Former Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has said she should not have been stripped of her title as she did "nothing wrong" by having sex on TV show Love Island.

"I haven't committed a crime, so why should I have my title taken from me?" she told The Sun.

The 20-year-old model, from North Ferriby in Yorkshire, was stripped of her title after she was shown getting intimate with 24-year-old scaffolder Alex Bowen.

Holland, who was told about the development off camera, initially chose to remain on the ITV2 show. She left days later when her m other fell ill.

She told the newspaper: "I've done nothing wrong. All women have needs."

The model added: "There are lots of girls my age who go out every week and do that - mine was just on national TV. "

The Miss Great Britain organisation said the decision to remove her title was taken with ''deep regret''.

''We pride ourselves on promoting the positivity of pageants in modern society and this includes the promotion of a strong, positive female role model in our winners," a statement said.

''The feedback we have received from pageant insiders and members of the general public is such that we cannot promote Zara as a positive role model moving forward.

''We wholly understand that everyone makes mistakes, but Zara, as an ambassador for Miss Great Britain, simply did not uphold the responsibility expected of the title.''

The organisation later tweeted a message to say: ''To be clear, we have no problem at all with sex - it is perfectly natural. We simply can't condone what happened on national TV.''

Holland will be replaced for the remainder of the year by runner-up Deone Robertson, who had been crowned Miss North Lanarkshire.

Love Island presenter Caroline Flack criticised the decision to strip Holland of her title, saying: " What even is 'Miss GB'? Are we living in the dark ages?''

Fans have started a petition calling for her to be given back the title. The petition has more than 15,000 signatures and has been shared on social media by celebrities including former Blue Peter presenter Anthea Turner.