Multiple ‘I Kissed a Girl’ Contestants Say Show Omitted Storylines Involving Castmates of Color

Several cast members from series 2 of the now-canceled sapphic reality dating show I Kissed a Girl have alleged that the final edit of the show that aired on the BBC depicted them in ways that they felt were racist and at times censorious, according to public posts they have made on social media. The outpouring of cast experiences began when Lindsey, referred to by her first name on the show and as Lindsey Amelie on social media, posted a nearly 90-minute-long video to YouTube on October 18 in which she said she experienced racism and anti-Blackness from cast and crew while filming, along with behavior that she felt disrespected her sexual fluidity. She also alleged that she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed cast member at a vacation rental after filming wrapped during a getaway unconnected to the production of the show. - YouTube www.youtube.com In the video , Lindsey described a filming environment in which she felt like both fellow castmates and members of the production crew were excluding her. When the show aired, she said key conversations on race and Blackness did not appear in the edit. She also said members of the production team questioned her boundaries on intimacy in the masseria, and ultimately disregarded her experience as a Black woman when she raised concerns. “One of the most exhausting things about experiencing racism is the expectation that you must always be prepared to explain it, prove it, soften it, and make it understandable to people who may never have to think about it themselves,” she said in the video. The post prompted other cast members of color to expand on their own experiences with filming, adding their opinions on the show’s final edit. Asked about Lindsey’s video by Them , a BBC spokesperson commented, “ I Kissed A Girl is, and always has been, a dating show with inclusivity at its heart. The BBC and the producers of the show are taking these allegations extremely seriously and we do not tolerate discrimination of any form.” Production company Two Four referred to the BBC’s statement. To understand what everyone from the final season of the erstwhile BBC reality dating show is talking about, read on. What did Lindsey from I Kissed a Girl say in her video? The premise of I Kissed a Girl follows a group of queer people, mostly women, who live together in an Italian masseria during the summer. The first episode pairs 10 initial contestants off with each other, and they kiss in the opening scene without having previously met, hence the title. Similar to Love Island , the pairings then participate in a series of compatibility games to test their bond — and to see if any of them want to switch and pursue other connections instead. The stakes are heightened because those left without someone to smooch are then eliminated during “kiss-offs” in which contestants either choose to stay in their pairings or “save their kiss” for another person. To make the game messier, additional contestants are introduced as the summer continues, opening up options and opportunities for breakups. Lindsey said her negative experience began on day one. In the opening episode, contestants share their personal identities, which Lindsey said became a point of contention between her, production, and even several castmates because she chooses not to label her sexuality. She said some castmates even implied, “It’s because you don’t know yourself.” “My sexuality is not up for debate,” Lindsey said in the video. “As a queer community, I really think we need to unpack the way we approach bisexuality or people who date multiple genders in general.” Lindsey was initially paired with Renee, a stem from North London, but their connection dissolved early on in the season. After the first round of new contestants entered “the masse,” Lindsey coupled up with Blessing, a professional soccer player and stud from Ireland. Their connection on screen appeared rocky, which Lindsey addressed in her video, claiming a producer pressured her to act otherwise. “One of the situations that affected me most was the situation with the bed sharing,” Lindsey said. She then explained that throughout the show, couples who want to sleep in the same bed can push their beds together. She opted to not push her bed together with her connection Blessing, which Lindsey alleged was met with questions from production. She said, “I was asked quite a lot by one specific producer — not gonna say her name but she knows who she is. She asked me why I don’t want to push my bed together with the person I’m coupled up with. I then proceeded to say that I don’t feel comfortable doing that. And then I was met with the question of if I have an issue with intimacy.” “My ‘no’ wasn’t enough,” she said. Lindsey said she then became distressed. Blessing, she says, was assuring in that moment and said Lindsey didn’t need to listen to the producers. “I do appreciate that, I will give her that, and I thank her for that,” she said. Following this incident, however, Lindsey said the same producer was “very hostile” toward her. Despite there being seven contestants of color throughout the season, Lindsey said she felt production cut important discussions on race and racism in the queer community from the final edit. As an example, she said a conversation about African identities ended up on the cutting room floor. “How am I gonna ask an executive producer about how conversations about my Blackness and my Africaness were excluded out of the show and her response is, ‘Babe, if it was interesting it would have been included,’” she said. What did Lindsey say about her I Kissed a Girl castmates? In addition to her allegations about production, Lindsey said she felt at times as though her fellow castmates contributed to an atmosphere of racist exclusion within the masseria. One example included a moment in which she said a cast member turned off an Amapiano song, a South African music style, after letting other songs play prior to that. She added that after she was intimate with another cast member and they went downstairs to join other contestants, an unnamed cast mate said, “You went and fucked Lindsey. Disgusting. You’re disgusting. Did you even wash your hands?” “Now, I ask you, why do you think she said that?” she said in her video, suggesting that the alleged insult had a racialized connotation. “Why do you think she asked somebody after sleeping with moi — glorious beautiful moi — why she asked if she had washed her hands and called her disgusting?” Lidnsey did not attribute specific names to the overwhelming majority of the interpersonal allegations included in her account. She said this extended beyond behavior in the masseria, carrying over into a cast group chat after filming ended, including an instance when she says a cast member was mocked for having Malcolm X phone wallpaper. Lindsey said she left the group chat following the incidents. Beyond the group chat, Lindsey says that the most traumatic experience occurred after filming ended, during a group trip that was unrelated to the production of the show itself. After a night out at an AirBnb she had rented with other cast members, Lindsey said she blacked out after drinking alcohol and couldn’t remember the night, only to be told by an unnamed cast member the next morning that they had had sex. Lindsey said that she expressed distress to Almayra and another unnamed castmate after the alleged sexual assault occurred; while Lindsey said Almayra reacted with compassion, Lindsey said an unnamed cast member told her that sometimes “you sleep with someone and you regret it later.” “Consent must be freely given,” she said in her video. “A person who is unconscious cannot give consent. But when a person has blacked out, cannot recall events, and is told afterwards that sex has occurred, that is a serious situation that deserves careful compassionate attention, not a dismissive comment about regret.” She finished her video by stating that it would be her last time commenting on the show. Them reached out before publication and did not hear back. “The expectation that Black women must remain composed, gracious, and accommodating even when we feel uncomfortable is disgusting,” she concluded. How did the other cast members respond? Under Lindsey’s YouTube video, Sophie and Josie, the last two contestants to walk into the masseria, voiced their support. “Proud of you. Stand with you. Hear you. All the way girl,” Josie wrote. “You’re incredibly eloquent and brave. Support you always girl,” Sophie wrote. Other castmates posted statements online touching on their experience in the masseria and their feelings about the final edit. Screenshots of Instagram stories widely recirculating on social media show several cast members agreeing with Lindsey’s perception that the final edit had left out conversations on race, culture, and religion. Almayra Shah, a model and actor, wrote that while she had extensive conversations about queerness and Islam in the massaeria, her experience as a queer Muslim was reduced to a short clip. She also said she experienced Islamophobia from viewers once the show came out. “Thank you for being brave enough to speak about the treatment you experienced from that broadcasting organisation and to call out the racism, Islamaphobia, and patriarchal attitudes you described,” she wrote to Lindsey on her Instagram story, per one widely shared screenshot. “Your message was genuinely empowering. I could feel the rage building up in me as I watched you speak, and I’m standing ten toes behind you!” She continued, “Yes, I was given a small two-minute window to speak about being queer and Muslim, and, thankfully, that reached some of the people I hoped it would. Yes, I’ve gotten certain opportunities from being part of the show, and I can acknowledge that. But similar to what Lindsey said honestly, I’m tired of pretending that a tiny snippet of what was actually discussed is enough.” In another widely shared screenshot, Nikita, an initial contestant from Leeds, said she felt her storyline was reduced. This is despite her being one of the only people who ended the show in a relationship, pairing up with nonbinary castmate Pippa. “I want to touch on my personal experience on IKAG, my experience with the edit was traumatic and something I am actively healing from, the way the show was edited through a white lens, and I am extremely unhappy with the way myself and many other POC’s were portrayed on the show, including Lindsey,” she wrote on her Instagram stories, per a screenshot reviewed by Them . Pippa, a bombshell introduced midway through the series, posted their own statement, as shown in screenshots of Instagram Stories widely recirculated online. “We have seen what the BBC’s stance on race and gender has been for years and it was extremely disappointing to see the edit that came out of the show,” they wrote. “The edit was through a white cis lens and in doing so completely reduced and diminished the lived experiences of the people of colour in the cast.” Tyra, a contestant from a small town in Scotland, identified herself as the person with the Malcom X lock screen in an Instagram story that has been widely reshared. She said Lindsey’s account of the incident did not happen, saying that her Black South African heritage is something she holds important to her and that she “never will associate myself with people who appear to be racist in any capacity.” However, she agreed with the characterization that the final edit cut out important conversations on race. “I’ve spoken on my own platforms about how I felt the stories of the POC cast members weren’t told in the same depth as others, and I stand by that and back her on that aspect of the video,” Tyra wrote. “I wholeheartedly agree many mistakes were made by production on how they handled our stories and portrayed us. It was not enough to have merely as cast members, real presentation lies in having our voices amplified and our stories told.” Other castmates such as Ashlea, Faye, Elisha, Elise, Imogen, Kayleigh, and Ebony made their own statements on Instagram Stories, as captured by recirculated screenshots. Kayleigh also identified herself as the person who Lindsey felt had reacted inadequately to the allegation of sexual assault and disputed this characterization. “I was never once told by her or others that she had ban assaulted and she had only discussed regretting having sex with the person and that she was intoxicated (not that she was unable to consent or unconscious),” she wrote in part, adding, “I would never disregard any of my friends if they had come to me and told me that they experienced s*xual assault.” “I am not invalidating the comments Lindsey has said about me but I am here to give my perspective,” she wrote. Faye also disputed the characterization of the comment made by a cast member about handwashing, saying that it “came solely from a place of HYGIENE and absolutely nowhere else. It was also lighthearted.” All of the cast members addressed points made by Lindsey, some disputing her accounts of the interpersonal conflict, but largely agreeing that the show’s final edit did not do justice to contestants of color. Blessing, Lindsey’s primary connection in the masseria, shared her feelings about the video in a multi-slide statement posted to her TikTok on October 20 . Though she disputed many of the ways she was characterized in Lindsey’s account during their onscreen romance, Blessing shared similar feelings about the show’s final edit and expressed concern for its implications. TikTok · Blessing TikTok · Blessing www.tiktok.com “It is disappointing to repeatedly have to say that racism is never okay,” she wrote. “I do not condone any of the behavior from my other cast-mates responsible. Assault and racism is appalling and the thought of it happening within a space that we were supposed to feel safe in, is beyond disturbing.” She concludes, “I will always agree that it is a necessary need to amplify black women’s voices and not silence them. That is what representation is about. Just giving us opportunities will never be enough. It takes a lot of courage to speak out about something so personal. So please be mindful and respectful at this time.” Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them ’s newsletters .