Joey Essex has banned Love Island contestants from mentioning The Only Way is Essex.

The 33-year-old reality TV veteran – who became the first ever celebrity to enter the civilian version of the ITV2 dating competition at the beginning of this season – became fed up with references to TOWIE flying around the villa, according to recently dumped Islander Patsy Field.

The 29-year-old office administrator revealed: “Everyone was quoting TOWIE. All of the girls were quoting TOWIE. Joey put us on a TOWIE quote ban at one point. [He] said, ‘We’re going to need to drop it now.'”

Patsy defended the habit by pointing out they weren’t poking fun at Joey – who was coupled up with Samantha Kenny, before moving on to Grace Jackson – but paying homage to Gemma Collins, 43, who has made a name for herself as a reality TV icon.

Samantha fumes over Joey Essex on Love Island

She added to Closer: “But we couldn’t help it, and we said, ‘We’re not actually quoting TOWIE, we’re just quoting The GC’. She is a living legend, so can you blame us really?”

Joey in villa
Joey became fed up with references to TOWIE flying around the villa ( 
Image:
ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Joey – who has appeared on several reality TV shows such as Dancing on Ice, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Celebs Go Dating and many more – hit the headlines when he entered the Love Island villa as a bombshell on launch night. But he’s not receiving any special treatment on the Maya Jama-fronted show.

A source told MailOnline: “Joey is being treated like any other Love Island contestant, he’s playing by the same rules and won’t be given any preferential treatment. He hasn’t been paid an appearance fee or any money at all for signing up for the show, not a penny. On Love Island it is all about the exposure and for Joey, it means more than that, too. He’s looking for someone to settle down with.”

Joey recently stoked the ire of Love Island fans and viewers have called out a “fix” in the show. Tuesday’s instalment of the ITV2 program ended in the shock dumping of Samantha Kenny, who had been coupled up with the TOWIE legend since he first walked into the villa as a bombshell.

The pair’s blossoming romance was cut short by the arrival of Joey’s ex girlfriend Grace Jackson as the TV star realised he still harboured feelings for the model, whom he dated for six weeks last year.

After coldly dismissing Samantha, Joey decided to give his relationship with Grace another chance and the make-up artist was dumped from the villa as none of the lads wanted to partner up with her.

A multitude of viewers flocked to X, otherwise known as Twitter, following Samantha’s shock exit from Love Island, as they believed she was a sacrificial lamb in the show, pointing out Joey and Grace as the couple bosses were planning to push into the spotlight all along.

“As they intend for Joey and Grace to become fan favourites (fixed) they had to get rid of Samantha because she wasn’t making them look good”, one viewer wrote.

Another quickly echoed: “I hope nobody is buying this touching Joey and Grace reunion. It’s a fix and they aren’t even bothering to pretend #loveIsland.” A third agreed: “Joey and Grace is giving this is preplanned, fixed, behind the scenes, strings being pulled.”