The counter now stands at fourteen. Fourteen former participants Temptation island have reported to lawyer Sébas Diekstra because they are said to have suffered psychological damage as a result of their participation in the reality and relationship program. One and a half week ago Efrain (26) and Aylin (24) complained in the A.D. They entered the program as a couple and came out broken. Aylin in particular suffered from the images she had seen of her boyfriend, the suggestion that he might or might not have had an affair with one of the temptresses on the island. And just when he had managed to convince her that he had done nothing dishonorable, the program was broadcast, and it still looked like he had cheated. Aylin ended up in hospital after a suicide attempt.
One complaint is annoying, fourteen complaints is an issue. Program director Peter van der Vorst of RTL Nederland decided that there will be no new episode of the program for the time being. Wasn’t a big disaster, because the 2023 season has just ended. He also canceled a reality program at the end of 2019. Then it turned around The Villa, a house with eight adolescents, gallons of booze and tons of hidden cameras. Two male participants had forced themselves on two female participants, or so it seemed. When there was a commotion after the images were broadcast, RTL decided to temporarily stop all ‘guilty pleasure’ programs, and Temptation Island was also banned. There was an investigation, internal, external everything.
Temporary was indeed temporary, because in 2020 four more couples went to a tropical island full of seducers, only the couples were now “looking for answers to relationship questions” and wanted to “grow as a person”. The singles were no longer merely seducers , but singles who were “open to a new relationship.”
Gloat
I got stuck with guilty pleasure TV for a while. Because what exactly is it guilty to the pleasure? Is it about shame – that you are looking at something that is actually beneath you? A bit flat, but tasty? Or does it really mean guilt – do you feel guilty because you’re gloating about twenty-somethings destroying their relationships and themselves? Both probably, but it was striking that over the years it became increasingly polite for Dutch celebrities to admit that they were secretly addicted to the ‘juice, drama and gossip’ of Temptation Island. There was also one in 2017 Temptation Talk: in a studio with an audience, the juiciest scenes were repeated and discussed. Neat people sat there on the bench, I remember. Psychologists were invited to explain the feelings of revenge and jealousy.
I have a random episode Temptation Talk looked back. The guest is the mother of Megan Deseaever, participant in the 2018 season with her then boyfriend Kevin Malengier. She was 18 at the time and in the first images she saw, her Kevin was shouting that she was “too round”. Flemish for stupid. Relationship broken. He then shared a bed with someone else, so did she. How did her mother think? seeing her daughter like this?” asked presenter Rick Brandsteder. Very strange, she said. “But what was the most remarkable thing, the most painful moment?” That, her mother says, was when she saw Megan crying like that. After her participation, Megan suffered from “low self-esteem”, she said on her Instagram account. She dealt with this with a (sponsored) breast enlargement, lip fillers and so on. She now makes spicy content for online platform OnlyFans. In 2023 she appeared in the program Ex on the beach: double Dutch. She broke off her engagement and reunited in front of the cameras with her ex Joey Ceti, but that apparently has ended again. Fun, isn’t it?