Love Island's Anton says he is ready to take on the trolls, who crippled his self-confidence with cruel comments about his 'unrecognisable' appearance after he underwent a major lifestyle change.
The 29-year-old is braced for his second shot at fame in ITV's first All Stars series, after securing his place as a firm fan favourite in the 2018 series of the show.
In a series that captured Tommy Fury and Molly Mae Hague’s origin story, introduced us to firecracker Maura Higgins and heartthrob Ovie Soko and the cruel ways of Destiny’s Chaldish, Anton’s wear your heart on your sleeve approach to villa-life - that saw him break down in tears at a live Craig David appearance - stole the hearts of viewers, even if he didn’t find love himself.
“My last experience was a little bit shaky to say the least. I felt like I was hanging on for dear life every week,” Anton told the Mirror ahead of his return for the first ever All Stars series.
While most of the star-studded line-up jumped at the chance to return to the hugely popular dating series, for Anton it was a much tougher decision.
The Scot admits his first rush of fame went straight to his head and he fell into the trappings of the dark side of celebrity. "I wasn’t nice to people, I thought I was more famous than I was. I lost myself and I ended up feeling like a failure,” Anton admits.
Worst of all was the horrific trolling that Anton endured as a barrage of online trolls began to attack his appearance. The abuse kicked off seemingly overnight over an apparent ‘change’ to Anton's looks and kept up for months. After taking up bodybuilding, Anton was dogged by cosmetic surgery rumours with fans claiming he looked 'barely recognisable' from his old self and accused him of abusing Botox and fillers.
The sudden pile on brought up terrible memories for Anton, who was badly bullied as a child for his weight. Speaking about the vicious abuse being levelled at him every time he posted a picture or was seen in public, Anton said: "It couldn’t have got any worse.
“The hardest thing about that period is that I agreed with what people were saying about me. I did put on weight, which by the way was deliberate because I was bodybuilding at the time. I just thought, I’ll show them when I’ve finished my cut and that gave me the fuel to get through it. I knew there was going to be backlash and that’s why I put off bulking for so long after Love Island. But it was a lot worse than I had expected.
“There were days when I found it difficult to deal with. Let’s not get it twisted, I’m a very vain guy. So to be trolled that much about how I looked... and I agreed with what they were saying.”
Anton said going through the ordeal has only made him stronger and he now feels ready to face the scrutiny of the Love Island viewers once again as he returns to the limelight.
“I always prepare for the worst. When you go on Love Island there will be positives that come into your life, but there will be negatives," reflected Anton. "One thing I got dragged into when I first came out of the show is that you post something and you would have a thousand nice comments and you’d have one bad comment and you’d get so absorbed in the bad. You don’t give the time of the day to the nice replies, you focus on that one person giving you the negative. It’s to be expected. I’ve been through it the last few years. It doesn’t bother me now. Mentally I’m in the best place I can be in my life and nothing can break me.”
One of the ways Anton has helped him change his mindset is making the decision to go sober. “I realised when I got to 29 last year I wasn’t in the direction I wanted to be. From 17 to when I went on Love Island I was doing well in life; I had my gym business and I knew my direction. Then I went onto Love lsland and that accelerated that and there was all the publicity of the show and I just lost my beliefs and my values. I thought I was more famous than I was. I wasn’t nice to certain people sometimes. You know, I just lost me as a person. It took a long time for me to heal for sure.
“I turned to alcohol a lot of the time to hide the reality of where I was at. I felt I’d hit the peak of where I wanted to be at 24 - I had the following, I was making good money, I had fame to a certain extent and when you reach your ultimate goal but you’re not happy you feel like a failure. And I thought, 'where do I go?' I didn’t have a direction anymore so I turned into a self-pity party.
“When I turned 29 [last September] I made a solid decision to myself where I said, 'You know what? Between your 29th and 30th birthday give yourself 110 per cent every day. To your body, to your mind, to your business', and that’s what I have done for five months now and I’ve never felt better. I can honestly say I don’t feel like I’ll ever drink again and I know thats’ a bold statement to make.
"This time in the villa I won’t be drinking and I want to take that forward into the rest of my life.”
Anton has also undergone a huge upheaval in his love life over the last year after splitting with his girlfriend nurse and fitness coach Dominika Blunska, 25, last September. Some fans had speculated that Anton had called time on the romance as a ploy to secure his place in the All Stars villa, which he denies.
“Me and Dom split in January initially of last year, we ended up getting back together in February and split again by September. Then I got the call about the show in October," he said.
While things didn’t work out, Anton - who was coupled up with Belle Hassan during his last time in the villa - describes being with Dom as the best relationship he’s ever had. “We were like the same person but we were just friends. For me it felt like a friendship. If I’m honest as a man I just needed to have the balls to have ended it sooner. But I was going through a hard time myself.
"It’s true what they say, you shouldn’t go back to your exes. But we went back and it got to the stage where it was nothing more than a friendship for me. Me and Dom are on great terms now. I speak to her every other day there are no issues there.”
While Anton and Dom bonded over their love of fitness, the star says he’s open to finding someone with different interests to his own. "Fitness used to be everything for me. I’m approaching 30 this year; I want someone ambitious, loyal and caring and affectionate. The gym thing is not important to me anymore, it’s not even important in my life anymore. It used to be my everything but when you get older you realise it’s not.
“Yes it’s important to keep yourself in shape and to stay healthy but it’s not a priority in my life anymore so I wouldn’t expect it to mean everything to someone else.”
Anton says Series 4 bombshell Kaz Crossley would be his dream person to couple up with in the South Africa villa with Gemma Owen and newly-single Molly Smith also on his radar.
“Love Island is a once in a lifetime opportunity, this shouldn’t be happening again but it is so for me now it’s just a case of going in and taking every day how it is," said Anton. "I don’t have any strategy or plans. I’m just going to take it day by day. And what will be will be."
Love Island: All Stars starts on Monday 15th January, 9pm on ITV1, ITV2, ITVX and STV.
