Love Island’s Shakira reveals heartbreaking doubts she experienced before joining the show
Love Island star Shakira Khan has heartbreakingly revealed that she feared that her experience on the show ‘wouldn’t go well’ because of her ethnicity.
Shakira had a rollercoaster journey in the villa, from being caught up in a messy love triangle with Helena Ford and Harry Cooksley to threatening to quit after ending things with Conor Phillips. Now, in a candid interview with i-D magazine, she has opened up about the unease she felt before entering the show and the low expectations she had because of how she looks.
Joining her in the conversation were fellow islanders and fan favourites, Toni Laites and Yasmin Pettet, who also reflected on their journey inside the villa as they step into the limelight together.
Speaking to i-D, Shakira opened up about her Pakistani-English heritage and how she felt ahead of joining the show: “I went to a predominantly white high school, I was not the beauty standard, so I was thinking, ‘What have I signed up for?’”
“Everyone’s gonna love the blonde hair, blue-eyed girls, we see year in year out on Love Island,” she continued. “I thought, based on initial attraction, it wasn’t going to go well for me, but I was pleasantly surprised.”
Later in the interview, Shakira shared her aspirations to pursue acting and become a “role model for younger girls in the huge community of South Asian people in the UK.”
Many Love Island fans have praised Shakira for not only her honesty but for being a powerful representation for women of colour. One commented: “When I say Shakira was one of the best reps for women of colour we’ve ever had on Love Island, I mean it.”
One penned: “Go all the way OFFFFF seeing a mixed white/pakistani girlie on screen for maybe the first time ever was a MOMENT.”
Another said: “I was rooting for you the whole time because I saw your beauty and honesty through and through!”
While Shakira didn’t talk about her ethnicity on the show, fellow islander Emma Munro who is also half English, half Pakistani shared it was something they often bonded over.
After Emma was dumped from the show, she did a Q&A where she was asked: “Did you and Shakira ever talk about your Pakistani heritage in the villa?”
She responded: “Yes, I love this question because we talked about it all the time. We’d shock ourselves at how many similarities we had it was quite funny.”
