Love Island Winner Paige Turley On Spending Lockdown With Her Boyfriend Finn

It was only in February that Paige Turley and her boyfriend Finn Tapp were crowned winners of Love Island - but yet again they’ve found themselves stuck in a house together. When news of a lockdown seemed inevitable, the pair - who scooped the £50,000 prize and millions of Instagram followers - made the decision to isolate together at Paige’s family home in Scotland, with Finn making the journey from Milton Keynes.

‘Being in the villa was very similar to being in lockdown,’ Paige tells Grazia over the phone from West Lothian, calling the villa their ‘practise run’. ‘It was like “Right, we’re going back to the real world” and then this happened,’ she laughs, ‘just our luck.’

And thanks to how much time they've already spent together, the reality star says the adjustment hasn't been that much of a shock (she thinks they’ve only had four days apart since Finn walked into the villa as a bombshell). ‘It’s a very strange way to start a relationship,’ she tells us. ‘I think it'd be hard for us to go then go back on that. We're just so used to having each other now, he's here like my right arm and we’re still kind of in that honeymoon period.’

‘I think havingFinn{ =nofollow}has just made it so much easier,’ she adds, talking about how she's dealing with lockdown. ‘Maybe if I was self-isolating I would have struggled a bit more but we've been quite lucky that we've have each other.’ Understandably, life immediately after Love Island was hectic for the winners, so she says quarantine also comes as a bit of a welcome break. ‘The couple of weeks after leaving the villa there were just so hectic,' she says. 'And I mean, it was amazing stuff, but you were living out of a suitcase.’

The 22-year-old adds that her mum and step-dad love Finn, and that he has been helpful round the house, teaching her to cook meals like Thai green curry and chilli. ‘We’re just trying to get up and get dressed,’ she explains, ‘the first couple of days we spent as couch potatoes, watching Netflix and eating Pot Noodles.' She adds: 'I mean, it was good fun for the first couple of days, but we cannot spend however long in lockdown like that.’ Paige also tells us that she has been learning Spanish to keep her brain active, which she jokes is something she's yet to master due to her distinct Scottish accent.

Even during lockdown, Paige says that ITV have maintained contact, checking in weekly on how she’s doing. ‘The ITV welfare team has been amazing,’ she tells us, adding that face-to-face meetings have been replaced with phone calls and voice notes.

We might not know when lockdown is going to end yet, but there are already two things for the pair to look forward to when it's all over: a Love Island reunion with her mates - ‘I think definitely after lockdown there will be a reunion of some sort’ - and a shopping spree, as the pair have finally been paid their £50,000 prize, something they only received after lockdown began.

‘We’ve actually had our hands tied, so by the time we’d received it we were already in lockdown,' she says, talking about the money they decided to split when they were handed the envelopes. 'We’ve not really had the chance to go on a shopping spree.’ The first thing she wants to buy? 'I love trainers and heels and handbags, but the only thing I have to say is a I'd like a Mac Book. So I think that'll be the first thing, and maybe a shopping spree after that.'

A shopping spree? Remember those?

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