Love Island Australia‘s Aaron Waters has responded to the bullying and body-shaming allegations that former Season Three co-star Courtney Stubbs made about him earlier this year.
The 25-year-old — who recently left the Love Island UK villa — defended himself to Where’s Your Head At? podcast hosts Anna McEvoy and Matt Zukowski and said he never bullied her.
“The video frustrated me because I didn’t do those things, we just didn’t get along, but I never bullied you,” Aaron said.
“Do you know what a bully is? The definition of a bully isn’t not getting along with someone.
“We just don’t get along. Not everyone gets along with everyone, so it was very like… what the fuck?”
Anna McEvoy pressed Aaron on the bullying allegations and whether there may have been a miscommunication with Courtney about what his preferences were for a partner.
“I wouldn’t call it a miscommunication,” he said.
“I had arguments with Courtney on the show, we never saw eye to eye, that’s Love Island, you argue with people.
“But, they are my preferences, I still want a girl who takes care of themselves and goes to the gym, but I never once told her that [I like a girl with clean skin] I would have never said I don’t like a girl because of their skin.”
Aaron said that bullying and derogatory comments aren’t tolerated by Love Island‘s production team ITV, and contestants are held to a three-strike policy.
“I didn’t say those things in there, ITV wouldn’t have allowed it, you get three warnings and I didn’t get one,” he said.
“If you make a derogatory comment you’re gone, so none of that ever happened.”
Courtney claimed that Aaron was a grade-A piece of shit to her in the Love Island villa in a series of TikTok videos posted in January.
@_courtneystubbs Enough is enough and it’s time i say my peace #AaronWater #LoveIsland2023 #Bullying #BodyShaming #SkinShaming
“He bullied me, belittled me,” she said.
“He skin-shamed me, he body-shamed me.”
Courtney’s revelation was prompted by a promo teasing the arrival of Aaron and Love Island Australia Season Two’s Jessie Wynter into the Love Island UK villa. The video detailed the Australian bombshells’ past experiences on the Aussie version of the show, with Aaron choosing to take aim at Courtney on a global scale.
“So the first girl that I coupled up with in the villa was my least favourite,” Aaron said in the video.
“Definitely wasn’t the girl for me, so I don’t beat around the bush.”
Upon waking up to the video on the official Love Island account (which has a following of 3.6 million, mind you), Courtney shared a series of TikTok videos detailing her experiences with Aaron in the Byron Bay villa. It was heartbreaking and blood-boiling all in one.
“He would constantly tell me to ‘fuck off’, to ‘shut up’ the whole show,” Courtney said
She claimed Aaron made it his “personal vendetta” to ensure every other man in the villa also saw her the way that he did.
@_courtneystubbs We can’t allow men to treat us like this anymore #AaronWater #LoveIsland #Bullying #BodyShaming #SkinShaming
Courtney said that Aaron made it clear he didn’t want to pursue her, providing unsolicited commentary about his preferences in the process.
“He said to me, ‘I like clean girls. Girls that, you know, who take care of their skin and skincare, and you know, you’re not really into that stuff.’,” she said.
“So he was referring to my acne.”
“So to have someone to point that out to you, I’m like, ‘Oh, great, guys are going to notice this the whole show’,” she tearfully explained.
Courtney claimed that Aaron followed this up by overtly body-shaming her.
@_courtneystubbs We can’t allow men to treat us like this anymore #AaronWater #LoveIsland #Bullying #BodyShaming #SkinShaming
“He goes, ‘I obviously like when girls take care of their bodies and they go to the gym and stuff like that’,” Courtney said as she broke down in tears.
“He straight-up — the first morning of the villa — shamed me for my skin and shamed me for my body. I literally bawled my eyes out for the whole of the first morning.”
In the third video, Courtney said that she had never done anything to Aaron although he had made multiple comments about her in the last year in public forums like podcasts and online. She said that she hopes Love Island UK would show Aaron’s true colours because Love Island Australia sure didn’t.
@_courtneystubbs True colours will show #AaronWater #LoveIsland #Bullying #BodyShaming #SkinShaming
It’s not the first time we’ve seen cooked behaviour on Love Island. In 2022 there was viewer backlash when Tasha Ghouri was bullied by the male contestants, who later apologised to her.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but women are already insecure about our appearances without the loaded commentary and unrealistic standards placed on us by men. How could we not be when society tells us that we need to look a certain way to have value in this world? How could we not be when men continually prefer women who are “thinner” and “cleaner”?
And don’t hide behind this bullshit of liking women who prioritise their health. Just because a woman has acne or curves, it doesn’t mean she’s not looking after herself.
