Love Island: Michael Owen reacts to daughter Gemma in infamous heart rate challenge
Michael Owen has seemingly responded to his daughter Gemma taking part in Love Island’s infamous heart rate challenge.
Nineteen-year-old Gemma, an international dressage rider, is one of this year’s contestants in the ITV2 dating show.
As part of a challenge that aired on Tuesday night (28 June), Gemma was tasked with dressing up in a seductive outfit in the hopes of raising the pulses of her partner, Luca, and the other boys in the villa.
Her outfit involved a riding crop, in a nod to her successful career and her love of horses.
As the episode aired, Gemma’s football legend father appeared to share his reaction to the scenes on social media.
Posting on Twitter, the former England and Liverpool player simply used an emoji of a face covering their eyes with their hands.
Fans of the show have been speculating on how Owen would react to his eldest child appearing in the series since Gemma was announced as part of the season eight cast.
This appears to be the first time the sports star has addressed Gemma’s participation in the series.
“Turn the TV off, pal,” one fan suggested.
Meanwhile, in the villa, Gemma’s efforts in getting the boys’ hearts racing didn’t go unrewarded; Luca, Jay and Jacques all reported their highest pulse rates during her performance.
So far, Gemma has been partnered with Liam (who chose to leave in the first week), the season’s first “bombshell” contestant, Davide, and now Brighton-based fishmonger Luca.
Recent episodes have shown the pair coming into slight conflict after it emerged that Luca has stronger feelings for Gemma than she does for him.
Things were complicated further after the heart rate challenge, as Gemma’s pulse rate was revealed to have been raised the most by her real-world ex-boyfriend, Jacques, rather than Luca.
As of yet, it is unclear whether the Islanders are aware of Gemma having a famous dad. Eliminated contestant Afia insisted that she never heard the islanders discussing the football star in an Instagram Q&A session.
“I did know before I went in because I watched her [video introduction],” Afia said, having been a late entry to the season. “But if people do know, they don’t care… nobody really cares.”
She then added that Michael was “never, ever spoken about in my presence”.
Love Island continues nightly (except Saturdays) on ITV2 at 9pm.
