Reality TV is a brutal business. One second you're sipping a drink in a villa in Fiji, and the next, you’re being escorted out because the internet dug up your past. That is exactly what happened to Yulissa Escobar.
She was 27. She owned a mobile bar company in Miami. She was supposed to be one of the breakout stars of Love Island USA Season 7 in 2025. Instead, her stint lasted roughly 48 hours.
Why? Because of a podcast clip.
The Yulissa Escobar n word incident explained
It didn’t take long for fans to find it. Almost as soon as the season premiered in June 2025, videos began circulating on TikTok and X. In these clips—which were eventually picked up by TMZ—Yulissa was seen on a podcast casually using the n word while chatting about boy drama.
She wasn't yelling it. She wasn't using it in a heated confrontation. It was just... there. It was part of her vocabulary. And for the audience watching at home, that was the problem. It felt casual. It felt like something she said all the time.
The backlash was instant.
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By June 4, 2025, she was gone. The show's narrator, Iain Stirling, gave a brief voice-over mentioning her departure, but the show didn't dive into the "why" during the broadcast. They didn't need to. The internet had already done the legwork.
The producers' decision
Peacock didn't mess around. They’ve had issues before—like Season 2’s Noah Purvis or Season 3’s Leslie Golden—but Yulissa (along with fellow contestant Cierra Ortega) marked a shift. This was about race.
Yulissa is a white Cuban woman from Miami. In that specific cultural bubble, there is often a lot of "casual" use of language that doesn't fly in the rest of the world. But being on a national stage means you're playing by national rules.
She later told E! News that a producer asked her to take her mic off. She thought it was a family emergency. She was scared. Then they told her a video had surfaced. "It's not looking too good," they said.
"I didn’t know better then"
After she was booted, Yulissa took to Instagram to drop a statement. She didn't deny it.
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"The truth is, I didn't know better then, but I do now," she wrote. She talked about taking time to reflect and grow. She basically argued that she was speaking "casually" and wasn't thinking critically about the weight of the word.
Honestly, that’s where the conversation gets complicated.
Some people believe her. They think it’s a symptom of a specific Miami upbringing where those lines get blurred. Others? They aren't buying it. They see it as a 27-year-old woman who should have known that a slur tied to generations of trauma isn't a "casual" conversation filler.
- The Intent vs. Impact Argument: Yulissa claimed she had no ill intention.
- The Accountability Factor: Fans argued that ignorance isn't an excuse in 2025.
- The Cultural Context: The incident sparked a massive debate about anti-Blackness within the Latino community.
Why this still matters in 2026
We are still talking about this because it set a precedent. Love Island USA proved it will scrub a contestant mid-episode to avoid a PR nightmare.
If you're looking at this from a career perspective, it's a cautionary tale. Your digital footprint is permanent. Even a podcast from years ago can end a career before it starts. Yulissa went from "bundle of joy" (her words) to a headline about racism in two days.
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The "empathy" sweatshirt she wore in her apology video became a meme. People questioned if she was actually sorry or just sorry she got caught.
What to take away from this
If you find yourself in a similar situation—or you're just watching the fallout—there are a few things to keep in mind about how these controversies play out.
1. Accountability is immediate. In the age of social media, the gap between a "discovery" and "consequence" is almost zero.
2. Context doesn't save you. You can explain your upbringing all you want, but the public cares about the impact of the word, not the reason you said it.
3. The "Growth" Narrative is hard to sell. Once that video is out there, "I've changed" is a tough pill for the public to swallow without long-term proof.
Keep your eyes on how production companies handle casting moving forward. They are vetting harder than ever now. If you’re a creator or someone looking to get into the public eye, audit your past before the internet does it for you.