Bertie leads Virgin Island Season 2 into Croatia with 12 adults
virgin island season 2 has arrived with 12 adult virgins heading to Croatia for a three-week intimacy retreat. The new run keeps Channel 4's intimacy-therapy format in view after series one became its most successful unscripted launch since records began.
Bertie and Alex in Croatia
Bertie, 24, is autistic and finds socialising difficult, while Alex, 28, believes he has erectile dysfunction. Those are not interchangeable reasons for avoiding sex, and that is the point of the new series: it is built around a wider mix of anxieties than the first group, which was largely shaped by low self-esteem, limited knowledge, and fear of getting hurt or rejected.
Will, 30, has experienced premature ejaculation, and Callum, 21, spends an average of 16 hours a day gaming since losing his father. Joy, 22, cannot shake the association between sex and sin from her Christian upbringing, and for a time believed the vaginismus she struggles with was a curse from God. The show's setup gives each of them the same destination, but not the same problem to solve.
Surrogate partners and sex therapists
The retreat uses sex therapists and professional surrogate partners to help participants tune in to their desires, expose their bodies, and experience sensual touch. In the first series, that process could extend to penetrative sex, which set a clear boundary between this format and more familiar reality TV: the endpoint is not a prize or a vote, but physical comfort and consent.
The show also asks viewers to meet the participants with kindness and acceptance rather than merciless judgment. That instruction is doing work, because one participant in series one was briefly villainised online after feeling annoyed that he had not been granted permission to have full sex with his surrogate partner.
Series one set the bar
Series one was Channel 4's most successful unscripted launch since records began, so series two is arriving with a proven audience appetite behind it. The business question is whether the new group's more varied reasons for avoiding sex make the format feel broader without losing the intimacy-therapy structure that made the first run stand out.
For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: this is not a conventional competition series, and the draw is not whether someone wins. It is whether 12 adults with sharply different histories can get through a three-week retreat in Croatia and leave with something more usable than embarrassment.
