It’s been a while since there’s been a Love Island recoupling outside the villa, but those Islanders usually love getting together with contestants from other series. Just look at Luke Mabbott and Lucie Donlan – who got engaged in 2021 – or Wes Nelson and Arabella Chi, who shared a whirlwind nine-month romance before splitting in April 2020.
Now another Love Island pair have sparked romance rumours and it’s one we definitely didn’t see coming….
We’re talking about winter Love Island 2023 star Claudia Fogarty and Love Island 2022’s Jacques O’Neill. See, we told you it was random.
Claudia sent fans into a frenzy when she shared a picture of Jacques gifting her with a giant bouquet of flowers to celebrate her recent birthday, with many insisting that the sweet gesture had to mean that they were romantically involved.
It didn’t help when Claudia labelled Jacques a “big softie” in the caption and added a white heart emoji. That’s definitely flirty banter, if you ask us.
However, she was quick to rubbish the dating rumours as she took to her Instagram Story once again to insist they were just friends.
“No guys we are definitely NOT dating just besties who decided to come matching today 🤣 @jacques9oneill_,” she told her followers.
Jacques added, “Just friends don’t get carried away people 😂.”
During her time on Love Island, Claudia got to know Casey O’Gorman but was left devastated when he chose to couple up with Rosie Seabrook instead. Casey split from Rosie shortly after returning home, with him and Claudia igniting reunion rumours with some seriously flirty social media comments.
Last month, Claudia revealed she’d “overstepped” her friendship with Casey after they left the villa.
“We have overstepped the friendship mark in the past, I’m not going to deny that – I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone,” she explained on the Nip Tuck podcast.
"But I think for us two now it’s a weird one – we have so much love for each other and we know that. We speak every day. We've got to that really close point in our lives and we’re really good friends. I think we’ll always have love for each other, I just don’t know if either of us would want to overstep that barrier again, because if we did it would ruin a friendship if something went wrong."