Love Island star calls Mary Lou McDonald an 'absolute delight' in 'bizarre' crossover

Shaughna Phillips, who was a contestant on the first-ever Winter Love Island just before the pandemic hit in 2020, posed for a photo with the Sinn Féin leader after their respective stints as guests on Good Morning Britain.

Sharing the photo as she grinned beside the Dubliner, Shaughna wrote: “The president of Sinn Fein, an absolute delight” and added three green, white, and orange heart emojis to represent the tricolour.

Mary Lou reshared the photo and said: “Great to meet you @Shaughna_P bright and early!!”

Many were surprised to see the pair together, with one person joking that this was “the coupling up we didn't know we needed” on Twitter.

“Such a bizarre crossover,” another person wrote.

A third said: “A Love Island x Sinn Fein collab was not what I expected to see on a Tuesday morning.”

The politician appeared on the show to discuss the possibility of a united Ireland and said that she believes there will be “referendums on unity in this decade.”

“I believe the constitutional arrangement will change and I believe we all need to prepare for that.

“I also believe that we shouldn’t come at this with a sense of dread or fear or loss. We need to look at this as an incredible democratic opportunity.”

She explained that partition in Northern Ireland has been “disastrous” for both the UK and Ireland and said that a unification would bring a “good, neighbourly, strong relationship with Britain.”

Meanwhile, reality TV star Shaughna was invited onto the show to weigh in on whether people in the office should refrain from bragging about holidays amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.

She argued that it was “all relative” and said chatting about holidays is “part of the social aspect of the office.”

“I completely understand going in [to work] every day and talking about my incredible holiday while someone’s trying to work out whether they’re going to have breakfast or dinner that day,” the 28-year-old said.

“But I think it’s all relative. I worked in an office; I absolutely loved the social aspect of it and really struggled working from home.

“Hearing [that] someone else [was] going on a holiday – that would have made me happy for them and I would have loved to hear their experiences.

“You can be happy for someone whilst also thinking: ‘Gosh, I wish I was going on holiday.’”