Love Island USA contestant Cierra Ortega has addressed her removal from the hit dating reality show. A week before the finale, Ortega was dropped from Season Seven after the surfacing of social media posts from 2015 and 2020 in which she used a racial slur toward the Asian community.

"I want to first start by addressing not just anyone that I have hurt or deeply offended, but most importantly, the entire Asian community. I am deeply, truly, honestly, so sorry," she said in a lengthy video.

"I take accountability for using the word, but I do want it to be known that I genuinely had no idea that it was a slur," the Season 7 star says