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Love Island’s Megan Barton-Hanson reveals death threats

Online abuse left the former Love Island star reeling

Love Island star Megan Barton-Hanson has lifted the lid on the abuse she’s suffered at the hands of online trolls since the latest series of the ITV2 show finished this summer.

The former glamour girl, 24, got intimate with two men in the Love Island villa – first curly-haired model Eyal Booker, and then Wes Nelson, who she’s still dating.

And writing for i News, she revealed that she’s been called a “slut” by both men and women for her behaviour on the reality programme, and has even been threatened with violence.

Megan used to be a glamour model (Credit: ITV)

Megan explained that she was “buzzing” after filming the Love Island final, in which she and Wes finished fourth behind winners Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham.

But her joy turned to horror after an ITV press officer took her to one side and showed her the negative stories that had been written about her in the media.

“Nothing could have prepared me for the full extent of it,” she wrote. “A friend who was running my social media had to turn off the comments, as I was receiving death threats and 99 per cent were slut-shaming me.

“I’ve been labelled a slut from the age of around 16, mainly by boys I had dated, or boys I had turned down, until my group of friends started to join in by calling me ‘the slut of the group’.

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“It’s incredible that in 2018, this sort of thing is still going on – and it’s not just men slut-shaming women, it’s women too.”

During the series, Megan was left angered after Eyal estimated that she’d had sex with a lot more men during her lifetime than she actually had.

ITV
She got together with Wes Nelson in the villa (Credit: ITV)

He guessed 37, but Megan insisted that the figure was actually 20.

And later in the show, she spat: “I’m not the most innocent of girls, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve gone around [expletive] everyone I can.

She revealed that being called names is nothing new for her (Credit: Splash)

“I was absolutely fuming. Just because I’m open and I say I enjoy sex, it’s 2018. I’m a woman.

“I’m allowed to enjoy sex if I want to, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve slept with every Tom, Dick and Harry that walks in a bar.

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“It’s just annoyed me so much. You’d think he would have a bit more respect for me.”

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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