Love Island star reveals she was brutally snubbed by All Stars bosses who U-turned on offer after asking her to return
LOVE Island star AJ Bunker has revealed she was brutally snubbed by All Stars bosses who U-turned on their return offer.
AJ, 31, who first appeared on the ITV2 dating show in 2021, says she was contacted by producers ahead of the series debut last month.
And while the hair extension technician was keen to make her villa return, the opportunity didn't end up working out.
Despite securing a Zoom meeting with Love Island bookers, she didn't make it through to the further stage and was notified that she wouldn’t be progressed late last year.
AJ has told The Sun, though, how she sees the rejection as a blessing, since it allowed for her to pursue her budding boxing career.
She explained, "When they started the audition process and were looking for people, they did reach out to me.
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"And then there was just that process of, 'You'll hear back,' but I think just because there were so many people that were interested in going back in, I got the e-mail being like, 'Oh, there's just too many people interested.'
"But, to be honest, it actually worked perfectly because I was co-main event for my fight and the time people were going in was the time when my fight was happening."
AJ went up against OnlyFans star Elle Brooke, 26, in their rematch last month, having first collided in the summer of 2022 when Elle won a points decision.
The Hertfordshire-native lost the January fight when Elle stopped her with a brutal right hand in the third round.
Now that her wounds have healed and the series is heading into its final week, she's hoping for another chance at love.
AJ said, "I didn't know if I was going to be bruised and even if I said yes to them, I was a champion at that point so I couldn't really turn down the fight I had.
"So it kind of worked hand in hand. But now that my fight's over, my bruises are healed, I'm like, if they were to turn around and say, 'Would you go back in, would you go back in?' I would absolutely jump at the chance."
The Sun has contacted ITV for comment.
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- Love Island All Stars airs every Sunday to Friday at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
LOVE ISLAND ALL STARS
Meet all the islanders on the latest series of Love Island
- Hannah Elizabeth - Love Island 2015
- Georgia Steel - Love Island 2018
- Georgia Harrison - Love Island 2017
- Chris Taylor - Love Island 2019
- Anton Danyluk - Love Island 2019
- Mitch Taylor - Love Island 2023
- Demi Jones - Love Island 2020
- Liberty Poole - Love Island 2021
- Jake Cornish - Love Island 2021
- Kaz Kamwi - Love Island 2021
- Luis Morrison - Love Island 2015
- Toby Aromolaran - Love Island 2021
- Callum Jones - Love Island 2020
- Joshua Ritchie - Love Island 2015
- Arabella Chi - Love Island 2019
- Molly Smith - Love Island 2020
- Sophie Piper - Love Island 2020
- Tom Clare - Love Island 2023
- Casey O'Gorman - Love Island 2023
- Joanna Chimonides - Love Island 2019