Treatment of Lancashire Love Island star Shakira Khan receives the most Ofcom compaints of 2025

Yesterday, the media regulator Ofcom released its report for 2025, which included the ten episodes on TV that received the most complaints.

Topping the list was a Love Island episode which aired on July 24 with Ofcom receiving 3,547 complaints about the perceived bullying of contestant Shakira Khan.

During the episode, a special ‘Awards Ceremony’ was held with viewers finding issue with the number of clips shared about Burnley born Shakira which disproportionately presented her in a bad light.

In fact Love Island - and its spin off Love Island All Stars - had five episodes in the top 10 most complained about, with the report stating: “This year, around three in 10 complaints to Ofcom were about Love Island, with the 2025 series totalling 14,121 complaints.”

The second most complained about episode was Love Island’s July 22 episode, which had 2,509 complaints made up of the same Shakira bullying issues and relating to the return of Megan Forte Clarke.

The show’s episode on July 23 was third in the table with 2,002 complaints of a similar nature, while its show on July 25 was the seventh most complained about for bullying and about the way contestant Blu Chegini spoke to Toni Laites.

Eighth on the list was an episode of the show’s All Star version on February 12, which drew 1,240 complaints about alleged bullying between contestants.

Also in the top 10 was an episode of Vanessa Feltz’s chat show, Vanessa, on 5, which aired on June 10, and saw 1,866 complaints about a discussion on breastfeeding and its benefits, which some said was misleading.

In fifth was GB News’s Headliners show, which saw 1,391 complaints over a presenter’s comment which complainants believed linked the LGBTQ+ community to paedophiles. The programme was found to have broken Ofcom’s broadcasting rules, with the regulator calling the remark “highly offensive”.

In addition to the complaints submitted by the public, the GB News show also received 71,851 gathered by the Good Law Project non-profit organisation.

Today With Samantha Washington on Sky News on June 7 received the sixth most complaints, getting 1,302 for a segment which covered the Madleen, a boat delivering aid to Gaza, with complainants saying a comment by the presenter “misrepresented the mission’s peaceful nature”.

An episode of Celebrity Big Brother on ITV2 on April 9 was the ninth most complained about show with 1,008 complaints over comments made by actor Mickey Rourke to singer JoJo Siwa.

Coverage of the Brit Awards on ITV1 on March 1 received 938 complaints over singer Sabrina Carpenter’s opening dance routine, and Charli XCX’s dress.

The Ofcom listings came just two days after Shakira celebrated her 23rd birthday.

The reality star was joined by family and friends - including Harry, Yasmin, Toni, Cach and Alima from Love Island - for a pyjama party in Burnley, complete with pizza, drinks and an enormous pink birthdya cake.

Sharing pictures of the night with her 790k Instagram followers, Shakira wrote: “bday shenanigans!! 🎀❄️🧁🍾”

Amongst the various birthday wishes in the comments, partner Harry said: “Best pj party I’ve ever been too 😍”whilst friend Alima simply wrote “Iconic”.