Just days before the Love Island USA season 8 premiere, a cast member was dismissed after two videos surfaced of the woman using a racial slur. Once Peacock dropped the cast list across all social media platforms, fans of the reality TV show began digging into all the cast members’ pasts.
Love Islander Removed
Vasana Montgomery from Beaverton, Oregon, has been removed from Love Island USA’s season 8 just three days before the first episode was scheduled to premiere. This is a slight change from last season’s cast member, Yulissa Escobar, who was removed abruptly after the first episode aired.
Love Island producers have set a clear precedent that racism and the use of racial slurs on and off the show, no matter how long ago, will not be tolerated. When the videos of 25-year-old Montgomery surfaced showing her using the N-word on two separate occasions, producers quickly took action.
The Vetting Process
A Peacock spokesperson cleared up some uncertainty about the show’s vetting process since many were concerned about how she was selected if the videos existed, and led viewers to wonder how many other things they missed during casting.
According to the Peacock spokesperson, the videos were privately owned and released publicly after Montgomery was announced on the show. They had no way of knowing they existed during the vetting process, but they acted swiftly to avoid last season’s mistakes.
How Will Episode 1 Look?
I, like many other fans of the Love Island franchise, am curious to see how the first episode is, considering the show films in real time, only delayed a day or two between airings, besides the first one, which includes some background interviews that occur beforehand.
Will they work to remove her introduction or edit her out of the overall opening scene? Did they take notes from last year after having to disqualify two cast members for racial slurs, and keep backups in case history were to repeat itself?
Previous Love Islanders Removed
On Love Island USA season 7, two cast members were removed for using a racial slur: Yulissa Escobar and Cierra Ortega. In June 2025, Escobar did not last the first night before being removed for a clip that surfaced after being in the villa of her repeatedly uttering the N-word.
Her exit was addressed bluntly and as if it were not significant. Escobar issued an apology after being removed from the villa. But she appeared on several podcasts, claiming that her actions were not as bad as people made them out to be, and shared her true feelings on social media.
Only a month after Escobar’s abrupt departure, a fellow islander, Cierra Ortega, who was in a strong couple with Nic Vansteenberghe, was removed after several old social media posts appeared of her using an offensive Asian racial slur.
Cierra Ortega Kicked Off
Love Island USA’s narrator, Iain Stirling, announced on Episode 30 that Ortega left “due to a personal situation.” Many fans speculated after her departure that they could hear her screaming bloody murder, refusing to leave, during one of the episodes.
However, it was later revealed that other islanders, Huda Mustafa and Iris Kendall, were singing along to a pop song in the bathroom.
Ortega issued an “accountability” statement on social media rather than an apology video; she felt that because she did not know better at the time she used the word, there was nothing to apologize for.
“This is an accountability video. I do want to hold my hands up and say that I take accountability for using the word, but I do want it to be known that I genuinely had no idea that it was a slur. I had no idea of its meaning,” she said.
Love Island Season 8
Love Island season 8 is scheduled to premiere on June 2, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. PT, with daily episodes except on Wednesdays.
The remaining islanders who are set to appear and have yet to have incriminating videos of them posted online are: Aniya Harvey of Tyrone, Georgia, Beatriz Hatz of San Diego, California, Bryce Dettloff of Los Angeles, California, Gabriel Vasconcelos of Miami, Florida, KC Chandler of Fresno, California, Kenzie Annis of Kennesaw, Georgia, Melanie Moreno of Los Angeles, California, Sean Reifel of Easton, Pennsylvania, Sincere Rhea of Cape May, New Jersey, Trinity Tatum of Newport News, Virginia and Zach Georgiou of Birmingham, England.
