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FAYE'S STRUGGLE
Faye Winter breaks down in tears as she reveals how vicious trolls destroyed her life after THAT Love Island rant
Faye would even ask her therapist to accompany her to the shops
HER foul-mouthed outburst on Love Island sparked 25,000 Ofcom complaints and a barrage of online hate and death threats.
Now Faye Winter has spoken out about the toll the backlash took on her mental health following her stint on the dating show in 2021.
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Fighting back tears, the 28-year-old former estate agent from Exeter says she was in a “dark place” after receiving abuse for the explosive row she had with love interest Teddy Soares, where she accused him of finding another islander attractive.
At times, Faye’s social anxiety was so severe her therapist had to accompany her to the supermarket.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous for Shamed, a new YouTube series which explores the effects of trolling on six women, Faye says: “At one point, when I came out of Love Island, I thought I was the worst person in the world. Not many people get to see their flaws played out in front of everyone.
“Did it impact my mental health? Yes. Was I in a really dark place? Yes. Do I think I deserved the hate? No.
“But I didn’t want to come out and talk about that side of it . . . I didn’t want to sound like a cop out.
“What I’ve done, I’ve done and I have to take full responsibility for that. I have to take full credit and say, ‘I messed up and I’m sorry.’
“And I’ve said that for more than two years.”
In the infamous incident, Faye is seen confronting love interest Teddy Soares over footage taken during his time in Casa Amor — the rival villa where islanders are tempted by a batch of singletons called Bombshells.
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The footage was shown without its full context, leading Faye to believe Teddy had cheated. Most viewers’ complaints related to Faye’s fiery behaviour, with many saying producers should have stepped in to defuse the situation.
The trolling Faye was subjected to in the aftermath was, in her words, “horrendous”.
Scrolling through her blocked phrases on Instagram, Faye reveals she’s had to screen out slurs including “slag”, “psycho”, “t**t”, “hate her” and “mentally ill”.
She’s also been forced to block vile demands including “die” and “kill yourself”.
Welling up, Faye says: “People might think, ‘She’s only crying about it now because she wants to deflect from it.’
“But I haven’t. I’ve made sure that I’ve never deflected from it. I’ve always said, ‘That was me and I’m sorry’.
“People make mistakes. I’m not going to blame it on anything other than I reacted to a situation wrongly. And that’s all I can say.
Explosive argument
“There were a hundred other ways that I could have reacted in that situation. I chose not to.”
Despite their explosive argument, in which Faye is said to have used the F-word 57 times, she and Teddy finished third on the show and they continued dating until last February.
Announcing their split on Instagram at the time, she thanked fans for “supporting our relationship and sharing the journey with us”.
She says: “I apologised to him numerous times and I spent 18 months of my life trying to make it up to him.”
She confirms they no longer speak.
Although Faye thinks trolling is “disgraceful”, she admits she agreed with some of the comments, many of which also criticised her appearance.
She says: “I wasn’t in a good place mentally. I started to believe (the comments) and that’s difficult. It’s one thing getting trolled and thinking, ‘OK, you think that, but I see myself differently’ but when you start to question it yourself, that’s when it’s really difficult.”
Faye had two breast enlargements, Botox and fillers before appearing on the show, and once she had been on screen she got negative jibes about her inflated lips.
Trolls branded her a “duck”, “fake”, “minging”, “disgusting” and said she looked “like a man”.
Faye accepts she “got this kind of frenzy” about plumping her pout and ignored her parents when they begged her to stop.
She says: “I just wanted them bigger.”
But after leaving the villa, she admits she was shocked by her appearance.
She says: “I came out and I saw my face in clips from the show and I thought, ‘I don’t recognise you any more.’ That was really sad.
“My lips were a massive talking point on the show and I got a lot of trolling for that.
“But I could understand why — and that was really difficult. I agreed with people.”
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Faye says she really struggled for 18 months after Love Island: “It was bad. Especially when I lived away from my friends and family.
“I felt so alone. That was a dangerous time for me.”
The stress caused 5ft 5in Faye to lose weight, slimming to an unhealthy seven stone, and eventually she sought professional help.
“I couldn’t eat,” she says. “I wasn’t doing it because I thought I was fat. I was really stressed.
“I never thought I was one of those people. I didn’t even know what anxiety was.”
At her lowest, Faye would ask her therapist to accompany her on shopping trips.
Through tears, she says: “That was hard. That was difficult.
'Didn't recognise myself'
“I felt like I was in a fish bowl and because of the death threats and abuse, I was worried about my safety.
“I didn’t have anyone to call if something did happen.
“I couldn’t even go into the supermarket on my own. My therapist had to come with me. She really helped me.
“She taught me the 5-4-3-2-1 rule to control my breathing and help me focus on what I was going to the shops for.
“This is focusing on five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. I’d also go in to a shop with her but go up the aisle on my own and ask her to wait outside so I knew she was there for support.”
Faye moved back to her home city in Devon from London last March and is now happily single, living with her golden retriever, Bonnie.
She has had her lip fillers dissolved and makes a conscious effort to ignore her Instagram DMs.
Reflecting on that difficult period when she lived in the capital, she says: “I lost my way. I lost Devon, I lost my friends. I wasn’t in the job that I loved any more.
“I didn’t recognise myself in the mirror. I didn’t recognise what was inside. And that was tough.”
Faye, who signed up for Love Island after a producer contacted her on Instagram, says she hasn’t got a “massive ego” and didn’t go on the show to land fashion deals, but was “up for the experience”.
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She says: “I was put on that show because I’m a big personality, but when I came out, my personality shrunk.”
She recalls the drive back home to Devon as the turning point for her mental health, saying: “It was just like the biggest weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
“At that moment I just thought, ‘OK, I can do this. I’m going home’.”
But Faye has no regrets.
She says: “This is all personal development. I didn’t need any new friends. I didn’t need a new place to live. I didn’t need a new relationship.
“I just needed to get back to me, but get back to me as a person that had grown.
“And that’s what I’ve done.”
Focusing on the future, Faye wants to continue supporting animal charities, including Guide Dogs UK, and is calling for tough regulations in the aesthetics industry.
She is no longer in therapy.
She says: “Now, when I look back at comments that trolls have sent me, I know I’m a good person with a good heart.
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“You don’t have to agree with things I’ve done. I don’t agree with some of the things I’ve done.
“But I’ve learned from them.”