As winter Love Island is about to commence, Ellie Brown is reflecting back on her time in the villa during season four.

The star who admits to putting on over a stone since leaving the show revealed that she practically starved herself after hearing that she was going to be a contestant. "I practically starved myself going into the villa — eating nothing but fish and vegetables for months and spending hours sweating away in the gym each day ,for two months, I spent two-and-a-half hours a day in the gym." the 21-year-old told The Sun. However, the former Islander noted that even though she lost weight, her body was still scrutinised during her time in the villa and especially when she left Love Island and started to put weight back on. She revealed that she was "constantly trolled" by people commenting that she put "so much weight back on". The star also revealed that the new Islanders will also have to face the same scrutiny as she did and so, she hopes they're prepared to be thrown in at the deep end. And as season five wrapped up last July, Ellie noticed that Molly-Mae Hague received the same judgement she did when she left the villa and put on weight. Molly-Mae had to fight off nasty trolls last year when they took to social media to make remarks about her weight despite the star admitting that she was happier with her body. The 20-year-old revealed on YouTube that the backlash since coming off the show has been far greater than she ever expected and so, is constantly learning ways to shut out the negativity and focus on her fans. Love Island returns this Sunday at 9pm.