Mike Thalassitis’ Love Island pal Jonny Mitchell gets over 61,000 signatures on petition calling for ITV bosses to protect stars from ‘toxic’ reality TV
JONNY Mitchell has started a new petition to encourage Love Island bosses to protect their cast after two contestants have died in the last nine months.
The 28-year-old star has decided to take action after his friend Mike Thalassitis took his own life over the weekend.
Jonny - who competed in the 2017 ITV2 series with the late footballer - has slammed the dating show as "toxic" after Mike's suicide and Sophie Gradon's suspected suicide in June last year.
He hopes the petition will encourage the show to put a "new duty of care" in place.
The petition reads: "When I found out this weekend that he had taken his own life I was utterly heartbroken.
Jonny claimed he had been trolled "more" after he left the villa, though it "never fazed" him he believed the same ordeal could encourage some people to take their life.
He went on: "I probably got trolled more than most coming off Love Island and luckily it never fazed me, but not once did I get any contact from the show asking me if I needed any help dealing with any of it.
"Some people are seriously sad and animalistic enough to push some people to the point where they actually kill themselves."
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