It’s fair to say not many of this year’s Love Island contestants had an easy ride in the villa thanks to all the drama, but one series 12 Islander who had a seriously turbulent journey was Conor Phillips.
The Irish rugby player wasn’t even initially part of the original line-up but that all changed when Kyle Ashman was axed before even stepping foot in the villa and Conor was called up to replace him.
He initially coupled up with Helena Ford before getting to know Toni Laites and Emily Moran, but everything changed when he declared his interest in Megan Forte Clarke and they quickly fell for each other. However, in a massive turn of events, Megan was dumped from the villa just when their romance started getting off the ground.
Conor then spent the next few weeks coupling up with the likes of Alima Gagigo, Billykiss Azeez, Emma Munro and Yasmin Pettet. In fact, he’s actually been the most couples in Love Island history.
Conor also explored things with Shakira Khan, who he’d been besties with since day one, but she called things off when she realised that she still had feelings for Harry Cooksley (who she’s still with now).
The pair still had to share a bed after ending things as they were still in a couple (awkward) and viewers saw Conor break down in tears as Shakira admitted she was ‘scared of losing him’, which left everyone a little bit confused.
Weeks on from the drama, Conor has finally addressed the situation and added a little bit more context.
'I think with me and Shakira, I knew for a couple of days that it probably wasn't going to work but I was giving it every chance that I could.
'We had that conversation that she wanted to sort of step away, which was an awkward conversation for her to have because we were such close friends, so she was just afraid that I was going to be really annoyed and not want to speak to her again, which were my initial thoughts,' he told heat in an exclusive interview alongside Megan (who is now his official girlfriend, btw).
Conor continued, 'But then obviously Megan came back and it sort of helped the process of that for me.
'But when we were in bed and obviously we were getting emotional, it's because she'd been having a really rough time as well and she was one of my close friends, so I really was afraid that she might leave and I was just really upset that she was upset. So that was why we were emotional in bed.’
Ahh, it all makes sense now.
WATCH Love Island's Billykiss lifts the lid on what went down with Conor 👀
Nathan Katnoria is heat and Closer online’s senior digital writer. He became obsessed with Love Island when Malin Andersson came back to confront Terry Walsh in series two and hasn’t looked back since. When he’s not interviewing former Islanders, Nathan is scrolling through their Instagram feeds for relationship updates and piping hot tea.