“Now that I have been again within the U.S. for about 48 hours and I’ve had the prospect to course of [everything], I now really feel like I am at an area the place I can talk about this with out being extremely emotional, as a result of I’m not the sufferer on this state of affairs,” Ortega began off saying in her Instagram video.

It was introduced throughout the Sunday, July 6 episode that the truth star “left the villa resulting from a private state of affairs, leaving Nic formally single.”

Whereas this got here as a shock to the remainder of the villa, to most viewers it didn’t come as a shock. The drama had been brewing for days after social media customers discovered previous posts by Cierra which included an offensive slur towards the Asian neighborhood.

“Whereas I used to be within the villa, there have been some posts that resurfaced from my previous the place I used to be very naively utilizing an extremely offensive and derogatory time period,” she continued within the video. “I wish to first begin by addressing not simply anybody that I’ve harm or deeply offended, however most significantly, all the Asian neighborhood. I’m deeply, actually, truthfully, so sorry. I had no concept that the phrase held as a lot ache, as a lot hurt, and got here with the historical past that it did or I by no means would have used it.”

The controversy prompted an uproar amongst followers, with Cierra revealing she and her household have discovered the punishment followers are lobbing at them “extraordinarily, extraordinarily troublesome.”

Whereas Cierra does take accountability for her actions and feels “deeply” sorry for what she has accomplished, she doesn’t consider that there’s a “must battle hate with hate.”

“The way in which individuals have been approaching my household and my family members, they’ve had ICE known as on them,” she burdened.

“My household does not really feel secure in their very own residence. I am receiving loss of life threats. There is no must battle hate with hate. I do not suppose that is justice,” she added.

She labelled her video — which has reached over 9 million views on TikTok on the time of writing — an accountability video, “not an apology video.”

“I do wish to maintain my arms up and say that I take accountability for utilizing the phrase,” she stated. “However I do need it to be identified that I genuinely had no concept that it was a slur. I had no thought of its which means.”

She recalled the second the inflammatory put up went public in 2024 and one among her followers reached out to Ortega to teach her on the phrase used and its historical past.

“I feel since that second, I’ve accomplished a lot rising as a person, and I’ve tried my finest to teach others who could be by accident holding area for all these phrases that might be offensive of their vocabulary,” she stated, earlier than including that she agrees with the “community’s resolution to take away me from the villa.”

“I feel that that is one thing that deserved punishment, and the punishment has completely been acquired, for certain,” she stated.

Ortega ended the video asking Love Island USA followers to permit her “to develop with grace” from this expertise and promised “to take strides to be higher.”