Overview

• During a tense sex therapy session with surrogate Kat, Zac’s remark about her professional role prompted her to halt the exercise and end the encounter.
• In a subsequent intimacy challenge, he awkwardly smacked a sex expert’s bum while attempting to recreate positions on camera, eliciting viewer cringes.
• Social media users criticised his behaviour as a breach of consent and poor boundary awareness, questioning his motives on the show.
• The incidents have intensified scrutiny of Channel4’s duty-of-care framework, which includes mental health screenings and aftercare for participants.
• Virgin Island draws on University College London research showing one in eight British 26-year-olds remain virgins, and continues to provoke debate over televised intimacy ethics.