Despite the name, reality television has often blurred the line between fact and fiction. While the shows of the genre are set up to look unscripted and real, it still leaves viewers wondering what was set up for entertainment. Is every fight legitimate? Does every interaction happen naturally? Are there truly any spontaneous moments on screen?
When it comes to a show like Love Island, some viewers might ask if the romantic feelings are real. Recently, a contestant by the name of Diamanté Laiva made some claims regarding the reality behind these reality couples. According to her, a lot of the couples you see getting together outside the show aren’t real. In fact, she claims to have witnessed them only getting together for the sake of photo ops.
Diamanté Claimed Some Reality Show Couples Are Faking Their Connections
One contestant from Love Island has accused reality stars of “faking” relationships in their everyday life, in what scenes she has referred to as “shocking.” That particular contestant is Diamanté Laiva, who was a star of Love Island in 2024. She was on the Casa Amor stage and has now revealed what she says really happens at influencer parties.
Diamanté has told her followers that she is “just telling you my experience” and said that certain reality stars who seem coupled up on camera “just link up when it’s time to take a picture.” Diamanté caused quite a controversy when she entered the villa, but was hoping not to set off a similar firestorm this time. She began her story by saying, “Disclaimer I’m not bashing anybody. I’m not specifically speaking about a particular person.”
She went on to say, “Nobody likes each other – some of your fan favorites will be excluded from the groups and it’s shocking when you see pictures and the TikTokers doing their videos, they take their pictures and disperse. Some of your favorite couples aren’t really couples. Liked booed up on the internet and, in real life, the girl will be all the way over there and the guy will be all the way over there for the entire party. And they’ll just link up when it’s time to take a picture.”
During her social media revelation, she even discussed the reality behind friendships in the genre. “In terms of friendship groups as well,” Diamanté said, “It’s literally like a revolving door. You’ll go and take pictures with this person and you’ll never speak to them again, but in the eyes of the public you’d think those two people are the best of friends.”
Diamanté told followers that she even felt “uncomfortable” at events due to others’ drug use and felt she was more “aware of [her] surroundings” due to her sobriety. She ended things by telling fans, “The people that some of you make famous, damn.” Diamanté captioned her post, “The described behaviour is not affiliated with the show. This happened at external private parties.”
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Fans were quick to make their feelings known in the comments. One person wrote, “She just spilled all the tea.” Another commented, “Not shocked,” while someone else posted, “Lovinn these stories.” This also ignited inevitable speculation regarding who Diamanté was talking about. “The things I would do to find out who you’re referencing with some of this,” someone wrote.
Diamanté Had Beef With Jess White After She Accused Her Of Laughing At Uma Jammeh
During her time on the show, Diamanté was interested in Sean Stone. Sean was paired up with Matilda Draper, but that didn’t stop him from kissing Diamanté during her brief time in the villa. This led to a dramatic recoupling where Sean ultimately chose to remain with Matilda. A feud then broke out between Matilda and Diamanté. Diamanté didn’t just have her sights set on Sean, however. She also hooked up with Ruby Dale.
She even beefed with Jess White when she seemed to laugh at Uma Jammeh, who cried at the dramatic recoupling. In addition to Sean and Matilda, the recoupling included Uma and Wil Anderson, the latter of whom kissed Lucy Graybill. Like Sean, Wil decided to stick with Uma and reconcile. Jess accused Diamanté of making fun of Uma for being hurt by Wil’s actions.
In a video shared to her Instagram stories, Diamanté replied to someone who sent her the question, “What made you laugh during the recoupling?” In her response, Diamanté said, “I’m going to respond to this question. I’m doing it right before bed, unedited, raw explanation. First of all, I was not laughing at Uma. I know things can be edited in a way that [dramatises them], but I was laughing at the fact that obviously, being in Casa and seeing how all the boys were behaving. They were all very open [to getting to know us.]”
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“And Wil [was] basically making excuses for his behavior with Lucy, now that Uma was in the picture,” she continued. “At this time, I didn’t know Uma to be laughing at her. I didn’t have a reason to laugh at her. I feel like the hate comments are people misunderstanding the situation. So that’s why I’m not taking offense to them. It’s just something that needs to be cleared up. As far as Uma, no reason to laugh at her. I think she’s lovely. It was just Wil and his excuses.”
Diamanté And Olivia Hawkins Were Rumored To Have Had A ‘Confrontational’ Exchange
Off camera, Diamanté clashed with Olivia Hawkins from All Stars. It was reported the two had a “confrontational” exchange at a work event. This stemmed from an interview where Diamanté called Jess a “bully,” which led to Olivia saying she was “disgusted” by Diamanté’s remark. Olivia and Diamanté were both in attendance at Boohoo’s viewing party for the show’s final episode in Manchester. Diamanté said that Olivia “ran away” after trying to speak to her, and both women have since taken jabs at one another on social media.
MailOnline reported that a source who attended the event told them, “Diamanté was very confrontational at the party and was trying to get a reaction from Olivia. Olivia moved away in a polite manner and continued taking photos for the brand as it was a work event and she wanted to be professional.”
Diamanté said she wasn’t trying to be “confrontational,” but she was just “simply waiting to talk to her.” She explained, “I made it a point to respect the event we were at, but it was important for me to clear up the situation as this was the first time I’ve seen her in person since she began the drama.”
Diamanté claimed Olivia “ran away” when she approached her, but Olivia shared her side of the story, writing on social meida, “This is not what happened. Hope she’s having fun back at her 9-5 today though. It’s hot Diamanté, stay hydrated xx.”
Diamanté responded in a video on her Instagram, saying, “This is the last time I’m speaking on this situation because it’s not dragging. Liv, it’s not your season. Mimii and Josh have won, it’s not about you. First of all, you did run off because that’s what my eyes saw. That’s what your body did, it ran away.”
She continued, “We’re not going to lie. You had your platform to say what you wanted to say to me, in front of each other, but you didn’t take that opportunity. Second of all I don’t work a 9-5, hun – I’m a business owner. Even if I did, is it that deep? You think that you’re better than people because you have followers. There’s millions of people in the UK that work 9-5 jobs, your comment is distasteful.”
But it didn’t stop there. Olivia then responded via TikTok. “Last night I went to an event with a brand I love and have worked with since leaving the villa,” she said. “It had been arranged weeks in advance that I would attend and do photos and interviews. We also got to watch the Love Island final.”
She continued, “I rushed to take photos before the show started and while taking the photos I was interrupted by said person [Diamanté] who said, ‘Hi is your name Live Hawkins I just want to talk to you,’ and I said, ‘Yes that’s fine just let me finish these photos and then we can speak.'”
“This person proceeded to hover over the photographer and wait for me to finish. As soon as I finished taking the photos this person came over to me and said, “It seems like we have an issue. I didn’t actually find out this information until the end of the night, but they had been over to my close friend Tanya and said that I didn’t want this smoke and that I wasn’t ready for this conversation.”
“When she approached me and said this, I was still with the girls from the brand who wanted me to do an interview so I said, ‘Sorry I’m here to work’ and I followed the girls and carried on doing what I was doing. There’s definitely a time and a place for conversations like that. I would have been open to the conversation had been approached differently, but I was there to work.”
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She concluded, “I’m not making this video to throw shade or be nasty, I don’t want this person to get any hate comments, I just wanted to put my point across of what happened.”
