Why Did Yulissa Escobar Leave the Love Island Villa?

Less than one week into season seven of Love Island USA, we already have a scandal on our hands. On Wednesday’s episode, one of the contestants, Yulissa Escobar, was abruptly removed from the villa and taken out of Fiji after footage of her using a racial slur surfaced online. Here’s what we know.

Who is Yulissa Escobar?

On May 29, Peacock — the service that streams Love Island USA — shared the ten initial contenders heading to the villa, including Escobar, a 27-year-old real-estate and hospitality worker from Miami. Before the first episode of the show premiered on June 3, online sleuths dug up two old clips from a podcast Escobar appeared on, where she repeatedly used a racial slur. Shortly afterward, people unearthed a now-deleted TikTok, where Escobar complained about losing followers on social media because she was a Trump supporter. There was also a photo of her seemingly wearing a Make America Great Again hat backward floating around.

For obvious reasons, a lot of the show’s fans started calling for Escobar’s removal and vowed to vote her off.

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And did they?

Not exactly. While Love Island airs an episode a day (except for Wednesdays), it operates on a one- to two-day delay, so everything Escobar filmed up until the point she got the boot was included in the show. Halfway through episode two, Iain Stirling, the show’s narrator, announced mysteriously, “Yulissa has left the villa.” And that was that.

Has Escobar responded?

Like so many public figures who have come before her, Escobar took to Instagram to release a statement and apologize. “In those clips, I used a word I never should’ve used, a racial slur,” she wrote on Friday. “I used it ignorantly, not fully understanding the weight, history, or pain behind it. I wasn’t trying to be offensive or harmful, but I recognize now that intention doesn’t excuse impact. And the impact of that word is real. It’s tied to generations of trauma, and it is not mine to use.”

And what does Peacock have to say about all this?

The Cut reached out to a spokesperson for Peacock, who declined to comment on the situation.