Virgin Island participants hit back at claims they're being 'groomed' and 'exploited' by Channel 4

When Virgin Island first aired last year, it’s fair to say not a lot of us really knew what to expect.

Was this a bunch of virgins off to an island to sleep together? Was it a Channel 4 docuseries about a dying tribe where no one will sleep together?

No, in fact, the reality was a lot more insightful, certainly eye-opening and honestly, heart-warming. The participants had their lives changed by Virgin Island, learning how to be intimate, growing in self-confidence and facing their inner struggles head on.

And yet, as this new season rolls around, the criticism that Channel 4 is ‘exploiting’ the young people or the therapists are ‘grooming’ them has piped back up.

But the participants themselves say this couldn’t be further from the truth as they open up to LADbible.

Bertie admits he was initially sceptical of the show. (Channel 4)

One of this year’s cast of 12, self-described ‘Grade A Virgin’ Bertie admits that when he heard of the show last year, he thought: “What the bloody hell is this? What has Channel 4 done now?”

But he gave it a watch and was soon ‘inspired’ by the journeys of the participants, realising he could ‘relate to quite a few of them’ and ended up convinced to apply himself.

“Virgin Island comes up and people are going to think ‘oh it's just like those shows [Married at First Sight, Love Island, Naked Attraction] and they're just going to exploit a bunch of virgins’,” the 24-year-old says. “And it’s not like that at all; we are looked after so well.”

The event volunteer, who is autistic, praises the ‘amazing welfare team’ who always ensured the participants ‘were alright and were in a safe environment throughout’.

“The therapists as well always said, ‘If you don’t want to do this particular thing you do not have to, it’s completely fine’.

“We felt very safe on the programme, we felt very secure and it genuinely was a good time,” he explains.

Joy worried it might seem 'controversial' to be going on the show but has had a positive response. (Channel 4)

While she hadn’t actually watched the show until submitting her application, Joy also wants to rubbish the ‘biggest misconception that we are being groomed by the therapists’.

“[That] is just absolutely not the case at all,” the 22-year-old explains. “I would say that there was definitely very professional boundaries in place with everyone and their therapists. And also, the unsexy part that you don't see is the three times that you have to consent to certain acts happening before it happens, off camera.”

Joy says participants had to give ‘full consent’ in advance so they ‘wouldn’t be surprised by anything’.

She also adds that since she announced she was going on the show, the reaction ‘has been overwhelmingly positive’.

That’s the same for Ellen, this year’s oldest participant at 35 years old. She hoped to learn how to both ‘give and receive pleasure’ by going on the show but while she was there, found ‘lots of things came up that I wasn’t really thinking about at all’.

At 35, Ellen is the oldest participant on the show yet. (Channel 4)

“It costs thousands to go through all of this therapy, and I just wouldn’t have had the opportunity otherwise,” she says. “So I’m just super grateful.”

Rubbishing the misconception that ‘people think 12 participants turn up to have sex with each other or with the therapist’, Ellen hopes people will be moved by their stories.

And on that note, Bertie also wants to clear up that the show really is ‘genuine therapy’ that ‘just happens to involve TV cameras’. “We don’t do this for fame,” he adds. “We do this to help our own problems that we have in terms of intimacy and relationships.

“These are people that want help and they’re brave people that want to get genuine help, and if it means going on national TV to get the help then so be it.”

Virgin Island returns to Channel 4 from tonight (27 April) at 9pm.