Like it or not, Love Island knows how to create a superstar.
From season 6’s bestie power trio, PPG—Leah Kateb, Serena Page, and JaNa Craig—to other fan favorites like Rob Rausch and Olandria Carthren, several islanders have become more than niche reality TV stars. Beyond the villa, they’re famous-famous, and that calls for safety measures in certain spaces—including a security guard.
So when Leah pulled up to Coachella with security in tow, the internet blew up with mixed reactions. A self-proclaimed “nepo baby” attendee, Daphne Blunt, has gone viral for airing her grievances after seeing the former islander on the California desert’s festival grounds. More specifically, she took issue with Leah skipping the bathroom line in the closed-off artist area of the festival, which is reserved for performers, celebrities, and industry folks. In other words, this isn’t a weird space for bodyguards to be doing their jobs and protecting their high-profile clients.
“This girl, she literally cut the entire bathroom line of the artist area,” Daphne alleged, adding that Leah “had no business” having security, unlike billionaires like Kylie Jenner and Jeff Bezos, who are protected in their daily lives. “She had her security flashing lights at everybody to cut the entire line with her group of friends and pushed to the front when we were all waiting.”
Once Leah caught wind of Daphne’s video, she cleared the air with a lengthy Instagram comment, saying that Coachella’s security was also near the bathroom.
“My security was shining the light at the floor cuz it was pitch black and I [was] in heels and drunk & I wasn’t with a group of friends—I was with one person, my cousin who wasn’t feeling well!” she wrote, in part.
She also confirmed she brought her own personal security, adding, “As for having security being obnoxious—it’s not! I don’t play about my safety. Many people from LI had security, the Love Island fandom is really insane and on an entirely different scale.”
Given the juggernaut Love Island has become in recent years—especially after Leah’s season aired two summers ago—fans don’t play when it comes to the islanders. Whether they fiercely defend their faves online or advocate for them to be taken seriously in traditional media spaces, the show’s fanfare grew exponentially. According to Nielsen, Love Island season 6 became the number one reality series in the U.S. across streaming platforms and doubled its streaming reach compared to previous seasons.
And as the show got bigger, so did its stars. Leah revealed that she and her boyfriend, Miguel Hirachi, dealt with people getting too handsy with them when they attended the famous festival last April.
“Last year people were grabbing my boobs and butt, kissing me on the face, and taking my hats off my head etc. grabbing Miguel,” she explained, adding, “I am a normal human. I don’t think I’m too cool or famous, everyone deserves to feel safe and have fun. I literally just want to be safe and enjoy the festival like everyone else.”
The criticism surrounding Leah’s need for security proves why she needs it in the first place. If she were merely a reality star at Coachella—in this case, a fork found in a kitchen—then it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, because, spoiler alert: it isn’t.
Perhaps one Reddit user puts it best: “I’m sorry, but if you are a regular person with a strong emotional reaction to this, it’s touch grass time.”
