Love Island: Who is bombshell contestant Ellie? Meet the self-proclaimed ‘liability’ in the villa (cloned)

Love Island is back on our screens this January with a brand new series and host.

The dating show returns on Monday (16 January) night with the second ever series filmed in South Africa with new presenter Maya Jama.

The initial line-up kicking things off in the villa include the first ever partially sighted islander, a contestant with vitiligo, and an islander who once worked as Emma Watson’s body double.

Joining later in the show will be Ellie Spence, who is one of the first bombshell contestants to join the villa.

Whether or not Ellie appears in the opening episode is up to the public, who were asked in the week before the show aired to vote whether she or footballer Tom Spence should enter the villa first.

Here’s everything you need to know about Ellie…

What is Ellie’s job?

Promising to “shake things up” in the villa, 25-year-old Ellie hails from Norwich, who works as a business development executive at a law firm.

What is she looking for in the villa?

Ellie says she wants to find her husband in the villa after three years of being single and a dating “roster” that’s run “pretty dry” and led her to “about 500” bad dates.

“I’m single because I fall in love really quick, but I fall out of it just as quickly,” she says. “I could literally fall in love with a chair and then a week later be like, ‘Oh wait, no, that’s a chair…’ I fall in love quickly because I build up a character of someone in my head and then they breathe in the wrong direction and I’m like, ‘Next!’”

As for the dreaded “ick”? “Overconfident guys and men that think they can get any girl when they think they are so fit and a 10/10 when in actual fact they are none of the above. I like confidence but not arrogance.”

What will Ellie bring to Love Island?

Ellie says she’s “super caring” while also being “a little bit of a liability” and will bring “drama, fun and a bit of unpredictability” to the villa.

“I’m fun, caring, smart and know how to have a good time. I feel like I’m the whole package; I’m flirty, forward and very confident,” she says.

What is Ellie’s scar from?

Ellie has a scar on her leg that came from a serious accident when she was drunk.

“When I was drunk I climbed over the gates of my friend’s house, fell and almost lost my leg,” she says.

“I was in hospital for two weeks but they stitched me back up. It left me with a big scar on my leg but I’m so blasé about it, if I’m in a bikini you can’t not see it.”

What is Ellie’s Instagram?

Ellie’s Instagram page is @elliespennie. However, you’ll have to wait until she leaves the villa to see her social media posting due to a change in this series of Love Island.

Unlike previous years, when the islanders’ friends and family have manned their profiles, the winter 2023 contestants have been asked by ITV to make their accounts “dormant” for the duration of their time in the villa.

ITV have brought in this measure to help lessen the “adverse effects of social media” on the contestants.

Love Island returns Monday 16 January at 9pm on ITV2.