Love Island's Joe Garratt insists he wasn't 'manipulative or abusive' towards Lucie Donlan as he refuses to apologise

The sandwich man has broken his silence on recent claims
Speaking out: Joe Garratt has broken his silence over claims he mistreated Lucie Donlan
ITV
Natasha Sporn20 June 2019
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Love Island’s Joe Garratt has insisted he didn’t “manipulate or abuse” Lucie Donlan in the villa after his behaviour sparked a fierce backlash.

“I didn’t manipulate or abuse her,” Garratt told The Sun Online. “I am gutted that it has been perceived in that way because it wasn’t like that at all.”

The 22-year-old said he “had Lucie’s best interests at heart” and claimed he wanted to do “anything” to help her bond with the other girls because “she had a hard time in there”.

Not sorry: Joe Garratt has refused to apologise for his relationship with Lucie
ITV

Garratt was criticised by Love Island fans after he told Lucie that he didn’t like her friendship with Tommy Fury, who had briefly “stolen” her from their couple in week one, and urged her to become closer to the other girls.

“I am not going to say sorry,” he said defiantly. “I may have worded things wrong and the cameras are on you 24/7. I may have slipped up a bit but I am only human.”

Over: Joe Garratt and Lucie Donlan were split apart by the public
ITV

Garratt branded himself “young and inexperienced” and said he hoped that people “would see him for who he genuinely is”.

Concerns over Garratt’s behaviour were first raised after Lucie coupled up with Tommy after his late entrance, with Garratt suggesting that he “didn’t think she would do that to him”.

They wrote: “Speaking on behalf of Joe’s best friends, we acknowledge Joe will come out to some warranted criticism. However, we deem the majority of it to be unfair and non-representative of Joe’s true character.

“The producers have the ability to show someone in a particular light, choosing just 45 mins of footage from 24 hours to tell a certain narrative.”

The Instagram post was liked by several names, including host Caroline Flack. Previous Love Island stars have also jumped to support him.

Referring to criticism of Garratt from charity Women’s Aid, series three star Kady McDermott wrote: “Being a woman myself I don’t think this is fair. He was obviously just jealous and felt insecure, as tommy and Lucy did have a bit of a past.

“Jo seems like a nice normal young boy who wears his heart and his sleeve. [sic]”

Love Island 2019: Series 5 - In pictures

1/49

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in