written by HANNA FLINT
photography LOLITA HARLEY
styling SAM KNOLL
It’s a hot Wednesday afternoon in a studio in Stoke Newington, and I’m basking in the presence of newly-crowned reality show royalty. This summer, Love Island graced us with its 12th season, which many viewers have called the “most satisfying season” yet, and that’s very much down to these three women, affectionately dubbed “the people’s princesses:” American Toni Laites, 24; Burnley girl Shakira Khan, 22; and Londoner Yasmin Pettet, 24.
Their steadfast friendship, vulnerability in the face of heartbreak, and resilience against bullying and misogyny in the Majorcan villa captured the hearts of the British public, making them a top three for the Love Island history books. “We found so much peace in the three of us, because we accepted each other for who we were,” says Laites, who was crowned winner with her equally beloved partner Cacherel “Cach” Mercer, 24. “We never tried to fit in with how everyone else looked or how they acted,” adds Pettet, who came third with her devoted partner Jamie Rhodes, 26. “All three of us just stayed so authentic to ourselves.”
It’s exactly that authenticity that drew my attention. Full disclosure, I haven’t watched since a friend appeared in season 4. As a mixed-race woman, I became uneasy with the way women of colour seemed to fare on the British dating show, not to mention the often regressive gender politics it exhibited when it comes to heterosexual dating. That was something Khan, of Pakistani-English descent, who came second with the raffish Harry Cooksley, 30, was cognizant of before entering the villa. “I went to a predominantly white high school, I was not the beauty standard, so I was thinking, ‘What have I signed up for?’she explains. “Everyone’s gonna love the blonde hair, blue-eyed girls, we see year in year out on Love Island. I thought, based on initial attraction, it wasn’t going to go well for me, but I was pleasantly surprised.”
So was I when the Instagram algorithm kept feeding me clips of this trio, intriguing me enough to check out a few episodes mid-way through the season. After that, I was seated for the rest. These women turned out to be refreshing outliers, not just because their appearances and ethnicities didn’t conform to the typical Love Island measure, but because they were no-nonsense, assertive women with significantly more emotional intelligence than most of their peers. “If you say it how it is, and you’re honest, you’re called ‘a bitch’, you’re ’ ‘nasty’,” says Khan. “No, I think it’s nasty to speak about someone behind their back, then rally together in groups and target them.”
That candour put them at odds with the other Islanders, who showcased what Khan describes as “classic High School” behaviour, which she bore the brunt of as early as Day 2, following Laites’ arrival. The Las Vegas bombshell was forced to re-couple with a coupled-up guy; she chose Ben Holbrough, leaving Khan single and in need to pull the other male islanders for chats and secure her future on the game show. That drew the ire of female islanders, namely Meg Moore and Helena Ford, whose thinly-veiled animosity and passive aggressiveness continued throughout the season, as bombshells like Pettet came in and Khan’s tumultuous romance with Cooksley put her in a distressing love triangle with Ford.
“I thought it wasn’t going to go well for me, but I was pleasantly surprised.”
Shakira Khan
“We felt that massively in the changing room, the snickers, the whispers, the dirty looks,” Khan says of the divide between the girls that became a major talking point this season and was somewhat downplayed by some Islanders after the show ended. “When you come around the corner and they stop talking, you feel isolated, it feels frosty, really tense, and it’s not nice. It wasn’t a bad edit; we tried to fix it, but that was our experience, we lived it.”
That the trio’s camaraderie developed from initial discord is certainly a testament to their maturity as women able to embrace conflict with open discourse and empathy, while making room for new Bombshells who were ostracised. “I came in as a harsh, strong bombshell, and even though Toni and I had an argument to begin with, she never made me feel like an outsider,” says Pettet, who arrived on Day 5. “Whereas some of the others did, and that’s how [Toni and I] bonded. We felt like outsiders compared to everyone else, so when bombshells would come in after that, we would befriend them—we didn’t want anyone else to feel that way.”
Outsiders in the villa, yes, but to everyone watching, they were heroes. Pettet for her ballsy calling out of Holbrough’s treatment of women, her hilarious lack of enthusiasm for child-rearing during the baby challenge and her empowering attitude when it came to asking Jamie for exclusivity, rather than accepting the norm of girls waiting for guys to pop the question. “Jamie’s always more expressive about the way he feels, and I’m not,” she explains. “That’s why I thought it was much more meaningful when I asked him to be exclusive, because it gave him that reassurance and that validation.”
“We felt like outsiders compared to everyone else. … We were the outcasts, and we just want to own it.”
yasmin pettet
Then there’s Laites with her witty comebacks—“On movie night, I realised ‘Oh, my God, I’m hilarious, those clips were iconic!’”and the accountability she took for the initial hurt she caused Cach after she fell for the misogynistic behaviour of Harrison Solomon. “I talked a big game, saying ‘you don’t deserve me,’ but then I crumbled,” she admits. “I handled the whole embarrassing situation the way that I would have handled relationships in the past, but it’s important to own up if you do something wrong—it means so much more when you’re able to recognize that and improve.”
And, of course, Khan, whose vibrant personality was admired across the nation, but later mourned when bullying, heartbreak, and an ill-judged romance with friend Connor Phillips, dimmed her sparkle. “In the outside world, I wouldn’t be sleeping in a bed with someone else when I wasn’t over something,” she reflects. “I just didn’t get time to heal, and that was a low point for me.”
Support from Laites and Pettet, as well as an on-site psychologist and welfare checks, aided her when she was on the brink of giving up. By the last week, however, she and Cooksley finally acknowledged their deep affection for one another, rekindling their romance. “We hurt people in the process of that, Connor and Helena, because we didn’t deal with our emotions properly,” she admits. “But in the last week, it had not sunk in for me that I was liked. I really thought it was going to be me and Harry against the world.”
“People might find you too much, too loud, too obnoxious, too confrontational … but be true to yourself, be genuine, and when you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll do better.”
shakira khan
It’s safe to say that Khan’s popularity is the reason she and Cooksley came second-place, a high regard she, Laites and Peppet have rightly earned after a turbulent journey in the Love Island villa. Now that they are out and experiencing the nation’s affection on full beam, from social media messages of support to people cheering them on the streets, even asking for selfies on a recent trip to Westfield Shopping Centre, they feel vindicated. “People might find you too much, too loud, too obnoxious, too confrontational,” says Khan. “But be true to yourself, be genuine, and when you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll do better.”
So what’s next for the top three? “I need that visa, if I’m being completely honest with you,” Laites deadpans. Her beau Cach is an East London boy, so she is keen to make the move to the UK permanent and swap waitressing for presenting. Khan, an admitted theater kid and former social media executive, has acting aspirations and wants to become a “role model for younger girls in the huge community of South Asian people in the UK.”
Pettet, a former commercial banking exec, wants to work in front of the camera too, “on TV and shoots like this,” but neither one of them is rushing any management decisions or brand deals. “We’re all sacrificing short-term money because we all want long-term careers,” says Pettet. However, she and Laites are looking to use their growing platforms to raise awareness for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. “Yaz and I both have IBD, and they’ve already reached out,”” says Laites. “That’s something that we want to have a long-lasting relationship with.”
After 12 seasons of Love Island, only 13 relationships have stood the test of time in the real world, and these ladies are hoping their connections with their respective partners will too. But their fellowship was the real love story; gal pals whose unique personalities and idiosyncrasies proved a winning formula for female friendship. And what would a friendship group be without a singular group chat name? “’‘The Outcasts’ is what we use,” says Pettet. “We were the outcasts, and we just want to own it.”
Lead image: from left to right Toni wears dress ROBERTA EINER, Shakira wears dress DI PETSA, Yasmin wears dress DI PETSA, shoes JIMMY CHOO
hair CLAIRE MOORE USING SWAY HAIR
makeup EMMA REGAN USING NARS COSMETICS
styling assistants SIAN CUTHBERT DAVIS
hair assistants ANAIS ROSENTHAL