Paige DeSorbo Reveals Why She Left 'Love Island USA' Challenge Early & If She'll Return to the Show
Paige DeSorbo is opening up about her sudden absence on Love Island USA!
The 32-year-old former Summer House star made an appearance on the Peacock dating show on Sunday (June 15) to host the “Got Wood?” challenge, but at one point during the game, narrator Iain Stirling said she had to step away so they were finishing without her.
On the latest episode of her Giggly Squad podcast, Paige revealed why she missed the last part of the challenge and what happened leading up to her sudden exit.
Keep reading to find out more…
“I get to the set, I’m in hair and makeup, I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s a scorcher out there,’” she prefaced. “Like it’s a real scorcher… but when I have a job, I feel like an athlete. I’m like okay, but we’re doing the job. We’re here. If you have booked me for a job, know that I’m arriving on time.”
Paige continued, “So, it’s a long filming day, and we started pretty early until… Mind you, I’ve just landed, I’m not even a full 24 hours that I’m there. In no situation am I acclimated, but I’m fine. I’m not going to say that. I’m not going to be a diva, I’m doing the job.”
“I go out, I do my entrance, I’m like oh, I’m not nervous at all, thank god. I’m born for this, I’m cool, I’m good, don’t need a beta blocker,” she said, noting she thought she shouldn’t take two beta blockers after taking one earlier in the morning, because there will be sun and she didn’t want it to be all too much.
“I do my entrance, I’m not nervous at all, I can host, this is so easy,” Paige went on. “The sun starts beating down on me pretty aggressively, and I’d say we’re about, oh I don’t know, maybe like two hours into filming and I’m standing there, and I’m in a full suede skirt. Now mind you, obviously we’re taking breaks, we’re taking water breaks, they’re coming to me with an umbrella, they’re shielding me from the sun, they’re having ice packs, all of this stuff.”
However, she continued to add she has a high pain tolerance, and she also doesn’t want to be a problem or bothersome, so she’ll wait until the absolute last second to say something.
“I’m about two and a half hours into filming and I’m like, ‘You know what guys, real quick, um, feeling a bit queasy. Let me take a minute to myself.’ I throw up in the bathroom.. We take a proper break and I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m just feeling like not myself.’ Whatever, they’re like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, totally, put me back in coach, like I can do this. I just had to get that out of my system, it’s something I do.’”
This happened halfway through the people in the challenge, and she thought she could make it through the second half no problem, but only got to two more people and had to stop again.
“I get through two more people and I’m swaying a little bit. I’m like, you know, I’m not feeling totally normal, but again, I’m not stopping the show that so graciously has asked me to come on,” she said. “I start looking at the medic. I’m like, ‘Why don’t you make eye contact with me and you tell me if I’m okay and if that’s normal on what I’m doing.’”
“So finally, I have like an earpiece in so someone can hear me talking and I literally just go, ‘I’m gonna need another minute, and I go into the cabin in which they’re literally is the whole game. I sit down, pass out, and they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re going to take your blood pressure, we’re going to stop for a minute,’” Paige continues. “They bring me back into the room and I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry, but like I just don’t think I can finish it.’”
Later on in the episode, Paige opened up again about having to stop filming.
“One thing I would say about myself it’s that I really do have a good work ethic. So the thought of telling all of these hundreds of people who are trying to make a TV show, ‘Oh, actually, I can’t finish,’ was giving me more anxiety than the thought of what if I did pass out because it’s so hot. And truly, the only thing that made me say I can’t keep going was my mom in my f–king mom head being like, ‘You faint, you hit your head just right, and you’re in a Fiji jail, and I can’t get to you and something happens and you’re dead in jail… No, a Fiji hospital, sorry, [not jail]… Really it was my mom in the back of my head being like ‘Do you want to do you want to pass out hit your head and be in a hospital like by yourself? No, just stop, you don’t have to do this.’”
Paige also revealed that she will return to the show on Friday (June 20) to film Love Island: Aftersun, which is the weekly recap series. That will air on Saturday (June 21) on Peacock.
It was also just revealed, via Deadline, that during June 6-12, nine episodes of Love Island USA season seven has racked up 1.2 billion minutes viewed. This is a 244% increase from the week before when there were only the first three episodes that garnered 355 million minutes viewed!