Former ‘Love Island’ star Olivia Attwood has opened up about her own experiences of gender pay disparity, revealing that since leaving the ITV2 show, she’s been offered “substantially” less money than her male co-stars.
Olivia added that this includes joint media appearances with her boyfriend, Chris Hughes, who she met on the show.
She explained the situation during an appearance on ‘The Victoria Derbyshire Show’, claiming she and her fellow female ‘Love Island’ stars discovered what what was happening after “a bit of digging”.
Talking to MP Anna Soubry, Olivia explained that when her all-female management team discovered that she and the other women were being offered less money, they went straight to the clients in question, who were quick to match the female stars’ pay to the men’s.
Olivia said: “Straight away it was, ‘Please don’t tell anyone, we’ll match the money’. So the money was always there.
“We never got an answer [to], ‘Why did you feel that they should be paid more than us, for us all to come and do the exact same thing on the same day, the same outcome?’.
“They would never dream of insulting four men that way, but they’ll tell the two girls and make up some ridiculous reason, but it was really because they thought they’d get away with it. That was really an eye-opener, and it’s made me angry.”
This isn’t the first time that Olivia has spoken out about the sexism she’s faced, as she previously claimed that female reality television contestants “get a harder time than guys”.
She told HuffPost UK: “Things that [girls] do, if a boy did it, they would be fine and be cheeky or a player, but for a girl, they’re a slag or conniving. We’re still living in the medieval times with that.
“I think when you add blonde hair and fake tits to that, it riles people up. The worst thing is, it’s often girls that are saying it. Just live and let live.”
