Miss Great Britain boss: Why I had to sack Zara Holland after Love Island live TV sex romp
| Posted: August 24, 2016
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Zara Holland who was stripped of her Miss GB crown
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Beauty queen boss Kate Solomons has broken her silence about the sacking of Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland.
Former Miss Leicester Kate is the national director of Miss Great Britain.
She spoke out after Ms Holland appeared on TV show Loose Women talking about losing her crown.
Ms Holland was stripped of her title after she had sex on TV reality show Love Island.
Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/miss-great-britain-boss-tells-why-she-had-to-sack-zara-holland-after-love-island-live-tv-sex-romp/story-29651809-detail/story.html#uOmofugwmJwKhSHV.99
Ms Solomons, who is based in Leicester, said: "When Zara was first crowned last September we asked her if she wanted to be successful or to be famous – and she said she wanted to be famous."
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Miss Great Britain national director Kate Solomon speaks out
Although the Miss GB team allowed Ms Holland to compete on Channel 4's The Jump, she wanted to be involved with racier shows.
Ms Solomons said: "We had a very frank, very harsh conversation where we said we can't allow you – as Zara Holland representing the Miss Great Britain brand – to be associated with sex on television. She said she would never have sex on television and that we were holding her back."
However, Ms Holland had sex with Alex Bowen on this summer's series of Love Island.
Ms Solomons said the scenes showing Ms Holland emerging from under the duvet shocked the nation and left the Miss Great Britain team in an impossible position.
She said: "When she first started on the show she was constantly talking about being Miss GB and it was brilliant.
"We were so thrilled with the great PR and she was really raising the profile of the brand in a positive way.
"But after that night it turned in to a PR nightmare.
"We work with charities and children, and we want our winner to be a role model.
"Brands we work with can't be associated with a winner who has had sex on TV."
Ms Solomons said she had no choice but to strip Ms Holland of the crown.
She said: "If she had come out of the villa and held her hands up and said, 'I'm sorry, I broke the rules what can I do to rectify this?', things could have been different.
"I'm not saying she would have kept her title, but there would have been more chance for me to argue her case and potentially look at a different scenario.
"But unfortunately Zara showed no remorse following her actions and there was no apology or acceptance of fault."
Ms Holland's fans expressed anger towards Ms Solomons and her team after the decision was made.
She said: "We've had months of trolls going after us, calls at 2am, hundreds of emails from people who support Zara saying, 'give her the crown back, what you've done is terrible'.
"There's that side of it that people haven't seen.
"We're just trying to do our day job and there are people out there who don't agree that we de-crowned her – even though we stood by the morals of the competition."
Last Thursday's Loose Women was the first time Ms Holland and Ms Solomons had seen each other since before she entered the Love Island villa in May.
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Zara Holland chats, on TV show Loose Women, to Deone Robertson, who replaced her as Miss GB
She said: "We've had no contact with her, but I did keep her mum up to date all the way throughout to make sure she knew what was happening.
"A press source had notified me Zara had had sex on the show before it was aired and I immediately let her mum know, as I didn't want her to find out by watching the show."
A spokeswoman from Ms Holland's management said: "The Miss GB team did not contact Zara until six days after she had returned from Love Island and after they had made the announcement in the press, by which point there was little left to discuss.
"Seeing as the Miss GB organisers chose to announce Zara's de-crowning in the press rather than to Zara or her family, it would seem that if anyone was interested in fame it would be them."
Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/miss-great-britain-boss-tells-why-she-had-to-sack-zara-holland-after-love-island-live-tv-sex-romp/story-29651809-detail/story.html#uOmofugwmJwKhSHV.99
