GET GOBBY WITH BOBBY! - ‘Love Island has made dating more complicated'

Reality star Sharon Gaffka on finding The One and the challenges of fame

- BOBBY NORRIS

As the dust settles on Love Island 2021, 25-year-old Sharon Gaffka is getting to grips with celebrity life.

The civil servant had a short-lived romance with fellow Islander Aaron Francis, 24, before Hugo Hammond, 25, put her in the friend zone during her three-week stint in the villa.

Now, Sharon is still very much looking forward to meeting The One – but she thinks it might be a bit more tricky now that she’s firmly in the public eye.

“I went out for drinks with [fellow Islander] Chuggs as friends, with his friends, and that was in the newspaper. Is every date I go on going to be in the paper?” she asks me as we catch up over the phone.

Outspoken Sharon kept it real with her frank chats on the ITV2 show and tells me that scenes discussing her sexuality weren’t aired.

Here, she opens up about the difficulties of finding love in the public eye, being open to a relationship with a woman and the horrendous trolling she’s suffered...

Hi, Sharon. Have you had a manic few weeks?

Something like that. I feel like I’m trying to catch up on sleep but as much as I try, it never actually happens.

What’s the Love Island WhatsApp group been saying since? Have the notifications been crazy?

It’s been going insane. We’ve been sending memes of each other to each other. There’s loads of TikToks of where Chloe [Burrows] and Toby [Aromolaran] started fighting and she was saying “He’s mugging me off” – one person did a remix of Chloe saying that with all the Islanders dancing. I think Chloe loves it. She’s got a good personality and sense of humour, so I think she found it hilarious.

What have people’s reactions been like, watching it all back?