There’s no doubt that Love Island can catapult contestants to incredible careers in the limelight. Just look at Wes Nelson who signed a major label record deal and took over the charts with absolute bops like Nice To Meet Ya and See Nobody, and then there’s Molly-Mae Hague who is absolutely slaying the influencer game and has released collections with the likes of PrettyLittleThing and EGO.
One career path we didn’t quite expect to see any ex-Islanders embark on, however, was that of an Olympic athlete, but that’s exactly what 2019 winner Greg O’Shea is doing after he qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo with the Ireland 7s rugby team. That’s pretty major if you ask us.
Of course, you don’t reach the heady heights of the Olympics without making some sacrifices and, after arriving in the athletes’ village, Greg has revealed that he’s on a sex ban due to the unusual sleeping arrangements.
Organisers have taken extra steps to ensure the Games are more environmentally friendly this year, including giving competitors beds made out of cardboard. However, rumours soon began swirling that beds were also supposed to be a deterrent so that competitors don’t take part in any, ahem, extracurricular activities amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Love Island villa this ain’t.
Taking to Instagram following his arrival in Tokyo, Greg showed off his cardboard bed and told fans, “Getting a lot of messages from people wondering if the beds here in the Olympic village are actually made of cardboard and they are. Look at this... They’re fully made of cardboard.”
CHECK OUT Love Island winners - where are they now?
Love Island winners - where are they now slider
1 of 242005 - Celebrity Love Island - Jayne Middlemiss
TV presenter and model Jayne Middlemiss was the first person to win Celebrity Love Island, alongside Fran Cosgrave. Nothing happened between the pair when they left the villa, with Jayne continuing with work in TV, including shows such as Celebrity Masterchef and Pointless. She's now a radio presenter!
2 of 242005 - Celebrity Love Island - Fran Cosgrave
Fran Cosgrave, who is the former Westlife bodyguard, went on to land his own spin-off TV show alongside Calum Best and Paul Danan, before releasing his autobiography in 2006. Fran dated Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton, with the pair welcoming a son together, but they've since split.
3 of 242006 - Celebrity Love Island - Calum Best
Despite being on the show in 2005, Calum Best re-entered the Celebrity Love Island villa in 2006, this time winning the show alongside Geordie girl Bianca Gascoigne.
4 of 242006 - Celebrity Love Island - Calum Best
Since leaving the villa in 2006, Calum has kept himself in the spotlight, appearing on a number of other shows such as Celebrity Big Brother and Famously Single. In 2018 it was being reported that Calum was dating Hannah Murrell, despite the model being 16 years younger than the 38-year-old.
5 of 242006 - Celebrity Love Island - Bianca Gascoigne
Entering the Celebrity Love Island villa as a glamour model in 2006, Bianca won the show alongside Calum Best.
6 of 242006 - Celebrity Love Island - Bianca Gascoigne
Although nothing materialised romantically between Bianca and Calum outside of the show, the model went on to achieve success, appearing on shows such as Gladiators, Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Coach Trip.She even auditioned for The X Factor in 2012!
7 of 242015 - Love Island: Jess Hayes and Max Morley
When Love Island returned to our TV screens in 2015, with host Caroline Flack, Jess Hayes and Max Morley were crowned the winners, taking home a massive £50,000 each.Just 40 days after leaving the villa, the pair split up, leaving viewers of the show heartbroken.
8 of 242015 - Love Island: Jess Hayes
Despite splitting from Max, a few years later Jess found true happiness with her boyfriend Dan Lawry. The pair welcomed their first child together in 2019, a baby boy called Presley James Lawry.
9 of 242015 - Love Island: Max Morley
Max has kept himself relatively out of the spotlight since he won the show, but in recent months he's been dating Love Island 2018 star Laura Anderson.
10 of 242016 - Love Island: Cara de la Hoyde and Nathan Massey
After coupling up on Day One of Love Island 2016, it was love at first sight for Cara de la Hoyde and Nathan Massey, who went on to beat Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen in the series two final.
11 of 242016 - Love Island: Cara de la Hoyde and Nathan Massey
Despite splitting for a short period, Cara and Nathan rekindled their romance after discovering Cara was expecting the couple's first baby. After Cara gave birth to baby Freddie, Nathan then proposed to his girl back in the Love Island villa, with the pair getting married in 2019. A true Love Island fairytale!
12 of 242017 - Love Island: Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies
It didn't take long for Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies to couple up on Love Island series three, with the pair going on to win the show ahead of Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood.Despite this, the pair ended their romance just before Christmas in 2017, but they have remained friends!
13 of 242017 - Love Island: Kem Cetinay
He's a single boy, but that hasn't stopped Kem going on to achieve great things. As well as landing a record deal with his Love Island BFF Chris Hughes (and a TV show to follow), Kem appeared on Dancing On Ice and now he's joined This Morning as their showbiz reporter. In 2019 he was also unveiled as Primark's first ever male ambassador.
14 of 242017 - Love Island: Amber Davies
Despite being romantically linked with the likes of Chris Clark and Liam Payne, Amber has remained single since her split from Kem.Pursuing her dream of being on stage, Amber landed her dream role in Dolly Parton's West End musical 9 To 5 alongside the likes of Louise Redknapp, and she's received amazing reviews.
15 of 242018 - Love Island: Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer
The nation fell in love with Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham when they coupled up and won Love Island in 2018. Despite high hopes for the couple, Dani and Jack announced they'd split up in April 2019.
16 of 242018 - Love Island: Dani Dyer
Just weeks after her split from Jack, Dani started dating her ex-boyfriend Sammy Kimmence, and the pair look super loved-up on social media. As well as this, the reality star has reportedly made more than £1 million since she left the villa, with various clothing deals, Instagram posts and her own eyelash product.
17 of 242018 - Love Island: Jack Fincham
After his split from Dani, Jack joined the cast of series seven of Celebs Go Dating, in an attempt to find his perfect girl. Jack has also teamed up with brands like McDonald's and Protein World, and his debut clothing line is due out later in 2019.
18 of 242019 - Love Island: Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea
After getting her heart broken by Michael Griffiths, Amber Gill was swept off her feet when Irish hunk Greg O'Shea entered the villa with just two weeks to go! Despite only knowing each other for 12 days, Greg and Amber were crowned winners of the 2019 series, beating Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae for the Love Island crown.
19 of 242019 - Love Island: Amber Gill
Although Amber and Greg appeared to leave the villa on good terms vowing to stay together and split the cash prize, their relationship didn't last with their split announced just five weeks after they left the show.In the time since Amber has gone on to have a successful career as a model and influencer and has a whopping 2.6M followers on Instagram.
20 of 242019 - Love Island: Greg O'Shea
Since leaving the show greg has continued to pursue his successful sporting career and has seen lots of success. He even competed in last years Olympic Games (WOW).
21 of 242020 - Love Island: Paige Turley and Finn Tapp
Paige Turley and Finn Tapp won the first (and potentially only) series of Love Island to take place in South Africa. They beat favourites Siânnise Fudge and Luke Trotman and left the show on strong form, deciding to split the £50,000 with Luke announcing he wanted to spend his winnings on a home for him and Paige (awww).
22 of 242020 - Love Island: Paige Turley and Finn Tapp
Paige and Finn have been together ever since and by all accounts seem to be going strong. We guess love is real...
23 of 242021 - Love Island: Millie Court and Liam Reardon
Millie Court and Liam Reardon hit it off from the get go but went through a rough patch following Casa Amor. However Liam managed to win Millie around and they won the seventh season.
24 of 242021 - Love Island: Millie Court and Liam Reardon
They left the show loved up and have since moved in together. While there has been rumours floating around that they might have split, Millie has shut down the speculation.
He continued, “Supposedly the reason they are made of cardboard is obviously so they can be recycled afterwards but also to discourage any, erm, activities, so I’ve been told. So yeah, cardboard beds, but they are pretty comfortable I have to add.”
Well, that’s certainly one way to keep you focused on the competition.
Speaking about qualifying for the Olympics after beating France last month, Greg said, “I'm honestly speechless. This is the thing of dreams. This is the pinnacle of sport and we did it.
“I'm so proud of the boys. I'm not even supposed to be here. Initially I wasn't even picked and now I'm standing on the pitch."
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While many of his fellow Islanders have been enjoying their time in the limelight after rising to fame on the ITV2 dating show, Greg has taken a step back from the public eye and focused on studying to become a lawyer as well as his rugby career.
In the poem, Greg wrote about feeling “nostalgically content” about his time in the villa but hinted at the difficulties he’s faced after returning to the outside world.
He wrote, “Although shunned and abused/For pursuing my dreams/Known only to few/The truth behind the scenes."
Greg ended the poem by saying that although he was “happy with where I am at present”, he “hopes the future is kind”.