Reality TV just got a little bit too real for Zara Holland, who is better known in the past year for taking top prize in the Miss Great Britain pageant in 2015. Her participation in the ITV2 series Love Island landed her in hot water with the Miss Great Britain Organisation when she was apparently filmed having sex with a showmate. Love Island is a nationally televised series, and the organization felt that the only course of action was to de-crown Miss Great Britain and award the title to Holland's runner-up.
The organization received quite the feedback following Zara Holland's sex scene on Love Island, which inevitably prompted the de-crowning, according to a tweet from the official Miss Great Britain account. Apparently, Holland's actions on the reality show did not uphold the responsibility expected of her title as Miss Great Britain and did not set a good example as a positive female role model. As such, the crown and title go to Holland's runner-up Deone Robertson. Robertson had originally held the title of Miss North Lanarkshire, so Miss Great Britain is a big step up for her.
Unfortunately for Zara Holland, she does not seem to have gotten the news of her de-crowning from the organization itself. Those involved expressed an intent to speak with Holland upon her return to the United Kingdom following the end of her time on Love Island, which films on the Mediterranean island of Majorca. The Miss Great Britain Organisation evidently does not have a problem with Holland having sex, but does not condone its representatives having sex on national television.
But no, Holland found out the bad news from her Love Island producers, according to The Sun. She apparently reacted well to the news, and viewers will be able to actually see her reaction on the show this Sunday night.
For those unaware, Love Island is a dating reality show that seems to exist for the purpose of setting up scenarios in which pretty people might have sex on national television. Contestants compete against one another with the ultimate goal of taking home £50,000, and viewers get to vote on who gets kicked off the island each week. The contestants are matched with different partners throughout the series, and there's no saying who are going to click with each other as well as with the audience. Zara Holland evidently really clicked with fellow contestant Alex Bowen.
It's a shame for Zara Holland that she lost her crown as Miss Great Britain, especially since nothing particularly explicit was shown on Love Island. She's still in the running to win on the reality show, and something tells me that she'll have much more of a long-term legacy for being de-crowned than she would for being one of two winners in the second season of a series called Love Island.
2015-2016 has featured plenty of unpleasant news about pageantry, so hopefully Zara Holland will be able to move past her de-crowning without too much ugliness. At least she didn't have to deal with a host who managed to crown the wrong winner at the awards ceremony.
Best of luck to the new Miss Great Britain, I suppose. Getting the crown must be a dream come true for her, but I have to imagine that she would have rather have won the title based on her pageant performance than because the first winner became too scandalous for the organization to endorse. To see what you can catch on the small screen on the American side of the pond, check out our summer TV premiere schedule.
