Celeste Hirschman and Dr Danielle Harel are at the heart of Channel 4 reality show Virgin Island
Weekday viewing schedules have been heating up thanks to the return of Virgin Island.
The Channel 4 hit sees 12 sexually inexperienced adults sent to an island in Croatia to learn all about intimacy under the guidance of leading sex and relationships experts. This year, there’s a BDSM coach on the island for the very first time, as well as more surrogate partner therapists than ever before who are trained to go all the way with the show’s stars if deemed appropriate.
The pioneering retreat is led by Celeste Hirschman and Dr Danielle Harel who help shape the support the participants are offered, as well as lead by example in the show’s group tasks where the entire cast get together to learn key skills and test them out on each other.
Danielle and Celeste’s lingering eye contact, flawless pillow talk and ability to shower each other in compliments in front of the group has led some viewers to question whether they’re actually in a relationship. There are a flurry of Google searches around the topic, ranging from queries such as ‘Are Celeste and Danielle together?’ through to whether they’ve tied the knot.
Sitting down with the Mirror after the first two episodes of Virgin Island’s second season aired, the duo shut down any speculation about their connection, revealing they had reiterated to the cast that “We are not lovers, we’re business partners,” in an unaired scene after their pillow talk demonstration in Episode 1.
The moment was designed to test how comfortable the cast were observing intimacy, with Celeste telling Danielle she was turned on by her, before sniffing her face, neck and chest.
Opening up about how this year’s season differed to the first, Celeste revealed: “It actually went even more smoothly this year because we had the experience of last year and we learnt some lessons to make sure there was even more sessions and people had more consistency with their particular coaches.
“I think being able to create those transitions from coach to coach, and longer trajectories with each coach, really helped the transformations happen much more profoundly and deeply.”
She revealed that the participants had a better understanding of what would be expected of them this time around, leaving them “really willing” to practice their skills with each other in the group tasks, in particular the infamous animal game, which had been a difficult adjustment for the debut season’s cast.
Danielle added: “One of the things you don’t see in the cut is us actually after doing the pillow talk. We were just like ‘You know, we’re not lovers – we’re business partners’ and we are practicing with each other.
“That just shows you there’s so much you can learn by practicing with each other, even if you don’t have intentions to be romantic with them. That also set up the stage for them to really practice with each other and not feel awkward about it.”
Fans of the series have just a few more days to wait for their next fix, with Episode 3 arriving on Monday (May 4), and Episode 4 hot on its heels on Tuesday night (May 5).
Virgin Island airs Mondays and Tuesdays from 9pm on Channel 4. All episodes are available to watch after broadcast via Channel 4’s catch-up service.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
