Last week's Island bought a twist no one saw coming, when Harrison Solomon made the shock decision to leave the villa.
It came after a rough week for Harrison, who was in a love triangle with Toni Laites and Lauren Wood. After asking Toni to recouple with him, bombshell Angel chose Ty as her number one – leaving Lauren packing her bags.
Fans watched a tearful Lauren (quite literally) beg Harrison to leave with her – and while he took 24 hours to mull over the decision, he later announced he would be leaving the villa to go and get ‘girlfriend’ material Lauren.
Now, after landing back in the UK separately, the pair have broken their silence on their villa exit – with scenes of them reuniting shown on AfterSun.
Are Harrison and Lauren together now?
When asked by Maya Jama whether the couple were now official, Harrison added, ‘Nah, nah, sorry to disappoint but we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend. But I think we’ll get there very soon.’
Elsewhere, Harrison revealed that the final recoupling - which saw Toni pick him after he asked her to do so on the terrace – was the final straw. ‘I spent the next two days with Toni and I feel like something was holding me back a little bit,’ he explained.
And despite Harrison’s blatant disrespect while in the villa, Lauren insisted it was all fair game now that he’d followed her off the show. Explaining that his choice to quit after she begged him to leave ‘showed me everything that I needed to know’, Lauren said, ‘Obviously the situation with the re-coupling, I found so disrespectful. It was just the timing of it. I understood why he wanted to still get to know her, and I said he could still get to know her when we were in a couple. So I didn’t understand the recoupling situation. I think he knows that, and he is very sorry for what he’s done. But I think leaving the villa showed me that he obviously has made his decision. It was a big decision to make.’
Prior to the show, Harrison had also addressed concerns over how their long-distance romance would last. Harrison currently lives in America, while dog walker Lauren lives in York. ‘We will make the distance work. It will be no issue,’ he said, adding, ‘I have no doubt in my mind that she’ll be my girlfriend one day.’
Some fans have praised Harrison for following his heart. ‘I’m so happy Harrison reflected on his actions and chose to leave with Lauren,’ wrote one. ‘By doing that, he showed a lot of maturity and growth. It was obvious he really liked her the whole time so he made the right decision.’
Others, however, aren’t quite so keen.
‘I hate that [Love Island] is trying to shape Harrison and Lauren as a romcom/fairytale? He was absolutely horrible to her and Toni, and Lauren’s just taken it?’ wrote one.
‘Harrison didn’t deserve any platform after the stunt he pulled. But in true moden day fashion, the world rewards bad behaviour and Lauren does too,’ added another.
Another wrote, ‘Women’s Aid complained about Harrison on behalf of Lauren only for her to turn around and beg Harrison to leave with her… Oh my.’
Harrison’s love triangles actions saw him draw plenty of criticism inside and outside the villa, including from charity Women’s Aid, who raised concerns over this treatment of both women in the villa – sleeping with Lauren two nights in a row, before coupling up with Toni.
Defending himself against the backlash during a chat with MailOnline, Harrison said, ‘It’s hard to digest. I would disagree with a lot of it in terms of my respect for women, I do respect women.’
‘The worst has been from Women’s Aid. I know myself and the girls on the show too, Toni said she knows I’m not a bad person, I just went about situations in the wrong way, but the Women’s Aid statement wasn’t nice… it’s not nice coming out of the villa to my mum upset by that, so I would have that’s been the hardest.’
‘I got it wrong, and the back and forth between the two connections caused more harm than I ever intended. It wasn’t ever an ego thing. I am not proud of how I handled things, and I’m not going to make excuses. I just want to own it. If people can give me the space to grow from it, I will do everything I can do be better.’
Charlotte Roberts is a news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK. She spends her days covering everything celebrity, culture, and entertainment.