Love Island is back!. Time for young, attractive, sexy singles to don their skimpy cossies and graft like their life depends on it. For some of them, it does as there is potential for brand deals, sponsorships and even a career on telly. Many of the previous contestants have gone on to become B-List celebrities in their own right and gain millions of followers (all in 24 hours right, Molly-Mae?).
However, this year’s series hasn’t quite gone off with a bang. More like a very gentle little fizzle but there’s still hope yet, we’re only a week in.
Day 1
Viewers had already been introduced to the contestants on June 2nd when it was announced that for the first time, the public would get vote on which islanders would couple up, regardless of who they were attracted to.
This didn’t seem to go down well with the islanders, many of their faces dropping or tensing when seeing who they were coupled up but they were all chilled about and smiled, hugged and kissed each other. Even when they went for girly chats and lad talks, it was all very polite because ‘it’s still early days’.
The couples so far:
Paige Throne, 23, a paramedic from Swansea, Wales coupled up with Luca Bish, 23, a fishmonger from Brighton
Indiyah Polack, 23, a hotel waitress from London, England, couple with Ikenna Ekwonna, 23, a pharmaceutical sales specialist from Nottingham, England
Tasha Ghouri, 23, the series’ first deaf contestant and who has a cochlear implant described as her ‘superpower’, and is a model and dancer from Thirsk, England coupled up with Andrew Le Page, 27, a real estate agent from Guernsey, England
Amber Beckford, 24, a nanny from London, England coupled up with Dami Hope, 26, a senior microbiologist from Dublin, Ireland
And finally, Gemma Owen, 19, an international dressage rider from Chester, England coupled up with Liam Llewellyn, 22, a university student studying from Newport, Wales
For the rest of the day, the islanders seemed to be getting along, spending their time getting to know each other, having a look around the brand spanking new villa complete with the best dressing room yet but they didn’t seem too focused on grafting within their couples.
Until the first bombshell, Italian stallion Davide Sanclimenti, entered the villa. The 27-year-old business owner from Manchester turned all the girls’ heads, even some of the boys going as far as to describe him as ‘Greek god-like’.
It was also revealed that Davide would get to couple up with the girl of his choice in 24 hours and the boy left single would potentially be at risk.
Now, dear reader, this is where the grafting really began to start.
Day 2-5
This is where I’m going to have to get honest and give you the briefest of summaries for the next few days because it’s all very plain and smooth sailing (for now). To make it easier, let’s look at some bullet points;
- Davide chose 19-year-old Gemma to couple up with, and Twitter lost their minds over the massive age gap, and frankly, the obvious maturity difference between them.
- Liam, who was originally coupled up with Gemma, was left single but not all hope was lost for the poor boy as the public voted for him to go on dates with two new Islanders, Ekin-Su and Afia
- Ekin-Su wasted no time in establishing herself as a powerhouse of the season (frankly I’m living for it) and cracked onto Davide
- This rattled Gemma, especially when Davide and Ekin-Su had VERY intimate gym sessions together, including one where Davide put Ekin-Su on his shoulders, grabbed some weights and showed off like the peacock he is (if I looked like him and had the muscles he had, yes, I would 100% do the same)
- Gemma also seemed to be struggling with not blurting out the information that her dad is footballer, Michael Owen
- A recoupling at the end of the week was also announced
- Liam decided to leave the villa after not feeling like himself and that he hasn’t been ‘100% himself’ which I say is absolute fair play to the lad, it’s an intense environment to be in
- Gemma gave him a speech about she felt guilty about him leaving so I’m just going to leave this photo here
- Luca chatted to Gemma for the first time which wound Davide up to no end
- We had our second recoupling and it now stands as:
-Tasha and Andrew
-Indiyah and Ikenna
-Amber and Dami
-Gemma and Luca
-Ekin-Su and Davide
Leaving Afia and Paige single, which I can’t understand because Paige is stunning and one of the purest people to appear on the show
BUT WAIT
In a sneak peek for Sunday night’s show (Saturday is the usual Unseen Bits), we may finally be getting some juicy Love Island content as the new islander coming into the villa is Jacques O’Neill, a 23-year-old rugby player from Cumbria, England and is none other than Gemma’s ex. However, viewers have pointed out that Gemma says her last relationship was roughly when she was 16/17 which would make Jacuqes 20/21 years old when he was dating her. Gemma’s age has created a massive conversation around age differences in relationships, particularly in regards to 20/30 year olds dating partners who are in their teens.
Catch Love Island tonight at 9pm on ITV2
Feature image credit: ITV
3rd year English and Journalism student and secretary of Brig Newspaper
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