Love Island USA viewers were expecting bombshell Alannah Keyser to be removed from Casa Amor after her off screen racism scandal — but was she?
Alannah remained in the villa during the Tuesday, June 23, episode of the Peacock show, but her screentime was significantly decreased. As a result, Zach Georgiou — whom she connected with the most — also made virtually no appearances on screen.
Alannah’s journey in Casa Amor came to an end after she faced backlash for a resurfaced video that allegedly showed her using a racial slur. After her debut, social media users quickly took to all platforms to share a video where a woman appeared to use the N-word while singing along to a song.
Amid the scandal, Alannah’s friend Nick Rogers spoke out about the situation.
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“She is very caring and the nicest person ever. She has never exhibited any racist traits around me at all,” Nick said via TikTok on Monday, June 22. “I have never once considered the fact that Alannah would be someone who’d be racist.”
Nick claimed news screenshots of Alannah’s past correspondences that have since been circulating online are “fake,” adding, “I just can’t imagine, me knowing Alannah, her posting that on social media. And we all know with this AI and everything like that, it could be very easy for these types of scenarios to be manipulated.”
Nick went on to explain why he was publicly defending Alannah.
“I looked at the video myself, and I cannot tell whether she is saying the N-word or not,” he added. “That is a very touchy subject that I know … has been a big conversation over the years and obviously I do agree that it is very inappropriate for someone who is not a person of color or Black to use that word.”
Nick noted, however, that “it was a different time” when the video was filmed. “If we’re being completely honest, that word was used a lot more freely in past years, like around 2017, 2016, it was kind of a thing,” he continued. “I grew up in a high school that was very diverse, and a lot of people said the word. It doesn’t make it right, but I just wanted to come on here and state my side of the story.”
He concluded: “I think Alannah is a great person, and I would not use any of this information that could be false in order to make a predetermined judgment of her character.”
Earlier this season, another contestant made headlines when Vasana Montgomery was cut from season 8 of Love Island USA after resurfaced social media posts showed her using a slur. She was removed from the show before she got a chance to enter the villa. Both clips were leaked from her private social media, which meant producers weren’t privy to the posts while casting the season.
“I want to address a couple videos from my teen years that have recently resurfaced,” she wrote via her Instagram Story in June. “In those videos, I used a racial slur. I am embarrassed and disappointed by my words.”
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The Peacock dating show has previously weathered similar issues with Islanders when Yulissa Escobar left days into the experience in season 7 after clips of her using racial slurs on a podcast circulated online.
Cierra Ortega also faced backlash when a resurfaced social media post showed her using a slur. She was pulled from the villa and later issued an apology for her posts.
New episodes of Love Island USA are released six days a week — except for Wednesdays — on Peacock.
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