Love Island star Georgia Steel on the impact of trolling: ‘I felt like everyone hated me – it made me feel like I didn’t know myself’
“Hate and death threats and abuse, and personal, deep things. All the hate out there… I don’t think anyone can prepare you for that.”
Georgia Steel doesn’t find it easy talking about the trolling directed at her during her time on Love Island, but says it is an issue she needs to address.
The reality star rose to fame in 2018, when, aged 20, she appeared in the fourth series and earned her place among the show’s most memorable contestants. In January this year, with more than 1.6m followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, she returned to appear in a new “all stars” version of the show in South Africa.
Georgia Steel with Toby Aromolaran in Love Island: All Stars. Pic: ITV
She found herself at the centre of the drama after – shock! – flirting with someone who wasn’t her “partner” at the time, and eventually getting together with a different contestant, Toby Aromolaran, after he unceremoniously ditched the partner he was with without warning during a public recoupling, and declared his interest in Steel. (They left the show together, but she revealed last week he had called things off).
This is essentially the extent of her crimes. The reaction was so vicious that her family and management team, looking after her social media accounts while she was cut off from the real world, decided to step in, sharing this post.
To the uninitiated, the romances and fall-outs of 20-somethings who have spent a maximum of five weeks together might seem trivial, but viewers become invested. “It’s a reality show, it’s not real life,” Steel points out. “You’re not in a normal situation.”
Steel comes across as a confident, funny, glamorous young woman on TV. In person, she is still all of those things, but more fragile. Most of the hundreds of messages were deleted before she was reunited with her phone to save her from the extent of the cruelty, and she becomes tearful hearing the words her loved ones felt were necessary to make public.
“For the people I love to have witnessed those things, it is terrible, awful, and it does make me feel slightly responsible.”
Steel with her brother Alfie, dad Andrew and mum Sharon. Pic: Courtesy of Georgia Steel
‘A tidal wave of abuse’
Online trolling has been a rising problem for years and one that doesn’t appear to be going away. Anyone sending serious violent threats faces up to five years in prison – but despite the calls to “be kind”, the stories of abuse continue – as seen in recent weeks towards previous Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu following her time in the revived Celebrity Big Brother.
Then there was the trolling of Amber Heard during the Johnny Depp court cases, now the subject of a new investigative podcast. Most recently, the world has been given a grim reminder of the potential effects of online gossip and trolling following the Princess of Wales’s public announcement of her cancer diagnosis.
Anti-bullying and online abuse charities and organisations say the majority of trolling is directed at women, and Ofcom research in 2022 found that 60% of women were concerned by the issue, compared with 25% of men.
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Amber Heard, pictured in court in Virginia in 2022, was trolled online after being sued by her ex-husband Johnny Depp. Pic: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz
Research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate into the direct (private) Instagram messages of five prominent women, including Heard and Countdown’s Rachel Riley, found that around one in seven were abusive, either through misogynist comments or sending unsolicited sexual advances.
Founder and chief executive Imran Ahmed says it can be “traumatising to receive a tidal wave of abuse”, and that he has known “strong, empowered people who found themselves in a heap on their sofa, crying, because that’s just what it’s like to have thousands of people screaming swear words at you”.
Linda James, founder and chief executive of the BulliesOut charity, says trolling can be “relentless and dangerous”, and that “even the nicest, most reasonable, and mild-mannered people in real life” can exhibit trolling behaviour once they are online.
Steel says she was most upset knowing her friends and family had been sent abuse. Pic: ITV
‘You don’t know if the whole world hates you’
Most of the direct abuse sent to Steel, who celebrated her 26th birthday earlier this week, came through Instagram, but there were other “horrible” posts on TikTok and shared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), her team said. Steel is aware that being in the public eye means strangers will have opinions of her – but says there is a difference between opinion and threats and bullying.
“You don’t really know how to process it… you’re quite scared,” she says. “You don’t know if the whole world hates you – I felt like everyone hated me.”
The worst thing was knowing her family and friends had also been sent abuse, that they had seen the comments written about her. “It made me question everything I did,” she says.
“It made me feel like I didn’t know myself to a certain degree… My family, my friends, they had death threats. My mum got messages like, ‘How could you raise a girl like this?’ I just want to make the people that support and love me proud. I know that they still are. But it makes me worry that they’re not.”
For an influencer whose career revolves around social media, it has been a tricky balancing act trying to keep away from it all. But after finishing the show and getting her phone back, she turned it off and left it for a week.
Charities say trolling affects more women than men
“I needed to rebuild my confidence,” she says. “I spent it with my mum and my dad and my brother, and I just wanted reassurance constantly. ‘Have I done anything wrong? What could I have done better?'”
It’s sad to hear Steel say she accepts that to many viewers, she was the “villain” of this latest season of Love Island. She is, after all, a young woman who flirted and had her head turned, to use the Love Island lexicon – on a reality show that survives on flirting and contestants having their heads turned. She says Aromolaran did not receive the same level of abuse.
“I am still a person. I’m a [young] girl, I’m still learning my way. I’m not perfect. If anything, me making mistakes on a show, it shows that I’m genuine and that I’m real. But instead, it was kind of used against me… is it because I’m a woman? Is it double standards? I don’t know.”
Former Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu was trolled after appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. Pic: ITV
The anonymity is one of the hardest things to come to terms with. “It’s like going into a shop and wearing a balaclava and abusing someone… these people are hiding behind anonymous names and fake accounts. There’s definitely times when I’d be out and thinking, they’re looking at me… ‘Oh my God, is that one of the trolls?’ It makes it really scary because you just don’t know who they are.”
Steel says she does not blame ITV or Love Island for the trolling as they cannot control what people say online, and that support from the show’s producers “is always there if you need it”.
When the trolling against the star was announced, producers put out a statement urging viewers “to be kind when engaging in social media conversations about our Islanders, and to remember that they are real people with feelings”.
Trolling ‘bleeds over’ into real world
Love Island star Amy Hart gave evidence at an inquiry into influencing in 2021. Pic: Parliament Live TV
In recent years, the broadcaster has announced greater duty of care protocols for its reality show participants and last year implemented a ban on Love Island contestants’ social media accounts being active during their time on the show – although All Stars participants, as they already had public profiles, were given the option.
Steel thinks social media platforms should be doing more, and that the solution is simple.
“It would just be literally having an ID when you sign up to an account or having some proof of who you are, instead of constantly going behind a screen and being anonymous. That’s what I really don’t understand. I don’t understand how that’s allowed, if I’m honest.”
In its information on anti-bullying features and tools, Instagram says it is committed to protecting users and urges people to report anything that violates its guidelines so that action can be taken if necessary, while TikTok says it does not “allow language or behavior that harasses, humiliates, threatens, or doxxes anyone”.
X says it prohibits “behaviour and content that harasses, shames, or degrades others”, while Facebook also says it does not “tolerate this kind of behaviour because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected”.
Read more:
What is the Online Safety Act?
Alex George: Grief can destroy you – but can be a force for good
Steel with her cat, Oscar. Pic: Courtesy of Georgia Steel
Last year, the Online Safety Act was passed by MPs, requiring providers of online services to minimise the extent of illegal and harmful content. Once implemented, the act will require social media firms to enforce “stringent measures against criminal online abuse”, a government spokesperson said, including “proactively tackling exposure to illegal content that can disproportionately affect women and girls, including controlling and abusive behaviour”.
Before this can be enforced, new codes of practice and guidance have to be produced. A spokesperson for Ofcom told Sky News these are expected to be finalised around the end of the year, while further proposed measures “to protect children from sexist hate and abuse specifically” will be announced in May.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate says things need to change, and that online trolling and division can have real-world consequences.
“We have to stop this epidemic of abuse,” Mr Ahmed says. “It starts to bleed over and resocialise our real world as well, which is why we can see that relations in our society, our politics, our discourse are becoming more fragmented, more vicious, less productive and less conducive to the kind of democracy we want.”
‘That one comment could tip someone over the edge’
Love Island presenter Caroline Flack died in 2020. Pic: AP
Steel says she wants to speak out as she feels she is in a position where she is able to, with an “amazing” support system in her friends and family at home in York.
“I’m very lucky,” she says. “I want to admit: I got trolled really, really, really bad. And yeah, it really, really, really affected me. But I am okay. And some people, if they were in my position, might not be okay. I think some people are built stronger than others or some people have better foundations than others, and the ones that maybe don’t, they’re the ones that we really have to think about.”
Two former Love Island contestants, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, have ended their own lives. Gradon died in 2018, two years after appearing on the show; Thalassitis the following year, also two years after taking part.
Gradon had reportedly spoken about the “horrific” trolling she experienced in a radio interview in the months before her death, while Montana Brown, a contestant in Thalassitis’s season, urged people to “be a little bit nicer, little bit kinder“, following the inquest into his death.
It was the suicide of Love Island presenter Caroline Flack in 2020 that sparked the “be kind” encouragement on social media. But Steel isn’t convinced people are taking notice.
“Caroline presented my show in 2018 and I never expected that to happen,” she says. “As much as we talk about it and say it’s not okay, I think there actually needs to be something set in place, before it’s too late and something else happens, and then it’s just a vicious circle. It’s, ‘we’ll be kind for a bit, and then we’ll forget about it, and then someone else… then we’ll be kind for a bit again’. That circle needs to stop.”
She wants people to know how much abuse can hurt.
“I feel like maybe some [trolls] really want to see me down, which… I am. So you’ve won. But I will also prove a point that trolling can’t be allowed.”
Finally, she says she wants social media users to really, really think hard about anything they have written before pressing send.
“Would you say this to them if they were sat across the table? Would you say things to their family and their friends? Would you be happy if the consequences were really bad?
“It could just take that one comment that tips someone over the edge. Would you want to be accountable for that?”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Oasis are set to kick off their reunion tour in Cardiff this weekend, with thousands expected to descend on the Welsh capital.
The 41-date Oasis Live 25 tour begins in the city on Friday and Saturday, amid warnings for people to plan ahead before they travel.
The Gallagher brothers’ last performance together was in 2009, and the tour sold out within hours of its announcement last August, with fans eager to catch a glimpse of the reunion.
But where is the tour heading – and why was Cardiff chosen as the city where the brothers will perform for the first time together in almost 16 years?
When does the tour start and where is it heading?
After Cardiff, Oasis will go on to perform at Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin on their UK and Ireland leg of the tour.
See below for a full list of tour dates:
Principality Stadium, Cardiff. Pic: PA
Why was Cardiff picked as the first stop?
Asked on X in May why Cardiff was chosen as the location for the opening leg, Liam Gallagher said “because Cardiff is the bollox”.
Principality Stadium is a 74,500-seat venue, known as the home of Welsh rugby, which played host to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift concerts last year.
Businesses in the area are hoping the arrival of Oasis will bring an influx of trade to the city.
Gary Corp, manager of the City Arms, told Sky News that he was expecting the concert would “treble if not quadruple the footfall on the street”.
Meanwhile, Ethan John, events manager at Tiny Rebel, said Oasis choosing Cardiff to kick off their tour was “surreal” and that previous events such as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour had a “massive impact” on footfall.
What travel advice is there in Cardiff?
Train operators say trains will be busy and people should allow plenty of time for their journey home.
Georgie Wills, from Transport for Wales, said the company was “thrilled to welcome thousands to Cardiff this summer”.
“Look out for our queuing systems and travel tips – and let’s make it a safe and smooth experience for everyone,” she added.
Cardiff Council has confirmed that roads around the stadium will close from 12pm until 12am on both Friday and Saturday.
The road closures come into force three hours earlier than is planned for upcoming Stereophonics, Kendrick Lamar and Catfish and the Bottlemen concerts later this summer.
The Cardiff Bus Interchange will close at 3pm and Cardiff Queen Street railway station will close at 10pm (apart from accessible travel or journeys to Cardiff Bay).
Liam Gallagher (left) and Noel Gallagher (right). Pic: PA
What time does the show start and who are the support acts?
Principality Stadium’s doors open at 5pm on both Friday and Saturday.
The band will be supported by indie rock band Cast and Richard Ashcroft (who formed alternative rock band the Verve) in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin.
Cast start their Cardiff set at 6pm, followed by Richard Ashcroft at 7pm.
Oasis will take to the stage at 8.15pm, and should finish by 10.30pm.
American rock band Cage the Elephant will support Oasis in Canada, Mexico and at the Chicago gig.
They will be joined again by Cast for the East Rutherford and Pasadena dates.
Australian indie rock band Ball Park Music will support in Australia.
Are tickets still available for the shows?
The tour is sold out, but the band has said it is possible some additional tickets may be released.
In an Instagram post on 25 June, the band advised members of Oasismynet to “keep an eye” on their inbox.
The final releases would come “over the coming days” once production was “fine tuned”, the band said.
Read more from Sky News:
The Gallagher brothers back together
The story of the rock ‘n’ roll brothers so far
What’s the weather going to be like?
Cardiff is set to be cloudy with sunny intervals on Friday afternoon, with highs of 21C and lows of 15C.
On Saturday, however, it will be slightly cooler with light rain during the afternoon, before clearing up in the evening.
Entertainment
Oasis reunion: It felt like it might never happen – but the Gallagher brothers are finally back
Listening to Noel Gallagher over the years, for a long time it didn’t feel like this was part of the masterplan.
He has spoken several times of the difficult decision he made to quit Oasis in 2009. The band was his life and the choice not made lightly, but ending things then was the best thing for everyone, he told Sky Arts a few years ago. The fact they didn’t continue was a big part of the reason they are now “up there with all the greats”.
The older Gallagher brother was well aware that the years apart – the brothers’ often funny but frustrating feud, the unanswered question of whether they would ever bury the hatchet and the hope that maybe, one day, it might just happen – all amplified their legend.
The Gallagher brothers got together for this picture in July, their first photograph together in years. Pic: Simon Emmett
Rumours have come and gone over the years, propelled in no small part by messages from Liam Gallagher on social media. He often teased, but never made any secret of wanting to bring Oasis back. The sticking point seemed to be Noel.
But in 2022, Liam played gigs at Knebworth – the site of Oasis’s most famous, history-making gigs. Last year, he got in early to mark the anniversary of their debut album Definitely Maybe with his own solo tour, no sign of the man who wrote the songs.
Noel created the music; Liam brings it snarlingly, viscerally alive. Him doing those shows alone felt like it could be a death knell for a reunion. When asked about Liam by a fan during one of his shows with his current band, the High Flying Birds, last summer, Noel reportedly said his younger brother should be “thankful for my genius” and told the crowd: “Just remember who wrote all the f***ing songs.”
Pic: Oasis/Michael Spencer Jones
‘They hadn’t spoken in goodness knows how long’
Even last year’s new artwork for Definitely Maybe (pictured above), released for the 30th anniversary, showed a reworking of that famous album cover – shot at guitarist Bonehead’s house in Manchester – this time with the band members absent from the room. With no Liam on the floorboards, no Noel staring up at the spinning globe, it felt like a statement: Oasis really had left the building.
Designer Brian Cannon, who worked on the artwork for all of Oasis’s early music and now runs the Microdot memorabilia stores, says he was as surprised as anyone by the reunion announcement.
“A lot of people say to me, it’s all a big marketing ploy,” he says, of the brothers’ fall-out. “No, it isn’t, they genuinely hadn’t spoken to each other for goodness knows how long. And Noel’s got a very successful solo career that he’s very content with and doing very well. I didn’t see this coming, I really didn’t.”
Photographer Michael Spencer Jones, who captured the images for all the Oasis albums and singles in the band’s heyday, says the sibling rivalry was always there. “It’s such a major part of the potion that was Oasis.”
Read more:
Cool Britannia: Life in the UK in the ’90s
A timeline of Britpop’s most successful band
Noel Gallagher has had success with the High Flying Birds. Pic: Reuters/Dylan Martinez
But there had been whispers for months, reports from industry insiders saying it was only a matter of time. In January 2023, Noel announced his separation from his now ex-wife Sara MacDonald, who did not get on with Liam, leading to speculation he might become more open to making amends.
Then last year, following reports of shows booked for Wembley, fans once again pointed to teases from Liam on social media – “I never did like that word FORMER” he posted in the days before the announcement – and an interview given by Noel in which he spoke in complimentary terms about his little brother’s voice: “When I’d sing a song it would sound good. When he’d sing it, it would sound great.”
Neither of these things made a reunion a certainty. While Noel may not have liked his brother at times, he never underestimated the shared power their bristling sibling rivalry brought to Oasis. “I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without him, he wouldn’t have got anywhere without me,” he told journalists at an awards ceremony in 2019.
Liam Gallagher has been performing as a solo artist for several years. Pic: PA
‘The stars have aligned’ – but statement gives little away
Oasis in their heyday were like no other live band. The shows were electrifying, the energy raw, in an era of optimism and fun in the 1990s that the Gallagher brothers defined. In later years, Noel may not have been a fan of the Cool Britannia tag, but that’s exactly what it was.
So now, will this reunion just be about the gigs? Will there be new music? Could the Gallagher brothers even be friends again?
The reunion statement gave little away. “The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.” Further details said there was “no great revelatory moment”, but rather “the gradual realisation that the time is right” – but the Gallaghers have still not really addressed the small matter of not being on speaking terms for years. We want to know who reached out first? How did they finally come to an agreement? And what did their mum, Peggy, say about her sons finally getting their acts together?
Whatever has happened behind the scenes, the frost has definitely thawed. In 2020, Liam said Oasis had been offered £100m to reform – a claim quickly denied by Noel, who suggested the remark was a publicity move to promote a single. The deal they have signed now is worth millions. But even before the announcement was made, Liam was quick to put anyone suggesting this was only about the money in their place.
“Your attitude stinks” was his reply to anyone questioning their motives. Positivity received a different response: “Your attitude is BIBLICAL.”
Read more:
‘Everyone was out of control in the ’90s’
The ‘unsolvable conundrum’ of Oasis’s biggest album
You only have to look at the crowds at Liam’s solo shows – full of teenagers, as well as those of us who were there the first time round – to see how the music has filtered through generations. The singer has said several times he would like younger fans to see the full Oasis live experience.
Now, they just have to deliver.
“There’s two schools of thoughts on this and at one time I would have fallen into the latter,” says Cannon. “One being: great, yes, fantastic. The second: no, leave it be, let it lie, it’s gone, you might tarnish the past.
“But. We’re living through strange times in this country at the minute, globally as well. There’s a lot of division, recent events have been quite shocking. [A reunion] will undoubtedly bring a lot of happiness to a lot of people and I’m all in favour of a lot of people being happy. So, yeah, it’s got to be a good thing.”
“There should be an album, I think,” says Spencer Jones. “It would be great if there was more music to come.”
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of their second album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Both Noel and Liam will be well aware of the expectation, how much these shows mean to fans.
Get them wrong, and there’s the potential for the legacy, the memories, to be spoiled.
Get them right, and Oasis live forever – all over again.
Actor Michael Madsen, who starred in a number of Quentin Tarantino films, has died at the age of 67, according to Sky’s US partner NBC News.
Chicago-born Madsen died on Thursday morning from cardiac arrest, his manager, Ron Smith said.
He appeared in dozens of films during a career that spanned more than 40 years, with screen credits including Thelma and Louise, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco and Sin City.
But he was well known for his collaborations with Tarantino, who cast him in Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Tributes poured in for Madsen, whose career started in the 80s.
Captain America co-director Joe Russo posted a picture of Madsen in Reservoir Dogs and said on X: “Michael Madsen ALWAYS had bite. RIP.”
“In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films Resurrection Road, Concessions and Cookbook for Southern Housewives, and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life,” managers Susan Ferris and Ron Smith, and publicist Liz Rodriguez said in a statement.
“Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems, currently being edited. Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”
Michael Madsen played Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs. Pic: THA/Shutterstock
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