On last night’s Love Island, the Casa Amor twist took the villa drama to new levels. We saw Dami Hope audition for Destiny’s Chaldish with his flirtatious antics, Jacques O’Neil do a full-180 on his commitment to Paige Thorne and even Luca Bish’s obsession with 19-year-old Gemma Owen seemed to wane in the face of leggy blonde, Mollie Salmon.
It’s perhaps for the best then that Gemma admitted she doesn’t want to make things official with Luca just yet, telling other Islanders it was important that he got along with her family before he became her actual boyfriend. But that’s not just because Luca is exposing some light fuck-boyery right now, oh no – she’s actually escaping a well-documented Love Island curse.
Making it ‘official’ in the Love Island villa is a long-held tradition. In season one, Jon Clark proposed to Hanna Elizabeth right before the season finale. Season two saw Scott Thomas ask Kady McDermott to be his girlfriend with haphazardly arranged towels, Malin Andersson and Terry Walsh officially coupled up and uncoupled faster than the flight to Spain, while Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey got together for good and went on to win the show (Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland also made it official that year). By season three, it was all the rage to pop the question before the finale. Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies made it official, as did Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood.
Season four saw the official paring of winners Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer, Megan Barton-Hanson and Wes Nelson plus Josh Denzel and Kaz Crossley. We all remember season five’s Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury getting together, and Curtis Pritchard’s ‘half-girlfriend’ proposal to Amy Hart (Lord) but it was Jordan Hames and Anna Vakili’s relationship that stole the show after beginning and ending within 24 hours.
Since then we’ve had Luke Trotman and Siânnise Fudge make it official, Fin Tapp and Paige Turley and most recently, Jake Cornish made Love Island history with the most annoying pronunciation of ‘GURLFRIEND’ ever when he bamboozled Liberty Poole into a relationship. In that season alone we had FIVE official couples throughout the show – including Millie Court and Liam Reardon, Chloe Burrows and Toby Aromolaran and Faye Winter and Teddy Soares.
How many of those couples have stayed together? Well, of the – checks notes – 20 pairs that popped the question, seven have stayed true. Of course, not all are created equal, the show has been running since 2015 and four of the seven couples were formed in 2021. That being said, we must explore whether Gemma is ensuring maximum love success by choosing to wait until Luca leaves the show to become her boyfriend. After all, how many of those couples were rushed with the knowledge that being boyfriend and girlfriend increased their likelihood of winning? We hate to be sceptics but… someone had to say it.
By allowing Luca to prove himself outside the villa, Gemma is essentially ensuring Luca isn’t using her for Love Island success (and to get close to her dad, let’s be honest) plus she will get to see how he behaves once the pair leave to worldwide fame – and all the sexy club appearances that come with it.
In the grand scheme of things, seven surviving couples of 20 isn’t bad – but it’s still only a 35% success rate. The 19-year-old has her head screwed on after all, let’s just hope it doesn’t fall off when she sees how Luca is behaving thanks to Casa Amor.
What are the cast of Love Island 2021 up to now?
1 of 22Millie Court
Millie Court won us all over with her Gavin and Stacey Essex/Wales romance with Liam Reardon. She also provided all the outfit GOALS and LOLs. That keyboard moment? Obsessed.
2 of 22Millie Court now
Since leaving the show a worthy winner, Millie has moved in with Liam in a plush Essex pad, landed her own edit and collection with ASOS (full circle as she used to work there), jetted all over the world to create content and has started her own YouTube channel. The world is Millie's and we just live in it.
3 of 22Liam Reardon
Welsh lad Liam walked into the villa in week one as a bombshell and the nation quickly fell for him when he first had that dinner date with Millie in the garden. We're probably never going to forgive him for kissing Lillie Haynes in Casa Amor, but his Tom Jones singing almost makes up for it.
4 of 22Liam Reardon
Since winning the show, Liam has moved from Wales to Essex with Millie and is loving life. He hasn't bagged himself an ASOS deal yet, but he has done some modelling.
5 of 22Chloe Burrows
She was 2021's first bombshell and boy did she make an impact. As well as being one of the funniest characters to ever grace the show, her rocky rollercoaster relationship with Toby made us believe in love again. They were truly obsessed with each other. NO WHEY.
6 of 22Chloe Burrows
Since leaving the villa, Chloe has become the first EVER female reality TV ambassador for JD Sports and was even a stand in on ITV show The Games. She's also appeared with Toby on Celebrity Catchphrase.
7 of 22Toby Aromolaran
Toby was the chaotic character reality tv needed in 2021, as his head turned towards a different girl almost every day during his stay in the villa. However, he finally realised Chloe was The One after his stay at Casa Amor.
8 of 22Toby Aromolaran
Since Love Island, Toby has kept his head firmly on Chloe and they've moved in together in a plush pad. He's got quite the following on TikTok where he regularly post videos (mostly of him pranking Chloe), he's landed a gig as a BoohooMAN brand ambassador and still 'kicks a ball around' for Hashtag United.
9 of 22Kaz Kamwi
Kaz won a legion of fans by being the calmest and most authentic Islander, who definitely knew her worth. Despite a rocky road, Kaz left the villa hand in hand with Tyler Cruickshank but they announced their split in December 2021, four months after leaving the villa together.
10 of 22Kaz Kamwi now
What's Kaz up to now? She's travelling the world with her BFF Libs, of course! Sometimes, the most genuine relationships made in the villa are friendships and that is definitely the case for these two. Kaz has also collaborated with huge brands such as Boux Avenue and Makeup Revolution.
11 of 22Tyler Cruickshank
The nation fell in love with Tyler when he entered the villa and whisked Kaz off her feet. However, things changed a little when he returned from Casa Amor with Clarisse Juliette - prompting him to have his 'head scrambled'. Kaz and Tyler couldn't deny their feeling for each other, though, and they soon coupled up again.
12 of 22Tyler Cruickshank
Tyler has been a busy boy since leaving Love Island. Despite his split from Kaz, he's most recently spoke out in support of mental health for men, where he revealed that there 'is a dark side to Love Island.'
13 of 22Faye Winter
Ah 'hurricane' Faye and her iconic brown lipstick. She was like marmite in the villa and definitely split opinion when she lost it as a result of Casa Amor, but she overcame all the odds and finally believed in love when her Teddy came along and showed her how she should be treated.
14 of 22Faye Winter now
Feddy are still together! Three months after leaving the show, they moved into a new home together (believed to be in London) and have been showing fans the renovation progress.Faye is passionate about doing work for causes she believes in, including being a Campaign Star for Guide Dogs and campaigning with PETA to end the slaughtering of bears in Canada to make caps for the Queen's Guard.
15 of 22Teddy Soares
Remember the moment Teddy came back for Faye with her little dog teddy? Our hearts. He was Love Island's sweetheart, despite a small flirty mistake in Casa Amor.
16 of 22Teddy Soares now
As well as being couple goals alongside Faye, Teddy is often seen showing off his style on Instagram and he's landed jobs with Jack Wills and Sky.
17 of 22Liberty Poole
Liberty and Jake were the first official couple in Love Island 2021, but things soon turned sour as they argued and realised that they just weren't compatible. Just days before the final, Liberty became the nation's sweetheart when she chose self-love over her love for Jake. After their relationship ended, Liberty and Jake decided to leave before the final.
18 of 22Liberty Poole now
Her Love Island journey spurred EVERYONE to want to work with Liberty. Quickly after leaving the villa, she signed deals with InTheStyle, Skinny Tan, Lola's Lashes and Boux Avenue. She was also a contestant on Dancing on Ice 2022.
19 of 22Jake Cornish
Weston-super-Mare boy Jake's relationship with his Lib won over the hearts of the nation, but cracks soon started to show. Despite their decision to leave, Jake revealed that he was 'devastated' when Liberty decided to call off their relationship, and said they tried to make things work on the outside world.
20 of 22Jake Cornish now
Jake lives a far more quiet life than his co-stars since leaving the show, opting not to go down the 'influencer' route. He's still in Weston-Super-Mare and regularly posts updates with his family. Awwww.
21 of 22Lucinda Strafford
We can't say reaaaaallllyyy without thinking about Lucinda Strafford. From her romance with Brad McClelland that was brutally cut short, to her friendship with Millie and Chloe - Lucinda has a busy time in the villa.
22 of 22Lucinda Strafford
Lucinda left the villa with Aaron Francis but they soon declared that they were just friends and it wasn't long before Lucinda rekindled things with Brad before calling it a day. She then reunited with herformer boyfriend Aaron Connelly.As of right now? Well, Lucinda's now single again and is living her best life, having signed deals with ISawItFirst and even travelling to Coachella with her best pal Millie.