Shortly after he left the Winter Love Island villa in January, a series of shocking leaked WhatsApp messages showed Connor Durman insulting his ex-girlfriend for sleeping with black men and making racist comments about Love Island 2019 favourite Ovie Soko. Connor failed to address the allegations at the time.
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However, after posting a black square to his Instagram feed to support #blackouttuesday as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, Connor was called out by fellow former Islander Jordan Waobikeze for his hypocrisy and cowardice in failing to address his own previous racist actions.
Speaking to Capital Xtra’s Will Njobvu in an Instagram Live, Jordan said:
I don’t like the way he was silent on the topic the whole time, posted the black square and turned the comments off because he knew people would get onto him, and then went silent again for the couple weeks after like he was laying low, trying to fly under the radar.
Now, Connor has finally issued a public apology for the racist messages in a text post shared on his main Instagram feed. He wrote that he was ‘extremely sorry’ for the ‘inappropriate and racist remarks written in the message’ but insisted that ‘comments were not a true reflection of the Connor Durman you all know today’.
He ended the statement by offering his full support to the Black Lives Matter movement, writing:
Being honest with myself, I still have a lot to learn about the BLM movement, culture and history, but I am very grateful that the BLM movement has happened, the movement has my full support and it’s helped educate me personally along with millions globally, which I believe is one of the many changes the BLM movement are protesting for.
