The tweets have since been deleted.
George Fensom, a soon-to-be Love Island 2023 star, has issued an apology after old tweets of his featuring homophobic slurs resurfaced.
The Bradford-based business development executive was announced as one of the new islanders for the upcoming summer season of the show but has since faced backlash after the tweets were found.
The posts contained derogatory language and were published from a Twitter account linked to George. Although they have now been deleted, screenshots of his comments are still circulating online.
The tweets were originally posted in 2014 when George would have been in his early teen years.
After fans called for him to be removed from the line up, George issued a statement to apologise for the tweets through HuffPost UK.
“I honestly just feel absolutely sick about those tweets,” he said.
“They are not who I am today, they couldn’t be any further from the man I am today and, quite frankly, if I could turn back time I wouldn’t even have put those [online].
“To be honest with you, it’s me being really naive at that age. I made the account back in 2011, so it’s just stupidity on my behalf and doesn’t reflect on who I am today at all.
“In regards to people saying that I’m not right for the villa, all I would say is this, everyone’s made mistakes.
“Everyone has said things that they regret. The difference in the way that I’ll defend myself is the way that I’m owning that and I’ve admitted that that was the wrong thing to say.
“If I could turn back time then I wouldn’t have said the things that I said. That’s all I can do to defend myself and say in this scenario.”
George is part of the first 10 people islanders heading to the villa this summer, and speaking before he heads in, George described himself as someone who is “always dancing” and will always “bring the vibe up”.
