It’s officially Love Island break-up season and in the spirit of Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next(already a cultural zeitgeist in its own right) we’ve never seen so many mature and mutually respectful Island splits in one go. Where’s the screaming guys? The social media smear campaigns? The burning of shirts?
Perhaps it’s something we should all be taking example from. But when the latest villa relationship break up was announced last night and a thousand Whatsapp groups exploded in unison, we were all thinking the same thing: No, Not Kaz and Josh. The pair were one of the championed Love Island couples that we were shipping to the end, from the moment Josh fought for their relationship in the secret house knowing that he was going to be hated by the original girls (Lancelot had nothing on Josh Denzel that day) to when Kaz was super classy about the whole thing because they just weren’t about that drama.
In a heartfelt post, Kaz announced the break-up of the couple who have been together for sixth months since leaving the villa after winning third place. Writing in the caption of an Instagram picture of she said: 'Sometimes things don’t go the way you planned, but you have to be grateful for the journey. Thank you for everything especially showing me how to love myself again ❤️'
This follows the split of Megan Barton Hanson and Wes Nelson who announced their friendly break-up using a speech lifted from Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2014 split with Chris Martin in which she famously announced that they were ‘consciously uncoupling’ - though of course that was before Megan lost the plot on Instagram and stole the couple's shared hamster (yes really).
But still, it leads us to wonder – are the Love Islanders breaking up as a team these days? Is the new relationship trend to walk away from the person you’ve been dating as a better person who has lived and learned from your relationship, rather than, say, mainlining Ben and Jerries and watching Bridget Jones on repeat until your friends start to fear that you may be consumed by a tribe of your own cats? Are we all about to find ourselves announcing our own break ups on Instagram in the coming year with motivational quotes and joyful pictures with our exes in scenic backgrounds? I'm going to put my hand up and say I feel intrepid about this.
There are some rumours floating around the internet suggesting that the break up might not have happened as recently as we think. According to sources, Kaz and Wes actually split up weeks ago - and before the recent holiday they've been seen on together in Jamaica and Miami which was part of a sponsored campaign for Sandal's resort, although Josh's rep has been quick to assure everyone that there's 'no truth' to these rumours.
But perhaps it’s just iron-clad evidence of what many have suspected all along: that villa relationships aren’t real. Given the main incentives of entering the villa these days are social media fame, an ongoing partnership with In The Style and the opportunity to promote hair gummies for the rest of your life, it's not a surprise that some suspect Love Island relationships to be faker than the plastic lime-green villa grass. Of course, that’s not going to stop us binge watching it for three months straight every summer and feeling the burn of the end of our favorite relationships as if we were actually a part them (which in a way, we kind of were). RIP JoshKaz.