Love Island USA star Austin Shepard is clearing the air after returning home from the Fiji villa.
Austin, 26, answered a series of fan-submitted questions on his Instagram Stories on Friday, July 14, including one from a social media user who asked whether he was a “racist bigot.”
“I’m going to give this attention only one time because this is, like, crazy,” Austin said in a Friday video. “Are you f***ing dumb? Like, honestly, are you dumb? Do you not think?”
Austin appeared to deny the accusations, citing one of his tattoos as further proof.
“I have a Black woman tatted on my side,” he quipped. “Use your head.”
Austin was one of the OG Islanders on season 7 of Peacock’s Love Island USA. He was dumped earlier this week alongside contestants Andreina Santos, TJ Palma, Gracyn Blackmore and Jaden Duggar.
Earlier this season, cast member Yulissa Escober was removed from the villa when past racially insensitive posts she made resurfaced online. (Yulissa, 27, has since apologized for her comments.)
“I wasn’t dragged out in the dark. I walked out in broad daylight head high, lashes on,” Yulissa said in a Thursday, July 3, TikTok video. “I did not wake up in the middle of the night. They didn’t drag my ass out of bed. I was actually just getting comfortable and just coming out of my shell because initially I was kind of timid and shy. I was upset that I got pulled out on that day because I was like, ‘Damn, I was just starting to have fun.’”
According to Yulissa, a producer later asked to speak off-camera.
“I had gotten called to the front and then I met one of the producers and they asked me to take my mic off. I figured something serious was kind of happening,” she recalled. “I honestly got scared. I thought something happened with a family member or something. They didn’t really tell me anything. They just said that a video resurfaced on the internet and it’s not looking too good. I didn’t really know what video or what I was saying or what I did.”
Yulissa’s exit was subtly addressed by narrator Iain Stirling, who briefly mentioned that she had “left the villa” but did not further explain the situation. Cast members also weren’t given full details.
“They personally never told me anything. They never told us in the villa,” Jeremiah Brown said during a Monday, June 30, episode of the “Speedy Morman” podcast. “They said she left for personal reasons — I can say that. I found out later after getting my phone back that it was because of whatever happened.”
Love Island USA airs daily, except for Wednesdays, on Peacock.
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