Love Island USA contestant Cierra Ortega removed after old anti-Asian rac slurs resurface | World News

When Cierra Ortega walked into the Love Island USA villa Season 7 as a late entrant this summer, she brought with her the kind of energy that reality TV thrives on — confident, flirtatious, and ready to find love. But just a week before the show’s finale, her journey came to a sudden halt, not because of a dramatic recoupling, but because of something far more serious words from her past.
Ortega, who quickly became one of the most talked about contestants this season, exited the villa after resurfaced social media posts from 2015 and 2020 revealed her use of a racial slur against Asian people. And in just 48 hours, she lost nearly 2,00,000 Instagram followers, according to BBC reports. Fans called out the show for letting her stay as long as she did. And soon after, producers made the decision to remove her.
But behind the headlines and hashtags, a family is hurting.
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In a statement, Ortega’s parents who had been managing her accounts while she was away from the outside world, described the past week as “one of the most painful” they’ve ever endured. “We’re not here to justify or ignore what’s surfaced,” they wrote on her social media account. “We understand why people are upset and we know accountability matters. But what’s happening online right now has gone far beyond that.”
They say their daughter who still hasn’t had the chance to process the backlash or speak for herself, has become the target of a hate campaign. Her family claims they’ve received violent threats and an overwhelming flood of cruel messages.
“No one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what makes they’ve made,” her parents stated. “We’re simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency.”
The posts in question include a 2015 Instagram story where Ortega used a slur to describe her smile, and a 2020 TikTok video in which she used the same derogatory term while talking about beauty treatments, “I can also be a little ch**ky when I laugh/smile so I love getting a mini brow lift”.Story continues below this ad
Though she was likely unaware of the weight the words carried at the time, viewers today did not forgive or forget.
It wasn’t just fans who were shaken. On Sunday’s episode, her partner Nic Vansteenberghe opened up about her sudden departure. “Before Cierra had left, my mind was clear. I knew what the future would look like, and now, I’m lost,” he said on air. The pair had just recently announced they were “closed off,” an islander term meaning they weren’t interested in pursuing anyone else.
Ortega is the second contestant to leave this season under similar circumstances. Last month, Yulissa Escobar exited after a resurfaced video showed her using rac language. Like Ortega, her departure was initially brushed off on the show as a “personal situation.”
The show’s host, Ariana Madix, has also faced criticism for staying silent but she broke her silence on Instagram. “Not silent. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she wrote there. In a later interview, she urged fans to stop harassing contestants online, saying the hate often becomes more harmful than the original controversy.Story continues below this ad
While the show encourages drama and romantic games, this season has forced a much more serious conversation about vetting, accountability, and how the internet responds to old makes especially when they go viral.
Ortega has yet to speak for herself. Her parents say she will, and when she does, they believe she’ll face it “with honesty, growth, and grace.”