Love Island’s Zachariah Noble reveals he was body shamed by cruel trolls after ‘letting himself go’ in the villa: ‘It’s shocked me how much it’s come up’

Zachariah Noble has revealed he was body shamed by cruel trolls after ‘letting himself go’ in the Love Island villa.

The reality star, 26, said he does not have the ‘genetic gift’ of being able to eat whatever he wants and not gain any weight.

Speaking on FUBAR Radio’s Access All Areas, Zachariah told how he feels male body shaming is not taken as seriously as female body shaming.  

He said: ‘I feel like I struggled a little bit with my mental health while I was in there because I’m one of those people that if I can’t train or eat a certain way, my body reflects it.

‘Not being able to do that usual routine, I felt myself letting myself go slowly. I came out to a lot of lovely comments, but a lot of the hate I also received was about my body and how I looked. 

Body image: The reality star, 26, said he does not have the ‘genetic gift’ of being able to eat whatever he wants and not gain any weight (pictured with Molly Marsh) 

‘I’m not one of those people with that genetic gift of being able to eat what I want and always look good. I need a certain routine. How I look is literally a reflection of my lifestyle.’

Zachariah, who is now in a relationship with Molly Marsh, believes men don’t talk about their body issues enough.

He continued: ‘The whole body shaming thing has really shocked me how much it’s come up. It’s crazy. I feel like when you body shame women for example, its shunned, you can’t ever do it, it’s terrible. 

‘I completely agree, you should never body shame anyone. But when it comes to men, it’s almost comical, it’s a joke. It’s banter. 

‘I feel like a lot of problems with men’s mental health is we’ll read a comment but we’re not going to talk to anyone about it. I think that’s the issue as well. 

‘People don’t want to talk because we’re now admitting embarrassment. I don’t deal with hate, I’m thick skinned, it fuels me.’

Later in the interview, the reality star finalist admitted he went onto the show wanting to ‘play a game’ initially.

He said: ‘The way I have watched Love Island before, I definitely had some sort of game plans and some preconceived ideas of how the people in there were going to be. So I’d gone in there trying to play a game. 

Zachariah said: ‘I came out to a lot of lovely comments, but a lot of the hate I also received was about my body and how I looked’

He added: ‘I feel like a lot of problems with men’s mental health is we’ll read a comment but we’re not going to talk to anyone about it. I think that’s the issue as well’ 

‘I felt like I was only going to be in there a couple of weeks as well. That was my mindset. 

‘With me and Molly [Marsh], something just happened and after our first conversation I was like you know what? 

‘I need to see how this can go. It’s just worked out really well. I can’t believe it myself right now.’

Zachariah and Molly made it to the final of this year’s summer series and finished in fourth place with Sammy Root and Jess Harding crowned the winners.