Former Love Island star reveals the truth about Casa Amor and says new bombshells have 'no chance' of staying on the show

The Scotsman gave an exclusive interview to Ice 36 in which he described his time in the Love Island villa, his thoughts on the show and what life is like after the popular ITV2 dating show ends.

Love Island is currently showcasing its second ever winter-edition of the programme from South Africa. Fans of the show have been enjoying the fall-out from the ever-popular Casa Amor challenge, which once again provided endless entertainment and drama for viewers.

However, Jay revealed that the ‘ultimate relationship test’ was not as intense as it is made out on TV, claiming the drama was all manufactured by the show’s producers.

Jay said: "You know what, it’s not as intense as it looks [filming Casa Amor], as there’s only one film crew and they’re split between two villas. One day they’ll be filming the girls during the day and then at night they’ll be filming the boys - when they’re on the other villa is off.

"Typically they’ll separate the boys and the girls when you’re not filming. For example, I was in the original villa with the Casa girls, we would all be separated and we wouldn’t be allowed to talk to each other and then the boys weren’t allowed to talk about villa life, your relationships with other people, you just had to let it be.

“The producers know that Casa Amor is the highlight of most of the series, it’s where most of the drama happens. Ultimately, they just want to make a good TV show, so if there is someone in there who seems to be in a stable couple or relationship, there will be someone in their ear probably saying ‘I think you should explore and be open minded to getting to know this person,’ and they can kind of gently push you into maybe exploring a connection where you probably wouldn’t have.”

Jay entered the Mallorca villa for season eight of the reality TV show last summer as an early bombshell, being introduced to the other contestants on day nine of the near two-month long programme.

The investment analyst says those entering the show after the opening episode are kept in quarantine for two weeks and allowed to watch the drama unfold an episode behind the rest of the public.

He said: “When I went out I had to quarantine for two weeks and in that two weeks, we were allowed to watch up to one [episode] behind what you guys were watching at home. I was delayed, but I was allowed to watch all the episodes so I got to know all the contestants in the villa, their names, what they looked like and how they were as a person, so I was able to get a good measure of what it was going to be like before going in [to the villa].”

The 29-year-old made a sizeable impact when he entered the villa, coupling up with eventual winner Ekin-Su and semi-finalist Paige Thorne, before eventually being booted of the show on Day 31 – more than three weeks after he entered.

Jay believes his early entrance helped his longevity on the show, claiming that those entering after the Casa Amor challenge have ‘zero chance’ of staying for long.

He said: “I think it’s all down to timing. If you go in as an early bombshell, you’ve got just as good a chance to get to know someone as anyone else does. If you come in as a late bombshell and the timing isn’t great, you’ve literally got zero chance. In our series, there were four new bombshells that came in during the last week, they were never going to get a chance. Timing is really important."

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The current season of Love Island is expected to finish on March 12, after which some of current contestants will return to fame and fortune, while others will come home and quickly settle back into normal life.

The latter has applied to Jay, who returned to his job as as investment analyst in Edinburgh after the show, something which the Scotsman is very happy about.

He said: “The first two weeks were a bit surreal but now it’s like it never happened. It’s so mad how life can just go back to how it was. I don’t think the influencer life would be for me anyway. I had a private Instagram before getting scouted for Love Island. I only had like 900 followers and I’m grateful for all the followers now, but it doesn’t define or measure my success.

"I think I realised last year - not that I was out there looking for it - but reality TV in general isn’t really for me. I was quite happy staying in my lane before Love Island came about and I’m more than happy to stay there just now. It’s cool watching them all on TV and being with them all and knowing them, but I don’t think I’d do the same.”

To read the full interview click here