LOVE Island star Helena Ford has broken her silence on co-star Lucinda Strafford’s “bullying” row after her bombshell claims this week.

Lucinda, 26, had a rocky time in the villa and was at the center of plenty of drama and confrontations with Belle Hassan, Samie Elishi and Jessy Potts.

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Helena Ford said she felt ‘sad’ to hear that Lucinda Strafford felt ‘isolated’ in the villaCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
 

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Lucinda claimed earlier this week that she felt she had been ‘bullied’ by some of the girlsCredit: ITV
 

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Helena said she always tried to make Lucinda feel included and make sure she was aloneCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Earlier this week, Lucinda admitted she felt she had been “bullied” by some of the girls which led to her being “isolated” from the group.

Helena, who formed a friendship with Lucinda in the villa, said she was “sad” to hear that she felt “alone”, despite her best efforts to support her.

Addressing Lucinda’s claims, Helena exclusively told The Sun: “There was never a particular group of people that were together and another particular group of people together.

“I think because me, Millie and Leanne dipped in and out of both groups, there wasn’t an actual proper divide.

“There were never points that I had noticed where people were on their own because I don’t like to see people on their own.

“Even if someone’s sunbathing on their own, I’d sit next to them even if they want to be non-verbal, they don’t have the choice, I’ll just sit myself down.

“It’s quite sad to hear that she did feel isolated in there.

“When you’ve got a house full of girls, the last thing you want to feel is isolated by anyone, it is really sad to hear that.

“But I think me, Millie and Leanne dipped in and out of both groups.”

Helena admitted that living in the villa became very “intense” to the point that Islanders were becoming sick of the constant rows.

Meanwhile, Helena was forced to become the “mediator” of the group and try to keep the peace among the girls.

“I actually found it easier being in the middle than being on one side,” she said.

“I look at Lucinda like a little sister, and I got really close to Belle from day one – so I was never going to take sides.

“Every time they would argue, I would never get involved – but afterwards I would say to Lucinda ‘maybe you shouldn’t have said this’ but I’d say the same thing to Belle ‘you could have done this differently’, so I’d always be the mediator between them.

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Belle Hassan, Jessy Potts and Samie Elishi clashed with Lucinda during their time in the villaCredit: ITV
 

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Helena said Lucinda and Scott would spend hours together on their ownCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
“But where you’ve got a group of really strong personalities, there was always going to come a clash at some point.

“I feel like I was just trying to stay out of it.

“It got to a point where we were all saying ‘please stop arguing’ because it was getting boring, it was relentless, every night, it’s in the dressing room and it’s not just a small argument, they were loud explosive argument.

“It did get a bit much in there, but when you’re on top of each other in a house like that, it’s like when you argue with your sisters, you can’t get away because they’re walking past you and you see them again, it was a very intense environment.”

Helena went on to address Lucinda’s comment on the We Need To Talk podcast, where she said she’d go days without speak to certain girls.

She said: “I didn’t notice it but if I think about it, Sean and Lucinda spent a lot of time together – they are the boy/girl version of each other – they are so similar.

“So they’d spend a lot of time on their own together, they’d be on their own and she probably wouldn’t have an interaction with the girls all day.

“But it’s a small villa, it’s quite hard to avoid people, we’re amongst each other always but I can see in the daytime you cannot speak to the girls if you take yourself off with Sean.

“It’s such a tough environment and you react to things that don’t normally annoy you and you can’t get away from it.”

ITV2 viewers were left baffled when Jessy Potts entered the villa and immediately targeted Lucinda by reputedly having a go at her.

Elsewhere, Helena doubled down and said she believed Jessy Potts outburst towards Lucinda was all part of her game plan.

She added: “She came into the villa knowing at the time that Lucinda wasn’t liked and Belle was. She came in on a motive to ‘befriend Belle and maybe don’t befriend Lucinda’.

“Jessy came in on smoke towards Lucinda and was telling Lucinda off essentially about things that Jessy wasn’t in the villa whilst it happened. She was having a go at her, but she wasn’t even in the villa at this point

“It almost felt like an attack every time and Lucinda couldn’t say or do anything right and she was mimicking her.

“I think Jessy thought if she went in and went on the attack to Lucinda that it would be received well by the public.

“Obviously she’s gone in there and the whole scripts been flipped and that’s not the narrative anymore.”

Elsewhere, Helena was revealed the real reason why Samie left the All Stars finalist reunion early on Wednesday after she wasn’t seen posing alongside her co-stars at the event.

Helena said: “I saw clips and it was all the finalists, Lucinda included apart from Samie, Samie wasn’t there. A lot of the comments were ‘why is Samie not getting in the video? Is it because of Lucinda?’.”

Helena revealed: “Samie had to leave the meet-up early and go to a shoot and then come back, so it just happened to be in that moment that they happened to take the videos and it looks like Samie purposely not got in, but it wasn’t that at all, she actually had a shoot to go to.

Just days ago, Lucinda revealed she broke down in tears after being ‘bullied’ by her fellow Islanders – but it wasn’t shown on TV.

Love Island All Stars was hit by more than 11,000 Ofcom complaints from furious viewers who insisted Belle Hassan, Jessy Potts and Samie Elishi were ganging up on her.

Things between Lucinda and the girls came to a head during the To Be Honest game, where host Maya Jama was forced to step in and comfort her after she stormed off in tears following a huge showdown.

Appearing on Paul C Brunson’s podcast, the host asked if she felt like she had been bullied in the villa.

Lucinda replied : “In that moment when I was talking to Maya, I genuinely had no one to look to at all, apart from Sean.

“There wasn’t one single person in there that I felt like was my friend. It was literally just Sean.

“And even that night I went to sleep. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I woke up the next morning. I looked around the bedroom and I was like, there’s no one to even talk to. This isn’t fun.

“And I remember I went outside and I just cried my eyes out on my own. But it wasn’t shown because it was just outside the front door.”

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Helena revealed the real reason Samie left the finalist reunion early on WednesdayCredit: Instagram
 

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Helena insisted that Jessy went into the villa with a motive that backfired