What in the name of a reality TV twist is going on here? It turns out that a Married At First Sight bride was flown out to the Love Island villa and we're only just finding out about it now.
During a social media Q&A, MAFS 2023 bride Erica Roberts revealed she took part in a Love Island 'dry run' and we have been robbed by the ITV execs, quite frankly, because Erica would have made a fabulous Islander.
'My MAFS story is a bit of a funny one,' she confessed, 'I was actually meant to go on Love Island. I got flown out to Mallorca, this was the year before.'
We didn't ever think of those two shows crossing paths, tbh. We know that they are both romance reality TV series, but not only are they on different channels, but they also seem to attract contrasting contestants and the format is completely different.
'A lot of people don't know this but ITV actually do a dry run,' she explained, 'which is this little thing before Love Island starts.'
We did know that as two of this year's contestants were part of this year's 'dry run'; Ty Isherwood and Lauren Wood both took part before landing roles as bombshells on the dating show.
'You get flown out to the Love Island villa, you stay there and it's a mini version just so you can see how things go, but essentially it's actually an audition for Casa Amor,' Erica explained.
Well, that makes sense as Ty and Lauren were both featured in Casa Amor – and made it back to the main villa.
Lauren ended up with Harrison Solomon, who quit the show when Lauren was voted out and Ty made it to the final with Angel Swift. Both couples are still together. Slay.
'I never, ever, ever, ever have wanted to go into Casa, even if it was offered to me, I would have been like, "no absolutely not," but that ended up not happening.'
Erica goes on to explain that the girlie who cast her for Love Island put her forward as a MAFS bride and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Emily Vierke is a digital writer who has dabbled in the world of celeb, beauty and fashion. She enjoys stalking Love Island girlies Indiyah Polack and Matilda Draper for outfit inspo nearly as much as she enjoys rewatching the clip of Maura Higgins confronting Tom Walker for gossiping about her to the Love Island lads.