Love Island’s Patsy Field was born with Erb’s palsy, which means one arm is shorter than the other and limits her movement, but the star isn’t letting her disability define her.
When she entered the Love Island villa earlier this month as the show returned for the 11th series, she was determined to feel more confident, garnering attention with her forthright approach and eagerness to draw attention to her condition.
She spoke to OK! about her hidden disability and how she coped with life in the villa.
“One thing people don’t know is that I have a disability. To be honest, I’ve never really talked about it before because it makes me a little self-conscious. Most people say they don’t realize it or they’ve never noticed it before, but if you look back at my old videos, you’ll notice.”
Patsy was born with Erb’s Palsy – Credit: ITV
Patsy opened up to Manvir about her condition – Credit: OK!
I was a normal, happy, healthy baby in my mother’s womb, but the hospital made a mistake and left me disabled. [redacted] It’s the hospital, you motherfuckers. I should have had a c-section, the midwife thought she could but she couldn’t… I was a big baby, almost 11 pounds. A normal baby is like 7! I got stuck when I came out. They pulled and pulled and pulled and in the process of pulling me out they hurt me. They snapped the nerve that sends messages from my brain through my spine to my right arm. So it’s trying to send a message but this computer is refusing to let me.
At the villa I wasn’t pulling everyone together to talk but there were times when I needed help. I needed help tying my hair up so I had to put my arm up on something. The boys noticed I was putting my arm up on a cupboard or shelf and they were asking me ‘what are you doing?’ So I explained ‘this is what I have’.
‘Love Island’s’ Manvir Jabar and Patsy Field open up about OK!’s ‘Love Island’ dumping report – Credit: OK!
Everyone always says the same thing: they didn’t notice until I mentioned it.
I told Munveer first because our relationship wasn’t going well and I wanted to be open about it and I thought it would be good to confide in someone. I felt most comfortable with Munveer and we had a really lovely conversation.
Manvir and Patsy were kicked off the island after 10 days – Credit: ITV
I’m trying to be more confident in myself and I’m really embracing that, and I’m happy to be able to let you know about it and talk about it and give you as much information as I can because I’ve had so many messages since I left the villa after being there for 10 days saying they went there and were so inspired, and I’m really happy that I can inspire people to be confident in their situations.
“I know I shouldn’t think this because it’s happened to me in the past: ‘Will people think I’m sexy?’ But it gives me something special and being on Love Island has helped me embrace it more. It’s nice to be able to share that with other people who watch the show.”