“I know the real Helena” – Close friend hits back at ‘good time girl’ label and accuses Love Island of setting her up with cruel edits that make her look bad, insisting she’s just fun-loving, loyal, and caught in a toxic villa narrative - suong

SHE has been cruelly trolled for letting Harry Cooksley walk all over her in the Love Island villa, for ‘being open’ and even for laughing too much.

The reaction has left those close to Helena Ford shocked and saddened, and determined to clear her name.

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One person who thinks Helena has been unfairly treated is her close friend and long time hairdresser, who says: “She’s had a rough time in there - the way that people are portraying her on social media, it's just so unfair.”

Natalie Clayton, who owns NCWeave in Merseyside, has been doing Helena’s hair for the last four years and did it just before she entered the villa.

She has explained why people might think Helena is a ‘good time girl’, after Harry branded her that.

She told us: “I think she knows what Harry is like, and she's never been in a relationship before, and that's what people are forgetting, because she's just, she's just having fun.

“She doesn't take life too seriously. She is one for just having fun and living her best life.”

The 29-year-old has been open about the fact she’s never had a relationship before and Natalie thinks she’s just embracing it all - rather than being bogged down in the details of relationships.

“Because of her job and her lifestyle, I don't think she's just ever thought about settling down yet,” Natalie told us.

“She loves travelling, she loves going out with her friends. So I think she's just never met that right person where she's wanted to settle down with them.”

On Love Island Helena has mostly been coupled up with Harry but has gained the reputation of someone who is very flirty with the opposite sex.

Bella Rose Hair & Beauty owner Natalie believes that Helena, who travels three hours just to get her extensions there, has been edited to look a certain way.

She said: “I think maybe the clips that have been heard have made it worse because I do think that Shakira has been worse with her than Helena has with Shakira and I don't understand why people can't see that coming across.

“At the end of the day they've just got a similar type and they've both gone for the same person and then she's been portrayed like she keeps going for her men.

“But you can see Helena was shocked at that because she's not even realised and just been like we've got the same type and she was joking about it.

“And then I think Shakira, from what's been heard, she's been talking about Helena a hell of a lot more.”

Natalie said her reaction to laugh at so many things is because she isn’t a fan of confrontation.

“She just likes to keep herself to herself in her own little bubble and she just wants to be friends with everyone and get on with everyone,” she told us.

“I know people are saying she said this and that, but you can see by the things that she's done, she just doesn't take life seriously.”

And Natalie thinks she has what it takes to win the show, telling us:  “I would absolutely love her to win the show because it has been great TV.

“Whether people have liked her or not liked her, I think if she hadn't been in there it could have been very boring!”

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