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Credit: Ben Symons/Peacock

Love Island USA season seven is currently airing on the Peacock streaming service, and the show seems to be more popular than ever. However, a dark cloud now hangs over its success, as fan favorite Cierra Ortega‘s past social media posts have come to light.

Notably, there are at least two instances of Cierra using anti-Asian slurs on social media. One of the Instagram posts dates back to 2015, while the other is from 2023. 

In a now deleted post from 2015, Cierra, who is coupled up with Nic Vansteenberghe on the show, shared a photo of herself at the top of a mountain, and she used an Asian racial slur that starts with the letter C to describe how she squints when she smiles.

“Still c***** at the top,” she wrote in the resurfaced post.

Cierra screenshots

In another post from 2023, Cierra used the slur again to describe how her eyes look when she smiles or laughs as she shared a photo of herself getting Botox.

Cierra post from social media

According to The U.S. Sun, the executives behind Love Island USA are now having meetings to decide how to handle the controversial situation with Cierra. A source from the production said, “Cierra is in deep trouble, that is for sure. This kind of word is unacceptable. It was a huge disappointment when we saw it. Everyone is very, very bothered and pissed about that.”

The insider continued, “We will hold a meeting to decide what we should do… but it doesn’t look great at all for Cierra as a lot of us want to take her out of the show as soon as possible.”

This isn’t the only time Love Island USA has had an issue with racist behavior this season. The person continued, “We kicked Yulissa out of the show at the beginning of the season because of racial slurs, too. This kind of behavior and use of this kind of word is unacceptable, and we condemn all kinds of racism, discrimination, and insults towards anyone.”

The person went on, “You can’t use words like this, you can’t use racial slurs, and we can’t accept that, that is so bad. Everyone is furious that this post exists, that she used that word. How is it possible to post something like this and not expect any consequences? We ask everyone to be respectful and to not use certain words, but we can’t control what they did in the past.”

The outlet then spoke to another insider from the show who shared similar reports as the first. They said, “They will hold a meeting to see what is next for her. A lot of people are in favor of her being taken out of the show, the same way it happened with Yulissa, and in my opinion that is what should happen.”

The person added, “People are in shock and very upset by it, from the production to the crew, to people that work on every aspect of the show. That kind of thing is unacceptable and sad. I mean, Cierra made a massive, massive mistake that will follow her for a long time now. Look at Yulissa, everyone now only remembers her because of the racist stuff she said.”

Official representatives from Love Island USA have not yet issued a statement.