Less than a week before the finale, Love Island USA dropped another bombshell.
Indeed, on the July 6 episode of the Peacock series, narrator Iain Stirling, informed viewers that contestant Cierra Ortega had “left the villa due to personal reasons.”
Her sudden departure came amid growing backlash following the resurfacing of an alleged Instagram Story—which E! News has not independently verified—where she used a racial slur. While noting Cierra, 25, was unable to comment as she was still in Fiji, where Love Island USA is filmed, her parents addressed the ongoing controversy.
“We’re not here to justify or ignore what’s surfaced. We understand why people are upset, and we know accountability matters. But what’s happening online right now has gone far beyond that,” they wrote on Cierra’s Instagram July 6. “While she’ll always be our little girl, she’s also a woman, one who will take responsibility in her own time and her own voice. Until then we’re simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency.”
