I went on Love Island and completely lost myself, I can’t even look at pictures from then, says Malin Andersson | The Sun

LOVE Island's Malin Andersson has opened up on how she 'feels sad for the girl' who went on the reality show all those years ago.

Malin, 29, cannot even look at photos of herself from around the time she appeared on the ITV2 reality series in 2016, saying she was "dead behind the eyes."

In an exclusive chat with The Sun ahead of the release of her new book, Positivity Is Our Superpower, Malin revealed Love Island was "not something I think about any more."

"I was insecure as anything, I had an eating disorder, I had an addiction to lip filler and surgery and when I look back at myself… some company tagged me in a picture of me just after the villa after I got lip filler… that picture triggered me a little bit because I looked so so so skinny and so sad," Malin said.

"Dead behind the eyes and my mum was literally about to die around that time."

Saying that "a photo says a million words", Malin reflected how she "just felt sad for that girl."

"I had no clue where I was going or what I was doing and where my mind was then. It’s like I was a different person," she said.

But after a lot of work and "a lot of healing", Malin is in a much better place and in January gave birth to daughter Xaya.

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Malin described the key to her healing: "The ultimate thing is when we seek love from other people and it doesn’t go our way or you have heartache or someone passes away, it teaches us to love ourselves more, because we are all that we need.

"We just need to turn in to ourselves  and I think that is what I started to do, just be more appreciative of what I have and who I am."

Malin also credited exercise with helping her "mind and to get me up and going but I look in the mirror and I don’t look at what to criticise."

"I just look at me as a person and what I am doing and achieving. It’s easy to pick out flaws especially in summer. You just have to retrain your mind."

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As the new series of Love Island gets ready for its second week, Malin has some sage advices for the new Islanders, telling them "not to follow the crowd and do what you want to do with your career."

"Be who you are. Don’t follow the crowd because then you end up losing yourself and you get stuck," she said.

"I look back and all I wanted to do was do some crap Pas and earn a bit of money on the gram, promoting crap on there, things I didn’t even believe in.

"I didn’t know who I was. The minute I found my purpose and what I wanted to do, everything kind of fell in place."

Malin also recently showed the awful domestic abuse scar on her neck while calling for more to be done to help victims.

She was beaten by her ex-partner and admits that only the police have seen the worst of the video evidence she covertly recorded.

The star is now campaigning for schools to teach school kids about "what red flags are, what a narcissist is, what's normal and what isn’t isn’t".

Malin's ex boyfriend Tom Kemp, 28, was jailed for 10 months in September 2020 after admitting to actual bodily harm.

Kemp, who the court heard beat Malin 'black and blue', was released just three months after his sentencing at Aylesbury Crown Court.

Malin has now penned a book called Positivity Is Our Superpower. In it, she opens up about her horrendous ordeal.

Posting next to the shocking picture of her neck, Malin offered a 'trigger warning' to her fan base.

HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:

Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families

• Always keep your phone nearby.
• Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
• If you are in danger, call 999.
• Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
• Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
• If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
• Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.

If you are a ­victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support ­service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].

Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.

You can also call the freephone 24-hour ­National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.

The 2016 Love Island star then shared: "Preparing myself for court was all consuming and constant worry.

"I know he was trying to f*** with my head, calling me ‘a liar with mental health issues’ in public before the hearing."

The extract continues: "When he changed his plea to guilty at the eleventh hour, I cried in sheer relief.

"In September 2020, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

"I’d finally got justice, and even though he served only three months of his sentence, I was vindicated."

Malin has gone on to admit that the moment Kemp was released from prison was "bitter sweet".

She told her followers: "Numbers are rising more and more people need help; yet our justice system is becoming less responsive.

"I feel a heavy heart sometimes when I look back on this period of my life, having to go through court and submit evidence back and forth for over a year.. to get justice, but then to also hear that was released after just 3 months.

"The bittersweet moment of a survivor. Even getting him sentenced was difficult, if it wasn’t for video footage I had (it was really bad and only the police have seen this so far) I don’t know what would have happened.

"Per 100 domestic abuse related police calls, only 33 arrests are made."

Malin has said that calls to domestic abuse helplines were up 22 per cent since March 2021.

She called on the government to do more to educate youngsters in school and universities about the warning signs of domestic violence.

Malin added: "I feel we need a prevention.. rather than having to find a cure for this. I want the younger generation growing up made aware of what red flags are; what a narcissist is.. what’s normal and what isn’t isn’t."

After being locked behind bars for three months, Kemp served the remaining seven months of his term on Home Detention Curfew.

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Malin – who had dated Kemp on and off in 2018 – upped the security at her home following his release.

She has since welcomed Xaya into the world with now-ex partner Jared. The couple split when their daughter was two weeks old.

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