CASA Amor’s Amber Wise was due to check into the Love Island villa WEEKS earlier in the series, her proud dad Dennis Wise has revealed.
In his only interview about the uni student’s turn on ITV2, the football legend has told how disaster struck, sending her home to the UK from Mallorca where she had been isolating in a holding apartment.
Speaking exclusively, Dennis explained: “Amber was actually meant to be in earlier but she and her chaperone got food poisoning.
“So then she actually came home for a period and then they said, look we’d like you to go into Casa Amor.
“She’d flown out 7th June, and then came back on the 22nd June.
“And then they said look, would you come back for Casa Amor and she said’dad what do you think?’
“So she decided and then she went back out.”
Amber was first approached by producers following Gemma Owen’s amazing run last year, which saw her come runner-up with fishmonger Luca Bish.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it took Dennis a while to come round to the idea of his only daughter signing up.
He said: “After Gemma appeared in last year’s show, Amber was inundated with requests for various shows but when Love Island first got in touch it was about the winter one.
“But she’d just started uni so that was a no, and then they asked again about the summer one.
“She didn’t tell me at first, until she’d spoken to them a couple of times, and if I’m being honest it was a ‘No, please’ from me.
“She came to me with all the reasons she wanted to do it and eventually I said ‘Okay, fine’
“When she made that decision, we fully backed her.”
Dennis and wife of 19 years Claire then undertook calls with ITV – but say there are no special conditions or agreements in place for Amber, as had been rumoured for Gemma Owen.
Dennis went on: “I didn’t chat with Michael about it but I thought about it.
“Amber actually gets along well with Gemma, they have known each other a long time.
“I might actually call Michael and have a brief chat with him now – he wasn’t too keen, Michael, I don’t think.”
