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Montana Brown has paid a touching tribute to her friend and Love Island co-star Mike Thalassitis on his birthday, nearly two years after his death.

The reality star, who recently opened up on having Botox for excessive sweating, took to her Instagram stories to repost one of Mike's last Instagram photos.

The snap sees the late TV personality wearing a plain light grey T-shirt with a matching hat and a pair of black trousers underneath as he looks at the camera. At the time, he captioned it: "head in the clouds." [sic]

Montana wrote over this: "Happy birthday you. Thinking of you," followed by a star emoji.

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Mike is one of four people linked to Love Island who have taken their own life, including presenter Caroline Flack, who was tragically found dead in her east London home in February 2020.

Former footballer and reality TV star Mike was found dead in woodland near his North London home in March 2019. He was just 26 years old.

The inquest at North London Coroner’s Court found he took his own life after drinking and taking cocaine.

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Montana, who recently revealed she suffered a miscarriage after falling pregnant while on the pill, formed a strong friendship with Mike when they starred on the hit ITV dating show back in 2017.

Following his death, she appeared on This Morning to explain she thought it was a "hoax" after being informed of the tragic news of his passing.

She told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: "One of my friends texted me saying, 'I don't know if this is true, but I heard Mike took his own life.'

Celebrity deaths 2019: Mike Thalassitis and Emmerdale's Leah Bracknell among stars who have died this year

"I was sat in the pub actually, and I thought 'no, that's not true, what a horrible rumour'. I text him saying 'there's this really weird rumour going around, call me when you get this'.

"It didn't deliver, it just had the one tick on WhatsApp. I tried to call him and his phone went straight to answerphone.

"I felt sick. I thought, 'oh my God something really terrible has happened'."

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Montana revealed that she had spoken to Mike just two days before his tragic death, but was "kicking herself" that she didn’t reply to his text message.

"I spoke to him two days before," Montana explained. "But I’m kicking myself because he text me but I didn’t actually reply. I’m really bad on my phone. I wish I had replied."

"He just said: 'How is it going girl, how are you?' I didn’t reply," she said as she wiped away tears.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.

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