Love Island ‘fix’ row fury as Gemma Owen’s heart rate sent soaring by ex Jacques O’Neill in ‘vile’ challenge

LOVE Island’s Gemma Owen’s heart rate was sent soaring by her EX Jacques O’Neill in a challenge that has been branded “vile” and “a fix” by a former Islander.

The dressage rider donned sexy riding attire for the ITV2 shows’ striptease, which sees the cast strapped with monitors so bosses can judge whose heart beat fastest for whom.

But Gemma’s lap dance proved to be the biggest turn-on for her former fella Jacques, who she dated for eight months during lockdown.

It left their partners, Luca Bish and Paige Thorne respectively, reeling.
But one former Islander has blamed the heart rate challenge itself, calling it a “set-up” to produce “storylines”.

Shaughna Phillips, who became a breakout star of Winter Love Island in 2020, was involved in a love triangle with Callum Jones and model Molly Smith.

She claimed: “I think it was set up. In the competition it said mine went up for Callum.

“And obviously it would’ve been a greater storyline that mine went for Callum and Callum’s didn’t go [up] for me.

“But I’m sure mine went for someone else.

“Even though I know, or I think it wasn’t true, the nation’s then watching me looking like a tw*t. I just felt like a donut.”

Shaughna has also slated the skimpy costumes the girls were made to wear, adding on the Should I Delete That podcast: “I was crying because I felt like rubbish, I was crying because I was embarrassed. It was the most vile thing.”

This year’s troop sizzled in their get-up, which also included Jay Younger as a cowboy, Davide Sanclimenti as a masked bandit and Indiyah Polack as a Bridgerton temptress.

But the fallout from the frisky antics proved to be just as dramatic as Shaughna’s year.

Luca was left fuming that his partner Gemma Owen’s heart beat faster for her ex Jacques O’Neill.

Paige Thorne was in the same boat after seeing Jacques’ pulse race for Gemma – with the lad arguing the dressage rider’s sexy scene brought “flashbacks” of their time together.

And there was trouble in paradise for Tasha and Andrew Le Page, after he spiked for love rival Danica Taylor following her declaration of interest earlier in the day.

ITV declined request for comment.