What Rules Do Love Island Cast Members Have To Follow?

Summary

• Love Island contestants have to bring their own clothes and have limited styling assistance for the show.
• Potential contestants are recruited through dating apps like Tinder, with a rigorous casting process and strict confidentiality measures.
• Cast members receive phones that are only for show-related purposes, with strict rules on personal device usage.

Love Island isn't always a breezy walk on the beach for the cast and crew.

Former cast members are dishing out details about what really happens behind the scenes of the Peacock show, including how they're not allowed to journal or even call family members if they're sick.

This article will reveal shocking behind the scenes rules that viewers don't see on the small screen. Then it will detail how casting teams use dating apps to find potential personalities to be on the show.

What Happens Behind The Scenes Of Love Island?

As season 6 winners Kordell and Serena head into the real world $100,000 richer, season 1 winner Elizabeth Weber is revealing show secrets in a series of TikTok videos.

Weber won the first season of Love Island USA with Zac Mirabelli, and they shared the cash prize but their romance seemed to have faded with the summer sun because they broke up a few months after the finale aired in August 2019.

As their romance that blew away with the winds of fall, her memories of falling in love in Fiji stayed fresh in her mind and she wasn't afraid to share how the show is produced.

You are fully in charge of sourcing your own clothes, packing your own bags [and] figuring out what you want to bring.

Elizabeth said they will style cast members for certain things like their intro videos and challenges, but the cast is on their own for everything else. She had 30,000 followers before she went on the show and used ther following to get brands to donate free clothes to wear.

The show had a "no thong rule" when it was on CBS.

Clothing rules:

• No logos (of any kind) on clothes.
• You can wear designer sunglasses.

Can Love Islanders Use Their Phone?

Cast members are given phones on the show, but the devices are not dialed into the outside world (like social media or news apps).

Elizabeth Weber said each person gets a phone with their name on it, but it doesn't show you the date nor time. The only purpose of the device is to take photos around The Villa and scream "I Got A Text" when a producer sends them a text.

The cast has to put their personal phones, laptops and tables into a safe when they arrive on set, and they're not allowed to get their items back until their last episode aired.

The Casting Team Uses Tinder To Find People

People probably don't expect a casting director to direct a message to them through a dating app and offer an expenses-paid vacation to Fiji but it's real!

Season 1 winner Elizabeth Weber revealed that the team looks everywhere to find the perfect beach bodies for the show.

A lot of people get cast through DM but I've also seen it through Tinder, Linkedin [and] Hinge. Literally, they can find you anywhere. Most people actually think the DM for casting is a catfish.

She says the first round of casting is a brief chat where producers learn more about a potential contestant's dating history. If all goes well, the potential contestant will be flown out to Los Angeles to meet with the network and producers. This process is similar in the Bachelor Franchise.

Producers also make people take "written exams," STD tests and meet with a therapist.

Once selections are made, the show flies cast members out but doesn't tell them if they're original cast members or if they will come on the show later, so people like Rob Rausch, who was an original cast member on Season 6 after a short stint on season 5, had to sit in a hotel room for 40 days before getting any screentime.

Casting has no tolerance for any leaks.

If anything gets out they will cut you and you're gone.

Other Shocking Rules

Speaking of Rob Rausch, he told the Call Her Daddy podcast that contestants aren't even allowed to write down their personal feelings in a journal because producers want them to use the confessional room to capture it all on camera.

Elizabeth Weber revealed that you're not allowed to call home even if you're sick. She said when she fell ill they made her sleep in the hideaway with a medic from the show watching her.

Medics also hold on to all of your prescriptions and give them to you daily, she added.

In Love Island U.K., the Bombshells that walked in weren't allowed to share new information about the outside world, but they couldn't resist sharing details about developments in U.K. politics with the cast.

Elizabeth said women and men are split up when it's meal time. Producers know that watching people eat can be unpleasant for viewers to watch, so they don't film those parts. During chow time, cast members must avoid talking about any gossip until the cameras are rolling, and their mouths are clear or food.

You can have like, light conversations about like, stupid things but nothing pertaining to what's happening in the show.

Elizabeth added that in the past, people did not get to pick what they ate because it was hard to get food in Fiji.

Fiji cracks down on weed and CBD as well, and if a cast member lands at the airport with it, they are on their own.

There is no weed allowed and if you get caught at the airport coming in with it, they're like, basically in your contract it's like, "if they take you to jail there's nothing we can do about it."

Leslie Golden was kicked off Season 3 of Love Island USA for bringing a dab pen, which is a portable vape used for weed but this particular incident happened in Hawaii (not Fiji) where weed was still illegal.