Love Island’s Giorgio Russo, referred to as simply Gio on the show, is actually the older brother of England Women’s and Arsenal forward Alessia Russo.
Account manager Gio entered season 12 of Love Island and was coupled up with Yasmin Pettet and Bilikis Azeez before being booted from the island on day 30. Though other cast members have claims to fame, like Harry’s football career or Boris’ reality TV stint, Gio’s is straight-up nepotism – not that I actually think his sibling’s fame contributed to his casting on Love Island.
Alessia Russo, the current holder of the FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year award, is one of the top female footballers in the country, and yet, she was not mentioned once.
@bbcwomensfootball Giorgio Russo says he was “surprised” conversations about Alessia and women’s football weren’t shown on Love Island. #WEuro2025 #WomensEuros #LoveIsland #AlessiaRusso
So, why wasn’t Gio’s sister mentioned on Love Island?
In a new interview with talkSPORT, Gio sat down with Adrian Durham to talk all things Love Island, and specifically, his sister younger sister Alessia.
The host said: “You didn’t say to anybody in the villa that your sister plays for England… you dropped a few hints but you didn’t say clearly, ‘Oh my sister’s at the Women’s Euros 2025 for England’.”
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But as it turns out, Gio did just that. He said the lads had a “real camaraderie about being knowledgeable about football”, and Alessia and women’s football came up on more than one occasion.
He explained: “So do you know what? It’s funny that it wasn’t [shown]. I did and there was a lot of conversation, so I never actually brought it up. Someone figured it from my last name on day one – Tommy and Connor – but it never got shown on television which I mean is not too bad it was.
“There was times where we spoke about women’s football quite a lot in the downtime and there was times where we spoke about all football in general.”
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Why the bigwigs at ITV didn’t show those conversations is another question entirely, but people on TikTok said “shame on them” for not highlighting the connection – and during the 2025 Euros, no less.
One person wrote: “Of course they didn’t show conversations about women’s football, that would be too normal.”
“So weird from ITV that they didn’t show any of this. Bizarre,” another said, while a third added, “Women’s football not good air time. But normalising narcissism and gaslighting women is prime viewing. ITV do better!!!”
Put some respect on Alessia Russo.
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Featured image credit: ITV/BBC
