Toni

Among the small army of prospects who’ve eyed the California governorship, none seemed more qualified than Toni Atkins.

After serving on the San Diego City Council, she moved on to Sacramento, where Atkins led both the Assembly and state Senate, one of just three people in history — and the first in 147 years — to head both houses of California’s Legislature.

She negotiated eight state budgets with two governors and, among other achievements, passed major legislation on abortion rights, help for low-income families and a $7.5-billion water bond.

You can disagree with her politics but, clearly, Atkins is someone who knows her way around the Capitol.

She married that expertise with the kind of hardscrabble, up-by-her-bootstraps backstory that a calculating political consultant might have spun from whole cloth, had it not been so.

Atkins grew up in rural Appalachia in a rented home with an outdoor privy. Her first pair of glasses was a gift from the local Lions Club. She didn’t visit a dentist until she was 24. Her family was too poor.

Yet for all of that, Atkins’ gubernatorial campaign didn’t last even to 2026, when voters will elect a successor to the termed-out Gavin Newsom. She quit the race in September, more than eight months before the primary.

She has no regrets.

“It was a hard decision,” the Democrat said. “But I’m a pragmatic person.”

She couldn’t and wouldn’t keep asking “supporters and people to contribute more and more if the outcome was not going to be what we hoped,” Atkins said. “I needed sort of a moonshot to do it, and I didn’t see that.”

She spoke recently via Zoom from the den of her home in San Diego, where Atkins had just returned after spending several weeks back in Virginia, tending to a dying friend and mentor, one of her former college professors.

“I was a first-generation college kid … a hillbilly,” Atkins said. She felt as though she had no place in the world “and this professor, Steve Fisher, basically helped turn me around and not be a victim. Learn to organize. Learn to work with people on common goals. … He was one of the first people that really helped me to understand how to be part of something bigger than myself.”

Over the 22 months of her campaign — between the launch in January 2024 and its abandonment on Sept. 29 — Atkins traveled California from tip to toe, holding countless meetings and talking to innumerable voters. “It’s one thing to be the speaker or the [Senate leader],” she said. “People treat you differently when you’re a candidate. You’re appealing to them to support you, and it’s a different conversation.”

What she heard was a lot of practicality.

People lamenting the exorbitant cost of housing, energy and child care. Rural Californians worried about their dwindling access to healthcare. Parents and teachers concerned about wanton immigration raids and their effect on kids. “It wasn’t presented as a political thing,” Atkins said. “It was just fear for [their] neighbors.”

She heard plenty from business owners and, especially, put-upon residents of red California, who griped about Sacramento and its seeming disconnection from their lives and livelihoods. “I heard in Tehama County … folks saying, ‘Look, we care about the environment, but we can’t have electric school buses here. We don’t have any infrastructure.’ ”

Voters seemed to be of two — somewhat contradictory — minds about what they want in their next governor.

First off, “Someone that’s going to be focused on California, California problems and California issues,” Atkins said. “They want a governor that’s not going to be performative, but really focused on the issues that California needs help on.”

At the same, they see the damage that President Trump and his punitive policies have done to the state in a very short time, so “they also want to see a fighter.”

The challenge, Atkins suggested, is “convincing people … you’re absolutely going to fight for California values and, at the same, that you’re going to be focused on fixing the roads.”

Maybe California needs to elect a contortionist.

Given her considerable know-how and compelling background, why did Atkins’ campaign fizzle?

Here’s a clue: The word starts with “m” and ends with “y” and speaks to something pernicious about our political system.

“I hoped my experience and my collaborative nature and my ability to work across party lines when I needed to … would gain traction,” Atkins said. “But I just didn’t have the name recognition.”

Or, more pertinently, the huge pile of cash needed to build that name recognition and get elected to statewide office in California.

While Atkins wasn’t a bad fundraiser, she simply couldn’t raise the many tens of millions of dollars needed to run a viable gubernatorial race.

That could be seen as a referendum of sorts. If enough people wanted Atkins to be governor, she theoretically would have collected more cash. But who doubts that money has an unholy influence on our elections?

(Other than Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who spent much of his career fighting campaign finance reform, and members of the Supreme Court who green-lit today’s unlimited geyser of campaign spending.)

At age 63, Atkins is not certain what comes next.

“I’ve lost parents, but it’s been decades,” she said. “And to lose Steve” — her beloved ex-college professor — “I think I’m going to take the rest of the year to reflect. I’m definitely going to stay engaged … but I’m going to focus on family” at least until January.

Atkins remains optimistic about her adopted home state, notwithstanding her unsuccessful run for governor and the earful of criticisms she heard along the way,

“California is the place where people dream,” she said. “We still have the ability to do big things … We’re the fourth-largest economy. We’re a nation-state. We need to remember that.”

Without losing sight of the basics.

San Diego Democrat and former state Senate leader Toni Atkins dropped out of the 2026 California governor’s race Monday, part of a continued reshuffling and contraction of the wide field of candidates vying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Atkins told supporters in a letter Monday afternoon that during a childhood in rural Virginia, she often felt “too country, too poor, too gay” to fit in. After building a life on the West Coast, where she found acceptance and opportunity, she worked for decades to build on “the promise of California” and extend it to future generations, she said.

“That’s why it’s with such a heavy heart that I’m stepping aside today as a candidate for governor,” Atkins wrote. “Despite the strong support we’ve received and all we’ve achieved, there is simply no viable path forward to victory.”

Atkins began her political career on the San Diego City Council after serving as a women’s clinic administrator. She became the first out LGBTQ+ person to serve as Senate president pro tem, the top position in the California Senate. She was also the speaker of the state Assembly, making her the first legislator since 1871 to hold both leadership posts.

In Sacramento, Atkins was a champion for affordable housing and reproductive rights, including writing the legislation that became Proposition 1 in 2022, codifying abortion rights in the California Constitution after national protections were undone by the U.S. Supreme Court.

With President Trump and his allies “gutting health care, cratering our economy, and stripping away fundamental rights and freedoms,” Atkins told supporters Monday, “we’ve got to make sure California has a Democratic governor leading the fight, and that means uniting as Democrats.”

Under California’s nonpartisan primary system, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Votes on the left could be fractured among a half-dozen Democratic candidates, creating a more viable path forward for one of the two high-profile Republicans in the race to make it to the November ballot.

Atkins picked up millions of dollars in donations after entering the governor’s race in January 2024, and reported having $4.3 million on hand — more than most candidates — at the end of the first half of the year. More recent reports from major donations suggest her fundraising had lagged behind former Orange County-based U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Atty. Gen. and Biden appointee Xavier Becerra.

Although well-known in political circles, Atkins is not a household name. Recent polls, including one conducted by UC Berkeley and co-sponsored by The Times, showed her support in the single digits.

Nine months before the primary, the field of candidates is still in flux, and many voters are undecided.

At the end of July, former Vice President Kamala Harris made the biggest news of the campaign when she said she would not run. Shortly afterward, her political ally Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis abandoned her gubernatorial bid and announced she would run for state treasurer.

Some polling has shown that Porter, who left Congress after losing a bid for a rare open seat in the U.S. Senate, is the candidate to beat.

Last week, lobbyist and former state legislative leader Ian Calderon, 39, launched his campaign for governor, calling it the advent of a “new generation of leadership.”

Calderon, 39, was the first millennial elected to the state Assembly and the youngest-ever majority leader of the state Assembly. He is part of a political dynasty from southeastern Los Angeles County that’s held power in Sacramento for decades.

His family’s name was clouded during his time in Sacramento when two of his uncles served prison time in connection with a bribery scheme, but Calderon was not accused of wrongdoing.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. remains mired in a deadly pandemic, the economy is suffering from a bout of inflation and states face challenges from climate to transportation, but with only days left in their close-fought race, the hottest issue dividing Virginia’s candidates for governor this week was the late novelist Toni Morrison.

The Republican candidate, Glenn Youngkin, who has steadily gained ground over the past two months, aired an ad featuring Laura Murphy, a parent who had campaigned years ago against the use of Morrison’s widely acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved” in her son’s high school Advanced Placement English class.

In 2016 and again in 2017, then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, vetoed a bill aimed at “Beloved” that Murphy helped lobby through the state legislature. It would have required K-12 teachers to give parents advance notice of books with “sexually explicit content” and allow them to take their children out of class. “Beloved,” based on a true story of a woman who killed her child to save her from slavery, includes several graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

Youngkin accused the former governor, now seeking to return to the office, of wanting to “silence parents because he doesn’t believe they should have a say in their child’s education.”

McAuliffe fired back that Youngkin was “focused on banning award-winning books from our schools and silencing the voices of Black authors” such as Morrison. The Republican, he said, was engaged in “Trumpian dog whistles.”

For both candidates, the issue provided a chance to rally key audiences — conservative suburban parents on the one side, Black voters on the other — as the state hurtles toward an election Tuesday that, if polls are correct, could be among its closest in years.

President Biden and former President Trump both have a lot riding on the outcome.

A close race on Democratic turf

The Virginia election is everything that California’s recall turned out not to be — a test of whether Democrats can hold the allegiance of suburban voters stressed by nearly two years of COVID-19 restrictions and of whether Republicans can win a blue state despite Trump’s unpopularity.

Last year, Biden carried Virginia by 10 points, and Democrats currently control all the statewide elected offices. The party took control of both houses of the state legislature over the last four years, and Republicans haven’t won the governorship since 2009.

In short, while Virginia is not as deeply blue as California or New York, it’s a state Democrats recently have been able to count on.

Right now, they can’t.

Biden’s popularity in the state has tumbled, just as it has nationwide since this summer when the Delta variant of the coronavirus upended his optimistic forecasts about COVID-19. A Monmouth University poll in mid-October found Virginia voters disapproving of Biden’s job performance, 52% to 43%, sharply down from an August poll.

The president’s slumping polls are a big problem for McAuliffe, creating “headwinds” for him, as the candidate told supporters last month.

He faces several other difficulties: With Democrats having run the state for the last eight years, they’re naturally the target of voters seeking a change. And McAuliffe, as a former governor trying to make a comeback — Virginia doesn’t allow governors to run for consecutive terms — wouldn’t be a likely change candidate in any case. As a 64-year-old white, male, longtime political figure, he’s not the type to inspire huge enthusiasm among young voters or progressives.

Youngkin, a first-time candidate, has skillfully positioned himself. He’s seized on discontent over schools to take control of an issue on which Democrats have long had an advantage. The Monmouth poll showed that education had risen on the list of top voter concerns and that Youngkin had pulled even with McAuliffe as the candidate voters thought could best handle the issue.

Overall, Youngkin clearly has momentum on his side. The Monmouth poll was one of several recently that found the two candidates dead even — a big accomplishment for the Republican, who this summer trailed by around seven points. A Fox News poll released Thursday evening showed Youngkin moving into the lead among likely voters.

Democrats have dominated early voting, which the state has greatly expanded, but both parties expect Republicans to show up in large numbers to vote in person on Tuesday.

Youngkin, the former CEO of Carlyle Group, a big private equity firm, has poured at least $20 million of his own money into the race, allowing him to keep pace with McAuliffe, a prolific fundraiser. He’s used that money for a barrage of television ads that depict him in classrooms, pledging to raise teacher pay — stealing a page from the Democratic playbook.

At the same time, he has closely identified himself with parents angry over unresponsive school bureaucracies — a sentiment that has boiled over in many parts of the country.

Youngkin has used education issues to mobilize conservatives, pledging to ban teaching of critical race theory in Virginia. It’s not clear that the academic theory, which analyzes the outcomes of systemic racism, is taught anywhere in the state’s K-12 schools, but the idea that it might be has become a rallying cry on the right. That, plus Trump’s endorsement, has solidified his Republican support.

Education also has given him an entrée to less ideological voters in the state’s large suburban regions. In recent elections, those voters increasingly have turned against the GOP, but many are deeply frustrated over the last year and a half of COVID-related school disruptions.

In the California recall election, Republicans had hoped that tapping into parental anger could give them the boost they needed to defeat Gov. Gavin Newsom. That failed, in large part because the top Republican candidate, Larry Elder, lacked credibility with swing voters.

Youngkin has avoided Elder’s habit of creating controversies. Instead, it was McAuliffe who inadvertently helped his opponent with ill-chosen words. During a candidate debate in September, as he explained why he had vetoed the so-called “Beloved” bill, McAuliffe said “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.”

Then, he added: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Youngkin has heavily featured that line in his ads.

McAuliffe’s campaign eventually responded with an ad in which the former governor expressed respect for parents, but the damage was done.

On top of the reasons that may cause some swing voters to switch this year, McAuliffe also faces a turnout problem, according to Democratic strategists close to his campaign: After the drama of last year, many Democratic voters are exhausted with politics. Republicans, by contrast, are highly motivated to avenge their recent losses.

To counter apathy, McAuliffe has depended heavily on Democrats’ chief motivator — Trump.

In speeches and advertisements, he constantly links his opponent with the unpopular former president.

So do his surrogates, including Biden.

“I ran against Donald Trump. And Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,” Biden said Tuesday during a campaign rally with McAuliffe in northern Virginia.

Former President Obama, Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and other leading Democrats who have come into the state to campaign have stressed the same point.

Trump, in his usual way, has not been able to resist the urge to get involved. On Wednesday, his spokesperson put out a statement saying that Trump “and his MAGA movement will be delivering a major victory to Trump-endorsed businessman Glenn Youngkin.”

McAuliffe’s campaign went into overdrive to ensure the statement was widely seen.

With the contest appearing so close — tight enough that the winner might not be known until final ballots are counted late next week — there’s one forecast that’s clear: Whichever candidate wins probably can thank Donald Trump.

A ‘framework’ if not a bill

Biden, before heading to Europe, where he will participate in the G20 economic summit and an international conference on climate change, traveled to Capitol Hill on Thursday to announce that he and party leaders had negotiated the “framework” of a bill to cover his major budget priorities.

As Jennifer Haberkorn and Nolan McCaskill reported, the measure, the subject of negotiations for months, would spend roughly $1.75 trillion over the next 10 years on a host of Democratic priorities, including universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, subsidies for childcare and continuation of the expanded child tax credit.

On healthcare, the bill would expand subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and close the hole in Obamacare that excludes low-income people in the dozen states, mostly in the South, that have refused to expand Medicaid. Both expansions would last through 2025. Medicare would grow to include hearing coverage.

The bill would also include about $500 billion to combat climate change.

McCaskill prepared this summary of what’s in the framework.

Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hope that agreement on the framework will allow the House to pass the separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill that cleared the Senate in early August. But a large number of progressive House Democrats are continuing to hold out. They want more concrete assurances that Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have been the main impediments to Biden’s budget plan in the Senate, will vote for the framework before they’ll vote to approve the infrastructure bill, which the two more-conservative senators support.

Democratic leaders hope to bring both bills to a vote as early as next week.

Several Democratic priorities fell out of the bill as the White House negotiated with Manchin and Sinema to reduce its cost. As Haberkorn reported, a key element that dropped out was a program for paid family leave. Also gone is a plan to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

As Chris Megerian wrote, Biden has been pressing to get agreement on his domestic priorities before heading overseas for the summit meetings.

Friday morning, Biden began his European events with a private meeting with Pope Francis. As Megerian wrote, the meeting comes at a time when some conservative U.S. bishops have talked of denying Biden communion because of his support for abortion rights. The pope’s decision to host Biden “sends a message to the American bishops that denying communion is not something that he approves of,” said John K. White, professor of politics at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

Oil industry on the hot seat

In advance of the climate summit, a House committee has been grilling oil industry leaders about their decades-long record of downplaying the role that fossil fuels play in causing global warming. As Anna Phillips and Erin Logan reported, the hearing marked the first time that members of Congress have directly questioned oil and gas executives under oath about reported efforts to mislead the public about climate change.

The latest from California

Gov. Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $5 billion in loans to help modernize California’s seaports. The money probably won’t come in time to help clear out current snarls that have backlogged shipments, but it should help prevent future logistical nightmares, Megerian and Russ Mitchell reported.

In Sacramento, lawmakers called for changes following the oil spill off the coast of Orange County, but, as Phil Willon reported, they largely conceded that the state has little ability to ban offshore drilling, most of which occurs in federal waters.

The field of candidates for mayor of Los Angeles got another entry this week as Ramit Varma, an entrepreneur from Encino, announced his candidacy. As Dakota Smith reported, another businessman waits in the wings. Rick Caruso, the prominent developer, has been discussing a race with strategists, including Bearstar Strategies, the firm whose partners Ace Smith and Sean Clegg devised campaigns for former Gov. Jerry Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting.

Toni Laites emerged victorious from the latest series of Love Island but it’s now been alleged that she was actually spotted by a top ITV producer when he was on holiday

Toni Laites emerged victorious from the latest series of Love Island when she and now-boyfriend Cach Mercer were voted the nation’s couple. But now, it’s being claimed that the US native, 25, was actually handpicked by a top ITV boss who spotted her working in a club when he was on honeymoon to star in the show.

Olivia Attwood, who shot to fame on the third series of Love Island in 2017 and now has a successful TV career with a string of documentaries and a regular spot on the Loose Women panel, has alleged that this year’s winner didn’t apply for the show in the traditional manner. She said: “You know Mike Spencer, the producer? He found Toni in Vegas, she was a cabana girl – he was on his honeymoon.”

Olivia explained that the ITV boss simply struck up a conversation with the then-bar girl and decided there and then that she would be a good addition to the ITV2 programme, from which she eventually walked off with the £50,000 prize. She said: “He met her, got chatting with her and told her, ‘you’d be amazing on Love Island’. That’s how she got on [the show].”

READ MORE: Love Island’s Conor slams castmate on TikTok after ‘fallout’ despite strong friendshipREAD MORE: Love Island winner Toni Laites uses £30 eyelash growth serum that ‘works wonders’

The former TOWIE star then explained that she had spoken to Toni herself, and claimed that the Love Island beauty is in a little bit of a predicament because she hasn’t been back home ‘for months’ thanks to her career suddenly taking off in the UK. But Olivia was quick to offer her advice. During an appearance on Pete Wicks‘ Sunday Roast podcast, she added: “I said to her, ‘what are you going to do? When was the last time you went home?’ She said, ‘I haven’t been home for months, I don’t know what to do’. Because she’s now got this boyfriend who’s English. If I was her, I’d want to make the most of it and stay here for a bit.”

Toni and Cach made it to the final after weeks of being coupled up in front of millions of Love Island fans, and managed to beat Harry and Shakira and Yas and Jamie to the top prize with 33% of the vote. And since she has become the first American to be in such a position on the UK version of the hit franchise, Toni admitted that she ‘never expected’ any of it at all.

Discussing her aspirations at the ITV Reality event, Toni revealed: “The love has been insane. I never expected it in a million years honestly.”, reports the Daily Star I think for me this is all new. It’s a whole new world so I’m still trying to find my feet.

“There’s a lot of opportunities at hand but I think presenting is my thing. All the love is so incredible so shout out to the UK.”

In her first interview alongside her now-boyfriend after leaving the villa, she hinted that a move to the UK could be on the cards as she explores opportunities that have come with her newfound fame.

During an appearance on last Friday’s This Morning, she told hosts Joel Dommett and Emma Willis : “Crazy, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ll be spending much time in America. No decisions are made yet but obviously, but Cach is here, I have a lot of opportunities coming up, my friends are here. I see no reason to be in America anymore.”

Toni also explained just how ‘insane’ it is to her and Cach that they are now suddenly very famous in the UK after weeks of living in the Spanish villa, and noted that she even had her ‘doubts’ about their reception prior to landing back after the show had finished. She added: “Insane, I was a very regular person before the show and now there’s like millions of comments and followers.”

Toni also explained just how ‘insane’ it is to her and Cach that they are now suddenly very famous in the UK after weeks of living in the Spanish villa, and noted that she even had her ‘doubts’ about their reception prior to landing back after the show had finished. She added: “Insane, I was a very regular person before the show and now there’s like millions of comments and followers.”

Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Harrison and Toni seemed to rekindle things in tonight’s episode, but some fans aren’t convinced as they suspect they’ve worked out the ‘real reason’ they got back together

After last night’s dramatic Love Island dumping, the Islanders realised their time in the villa was limited, as they expressed their true feelings.

In a shock villa U-Turn, Harrison, who was getting to know Helena, told Toni he wanted to give things another go, despite them breaking up just yesterday. Harrison’s reunion with Toni came just as Harry expressed he still had feelings for Helena.

Early on in the episode, Harrison informed Toni that he wanted to give things another go and wasn’t ready to throw away what they had. Helena later spotted them kissing on the Terrace, as Harrison told Helena he wanted to shift his focus back to Toni.

It didn’t seem like Helena was too bothered, however, as she informed Meg that Harry told her they’d be getting back together.

However, fans weren’t convinced with Harrison’s speech to Toni, as they suspect he only did it because he suspected Helena and Harry would be getting back together sometime soon.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan said: “Harrison has clocked that Helena will always pick Harry. He is just securing his spot. I hope Toni is doing the same until someone she likes moves in.”

Another penned: “The sudden SWITCH UP from Harrison is crazy like for the past few days you were saying how you wanted Helena and now all of a sudden it’s Toni??”

“Harrison has obviously gone back to Toni cuz he knows Helena is obsessed with Harry & knew there’s no competition where Harry is concerned cuz he’d ‘win,'” said a third.

Despite this, the next morning, Harrison and Harry were seen preparing breakfast for Toni and Shakira – but will Harry and Helena find their way back together? Dejon thinks so…

Earlier, Dejon and Harry were seen having a heart-to-heart by the fire pit as they reflected on the shocking events. Harry is currently coupled up with Shakira, but it seems neither he or Helena can get rid of their spark.

“The way you are with Helena, that’s the H I know, but when you two [with Shakira] are together…” Dejon said, as Harry revealed it wasn’t the same.

It looks like the feelings are mutual with Helena, as she later told Meg and Dejon that she wanted to go to the Hideaway with Harry, as they later went to speak alone in the Snug.

Speaking about his connection with Shakira to Helena, Harry said: “I do like her, but obviously there’s always going to be you at the back of my mind. I know I’m going to have to make a decision at some point, but it isn’t today… just give me like a day.”

Love Island 2025 airs every night at 9PM on ITV2 and ITVX.

* Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat ,Instagram ,Twitter ,Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

The Love Island villa erupted into chaos yet again tonight, and it was a double blow for bombshell Emily after Conor expressed his interest in Megan as Toni called her irritating

It looks like the whole Love Island villa is in for a switch up as Islanders heads continue to turn. Last night, heads began to turn as Harry took Yasmin for a trip to the Hideaway Terrace. Tonight, the focus was on Emily and Toni as they erupted into a huge unexpected argument.

The confrontation came in the mist of Conor, who is currently coupled up with Emily making a beeline for Megan, who is currently in a strong couple with Tommy. However, it wasn’t the only blow for Emily, as Toni announced she was “irritating” her.

Surprising Meg and Dejon with her thoughts on Emily, Toni told them: “I can’t stand to listen to her… ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ all the time.”

Later that night, it was made clear to Emily that Toni had been bad mouthing her.

Elsewhere, in a chat with Shakira, Toni expressed her interest in Conor, who she was coupled up with before Emily. Despite this, Toni insisted her problem with Emily wasn’t anything to do with Conor.

She later revealed her problems with Emily started when either Toni and Malisha were about to go home – claiming Emily was in a good mood during a bad situation. “Read the room,” she told her.

The two went back and forth as Emily exclaimed: “Some people just want to cause a problem.” Toni responded: “It has absolutely nothing to do with this, I don’t give a f**k if you’re with Conor.”

Although some fans believed the reason was secretly Conor, others think they’ve worked why the two were arguing – believing something had happened off camera.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan penned: “Imma stick beside Toni cos theres defo something we aint seen for her to be so done,” while another agreed: “There must be more to the story because Emily handled the Callum thing so well and Toni seemed to appreciate that. I’ve not really seen them interact much since.”

Another suggested: “I think Toni didn’t just crash out on Emily for nothing. I think Emily seems like a nice girl but playing teams like taking info from Shakira X Toni’s team to the mean girls’ team of Megan Meg and Helena and nobody would be cool with that. Just my thought.”

Elsewhere, Harry’s head turned once again, and this time it’s back to Shakira. The pair coupled up on the second day, causing Sophie to be dumped from the villa. However, things didn’t work out when Harry moved onto Helena, but it looks like he’s now regretting not exploring things further with Shakira.

“I wanted to see how you were feeling, I think initially you were number one and I f****d it,” he said.

How will things unfold now everyone’s head has turned once again?

Love Island 2025 airs every night at 9PM on ITV2 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok ,Snapchat ,Instagram ,Twitter ,Facebook ,YouTube and Threads .

The Love Island contestants have only been in a villa for a week – but they’re already spilling all their deepest secrets to one another, as Toni opens up on her NFL encounter

It’s been an eventful week in Love Island – with the Islanders engaging in some intense conversations. Yesterday, Yasmin asked whether Dejon would have a threesome with her and Toni, and today the conversation continued with Toni’s shock revelation.

During a chat at the beanbags during tonight’s episode, the naughty trio were back with their intimate conversations, as Toni made a wild confession.

The star, who resides in Las Vegas told Yasmin and Dejon she had previously had a threesome with an NFL player and a p**n star. That’s not all, as she said the encounter took place in a room full of people.

“Me, p**n star, NFL player, infront of a whole party,” Toni admitted. Dejon and Yasmin were left in shock as Dejon asked: “Everyone was watching?!” Toni then confirmed they were, although she didn’t reveal the name of the NFL player.

Like Dejon, fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter to express their shock as one tweeted: “nfl player??? #LoveIsland” tweeted one shocked fan, while another penned: “in front of everyone with a p**n star & NFL player wtf?!”

However, Dejon’s Meg was left less than impressed with the chat, as she pulled Toni and Yasmin for a chat. She told them she didn’t appreciate the trio having sexual chats, deeming it “disrespectful”.

The group failed to make amends during their chat – as Meg told the rest of the girls she felt like “a mug”.

It’s not the first time Dejon has been in trouble this week. Dejon, Harry and Shea landed in hot water when their plan was exposed during Monday night’s challenge. The trio ‘rigged’ the game to make sure they kissed who they fancied. Dejon kissed Malisha, Harry kissed ex Shakira, as Shea kissed Tommy’s partner Megan.

It didn’t go down well with Helena, Meg and Megan, who decided to get revenge on the boys with their own ‘gameplan’. Before new bombshell Harrison arrived in the villa with Toni, the trio decided to pretend they were interesting in getting to know him to scare the boys.

“Even if we don’t think he’s [Harrison] fit, shall we be like, ‘Oh he’s a bit of me’?” Helena asked the girls, as Meg agreed: “All this game playing they’ve been doing [the boys].”

However, it looks like their gameplan may have back fired, as the boys also had Harrison on their mind. Tommy wondered if Harrison will come in and try to break up a strong couple, but Dejon added: “To be honest, the more he does, the more leeway we’ve got to cause havoc!”

Harry then responded: “If he goes and kisses Helena, I’m flying mate! That’d be so good, I didn’t even think of that!”

Love Island 2025 airs every night at 9PM on ITV2 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok ,Snapchat ,Instagram ,Twitter ,Facebook ,YouTube and Threads .

Conor made a very telling comment that some Love Island fans have taken as a sign he doesn’t like Toni despite her praising him for his behaviour on the bombshell date

Love Island viewers have picked up on a very telling move from Conor as to how he is really feeling about Toni. After the boys returned from meeting the bombshells, Toni took Conor for a chat where she praised him for being respectful.

He had a date with bombshell Emily but didn’t realise all the girls in the villa were watching their every move. Toni was pleasantly surprised with how Conor acted on the date despite them being coupled up.

She thanked him for how he spoke about her to Emily but did pull him up on his body language. Toni wasn’t pleased how he placed his arm on one of the three bombshells as they arrived to the boys drinks.

As they went to bed, it seemed everything was settled between the pair. However, in the morning fans noticed a very shady remark from Conor.

He made two cups of coffees in the kitchen, yet instead of giving it to Toni he walked over to Emily instead. Conor even quipped: “I don’t want to give it to Toni.”

After the very telling move, fans have predicted the end for Toni and Conor. One said: “Erm Conor wtf was that.” Another added: “Conor not making Toni a coffee and she singing his praises last night???? TF.”

Someone else commented: “Did conor fall off the bed in his sleep whats going on.” A fourth wrote: “Did Conor just say he doesn’t wna make Toni a coffee.”

“Excuse me? Why doesn’t Conor wanna make one for Toni? After she was so nice? Wtf,” asked a viewer. Another predicted: “I don’t think Conor likes Toni.”

The three bombshells include 24-year-old teaching assistant Malisha from Broxbourne, Commercial Banking Executive Yasmin, 24, and Insurance Development Executive Emily, 24, from Aberdeen.

The boys left the villa earlier in the day for drinks, but what they didn’t know was that the girls would be watching their every move on a giant TV back in the main villa. Shortly after they all established where they stood in their relationship, three new bombshells entered and caused a stir for the girls watching.

They then headed off on one-on-one dates with three of the boys as the original girls watched on. Tensions rose once again when they boys and the bombshells returned to the villa where they discovered they had been watched the whole time.

The boys weren’t happy, to say the least, about the girls being a fly on the wall during their chats, as Dejon fumed: “Boys chat stays in the boys chat!” However, it was all too late as the damage had already been done.

READ MORE: Simple airport duty free trick to bag cheaper beauty and alcohol before arriving

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.