As a normal person, I never really expected to be strutting into the Love Island villa - but, on Monday, I was walking down the famous flowery hallway. No, unfortunately I wasn’t a late bombshell, rather I was one of the live audience members for the final. Once a year, the villa opens up to normies as the show has a audience for the live final - the majority of the audience were competition winners, though there were a few influencers (who had been paid to be there by companies expecting content) and a couple of journalists.
And so, thanks to JustEat, and as someone who has covered the show religiously for three years, I flew to Mallorca for two nights to live out my little Love Island dream.
Before the trip, I imagined being able to get selfies by the firepit when filming was over. But that was not the case. The final was under strict - and I mean strict - security. We were searched, and phones were taken from us at a secret location, where we then had to get on minibuses and make a long trek to the villa. We’d all been for a couple of drinks before, but, like the Islanders, we weren’t allowed to get drunk otherwise we wouldn’t get in.
When we eventually got into the villa, after what felt like hours going down tiny one-way roads in the hills of Mallorca, I was surprised. The villa is not actually that big - the firepit is a stone’s throw from the kitchen - but the production and lights surrounding the villa make the whole thing look like a mini festival from the sky. Behind the villa there are caravans and tents and masts, all part of the production to make Britain’s biggest dating show.
I was expecting to stand with the audience in the kitchen, but as we arrived quite early, I was placed on one of the tables, right behindLaura Whitmore. I was sat directly opposite a camera, so I was careful to smile as I didn’t want the cameras picking up my resting bitch face. During the ad breaks, a warm-up guy would get the crowd going as the ‘DJ’ played some of the typical hits - Becky Hill, Joel Corry etc.
Since I’ve been on my trip, a lot of people have asked whether the Islanders were as fit in real life. And I hate to depress everyone, but they were actually better looking. But if it makes you feel any better, their make-up and hair was tended to during every single ad break. (And as you know, there were a lot of ad breaks!)
Davide and Ekin-Su were the rightful winners, and they were having the most fun out of everyone, dancing for their lives in the ad breaks. (They also interacted with the crowd the most. Davide said hello to our table, and none of us knew how to react.) Ekin and Davide actually did look in love, more so than Gemma and Luca or Dami and Indiyah. But it was Tasha and Andrew who genuinely looked like they adored each other. If fans have their way Ekin-Su and Davide might get their own ITV2 reality show, with the pair exploring Turkey and Italy. But I fully expect Tasha and Andrew to be walking down the aisle in the not-so distant future.