The first male contestant for the new series of Love Island has been revealed and he has brushed shoulders with members of the Royal Family.

24-year-old Aaron Francis from London, is a luxury events host and was the second contestant to be announced after Sharon Gaffka, 25, from Oxford.

A Love Island source said: “Aaron has no real claim to fame, he’s just a normal guy.

“However, his job does mean he sometimes moves in glamorous circles and he gets lots of attention.

"Bosses think he'll be a real hit in the house with the girls and also get on with the guys."

Aaron said: "I’ve been single for about six or seven months and the dating world at the moment is a little bit off.

"Everyone’s wearing masks. You can’t really see anyone which makes dating a lot harder. I do prefer relationships than dating.

"I need someone that is passionate about what they are doing - from scientist to anything - you can tell when someone is speaking about something and they are actually smiling while they are talking.

"I love that. I don’t like when people are doing a job just to make money and then they kind of just live for the weekend. Especially because I work on the weekends."

Talking about his job, including ‘working at royal weddings’, Francis said: “Yeah, Eugenie and Beatrice’s over the summer. I hosted and chatted. It was nice and intimate. Everyone’s chill. In my job you meet a lot of famous people… unless you’re Beyonce, I’m not really interested.”

He said he was looking for someone “passionate about what they are doing”.

He explained: “I don’t like when people are doing a job just to make money and then they kind of just live for the weekend. Especially because I work on the weekends.”

This year’s series sees Laura Whitmore return as host and it will be the first time the ITV programme has aired since last year’s summer series was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first contestant announced for Love Island said she wanted to do the reality TV show as the civil servant does not want to be the “only one in the group chat that is single anymore!”.

Sharon Gaffka, 25, from Oxford, is an operations lead for the Department for Transport, and joins the new crop of contestants for the ITV2 series when it airs on June 28.

Asked why she wanted to take part in Love Island, the beauty queen said: “It’s been a bit of a running joke between my friendship group for a while that I should apply, probably because I’m the most outrageous one out of the group.

“But also because of Covid and the lockdown, I’m the only single one in my friendship group. They’re either married or planning on getting married. I don’t want to be the only one in the group chat that is single anymore!”

Talking about her job, she explained she has been a civil servant since the age of 18.

She added: “I’ve worked in lots of different departments. I’ve been doing Brexit policy for the last year, I did a stint during the coronavirus pandemic in the Department of Health so I was helping deliver testing kits and managing the operations. It’s been an intense year!”

Gaffka said she tends to date people taller than herself and added: “I’m quite an intellectual person so I want someone who can kind of match that.”

The new series starts on June 28 at 9pm and airs on ITV2 and the ITV Hub.