Love Islander who made explicit remark to Molly-Mae explains what really happened after he was booted

A former contestant on hit reality series Love Island has opened up about one of the biggest scandals to have erupted from the show.

Sherif Lanre appeared on season five of Love Island, lasting for nine days in the villa before he was suddenly ejected, leaving fans confused by his sudden and seemingly unexplained exit.

It would later emerge that Sherif was kicked out of the villa after an incident in which he had accidentally kicked Molly-Mae Hague in the crotch while the pair were play-fighting in an incident which has gone down in one of the biggest moments on the show.

After the incident, Sherif had joked about it, calling it a 'c**t punt', but things took a serious turn when he was later woken and informed he would need to leave the villa immediately.

Speaking to The Sun, he said: “We laughed and joked about it. It wasn’t cynical or malicious. No one was hurt. We all went to bed."

He added: “I was woken up separately from everyone else. I can’t tell you what time it was or how long before the normal waking up time it was.

The incident also involved Molly-Mae Hague (Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Images for evian UK)

“But yeah, I got woken up separate from everybody else and taken upstairs to the beach hut.”

There, he told the outlet that he was met by 'two directors or executive producers', who questioned him about the incident, with the scenario of being woken late night leaving him 'discombobulated'.

He revealed that they had asked him if he thought what had happened was 'acceptable', and that in his 'discombobulated' state, Sherif 'sort of answered ‘no’.'

At that point, he claimed that the TV producers had informed him that he was going to be removed from the villa, with immediate effect.

“Long story short – I didn’t get to pack my stuff, I didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody," he said.

“I literally left from the beach hut straight out the front door. They packed my stuff."

After being told he was being kicked off, he described how he was 'taken to another location' for the night, and then flown back the following morning along with an executive producer.

Sherif appeared in season five of the revived series (ITV)

Sherif said that he had never had the chance to speak to Molly-Mae directly about the incident, and says he believes she did not make any formal complaint as they had gone directly to bed with the other Islanders after the incident and there was no way that she could have spoken to producers in the time between the incident and his ejection.

“In my logic, I genuinely believe she never complained or asked for me to come off of the show," he said.

Sherif also said that ITV gave him security for a week and therapy sessions due to how he left the show, describing it as 'on paper a decent amount of support'.

Nonetheless, he does not appear to bear any grudge with ITV, saying: “For me personally, it is water under the bridge."

For her part, Molly-Mae previously said that she does not harbour any ill-will towards Sherif over the incident.

Speaking in 2019 after the series concluded, she said: “Is there any beef with me and Sherif? No absolutely not. No beef with me and Sherif.

"I've not got my phone back yet, I've not even spoken to Sherif but there's absolutely no beef between me and Sherif. Love the boy to pieces."

LADBible has approached ITV for comment.