Many couples have fallen victim to the Love Island 'curse'. Photo composite / ITV / Love Island
Many couples have fallen victim to the Love Island 'curse'. Photo composite / ITV / Love Island
Love Island UK has remained a reality TV staple since its inception in 2015, spanning 11 seasons and several spin-offs.
At the time of publishing, four couples who met on Love Island are married.
On August 14, influencer and former contestant Molly-Mae Hague announced she and Love Island beau, boxer Tommy Fury, had split after meeting on the 2019 series.
OPINION
Although many Love Island couples leave the sun-soaked set hand-in-hand, basking in the glow of their six-week love story, most don’t make it on the outside. Is it the media frenzy? Their busy schedules? Or are reality show relationships not made to last? Following the shocking split of fan-faves Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury, Lana Andelane looks at the track record from the hit British reality show.
Ah, Love Island: the reality TV phenomenon that sees conventionally attractive people cavort around a swanky villa for the summer while in the “outside world”, thousands of fans bolster their social media and fast-fashion brands lick their lips in anticipation of new, hot ambassadors.
Oh, but of course, the goal of the show is to find love - not an influencing career.
While the post-show success rate of those who “coupled up” on the hit UK series is surprisingly not too shabby - in comparison with other reality formats, that is - one could say there is something in the water when it comes to Love Island unions. And no, it’s not that bloody flamingo floatie.
Last week it was announced season five darlings Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury had called time on their five-year relationship, just over a year after their engagement and 19 months after welcoming their daughter Bambi. Although they have yet to officially comment on the reason for the split, it’s been widely alleged that Fury’s infidelity was to blame.
From Molly-Mae and Fury to fan-favourite season eight winners Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti, many couples who found love in Mallorca simply didn’t make it “on the outside”.
Despite all the hours of grafting, putting eggs in each other’s baskets and assertions of “she’s my type on paper”, the reality is most of these whirlwind romances cannot sustain the scrutiny, schedules, scandals, and let’s face it, snark, that awaits them off-set. The stresses of normal life - “can you please put your dishes in the dishwasher, not the sink?” - set in, and their balmy beginnings in the Spanish summertime fade to a distant memory.
Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury from season 5 of Love Island. Photo / @mollymae
While many contestants have gone on to hit key relationship milestones, from moving in together to engagements, children and even marriages, the so-called Love Island curse has continued to unravel even the most promising of unions.
Let’s take a look at some of the most publicised and scandalous splits that have plagued Love Island UK’s legacy.
Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury
The reality TV darlings seemingly had it all: a multi-million-dollar mansion, an engagement ring worth an estimated NZ$1.2m, and a beautiful baby girl. Yet despite the social media facade, behind the scenes, things were clearly not perfect.
Fans were devastated to learn on August 14 that the boxer and beauty mogul had called it quits, five years after meeting on the fifth season of Love Island in 2019.
It followed widespread split speculation late last year after footage of Fury partying with several women and controversial singer Chris Brown in Abu Dhabi went viral, with Hague later seen multiple times without her engagement ring. The couple, both 25, seemingly patched up the cracks and moved forward - until Fury was allegedly unfaithful during a recent lads’ holiday in Macedonia, which according to British media, could have been the final straw.
Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury shared statements confirming their split on social media. Photos / @tommyfury, @mollymae
The two issued separate statements on their social media last Wednesday, with Hague using the cryptic line: “I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way.”
According to local tabloids, a devastated Hague is now “bracing herself” for more women to come forward amid the claims that Fury cheated on her with a Danish woman while on his boozy getaway.
“Molly-Mae isn’t just worried about it, she’s expecting it,” a source told the Sun. “She thinks girls will come forward and claim Tommy cheated with them. She’s devastated.”
For his part, Fury has denied the cheating allegations and is said to be “horrified” by the claims.
Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague. Photo / ITV
Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti
Season eight winners Ekin-Su and Davide – affectionately nicknamed ‘Ekin-de’ by their loyal fans – won the nation’s hearts with their rocky yet relatable romance back in 2022. “You are a liar, actress” ring any bells?
Shortly after pocketing the $100,000-plus prize (£50,000), the “Italian stallion” and Turkish bombshell went on to secure their own TV show, Ekin-Su and Davide: Homecomings, where they travelled to their respective hometowns to meet each other’s families.
Cülcüloğlu went on to further her reality TV career, appearing on Dancing on Ice and most recently, a controversial stint on Celebrity Big Brother.
The fan-favourite couple first split in June 2023 but reconciled two months later. Their relationship had already faced its fair share of cheating rumours, with Sanclimenti seen leaving a party with two women shortly after the Love Island final. Later, while filming their TV show, Cülcüloğlu claimed she saw potentially compromising photos on Sanclimenti’s phone.
However, their reunion wasn’t long for the world, with the Turkish actress confirming in February that after a “rollercoaster of ups and downs”, the two had split for a second time - and seemingly for good.
Cülcüloğlu later claimed Sanclimenti had cheated on her with a woman named Harriet Wilson, who had contacted her with details of the alleged affair.
She also claimed she had seen sexually explicit messages between Sanclimenti and another woman on his laptop, admitting: “Seeing those messages broke something in me.”
Anyone who watched Love Island: All Stars earlier this year will have their opinions on Georgia and Toby, a couple who divided opinions both in and out of the villa.
Season four’s Steel, 26, and season seven’s Aromolaran, 25, announced their breakup in March - a mere month after placing fourth on the All Stars spin-off despite their rocky on-screen romance.
An insider told the Sun that Steel had been “completely blindsided”, claiming Aromolaran had initiated the breakup.
“She feels completely blindsided and gutted. She thought things were going really well for them, so it’s been a real blow,” the source said.
The two already had “history” when they reconnected on the All Stars’ set in January, having enjoyed a previous fling on Love Island: The Games in 2023.
Steel later clarified that while the breakup wasn’t “horrendous”, she was disappointed they didn’t have an opportunity to “grow” as a couple.
Season seven sweethearts Chloe and Toby (yes, Toby as in the Toby you literally just read about) were a much-loved duo who scored a respectable second place in 2021.
The two later moved into a $2.1m (£1m) mansion in Essex and from the outside, all seemed to be going swimmingly. Yet fans were shocked to learn that in October 2022, the pair had called time on their whirlwind romance.
While neither Burrows nor Aromolaran have confirmed the exact reason for the split, Burrows did allude to there being trouble in paradise during her stint on Celebs Go Dating, telling the experts: “When he said like, ‘This is, it’s not working’, I just kind of said, ‘Okay’, and I was really heartbroken for months. Things were going well and then they just kind of fell apart a bit. We both knew.”
For his part, Aromolaran hinted that cheating may have been to blame while competing on Love Island: All Stars earlier this year. Although he didn’t name Burrows, fans instantly believed he was speaking about his ex when he told fellow contestant Anton Danyluck: “It hurts to get cheated on... with that girl, she was it. I was happy. Soulmates vibes.”
He had previously admitted to participant Georgia Harrison: “I didn’t trust her anymore. Something happened and the trust went.”
“Was she, like, texting other guys?” Harrison probed, to which he replied: “A big incident happened, something like that.”
However, the plot thickened when Burrows divulged on an episode of her podcast, Chloe vs The World: “Any boy that I have been with that has gone on holiday has cheated on me.
“Something about different water means different morals,” she added. “Girls don’t do that, they literally wouldn’t do that.”
Basically, both have floated the possibility that the other cheated, but we are no closer to knowing what actually fractured their year-long romance.
OG Love Island viewers will remember how Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes’ very bitter and very public feud played out on social media in 2018.
The two had met on the third season the year prior, but after months of setbacks, Attwood eventually reconciled with her ex and now-husband, Bradley Dack.
In a nutshell, Hughes later accused Attwood of making “digs at me every month since we split”, seemingly referring to Attwood’s comments during her stint on Celebs Go Dating. He then added: “Some people eyy. Anyway! Celebs go Dating on at 9pm. Tune in.”
Attwood clapped back: “Christina Hughes, you use my name to promote/bring press to every mind-numbing thing you do. You should know by now, that I will always clap back. Now stop being bitterrrrr x...
“Also Thanks for the @CelebsGoDating shout out too, very big of you, when everyone knows you were in that office the day before me, asking for the job,” she added.
A source told MailOnline at the time: “Chris broke up with Olivia over the weekend due to a breakdown in trust in the relationship. Everybody knew that Olivia was still up to no good with her ex and the tweets proved it.
“It all got too much for Chris, so he called her and ended it - it’s sad because he adored her.”
Attwood dismissed the claims, with friends of the star insisting Hughes’ “inappropriate” behaviour caused their relationship to crumble.
“Chris has publicly humiliated Olivia on many occasions - messaging Katie Price and lying about it, kissing a girl in the Sugar Hut and being verbally abusive at her work event... yet she has stood by him, despite people telling her to leave him,” an insider claimed.
“There are countless incidents where he has behaved inappropriately. Olivia feels used by Chris; she’s stuck by him believing he loved her, but the realisation is it was all about monetising their situation.”
The duo were runners-up in the second season of Love Island in 2016, but their turbulent on-screen relationship didn’t get any easier away from the cameras. According to the Sun, the couple - who split for good in December 2017 - “couldn’t stop arguing”.
“Their relationship was really fiery and they couldn’t stop arguing - they just weren’t getting on at all,” the source said at the time.
News of the split followed reports that Thomas had allegedly assaulted McDermott, with a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police confirming to local media that officers had attended “a domestic incident” during the early hours of June 24, 2017.
An insider claimed to the Sun that Thomas had come home drunk, leading to a “huge row” and “pushing and shoving”. Despite speculation on their relationship amid the reports, McDermott asserted on social media that the two were “happy”.
She later returned to Love Island for its 10th season in 2023, where she met Casa Amor bombshell Ouzy See. Despite leaving the villa with hopes of a future together, the two called it quits a short time later – with McDermott citing See’s “remorseful” actions for the split.
Many longtime Love Island fans will have season seven contestant Faye Winter’s expletive-laden outburst seared into their memories: her explosive row with then-beau Teddy Soares prompted almost 25,000 complaints to British regulator Ofcom, a record for the show.
Despite this, the couple went on to place third in the 2021 season and seemed to be going from strength to strength in the real world, even moving in together.
Yet all good things must come to an end, and their split was confirmed in February 2023.
In an episode of his podcast Teddy Talks, Soares had been discussing boundaries in relationships when he made an eyebrow-raising admission, telling his co-host: “I remember, once upon a time, I messaged someone whilst I was in a relationship. And to me, this person was just an acquaintance.”
The line prompted speculation he may have been messaging another woman behind Winter’s back, with the Guide Dogs UK campaigner opening up about her heartbreak in an interview with MailOnline earlier this year.
“I lost a lot of weight. I was in a really bad, awful place. We’ve all been there, but for me, I really had to block out the noise or I could have gone a different way,” she said candidly.
“I didn’t wanna post [on social media]. I didn’t really want people to know what was going on in my life. I really had to focus on me and by what makes me happy.
“I needed to take a few steps back to then take multiple steps forward. You cannot see the light sometimes through the darkness, and it feels like it’s never gonna end. Time is a massive healer.”
