The “Love Island USA” contestant who was suddenly booted from the wildly popular reality dating show after a past racial slur is now breaking her silence.
On July 6, Cierra Ortega’s dramatic exit from the villa was announced by the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, citing “a personal situation.”
The move followed backlash over a racial slur against Asians made on social media last year by Ortega. Fans of the show were especially upset because Ortega was accused of using the word even after one of her followers told her it was offensive.
However, the reality contestant said that wasn’t true. “When this person did message me, I’m so grateful that she did, I had a good conversation with her about it. I made the correction immediately. The word was immediately removed from my vocabulary,” she explained on Instagram on July 9. “I think right now there are tons of things floating around. Different screenshots with different timestamps, fueling this narrative that I sort of doubled down once people tried to correct me and was like ‘Oh I’m still going to use it,’ but that was not the case.”
Ortega said “in that moment, the lesson was learned. The word was removed.”
She also went on to say she has used this “to educate others who may be accidentally holding space for these words that could be offensive in their vocabulary.”
Ortega said she agrees with Peacock’s decision to remove her from the villa. The “Love Island” Season 7 finale will air on July 13.
More than a billion minutes have been viewed this season. The streamer said 40% of those are new viewers.
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