Sophie Gradon crowned Miss Love Island 2016 as she defends Zara Holland saying “girls like to have sex”
Zara left the show last weekend to be with her sick mum after being stripped of her Miss BG title
SOPHIE Gradon was crowned Miss Love Island 2016 on tonight's show after she gave an impassioned speech about Zara Holland.
The Love Island girls paid tribute to beauty queen when they were set the challenge of putting on their own pageant.
Zara left the show last weekend to be at home with her sick mum Cheryl.
Her departure came just days after she found out she had been stripped of her Miss great Britain title for having sex with Alex Bowen on the show.
Her housemates were sorry to see her go and so they held their own beauty pageant in her honour with the boys getting to choose the winner.
Each girl had to show off their individual talent in order to take away the top prize.
Malin drew a caricature of Zara, Kady tap danced with a twerking twist and Liana recited a poem she’d written.
Sophie showed off her vocals with a song, Tina tried her hand at comedy, Olivia put her hula-hooping skills to the test and Cara performed an impressive fire-breathing display.
Sophie later gave an impassioned speech in defence of Zara that saw the boys tear up.
She said: "Life shouldn't be about judging one another.
"For example, judging a young woman for enjoying herself.
"A young woman who hasn't harmed anyone but a woman who has faced a torrent of judgemental and close minded opinions since leaving Love Island.
"As an ex Miss Newscastle and Miss GB I can say that it's time people moved forward from their old fashioned thinking and accepted the simple fact that women like to have sex."
After adding together their scores, the boys nominated Scott to deliver the result.
He said: “I genuinely mean this; you’ve all smashed it tonight. You’ve all done your own thing and it was literally amazing.”
Later in the show, Tom gave her a pink ring to show his commitment to her.
The news of the contest comes after Zara's mum Cheryl Hakeney – herself a former Miss Hull beauty queen – said she was "really surprised" by her daughter's steamy on-screen love session with Alex.
Cheryl, now a familiar face to fans of ITV programme Dickinson’s Real Deal, admitted Zara’s behaviour had left her taken aback and said: “I’m really surprised by Zara’s behaviour – it’s definitely out of character.
“But, although it’s not her proudest moment, she hasn’t committed any crime.”
Zara, 20, secured one of the pageant industry’s top titles last September.
Yet after getting frisky with Vicky Pattison’s ex in Love Island’s Hideaway villa the glitzy crown was swiftly removed from her grasp.
Cheryl : "I'm disappointed they took her title away - I hoped they would understand that all young women make mistakes."
Zara broke down on Sunday night's episode when she heard the news.
She blurted out her emotions to her Love Island housemates and said: “I did Miss Great Britain because I wanted to.
"It’s something I wanted to do. And if you put that hard work in and the commitment and the time and the effort…I did and I won, and I worked so hard.
“And now I just made one silly, stupid mistake of being in the moment has ruined everything.”
An official statement from Miss GB officials read: “Following recent actions within ITV2 show 'Love Island' it is with deep regret that we, the Miss Great Britain Organisation, have to announce that Zara Holland has formally been de-crowned as Miss Great Britain.
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"As an organisation we have not taken this decision lightly, we are close to all of our winners and wherever possibly stand by them during their reign.
"That said, we feel we have no choice but to make this decision under the circumstances."
While Cheryl is championing her daughter, the newly-crowned Miss GB Deone Robertson claimed the pageant industry "expected" Zara to be deprived of her title.
The Scot, who will now represent the country in the event, said: “Everyone is briefed before entering a pageant.
“It’s drummed into your head. You cannot be seen naked or topless and you definitely cannot have sex on TV.”
She added : “We are supposed to be role models for young girl s and represent our chosen charities – (Zara) knew this.”
Taking another swipe at Zara, 20, she insisted “she can’t be a title holder,” after her very public hook-up with hottie Alex.
The Glaswegian added: “I think the pageant community saw it coming."
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