The Irish TV presenter reportedly earns a staggering amount of £600,000 as the host of Love Island, which caused controversy given her screen time of only 14 minutes
Born in the small Irish town of Bray on May 4, 1985, Laura Whitman rose to prominence after she won the 2008 Pick Me MTV competition, beating over 3000 competitors to become the face of MTV News Europe. The Irish beauty has since then established herself as a favorite TV presenter, with her Twitter account drawing 250,000 followers.
With an impressive portfolio and her public charm, Laura Whitman has been one of the most-coveted TV hosts, and the former Irish model is also among the highest-paid TV personalities. This year, Laura has been hosting Love Island, a popular British dating reality show, after the show's original host Caroline Flack was arrested for assault back in 2020. Her presence is expected to draw the audience's attention to the 8-series show, which is set to be full of more hilarious challenges and dramatic pairings.
Her pay packet for the show is unbelievable
It totally makes sense that a high-profile TV presenter like Whitman deserves a high salary base for her appearance, but her income for hosting Love Island has sparked a lot of criticism and controversy. According to Mirror, the 37-year-old host has earned around £600,000 for her role on Love Island this season. What causes the public's concern, however, is her incredibly limited airtime, as the Irish host has only been on-screen for under 14 minutes out of a total of 1,610 minutes being broadcast so far. In other words, Whitman rakes in a whopping amount of £750 per second of her air time on the show.
One account wrote: 'I’d love to have Laura Whitmore’s job. We haven’t seen her since episode one.'
Another tweeted: 'Where is Laura? All of this texting looks stupid.'
Her lack of airtime is rather confusing to viewers, who only got the chance to see Whitman on the first episode of the ITV2 show that has been running for 4 weeks. Speaking of Whitman's absence from Love Island, a spokesperson of the TV show told Dailymail:
'As regular viewers of Love Island will know, the host has never appeared in every episode of the series. As always, Laura’s next arrival will be a surprise to the Islanders and viewers alike.'
How Laura responded to the controversy
In response to concerns and criticism at her airtime absence in Love Island, Laura posted an Instagram story that read: '£744 a second! I feel sorry for whoever was made attempt the ridiculous maths based on nothing but speculation [sic].'
Before the beginning of this year season of Love Island, The Irish presenter took to TikTok to share a short clip addressing comments revolving around her incredible payment. According to The Tab, Whitman said:
'Firstly, Iain (her husband, who does voiceover for Love Island) has never had attention on money he earns. Why don’t we like women earning money? I b****y wish I earned what was written in the press! I only get paid days I work.'
Whitman went on to say: 'I bloody wish I earned what was written in the press. I only get paid on days I work.'
Love Island's director, Paul Mortimer, lately announced that the show will return for two new series in 2023. Mike Spencer - Executive Producer at Lifted Entertainment - talked about the show's grand return: 'After eight brilliant series, we are excited to be serving up two helpings of love in 2023 by kicking off in January at a stunning new villa in South Africa.'
With no further information revealed, it's likely that Laura Whitman will continue to be in the hot seat to host the show's new season.
