CHANNEL 4’s Virgin Island is more than just steamy romps and sex sessions, it’s really about unpicking past traumas that have plagued 12 virgins for their whole life.
Although the series feature some racy, nude and steamy moments, it also delves deep into the heart-warming stories from
The first episode, which airs tonight on E4, is worlds apart from any other dating show we’ve seen on TV.
It takes 12 vulnerable individuals who are ready to bare their soul and get to the root cause of their life-long intimacy issues, all with the help of some very highly skilled sex experts.
Viewers will be left shocked at one particular scene which introduces surrogates partner therapy, which is designed to help the virgins become more comfortable with sex, their body, and the emotional and physical skillsthey need for intimacy.
Sexual surrogacy can be controversial but in an exclusive chat with The Sun, sexologists Dr Danielle Harel and– who co-founded the Somatica Institute – have defended the technique.
Kat Slade and Andre Lazarus are the two trained surrogate partners who are tasked with helping the group tackle their issues around intimacy.
Danielle exclusively told The Sun: “We had a lot of confidence in the process, we’ve been doing it for such a long time and even if they waiver they get too curious to quit, there is something very powerful in saying I am committed to this, it’s not always comfortable.
While Celeste shared: “Sometimes people on these shows quit, but we were so proud nobody quit.”;;
“They got so much support, there is a team of therapists, there was a psychiatrist, there is a duty of care, they are so well taken care of,”;; Danielle shared.
Celeste continued: “I think there are always critics out there but I think at the same time so many people need this work, we want to spread it around the world.”;;
Despite the virgins not being in a romantic relationship with their surrogates, Celeste and and Danielle admitted intimacy shouldn’t have limitations and can be learnt through a variety of ways.
Danielle said: “We look at intimacy through this isolated experience, only with romantic partners, but there is so much you can learn around intimacy with people who are not your partners, with strangers.
“They practise intimacy and show feelings and that’s so profound.
“The beauty that we saw is how they bonded as a team and learnt about each other with the tools, they learnt to be vulnerable, they learnt to share feelings, they became such a beautiful co-hort.”;;
Celeste added: “There are some nice flirtations there among the group that you will see.”;;
Celeste and Danielle will be on hand to help the group of 12 lose their virginity on-camera.
It comes after a new survey shows that young people are waiting longer than ever to lose their virginity.
More than 36 per cent of young people (16-24) are virgin, with almost one in five 19 per cent of 16–30-year-olds are virgins.
Reasons cited for not losing virginity include lack of self-esteem, living with parents and mental health struggles.
With the rise of young adult virgins, the experts are hoping the show will be commissioned for a second series to help more people.
Danielle said: “I started actually as a talk therapist, and I got my Masters in clinical social work.
“But for me, with talking therapy, you just keep talking, and people don’t really shift.
“I just realised how much power and empowerment and doing experiential work and learning through semantics in the field of intimacy is the way to go.”;;
Celeste added: “My Masters was in human sexuality studies, then I did some research on adolescents sexuality development and oral sex.
“When Danielle and I met for the show, we were like, ‘Let’s not do this the same old way’. We really need to bring in experiential work, because people try something, and once you try something it’s much easier to go out and try it again.”;;
Filmed on a private island in Croatia, the virgins were cut off from the outside world, with no phones.
They were stripped back and given basic outfits on the day of their arrival, in a bid “remove competition”;; and create “equality”;;.
CONSENT IS KEY
In a world where safeguarding contestants is more important than ever, bosses have ensured duty of care is at the forefront.
The onus is very much on ensuring the virgins have the power to say yes or no and being able to consent or withdraw when they want.
Virgin Island producer Robert Davis said: “We really wanted to make a documentary with young people and their relationship with sex and intimacy.
“We didn’t want to do it in the conventional sense, we wanted to do create an immersive experience with other people involved.”;;
While Channel 4 executive Jonah Weston added: “The first thing to say is how many people applied for the show, there were hundreds and backed up our hunch that we were onto something amazing.
“But obviously duty of care is so important to us at Channel 4, there was a question of brilliant casting team, psychologist really working with those people to obviously get the right mix of people that felt representative of what was going on in Britain.
“But also getting people that we felt were able to go through this process because how courageous those people were to go on that course to undertake that, let alone doing it on TV.
“It was really important to us to ensure they were fully briefed in exactly what was going to happen and they were prepared for those emotions that might come up and they were ready and strong enough to tackle that journey.
“It’s hugely challenging for them because that’s the process and that’s the work.
“But at the end you’ll see a moment, after 30 years in TV, that was one of the most heartwarming moments I’d ever seen, there was not a dry eye on set, it was absolutely incredible.
“It really vindicated everything in designing this absolutely brilliant course and this space that these 12 people felt challenged but ultimately safe and looked after and really be able to let themselves go and really say for the first time what they were thinking and feeling.
“They were always the people driving this exercise.”;;
Robert insisted: “Consent was key, they were always in control, they could take it as far as they wanted to or not – that was paramount.”;;
NOT YOUR AVERAGE REALITY SHOW
You may think you’ve seen every dating reality show possible, but Virgin Island breaks the mould.
It comes after a new Channel 4 survey shows that young people are waiting longer than ever to lose their virginity.
More than 36 per cent of young people (16-24) are virgin, with almost one in five 19 per cent of 16–30-year-olds are virgins.
Reasons cited for not losing virginity include lack of self-esteem, living with parents and mental health struggles.
Each contestant has an emotional storythat is sensitively explored through a group of highly skilled experts.
In one scene, 23-year-old food worker as shewatchesthem demonstrate some intimate acts.
In the clip, leading expert Danielle demonstrates the “against the wall”;; technique that getsheartsracing and eyes fluttering.
She tells the virgins that she hopes during the experiment they will be able to reach a position where they can partake in such acts.
Emma has a deeper reaction as she begins to sob whilst sat on the floor and watching Danielle take part in the racy demonstration.
Along with intimacy coaching and taking sessions, the virgins are also .
C4 exec Jonah said: “That whole surrogacy process is about working out how you can be with a human being in the real world rather than just objectifying somebody on the internet.
“It’s just bringing it away from that online world, getting them in a place where they can be with each other and deal with people on an old- fashioned human basis.”;;
Robert continued: “It’s a TV first, and nobody really knows what’s going to go on. Our biggest worry was how are they going to take to the therapy? Would they accept it?
“And was it going to be a success or were they going to run away?
“And what we got was a little bit of scepticism at first. Gradually as the process went on they fell more and more in love with the therapy and it ends up being transformational.”;;
Discussing how the experts put the contestants at ease during the surrogate process, Danielle added: “I think they wanted to lose their virginity! They came in very excited about that and were looking forward to the experience.
“So they’re scared, but also wanting to get there.
“Everything is done very gradually and each individual process.
“It was really important to have surrogates, who are highly trained professionals.
“It was great for them to have this option.”;;
Viewers will get to watch some of the contestants struggle with basic touch – with one even swerving a hug in favour of a handshake.
Although popping their cherries were the end goal, it wasn’t the only goal, as Jonah explained: “Success took many different forms, there were different wins for different people.”;;
Danielle added: “It wasn’t just that they were coming here to lose their virginity.
“Success took many forms. And there were different wins for different people.
“They all left with an absolute spring in their step.”;;
Virgin Island airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm.
