What happened to Virgin Island star Ed's hand as he opens up on 'accidental and self-harm' scars
27-year-old Ed is among those taking part in this year's show…
Virgin Island 2026 cast member Ed speaks about his scars on the show tonight (May 5), sharing more details about his struggles with intimacy after a period of self-harm and being born with Poland Syndrome, which left him with limb differences.
Earlier in the series, Ed, 27, told how he is nervous about having sex because he thinks women will find him “weird or gross” due to his limb difference and scars.
And, after being pretty absent from the first couple of episodes, Ed has now opened up to therapist Kat Slade.
Virgin Island star Ed on his limb difference– what is Poland Syndrome?
Ed lives with Poland Syndrome. It’s a medical condition which results in webbed fingers and underdeveloped chest muscles.
In the Channel 4 show, he explained that he was born without a pectoral muscle and has limb difference in his arm and hand. Corrective procedures to his chest and hand, including operations and grafts to correct his missing pectoral muscle and fingers, have left him with scarring.
Ed hasn’t experienced sex or intimacy of any kind. He worries that girls will think he is “weird or gross” if they get intimate. Although his Instagram account suggests he is close to his dad, his parents have never spoken to him about sex.
As a result, he said he feels a sense of growing isolation. Hence, signing up for the show and seeking the help of its team of experts.
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Biggest challenge of taking part in Virgin Island with a disability
Speaking to Channel 4 ahead of the show, Staffordshire-born Ed, who is unemployed, said he signed up because “it felt like a rare chance to get real help with the sex and intimacy issues I’d struggled with for a long time”.
Speaking about the biggest challenge he faced during filming, Ed added: “Having no way to avoid difficult situations – emotionally or physically – and having to face them head on. Especially where my disability made things harder.”
Tonight’s episode sees Ed open up about his scars. He tells his fellow islanders: “I’m just not happy about all my scars and stuff. I don’t mean like accidental scars, I mean self-harm scars.”
He then heads to a therapy session with Kat, who has scars herself. She tells him that she’d like to touch his scars, while he touches hers. And it’s something that’s hugely beneficial to Ed.
“I have got one on my chest as well, the worst one is the one down on my arm, that’s what made me stop,” Ed explained. “I’ve always worried about people touching mine and not knowing how it feels to them so with you, I feel like I can be vulnerable as well.”
Afterwards, Ed added: “Knowing that we’ve both got scars, I didn’t feel any body issues at all. I completely forgot that I had any, and I felt really good about myself.”
‘Regrets’
After filming on the series wrapped, Ed – who hardly featured in episodes 1 and 2 but opens up by episode 4 tonight (May 5) – told of his “regrets” over not initially immersing himself fully into the experience.
Speaking to OK! after flying back from the retreat, he said: “There was certain things I didn’t do or I was a bit more reluctant to do and kind of held back on. Looking back at it now, I have some regrets that I didn’t throw myself in fully from the start.
“At the time I was like: ‘No, this is where my boundary is and I’m happy to push it. But I don’t want to go too far because it might set me back.’ I think I made the right decision, but knowing what we went through, where I got to at the end and where I am now, I think I would say [to myself at the start] to just do everything.”
Virgin Island cast member Ed on ‘main hurdle’ to losing his virginity
Ed also said that the Channel 4 show has helped to change his outlook on virginity and sex as a whole.
He said that one of his “main hurdles” has been that his first time should be with ‘The One’. He explained that he had his first relationship in 2018, and it was this idea that stopped him from going all the way.
Virgin Island experience ‘wasn’t weird, it was really useful’
Ed also revealed that you tend to “forget” the cameras are there while you’re at the retreat.
He said: “Some of the stuff you see – especially the group workshops – from a viewers’ point of view you might think oh that’s shocking, that’s awkward. But when you’re actually doing it, you forget the cameras are there, you forget everyone else is around you and you are just fully involved. And you realise actually this isn’t awkward, this isn’t weird, this is actually really useful.”
Read more: Virgin Island star Joy’s heartbreaking vaginosis diagnosis: ‘I thought God had cursed me with it’
