The grandmother of Love Island USA contestant Cierra Ortega has come out in defense of her granddaughter after she was booted from the show for using a racial slur in a post on social media.
The ousted star of the show's grandmother, Margdalena Carrillo, spoke with TMZ to stress that her granddaughter is not racist and that her family is comprised of immigrants themselves. She also fought back against the intensity of the backlash to her granddaughter, which has been met with lots of hatred on social media and even threats. Margdalena suggested that the backlash has gotten so bad that people have allegedly attempted to call ICE on them.
She also defended her granddaughter's apology video, and said that she "meant every word," and she supports her granddaughter's decision if she were to walk away from reality TV forever or go back to a similar show in the future.
Ortega was ousted from the Peacock hit series, a move that she said she agreed with in her message apologizing for her conduct. Her removal happened shortly after social media posts resurfaced in which she used an ethnic slur. "I can also be a little ch*nky when I laugh/smile so I love getting a mini brow lift to open up my eyes and get that snatched look," she wrote in one of the resurfaced posts.
“I genuinely had no idea that it was a slur,” Ortega said in a post addressing the controversy. “I had no idea of its meaning. ... This is something that deserved punishment."