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EXCLUSIVE: Love Island star weighed in on Ellie Chadwick’s dramatic departure at ITV’s reality event in London today.

Love Island stars have been having their say on the dramatic moment Ellie Chadwick made a shock exit from the villa.

Charleen Murphy, 27, found fame when she joined the cast of this year’s edition of the hit ITV2 dating show but was dumped from the villa after 30 days on screen. Meanwhile, Ellie was enjoying a blossoming romance with Finley Maddock but it all started to go wrong when he fell for Elicia, bombshell who entered the villa.

In shock scenes that aired on Thursday night, Fin was voted out of the villa by his co-stars and Ellie, in floods of tears, decided to leave as well, claiming that she couldn’t see herself finding love with anyone else.

Speaking about the dramatic moment, Charleen exclusively told The Mirror: “Her journey was definitely with him and it made sense to finish it with him but it was sad to see her go.”

Meanwhile, Lola Deal, who recently departed the island with Sean Fitzgerald, was asked if she was shocked by the sudden exit and told us: “Not if Fin was leaving. She really, really likes Fin, and it was always a thing that if he was going, she was going. So as soon as he was voted out, I think we knew she was going.”

Asked if could’ve told Ellie anything or given any advice, Sean said: “I would’ve told her to probably just weigh up how much you were gonna take of him switching what he was gonna be doing. He does really like her.

“They talked about their future together and everything, and she’s probably a bit further along with how much she likes him. She’s had a longer journey, she’s gone through all the other relationships she’s had. When he says he owes it to himself to get to know other people but he does really like her.”

Former Islander and current Love Island: The Debrief host Shakira Khan said: “I wasn’t surprised she left, i just wish she knew how loved she was on the outside and how supported she was.”

When Fin was voted out by his fellow contestants, Ellie simply said: “It’s fine. It’s done.” But she then whispered: “I can’t do it. I’m going,” and promptly burst into tears.

Ellie then insisted that there was no one else who would enter the villa who would make her as happy as Fin had and begged her co-stars to stop arguing over their decision.

She said: “Who is gonna walk through these doors and I’m gonna have a connection in two weeks like I did with you? F*****g leave it, stop arguing.

“I’m going. You’ve done what you had to do so I’m going so please don’t f***g argue with each other.”

She then reassured Lorenzo that she had “made peace” with her decision and was looking forward to seeing her family. Reacting to the news, viewers flooded social media with their opinions on all the action that had just exploded across their screens.

One wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Why would Ellie do this for a boy? She could have recoupled and still win. Everyone loves her over here. Why would you do this for fin?”

Another said: “They know Finley was using Ellie as a free ticket to the final. That was the ideal outcome tbh,” and a third wrote: “To be honest, if Ellie wants to leave, they should let her go and stop trying to make her stay. Crying over a guy who found you boring and moved on the way he did with Elicia?? The show isn’t about her.”

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The striker says FIFA’s decision to suspend his one-match ban led to ‘a lot of outside noise’ before USA’s knockout match.

US striker Folarin Balogun says he expected “a lot of controversy” after FIFA suspended his one-game ban at the World Cup following United States President Donald Trump’s request to review the decision.

Balogun was sent off during his team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 32, but FIFA controversially suspended his ban for a one-year probationary period. The striker has spoken about the incident for the first time in an interview with CBS Mornings on Tuesday.

“My initial reaction was I was happy to be back in the team. But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,” he said.

“I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique.

“But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could. But it was difficult – a lot of outside noise, and that’s hard to avoid.”

Balogun received the red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic in a 2-0 win for the USA in their round-of-32 match, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.

FIFA’s decision to suspend that ban – leading to Falogun playing in the game against Belgium – caused a furore in the football world, and accusations that the body bent its rules to please Trump.

The global football body announced that it had suspended the red card after the US president urged FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to review the case.

The decision prompted criticism from Belgium’s football association, Europe’s top football body, a former FIFA boss, multiple top former players, and many others. Critics argued that overturning a red card suspension after direct political intervention undermined the integrity of the tournament and set a dangerous precedent.

Balogun conceded that the saga led to a confusing few days for him. After the red card, he took on a supporting role in training to try to keep the team’s morale high before finding out he was cleared to play.

“We found out on the team bus. Everybody was like screaming and shouting,” Balogun said. “It was a pretty intense bus ride to the practice field.”

The US striker said it was not hard to separate “the emotion from the job at hand” ahead of the match against Belgium.

“We’re all professionals, so it’s not something I think was too difficult to be able to separate once we kind of got over the initial announcement that I’d be back in the team,” Balogun added.

The USA lost 1-4 to Belgium, with Balogun struggling to influence the game, following a fine overall tournament in which he scored three goals.

KATIE Price has said that nobody knew just how bad things were for her when she experienced some very ‘dark moments’ in her life.

The TV star, 48, is gearing up for the release of her upcoming tell-all docuseries, Katie Price: Nothing to Hide – in which she will recount her 2018 and 2021 breakdowns.

Her candid and unfiltered account of three decades in the spotlight is coming to Sky and NOW on July 8.

This week, Katie attended the Sheffield DocFest where she revealed that during her darkest moments and confessed ‘no-one knew how bad it was’, with this set to play out in her new series.

Katie suffered a major mental breakdown in around 2018 following a build-up of traumatic events in her life, she then suffered another in 2021.

She experienced severe depression, suicidal thoughts, and even checked into The Priory amid her breakdown.

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Speaking about this at the DocFest event ahead of her Sky show dropping next month, Katie got candid and confessed: “When I had my breakdown, I don’t think people really knew how bad it was, and how it affected people in my life.

“To hear that my loved ones cried and how much they loved me is like a wake-up call for me.

“There are some really dark moments [in the series] but at the same time, uplifting.

“People have to remember that it’s actually my life, so if you’re exhausted just watching it, imagine how exhausting it is for my little pea brain.

“But I really enjoyed doing it.

“I said they should do 10 parts and they wanted to, but we were lucky to push it to four [episodes].

“There’s still so much you could put in it. Even from what you’re reading today.”

Elsewhere at the event, Katie said: “I’m an open book.

“When [the team] came to me about the documentary, I got excited because something about me and my life is perfect.

“The media narrative is so different to what I’m really like but as you say, every day, even now, there’s always something.

“My life could actually be a soap story – it just doesn’t stop. I’m normal but it’s a weird world I live in. I can’t explain it.”

She also touched on being authentic.

“I have nothing to hide, and when they asked me, ‘are there any areas you don’t want us to go?’, I said, no! You can talk to absolutely anyone you want and you can talk to me about anything you want,” she confessed.

“Luckily the duty of care was amazing. Sometimes after two hours [of interviews], I couldn’t do any more.

“There are moments where I’ve had therapy to get over some of the things in my life, and I had to relive them.

“But I think this is what makes a good show, and I love watching documentaries.

“So many people are so manufactured and they’re in on the edits, so they look like a polished turd, basically. I am not that!

“Even I’m cringing at some of the stuff in the first episode! I haven’t had time to reflect on anything in my life because there’s always the next thing, and the next thing.”

June 9 (UPI) — An assistant of Jeffrey Epstein told members of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday that she was unaware of his crimes but that he was a master manipulator.

Lesley Groff, Epstein’s then-executive assistant, told the committee that she believed the massage appointments she made for Epstein with young women and girls were with massage therapists, two sources told CNN. She said Epstein had every reason to keep his crimes secret from her.

Groff helped manage Epstein’s life, including making appointments with women, setting meetings with powerful people and arranging Epstein’s flights with the young women. She worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years, and her name was listed in the Epstein files more than 150,000 times.

Epstein, a billionaire financier and registered sex offender, died by suicide in prison in 2019.

Groff told the lawmakers that she wants to help and that since Epstein was arrested, she’s lost friends and her family has faced harassment.

Groff said Epstein didn’t sexually abuse her, one of the sources told CNN, and that she didn’t need the job. She said that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell told her not to associate with their friends, and they insisted that their business was none of hers.

Survivors told a different story.

Sharlene Rochard was skeptical that Groff didn’t know about the crimes.

“One of the hardest parts for survivors is hearing the people who were closest to Epstein claim they saw nothing,” Rochard told CNN. “That doesn’t match my experience. Survivors deserve answers, not claims of ignorance.”

In a previous statement, Groff’s lawyer told CNN that she worked for Epstein as “part of a professional staff that included in-house attorneys, accountants and other office staff” and that her job included making appointments for Epstein, “taking his messages and setting up high-level meetings with CEOs, business executives, scientists, politicians, celebrities, charitable organizations and universities.”

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told MSNow that the panel has referred two names to the Department of Justice, though he didn’t identify them.

“I think the interviews that we’ve done have been very productive,” Comer told reporters on Tuesday morning.

“We’re bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we’ll get the proof to the American people that there’s an opportunity for accountability,” Comer said.

The committee is scheduled to interview Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Wednesday.

Coronation Street legend Amanda Barrie, who starred as Alma Baldwin on the ITV soap, is convinced bosses would’ve sacked her had her sexuality been made public at the time

Amanda Barrie is convinced she would have been axed from Coronation Street had producers found out about her sexuality. The actress, 90, starred as Alma Halliwell on the ITV soap from 1988 until 2001 and the character became known for her marriage to Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) and ran the local café with Gail Tilsey (Helen Worth) before it was taken over by Roy Cropper.

In real life, Amanda was married to actor Robin Hunter from 1967 until the mid-1980s and she went on to tie the knot with crime novelist and former Mirror journalist Hilary Bonner in 2014, having chosen to come out as bisexual in her 2002 memoir It’s Not A Rehearsal, which she released shortly after quitting the soap.

Now, Amanda, has insisted that whilst the programme now has an influx of gay and lesbian characters, she had to keep her sexuality a secret and is now sure that, had she been open and honest about it, she would have been written out thanks to the attitudes that were in place in society at that time.

She said: “Not thought, I KNOW I would have been [fired], taking into account the climate at the time. Things are so different now. Corrie’s like Canal Street in Manchester these days.

“The people I was close to always knew about me and the relationships throughout my life. Being at the age I am, I still remember when gay men were absolutely crucified for being the way they were. “

Amanda, whose Corrie alter-ego Alma was memorably killed off following a battle with cancer, noted that these days it is “so much easier” for people like Christine McGuinness, who was rumoured to have been dating Nicola Adams after splitting from Paddy McGuinness, to discuss their sexuality publicly.

Now, the former Bad Girls star is just hopeful that eventually, society will arrive at a place where the announcement of one’s sexuality is not even necessary and it ends up being an “unimportant” factor in one’s personality.

Speaking to The Sun, she added: “I believe in the freedom to do and be exactly as you wish in life. To live in your own way. I dream of a day when people’s sexuality is regarded as so unimportant that no one even bothers to remark on whether somebody is gay or straight. “It’s probably a pipedream, but I still like to dream it.”

Amanda, whose stellar showbiz career also includes appearances in other TV favourites like Casualty, Amandaland, and Benidorm and has also seen her become a pantomime favourite, previously spoke of the surprise reaction she got from the public when she did eventually decide to go public about her sexuality.

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain towards the end of last year, she explained: “I expected to be stoned in the street, I got a lot of hugs. What was I in such a state about? Because it was just ‘Oh, I see, oh…'” before adding:

“You automatically revert to the way you’d always behave, lurking about with your head down editing your life is what you do. You change they, he, she, all that editing…”

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June 4 (UPI) — The pilots of a United Airlines flight that flew low enough to shear off a light pole on the New Jersey Turnpike as it landed in May knew they were flying too low but were unable to compensate in time, a preliminary report stated Thursday.

The first officer of United Airlines Flight 169 from Venice, Italy, to Newark Liberty International Airport called out, “Hey you are slow,” just before the Boeing B767-424ER clipped a light pole along the turnpike while approaching Newark’s runway 29, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s initial report of the May 3 accident.

The incident resulted in debris from the light pole impacting a tractor-trailer traveling southbound on the turnpike.

The aircraft was just 19 feet above the busy highway when it connected with the 15-foot-high light post.

Following the impact, the airplane landed and taxied to the gate without further incident, after which the three flight crew members, eight cabin crew members and 220 passengers deplaned at the gate without any injury.

The driver of the tractor-trailer sustained minor injuries, the NTSB said, while the damage to the aircraft was called “substantial.”

The safety agency’s report found that moments after the first officer voiced an initial alarm about the plane being too low, he followed it by saying, “You are still slow and a little low.”

The pilot said at that point he looked outside and recalled, “I thought we were low,” but since they were about to touch down, it was too late to order a “go-around” and abort the landing.

The captain stated that just before touchdown “he heard a thump,” the report said, while the first officer recalled feeling a “mild jolt” as they neared the runway.

After the flight landed, the purser reported that the aft flight attendants heard “a loud bang” just prior to landing.

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz said Monday that he’s known about the five loose bodies in his elbow — which were removed in an operation Wednesday — since he was drafted in 2012.

Last week in Colorado was the first time it affected him. He gave up three runs without recording an out on April 19. And the next day, he told the team his arm felt “weird.”

On Monday, he described the feeling as “tired and tight.”

Before his arm started giving him problems, Díaz was unavailable for four straight games because of fatigue in his knee. His legs felt “good” in Colorado, Díaz said.

Results from an MRI scan suggested that the loose bodies in his elbow were to blame for the discomfort in his arm. Díaz said he was confident the operation would resolve the problem.

“The tightness and the soreness was where the loose body was,” Díaz said. “So that’s why we ended up getting the surgery because it was in the same spot I’ve always had them.”

He’s hoping to return after the All-Star break. So, the Dodgers will have to come up with an alternate ninth-inning plan for the next two-and-a-half months.

“That sucks to miss the first half with the team,” Díaz said. “I’m new with this team. But that’s something I can’t control. Everyone here is supporting me. All of my teammates they’re supporting me, they’re happy that I’m doing way better than before. They just can’t wait to see me on the mound in the second half.

“They say, take your time, we need you in October. But I want to come back as soon as possible and help this team to win games.”

Díaz is still waiting to have his stitches removed, but he expects to start playing catch in a couple weeks.

“My arm is feeling way better than it did on Sunday,” he said. “That’s a good sign. Right now, just a couple days after surgery, I can move my arm really good. My range of motion is coming back to normal. So that’s something I like. And just get stronger and be ready for the second half.”

Samit Patel, who has announced his retirement from domestic cricket, says he “probably wouldn’t have played” in a disapproved T20 league earlier this year had he known it would result in a ban.

Former England all-rounder Patel, 41, and Australian bowler Peter Siddle are both unable to play in the T20 Blast this summer after competing in the World Legends Pro T20 League in Goa.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says players cannot play domestic cricket for 12 months if they have participated in a “disapproved” league such as this.

As a result, Patel has retired from domestic cricket in England but says he will still be playing franchise cricket elsewhere in the world.

“I probably wouldn’t have played it [the World Legends League],” Patel told BBC Sport’s Strategic Timeout programme.

“There was a lot of uncertainty about whether we could play or not but we can’t get past that now. It just brought this stuff forward for me.”

Patel played 60 times for England between 2008 and 2015 and made 629 appearances for Nottinghamshire over 22 years.

He then joined Derbyshire on a two-year white-ball deal in 2024 and was out of contract when he left the club at the end of last year’s T20 Blast, but said he would have liked “one more year” of domestic cricket if he had not been dealt the ban.

“I would have played this summer,” he said. “I had some chats with some counties, we weren’t quite at a contract signing but we were in talks, so probably would’ve got a last-minute deal somewhere.”

Patel and Ravi Bopara, who also retired earlier this year, are the only two players to have featured in every year of the Blast since it began in 2003.