Love Island’s Shaughna ‘hurt’ after being called a ‘money grabber’ over NHS advert
Shaughna Phillips was one of a number of celebrities involved in an advertising campaign to promote the coronavirus test and trace app but she has been slammed by some
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Shaughna Phillips has spoken out about how she was “hurt” for being labelled a “money grabber” after being paid to promote the test and trace app.
The former Love Island star joined other social media influencers in being involved in advertising the NHS Test and Trace app on her Instagram page.
The app is meant to inform people when they’ve been in contact with someone who has coronavirus, and former Love Islanders Josh Denzel and Chris Hughes have also promoted the app on their social media pages.
Shaughna, 25, said that she has learned to grow a “tough skin” since appearing on the ITV2 show but admits the comments about her promoting the app had upset her.
She has been accused of being a “money grabber” as she was paid with taxpayers money and Shaughna hit back saying: “It’s not fair.”
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Shaughna said: “It’s no different to a television advert or newspaper advert, and, I mean, I’ve worked for the council for four years before Love Island, so I’ve been getting paid by taxpayer money since 2017 and I am a taxpayer.”
There had been rumours that the celebs had pocketed between £10,000 and £20,000 for promoting the app but she rubbished these claims.
She said: “If the numbers were as true as they were in the newspapers, I would have done it twice.”
Shaughna continued: “It’s one of them things where people just like to be outraged. Especially when there’s a face to it and they’ve got someone they can pick on.
“I’m pretty tough-skinned. It’s actually strange. When people troll me for my looks or things like that, things like that don’t bother me.
“But when they judge my character, it definitely hurts me a lot more.
“When they were saying I was a ‘money-grabber’ and stuff like that, that definitely hurt me more.”
The post that Shaughna used was a photo of her and a friend along with the steps required to get tested for the virus.
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