Olivia Attwood: 'We shouldn't glamourise being reliant on other people'

5 hours ago Annabel RackhamCulture reporter In just a couple of years, Olivia Attwood has transformed from one of reality TV's most chaotic (and memorable) contestants to a documentary maker investigating some of society's most taboo topics.

Appearing on Love Island at the peak of its powers in 2017, she achieved instant fame and recognition, which she has managed to successfully leverage into a media career that not many other reality stars have been able to replicate.

"Having been a contestant, a contributor and now a host, I get to meet people I've been in the shoes of - it's a unique journey," she tells the BBC.

The 34-year-old is now launching a new ITV reality show called The Heat, but dedicates much of her time to investigating topics such as cosmetic surgery, adult entertainment and online trolling.

'There will always be snobbery around reality TV' Attwood describes her new show, The Heat as "a big tick for my career" as she was brought in to host, "doing something completely different by not making it about myself".

The cooking-based reality show sees 10 young chefs thrown into a Barcelona kitchen where they are not only filmed competing against each other, but also once service ends.

"It's really fresh, there's a lot of competition with reality TV, you're trying to get people's attention but you've got that level of escapism and I feel like it's really something special," she adds. Attwood has been praised for her approach with those who appear on her shows, which often include sex workers and those with addiction issues, particularly around plastic surgery. Referencing her time on reality TV, she says: "I remember how I would have liked to be dealt with or what would have helped me, even if it's like a reassuring check-in. "Maybe you can't have [this connection] unless you've actually been on the other side of it," she adds. Attwood's former jobs as a motorsport grid girl, model and dating show contestant made her initially feel like "it was a little bit harder to get respect" when she started trying to carve out a different career for herself. "When people have had such unfiltered access to you, they think you can put you in a box.

"But I'm never going to get my violin out about it, because reality TV has also kicked open loads of doors - I never would have been in front of commissioners and developers if I hadn't gone on Love Island. "

Attwood is one of Love Island's biggest success stories, appearing on the show at a time when it led national discourse, allowing her to become a household name like a handful of others, including Molly-Mae Hague, Tommy Fury, Dani Dyer and Maura Higgins.

When asked about why there still appears to be a stigma attached to using dating shows as a career launchpad, she says "there will always be a snobbery around reality TV, especially dating shows".

"Someone can be vapid, have no depth and be on reality TV, but that doesn't mean that's true for every contestant," she adds.

'They are our brothers, our fathers, our colleagues' One area Attwood has touched on in her documentaries is the idea of the manosphere - a growing online space where men share toxic and misogynistic ideas about women. She has platformed adult content creators in her ITV series Olivia Attwood: Getting Filthy Rich, including some who have made millions on platforms such as OnlyFans.

"A lot of men have opinions on women who do OnlyFans or pornography and they are visceral," she says.

"They're so disgusted yet they are the main consumer and the real reason this economy exists is because of them and it still blows my mind a bit," Attwood adds.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that British people spend more than £6bn a year on the sex industry - with the vast majority of that money being spent by men.

"We put so much emphasis on creators and not customers, yet they are our brothers, our fathers, our colleagues," Attwood says.

"I never tell my viewers to think whether something is right or wrong, it's for them to draw their own conclusion.

But we never seem to have a problem with the people buying it - if there wasn't demand for it, it wouldn't exist," she adds.

Attwood is also a regular panellist on ITV's lunchtime talk show Loose Women and has her own interview podcast Olivia's House.

It's on these two platforms where she has really cultivated her image as an independent and business-orientated woman. It follows on from her speaking out after receiving death threats after appearing on Love Island. Attwood has recently separated from her husband of three years, footballer Bradley Dack, which she says made her feel "incredibly passionate" about being self-sufficient. "Navigating what I've been going through, the fact I have my own place and car, I can't even imagine not being able to look after myself," she says.

Attwood says she has been concerned by the tradwife trend - where women promote what has been described as 1950s gender roles, with lives centred around their husbands and serving them.

"We shouldn't glamourise being reliant on other people, it puts you at a huge disadvantage.

Women are taking up more space than they ever have and rightfully so. "I think if you rely on someone then you're never in a balanced situation and then motivations for staying or leaving become way more complicated," Attwood adds.

She says she worries about whether men "know how to handle the women that we are today" and suggested online influencers such as Andrew Tate are "preying on the insecurities" of vulnerable men.

A 2025 YouGov poll suggested one in eight Gen Z men (aged 14-29) had a "favourable view" of Tate, while more than one in three believed misandry - hatred or discrimination against men - was widespread in the UK.

One in five women see misandry as being widespread in the UK, according to the poll.

"We're dating not out of necessity but because someone adds value to our lives, so I think that's made dating harder for men because we don't need them, and I think for a lot of men that is not something society has prepared them for," Attwood says.

The Heat is now streaming on ITVX