Love Island USA star Nic Vansteenberghe has opened up about fellow participant Cierra Ortega’s shock exit, after posts of her using racial slurs surfaced online while she was in the villa.
Nic was coupled up with Cierra and had just “closed off” their coupling before Cierra was forced to leave the villa.
“I had to talk with myself and behind-the-scenes kind of stuff, and I also told myself, ‘If whatever is happening in the outside world is something I don’t align with, then that could be perceived as me supporting that,'” he said on the Chicks in the Office podcast. “So I did give myself the chance to stay in the villa.”
Cierra’s recent posts showed her using a word that is derogatory towards the Asian community.
“Coming out now, seeing what it is and whether or not those values believe in what I value, now I can kind of have a better perception on it,” Nic explained.
Cierra issued a public apology last week.
“I completely agree with the network’s decision to remove me from the villa,” she said. “This is something that deserved punishment, and the punishment has absolutely been received, for sure. I think the backlash has obviously been very hard to deal with, but I understand that people are kind of confused on why I would have even said it.”