The Love Island All Stars 2026 contestants who smoke or vape behind the scenes have been revealed by a former Islander.
While the latest series no longer shows nicotine use on screen, former participants say it remains part of daily life in the villa under strict production controls.
Dumped contestant Charlie Frederick discussed the situation during an appearance on the Sisters in the City podcast with former Islander Anna Vakili.
“One person didn’t smoke, vape or snus,” he said. “That was Leanne (Amaning). Everyone else did.”
Anna said she was surprised by the claim, noting that only two people smoked during her season. Frederick added that this year, “everyone did”. Frederick also said alcohol consumption was common despite limits on drinks in the villa. “Everyone drank in there,” he said.
The confirmed line-up for Love Island: All Stars 2026 includes Zac Woodworth, Carrington Rodriguez, Yamen Sanders, Sher Suarez, Kyra Lizama, Imani Wheeler, Curtis Pritchard, Lucinda Strafford, AJ Bunker, Konnor Ewudzi, Samie Elishi, Scott van-der-Sluis, Millie Court, Whitney Adebayo, Belle Hassan, Ciaran Davies, Tommy Bradley, Jess Harding, Leanne Amaning, Helena Ford, Sean Stone, Charlie Frederick, Shaq Muhammad and Jack Keating.
Strict rules on smoking and vaping
Since 2018, smoking and vaping have been banned from broadcast, meaning viewers do not see contestants using nicotine products during episodes.
Islanders must leave the villa individually if they want to smoke or vape so that conversations are not missed by cameras. If contestants do not declare the habit before filming begins, they are not allowed access to devices during production.
Former All Stars contestants Olivia Hawkins and Marcel Sommerville previously described how common vaping was during their series. Olivia said: “I think everyone vapes, pretty much everyone. Apart from Ekin-Su.” Marcel added: “Everyone apart from Olivia had a vape.”
Olivia also explained: “With the vaping, if you don’t declare it beforehand, you will not be allowed a vape.”
Marcel said many contestants disclosed vaping so they could step away briefly from the main group, explaining: “I feel like everyone said that they vaped just so they could have five minutes out of the villa just to like have a little detox and a little break from everything and then head back into the madness.”
From smoking areas to off-screen use
The current approach marks a shift from earlier series after the programme’s 2015 relaunch, when cigarettes were regularly shown on screen and often featured in key conversations.
An analysis of 1,001 minutes of content from one season found tobacco imagery in 204 minutes, totalling 20 per cent of the time. Some 66 intervals involved cigarette smoking by one contestant, and 10 included several people smoking at once.
More than half of complaints made to Ofcom about the show during that period related to smoking. Assistant Commissioner Paul Mortimer said at the time: “More than 50 per cent of complaints about the show were about people smoking and because they’re a very sexy cast in a very sexy environment on a sexy channel, it made smoking look glamorous and Ofcom took a view that it was unacceptable..”
From 2018, producers moved the smoking area away from shared filming spaces and banned smoking and vaping from broadcast altogether, requiring contestants to leave one at a time to prevent group use or off-camera plot developments.
More recently, former finalist Shakira Khan described a designated storage system for devices, saying Islanders’ vapes were kept in a “vape box” out of sight from cameras, offering a rare insight into how the rules operate during filming.
