Remember when Love Island was just Love Island and not pretending to be Ex on the Beach? Nah, us neither.
Okay, we're exaggerating (as per), but still, a fair few Love Island 2024 stars knew each other prior to their villa stint this summer à la All Stars. Of course, Grace Jackson knew Joey Essex, as the pair shared a summer romance in Ibiza last year, Ronnie Vint, of course, knew Matilda Draper as she used to date his mate, and Ciaran Davies, OF COURSE, had, erm, unknowingly slid into Ellie Jackson's DMs once upon a time.
![love island's nicole and ciaran in heat's studios](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/4/2024/08/heat-nicole-ciaran-exclusive-chat.png?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
But according to Ciaran, that bunch weren't the only Islanders with history; the Love Island finalist – who finished in second place with girlfriend Nicole Samuel – has exclusively revealed to heatworld that two formative Casa Amor bombshells knew each prior to their villa debut.
When asked whether he knew of any Islanders with history prior to Love Island, he immediately owned his sh*t, bless him, telling heatworld, "So, apparently, I don't remember, but on a night out I met Ellie [Jackson]. That sort of reminded me when Ellie told me, but that was a brief 'hiya' and then keep walking."
![love island ciaran and ellie](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/4/2024/07/love-island-ciaran-ellie.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Nicole was sat right next to him in our studio btw, so that was definitely the correct way to begin answering that question, Ciaran.
However, he then had a lightbulb moment and recalled another pre-villa connection, admitting that Casa boy Blade Siddiqi (who was brought back to the main villa by Grace Jackson) and Diamanté Laiva (who found a connection with Sean Stone in Casa and infamously giggled at the worst moment during the recoupling) knew each other prior to flying out to Majorca.
![Diamanté Laiva](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/4/2024/04/Diamante-Laiva.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Ciaran continued, "I think Diamanté and Blade because when Blade was announced in the villa in the game, Diamanté said to all us boys, 'You should all be scared because if it's the Blade I know he's going to get all your girls.'"
Why would editors not keep that line in? We would've LOVED to see the boys' faces...
![Grace Jackson and Blade Siddiqi](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/4/2024/07/love_island_sr11_ep32_20.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Ciaran then added, "I asked Blade if he knew Diamanté and he just sort of nodded at me, so yeah, that's another one."
To be fair, it's no wonder we missed this prior connection; while Blade made it back to the main villa after Casa, Sean chose to stay loyal to Matilda, which meant that Diamanté never made it back to the main villa and therefore never lived in the same villa as Blade, nor shared any screen time with him.
But the question still remains...
How oh how do these two Casa icons know each other IRL?
WATCH: Nicole and Ciaran clear up those photos of Jess and Harry
Ben Pulsford is a digital writer for Bauer Media, writing for both Closer online and heatworld. When he's not getting paid to gossip about Big Brother, Love Island and The Real Housewives of Cheshire, he's storming the London LGBTQ+ scene as drag queen, Beary Poppins. Both Ben and Beary are awaiting an invite to join The Real Housewives of Cheshire for series 18. The budget's not there, but the drama is 💅