returns to our screens tonight - with a new group of toned and tanned singletons ready to show off their gym-honed figures to the nations.
But one of the show's most successful alumni has admitted that being filmed in a bikini every day amongst other women left her feeling inferior, despite working out for 40 hours a week in preparation for the show.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, about her time on Love Island in 2017, Gabby Allen says: "When I was there, I was 25 and fabulous.
"But I still had a meltdown on the show. It was about my boobs. I didn't directly say that, or maybe I did. But I had no boobs, I just wasn't naturally well endowed.
"There was a lot of girls on the show that did have lovely big, fake or real boobs.
"And they were all getting loads of dates and I was like, 'Is it because I haven't got any boobs or is it just because nobody actually wants me?'"
Gabby, now 32, appeared on the third series of Love Island and came fourth with then-boyfriend Marcel Somerville, who she split from in May 2018.
The former dancer, who's from Liverpool but now lives in South London, adds: "It's so mad how, I think as I've got older I'm definitely more body aware.
"Gravity's doing its thing. I'm not as young as I once was. Although I feel quite body confident with how I am today.
"But when I was 25, I was in such a good place because I was training 40 hours a week, teaching people and doing loads of classes - and I think I was just like super body confident.
"I can understand why, when people they talk about (diversity and) getting different people on the show, I think it also comes down to whether they’re body confident to be in a bikini all day every day, because it just depends on how you feel in yourself.
"Never mind what other people are saying, if I didn't feel very confident I would not sit in the bikini all day."
Gabby, then a 34B, left the show determined to get a boob job.
She says: "But I held off for a few years and that was mainly because I felt like I owed it to the itty bitty committee, to not do it.
"I had so many messages from people saying ‘you give me the confidence’ and ‘I completely feel you’ (with her insecurities) but in the end I felt, I need to do this to make me feel confident.
"Because I knew it would just give me that level up in how I felt about myself.
"And maybe that is because I have deep-rooted self insecurities," she laughs.
"But it worked. Until it didn’t and my t*ts went wrong and I had to do it all over again."
Gabby forked out £5,000 for implants from a fancy London clinic, to take her to a 34C.
"Then I ruined them," she sighed. "I got too excited and went back (to the gym) way too soon.
"My left boob dropped massively and then my right boob dropped as well, but it wasn't as bad as the left one.
"My left boob was literally facing the ceiling.
"So once again, my confidence was knocked. I was like 'I've paid all this money to get them done, and now I'm back to square one'.
"I got them done in late November and I was doing burpees on January 1 so a month afterwards, like an idiot.
"I hadn't been given a proper bra so I was just buying them from M&S. I could feel my boob going further and further to the left and I thought 'Is this going to end up under my armpit?'
"It was a waste of time and a waste of money.
"And that's why I got them done for the second time because I used to hide away (pre boob job).
"I used to be so self-conscious of them and never want anything that would ever emphasise that I didn't have any boobs.
"Then I got them done, and I was still shying away from wearing what I actually wanted to wear because I had Quasimodo t*ts."
Gabby is now a DD and got a larger implant circumference to give her "the appearance of cleavage", spending a further £5,000 on the second surgery.
She suffers from spinal disorder scoliosis, which doesn't help matters as she says her boobs are naturally "wonky".
She added: "I had my second boob job done in Turkey, which has a huge stigma around it but my experience was wonderful.
"The same doctor did my mum's neck lift, and he's also done a lot of my friends’ surgery.
"Because after my first one, even though it was in London, my aftercare wasn't there really.
"I was told that I could go to Dubai, literally two weeks afterwards and be in a bikini.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to bits with them now."
Despite generally loving her body, and working extremely hard for it, Gabby has been at the mercy of body-shaming trolls for years.
Of her first boob job, she adds: "I didn't go too big. I didn't want to be flashy about it (and encourage comments).
"In the end I had loads of nice messages but when you're in the public eye, people forget you have feelings.
"This is so ridiculous but I recently went for a consultation about my belly button.
"Because somebody made an account called Gabby Allen's Belly Button.
"Because it's a straight line. But I can't get it fixed because they can't move it without doing a tummy tuck, and I'm not doing that."
I felt inferior, because there was a lot of girls on the show that did have lovely big, fake or real boobs. And they were all getting loads of dates and I was like, 'Is it because I haven't got any boobs or is it just because nobody actually wants me?'
Gabby Allen
The trolling started as soon as Gabby entered the villa, so how does she think it will affect the 2024 cohort?
She said: "I can't really remember the first few months as it was such a blur. One thing that people were glued to was my lack of confidence.
"I had a lot of people that held onto that and were like 'yeah, you weren't as fit as other people.'
"But everything is so high speed when you come out, that hopefully it's not the only thing that they focus on.
"It just depends on also how much you've gone. Some people are really successful and some people aren't as successful as they'd want to be."
Gabby entered late as a Bombshell and, although she lasted to the final, Love Island is famous for its trail of short-lived contestants who disappear back into oblivion after the show.
"It's savage isn't it?" she said, speaking to Fabulous just minutes after wrapping her weekly Tuesday show with FUBAR Radio - called What The Health.
"I am so grateful. We would not be sat here on my bloody radio show if I hadn’t done Love Island, but I'd like to think that it's because my actual profession before I went on there was health and wellness and fitness.
"That enabled me to use my platform to grow my community, and to be able to get opportunities like this.
"These are big things in my career, but I just got lucky to be able to be on the show for that long, whereas some people go on and they are only on for a matter of days.
"That’s the luck of the draw though, isn't it? It's either how the producers produce you or who you end up with.
"Because if you go on late and then you end up with somebody then the public don't like, then you’re doomed."
Gabby appeared on Love Island with the likes of Olivia Attwood, Chris Hughes, Amber Davies, Ken Centinay, Camilla Thurlow and now-husband Jamie Jewitt
Speaking ahead of series 11 launching, she said: "It's actually so cringe. I'm obsessed.
"It's funny, because before I did the show, all those years ago, I actually hadn't watched it before.
"So when I told my brother I was going to do it, he was like, 'No, you're not, you're not having sex on TV'.
"I was like ‘I’m not doing that anyway’. And I didn’t, I stuck by my word.
"Now I just find it so fascinating to watch because obviously I've done that.
"So to see how people behave or it pans out. Apparently it has changed a bit since I did it because it was quite raw.
"Whereas people that I speak to that have come off more recent shows say that they have a lot of input with the producers.
"So I always find it quite interesting to watch.
"When I think back to it, the producers would suggest things to you, but we had very much free rein of what we did.
"Whereas now I feel like they have a lot more (meddling) because they know what works now - this is the 11th or 12th series.
"I was on series three so it's literally been years. That's how old I am guys."
A common troll comment levelled at Gabby is that she's "too muscly".
She says: "80% of my following is women and I don't get that many negative comments from men.
"It's women who message me saying 'you need to stop now. You looked better before'. People always say I looked better when I was more 'normal'.
"I used to train upper body a lot more because I love it, it makes me feel empowered and strong, but it got to a point where I was like 'do I actually want to look that way?'
"These people are getting in my head, making me think I shouldn't look too 'hench'.
"But if you think I'm too muscular, sod off. Unfollow me, just don't look at my stuff if you don't want to see that.
"Men are looking at me in the gym going ‘f***ing hell she can lift’. And I'm like, yeah, baby. I can lift more than you."
"I actually don't really give a f*** when people give me s*** anymore," she adds.
"Whereas when I first came out, I'd read the Daily Mail comments and I ended up with all sorts of complexes - ie the belly button, which is just stuck with me seven years later.
"It really did affect me and it used to get into my head and then I'd like question myself loads whereas now, I honestly don't think I would really look (at nasty comments).
"Maybe I just learned my lesson the hard way."
