Former Love Island USA contestant Yulissa Escobar has opened up about her unceremonious exit from the show’s seventh season after videos of her making racial slurs resurfaced online.
Escobar, who was one of 10 original singletons to join the reality series’ current season, was quietly removed last month in episode two. At the time, the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, simply stated that “Yulissa has left the villa,” without further elaborating.
It was later reported that her departure came amid immense fan backlash over old podcast clips showing her using the N-word.
The Miami-born entrepreneur has now spoken out in a new TikTok video to share the “real story” of her exit.
She prefaced the video, admitting that while she “can’t share certain things,” she “will share the majority of what happened.”
“So, regular ass day. I did not wake up in the middle of the night, they didn’t get me in the f***ing morning. They didn’t drag my ass out of bed,” Escobar explained.
She said she was sitting and waiting with the other contestants for the arrival of bombshells Cierra and Charlie, when she was then called to the front to meet with the producers, expecting it was just to film a confessional.
But she soon realized “something serious was happening” when a producer asked her to take off her mic.
“I honestly got scared, I thought something was happening with a family member or something. I didn’t know what was going on,” Escobar said. “They didn’t really tell me anything, they just said, you know, a video resurfaced [on the] internet and it’s not looking too good.”
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She explained that at that point, because she didn’t have her phone, she wasn’t sure what video they were referring to.
After the producers confirmed she was being sent home, she was taken to a hotel and left without her phone for two days while awaiting the release of the two episodes she appeared in.
During that time, she “was losing my f***ing mind because I didn’t know what was going on. I just knew that there was a video out there.
“So finally, I got my phone back, and when I got my phone back, I was like, ‘Holy s*** no way,’ and it was a lot. It was a lot to take in,” she said, adding that she continued to frantically search her name on the web.
“And I was like, f***, no. I can’t believe people think I’m racist. I mean, I get it, I said a word that I should have not said,” Escobar acknowledged.
“I wish I would have never said that,” she said. “It is what it is. I can’t go back in time. I am sorry that I said that word.”
Escobar previously addressed the controversy in a June Instagram post, apologizing for using “a word I never should’ve used, a racial slur.”
“I used it ignorantly, not fully understanding the weight, history, or pain behind it. I wasn’t trying to be offensive or harmful, but I recognize now that intention doesn’t excuse impact. And the impact of that word is real. It’s tied to generations of trauma, and it is not mine to use,” she wrote.
“At the time, I was speaking casually in conversation, not thinking deeply or critically about what I was saying. But that doesn’t take away from how wrong it was. The truth is, I didn’t know better then, but I do now. I’ve taken the time to reflect, to learn, and to grow from that moment.”
