Parents Ask for Compassion Over Contestant's Racial Slurs

With a backlash against a contestant's online use of a racial slur swirling, Cierra Ortega has left Love Island USA a week before the finale. An announcement during Sunday's show said only that Ortega's departure is "due to a personal situation," per People. Since reports surfaced that she had used a slur against Chinese people, Ortega had lost hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, social media analytics website Social Blade reported. She had appeared to use the slur in a podcast and at least two posts, per NBC News. More Over 17,000 people signed a petition to have Ortega removed from the Peacock program's seventh season.

The contestant's parents issued a plea for compassion, saying their 25-year-old daughter has received "cruel messages" and threats. "No one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what mistake they've made," they wrote on her Instagram account, saying that Ortega "will take responsibility in her own time and her own voice." Ortega's heritage is Mexican and Puerto Rican. She's made no public comment about the posts or response.