A Love Island: USA cast member has been dismissed from the reality dating show just days ahead of its eighth season premiere following a resurfaced video in which the contestant used a racial slur.
Vasana Montgomery will no longer feature on the series, Deadline can confirm. A Peacock spokesperson notes that the videos of the incident, in which Montgomery uses the N-word, appear to be privately owned and were not shared publicly until following her announcement, and as such were inaccessible to vet prior to her ousting.
This marks the second year in a row that the popular American format of the UK original has had to let go of a contestant for racist comments. In June 2025, Yulissa Escobar left the villa a day following the Season 7 premiere amid backlash for a clip in which she uttered the N-word repeatedly. Her exit was addressed with a plain statement halfway through the second episode of the dating competition series last year. (Escobar issued an apology after her departure, but has since gone on social media downplaying the severity of her actions.)
A month afterward featured an unfortunate déjà vu moment as fellow Season 7 islander Cierra Ortega was likewise removed from the series after using an offensive racial slur against Asians. Narrator Iain Stirling addressed the moment in Episode 30, saying Ortega had left “due to a personal situation.” Days afterward, Ortega also released a statement; however, the erstwhile contestant stopped short of calling it an “apology video.” She said: “This is an accountability video. I do want to hold my hands up and say that I take accountability for using the word, but I do want it to be known that I genuinely had no idea that it was a slur. I had no idea of its meaning.”
