£1,200,000 Love Island villa in South Africa ‘overlooks prison where Nelson Mandela served a jail term’-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

The newest batch of sexy singletons will be entering the villa in just a matter of days (Picture: ITV)

The brand new £1.2million Love Island villa where a batch of sexy singletons will be looking for love is reportedly ‘overlooking a prison where Nelson Mandela served a jail term’.

The beloved ITV2 dating series is set to return to South Africa in just days, with Maya Jama making her hosting debut following Laura Whitmore’s departure.

And previous pictures of the luxury villa make it seem as though this year’s batch of contestants will be living in a fitness paradise, with the sprawling villa decked out with an Olympic training pool, 400m running track, state-of-the-art rugby field, and a zip line.

However, according to reports by The Mirror, the luxury paradise will actually have a view of the jail where former president Nelson Mandela served a jail term towards the end of his 27 year sentence.

Drakenstein Prison, formerly known as Victor Verster Prison, is said to be in view of the villa, where Mandela was held for the last 14 months of his sentence before being freed in February 1990.

Mandela was freed from the prison in 1990 (Picture: Anwar Hussein/WireImage)

The prison was where Mandela was held for the last 14 months of his sentence (Picture: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The Love Island villa, which is aptly named Ludus Magnus after Rome’s ancient gladiator school, also has access to a private lake, which has its very own Love Island, beach, and palm trees.

All in all, the impressive estate boasts of 17 bedrooms across 25 acres in a wine valley near the country’s capital city, Cape Town.

According to insiders, the network will be splurging £8,000 a day to have exclusive use of the eco-retreat.

Mandela had been living in a warder’s house in the prison complex (Picture: Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images)

‘The challenges on Love Island always make for fun TV and this place is a producer’s dream,’ a source said.

‘It’s absolutely stunning and has so much going on. It will set the standard for future series.’

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They added to The Sun: ‘There’s bound to be plenty of fun and games on the winter edition and Ludus Magnus provides the perfect opportunity for a huge range of activities for the contestants to get stuck into.’

This follows reports that Casa Amor is set to be extra scandalous this time around as the second villa will be just metres away from the main villa, meaning contestants will be in earshot of any mischief.

Metro.co.uk has contacted ITV for comment.

Love Island returns on Monday, January 16 at 9pm.

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