TV watchdog Ofcom has confirmed that complaints about Love Island contestant Ollie Williams had doubled by the time he left the villa on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Ofcom had received 231 complaints about Ollie, who had been caught up in a press controversy in the lead-up to his Love Island debut.
The Cornish land owner was the subject of a story in The Sun that revealed pictures of him posing with dead animals.
In the photos, the 23-year-old was seen posing next to a dead warthog, water buffalo and giant eland, with the paper claiming he had been promoting his hunting business Cornish Sporting Agency.
However, there have been conflicting reports about the nature of the pictures, with an unnamed “source” apparently close to the reality star also telling The Sun he “was involved in the culling of sick animals”.
Since then, Ollie has left the show of his own accord, claiming he still had feelings for his ex-girlfriend, and that it would be “wrong” for him to stay in the villa.
Following his exit, Ofcom confirmed to Metro that the complaints about Ollie being in the villa had doubled in a matter of days to 467, prior to his exit.
The TV watchdog confirmed that they would assess each of the complaints before deciding whether to take the matter further, as is their standard procedure.
A petition calling for Ollie to be removed from the show had also reached more than 38,000 signatories.
HuffPost UK contacted representatives for Love Island around the time of the initial controversy, but they declined to comment.
Explaining his decision to leave the villa, Ollie said: “I have to be honest with myself, and everyone, that I do still love someone else…
“I have to follow my heart in this scenario and it would be wrong for me to ignore these feelings.
“At the end of the day, this is Love Island and it’s about finding love. If I carried on anything with Paige, or any other girl that might come into the villa, it wouldn’t be fair on them.”
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.
