Strictly Come Dancing finalist Amber Davies, who shot to fame when she won Love Island, has hit back at claims that she only went on the ITV2 dating show to try to make it to the West End stage22:31, 27 May 2026Updated 22:31, 27 May 2026Amber Davies insisted that she didn't go on Love Island just to further her stage career. The actress, 29, competed on the ITV2 reality dating show in 2017 and went on to win it alongside then-boyfriend Kem Cetinay.‌Before her rise to fame, Amber trained in musical theatre at the Urdang Academy in London and openly spoke of her desire to make it to the West End whilst she was on the show. Following her victory on the programme, she was cast alongside Louise Redknapp in the London production of Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5, and then appeared in a UK tour of Bring It On: The Musical before returning to the West End to star in Back to the Future.‌She followed this up with starring roles in Pretty Woman: The Musical and The Great Gatsby before enjoying a star turn on last year's edition of Strictly Come Dancing, where she made it to the final alongside professional partner Nikita Kuzmin after being roped in at the last minute as a replacement for Dani Dyer.‌However, Amber has now insisted she only went on Love Island because she couldn't find employment elsewhere as she spoke with fellow West End star Jacob Fowler, who got his big break when he won Little Mix: The Search on the BBC in 2019.Speaking on her Call To Stage podcast, she said: "A lot of people ask me, ‘Oh, did you do that just to get on the West End?’ No, I did it because I couldn’t get a bloody job! I didn’t want to work at a bar and Love Island were giving me a free holiday for six weeks. Luckily [it worked out]!"‌Amber can currently be seen starring as Elle Woods in a UK tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical, but the production got off to something of a bumpy start amid various cast illnesses, and the TV star herself was forced to take time away from the part earlier this year.While she was away, TikTok star Hannah Lowther took over the part but rumours of a "feud" between the two began to emerge, which both actresses quickly quashed, although comparisons of how each of them portrayed Reese Witherspoon's signature role of a sorority-girl-turned-lawyer role continued to dominate social media.‌Following her return to the show after fighting off a chest infection, Amber admitted that while she did sign up to be "in the spotlight" with her TV career, she never expected to receive the amount of online hate she has done over her stage work.She said: "I know that going on Love Island put me in the spotlight. I didn't know how much it was going to and I feel so grateful that 10 years on, I was on Strictly, and there's so many amazing things that have happened to me. I definitely am used to it but I do have to prepare myself.""The last thing I do want to speak out about - this has broke my heart in ways that I can't even possibly imagine. When I was doing Strictly I'd had a meeting with my team and they prepared me for the trolling and the opinions.Article continues below"Sometimes the opinions aren't trolling but the opinions are mean, so it counts as trolling. I think sometimes when people leave mean comments, they forget that they are talking about an actual human being who is just working hard."What I wasn't prepared for was the trolling that was going to come with Elle. I have worked...I am trying to find the words to explain this...I've been in this industry, I've done lots of jobs and I've never experienced trolling within the musical theatre industry as much as I have during this time."Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.