Love Island's Michael Griffiths claims show's editing prompted 'stab threats'
Love Island 's Michael Griffiths has claimed that the edits used on the ITV2 show villainised him so much that he received death threats.
The reality TV star, who found fame found on the dating show in 2019, famously dumped fan favourite and eventual winner Amber Gill for Joanna Chimonides and received a lot of criticism for the move.
Now appearing on MTV’s Ex On The Beach, Griffiths opened up about the headline-making moments as he discussed his reality show experiences on The Reality Tea podcast.
He voiced his dislike of being labelled the 2019 "villain of the villa", which he claimed led to threatening messages and hatred from the public.
Griffiths claimed: "I had people sending me pictures of my house and the registration of my car.
"They were like, if I see you in the street, I'm going to stab you."
The former firefighter, who hails from Liverpool, also claimed that Chimonides' exit from the villa was edited in a way that did not show his attempts to leave with her.
He explained: "I was planning to leave at that point but was told that I didn't say that on camera, so I, therefore, had to stay."
Although, later in the episode, he also shared that he was happy he remained in the villa as it gave him an opportunity to set the record straight with Gill, who was nursing a broken heart over their break-up.
He continued: "I'm happy that I did stay because I was able to make things up with Amber.
"I did have feelings for her, but it was the friendship that we had during the first weeks.
"The first weeks, we were just constantly together just laughing all the time.
"Similar sort of banter. So that's what I missed because we were always laughing."
Standard Online has contacted Love Island for further comment.
Elsewhere in the episode, Love Island 2018 star Ellie Brown confirmed that she entered into a relationship with Griffiths while they filmed scenes for Celebrity Ex On The Beach.
Brown confirmed that they coupled up after she saw a new side to him on the MTV reality show - one she said people did not see on Love Island in 2019.
However, they decided to not go further with their romance in order to prevent anyone’s feelings from getting hurt.
Celebrity Ex On The Beach launched this week on MTV and is billed as the celebrity version for the 11th series because, for the first time, it features a set of famous cast members including TV personality Calum Best, Olympic athlete Ashley McKenzie, Love Island Georgia Harrison and The Valleys star Lateysha Grace.
Michael and Ellie are on The Reality Tea podcast, you can listen to the full chat here.
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