The cameras have disappeared, the prize money is no longer in reach and the contestants are back to the humdrum of everyday life. But where are the couples now and why are we so obsessed with which couples made it through passport control intact.
Montana and Alex announced their split on Twitter and Olivia Attwood have already been spotted with ex-boyfriend Bradley Dack. Throughout the series, the word ‘Fake’ has been thrown around like confetti at a wedding, with each contestant being accused of faking love for an ulterior motive (the 50K prize money) which is essentially the premise of the entire show. Various declarations of love were made between the couples along with serious PDA’s, which is one of the reasons we feel their pain or revel in their misery when the couples decided to split.
Can genuine true love exist within parameters reality TV? 2016* Love Island* contestant Cara De La Hoyde is expecting a baby boy with fellow contestant Nathan Massey. Although the couple split shortly after discovering Cara was pregnant the couple has announced that they are getting on better than ever. So… kind of? People can ‘kind of’ fall in love on national TV.
The one thing we can be sure of is our intense, voyeuristic obsession with risqué reality TV. The thrills, the nudity, the double standards, the second-guessing has kept us on our toes for a full 3 series and we have been left wanting more. John Berger would have had a spree dissecting each conversation between contestants not to mention our own gaze into their lives. We are essentially living vicariously through the contestants, feeling what they feel, seeing what they see. We have become emotionally invested, inside and outside of the villa and this obsession doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon with shows such as Ex On The Beach, *Made In Chelsea *and First Dates still pulling in the ratings.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.