If you ask us, we all need to start giving Love Island's Jessy Potts some credit for being game-changing Islander she is; after all, she entered the Love Island 2024 villa on day 23 and managed to tame bombshell of bombshells, Joey Essex.
He fell hard and fast for the Leicester lass and even stayed loyal to her in Casa Amor (which, let's be honest, was on none of our Bingo cards). The couple finished in fifth place – being dumped from the show just ahead of the final – leaving the villa hand-in-hand.
Within a matter of hours landing back in the UK, the Love Island couple did a joint photoshoot together - it's still giving noughties – and went on a date to Sheesh, but haven't been seen together since. Naturally, this has got sceptical tongues wagging, with many fans assuming they've already split.
In reality, Joey has been out of the country – he's in Ibiza at present – seeing friends and family and just generally catching up on his notoriously busy lifestyle, which has been on hold for two months while he's been in the villa. But here's the thing, it's Joey's busy lifestyle which many fans and Islanders claimed Jessy would not be able to keep up with IRL... so is that what's happening?
Well, Jessy paid heatworld HQ a visit this week to set the record straight and silence the cynics once and for all. The blonde bombshell exclusively revealed to heatworld that her and Joey are still together, and that rumours of a secret split are false.
She revealed, "We’ve both been very busy. It’s been a few days since I’ve seen him, and I think that’s just normal. We are adjusting to this new life and finding a balance. I speak to him on the phone every day."
Jessy then added that the rumours have been exacerbated because fans are constantly comparing them to the Love Island couples, who admittedly have been living in each others pockets since the final. According to Jessy, this is something she has found "hard" while trying to navigate the relationship in the outside world.
"We’re organising when to see each other, and I think it’s hard because you compare it to the other couples. They’re with each other 24/7, whereas we always knew it was going to be different because he’s catching up on his normal life, whereas for the rest of us we’re thrown into a new life.
"Everything is new and we’re waiting for things to come up. It was always going to be slightly different. We’re both making the effort and everyone’s speculating that we’ve broken up. We’re working it out," she added.
While the couple have not publicly come out as boyfriend and girlfriend, they are now officially exclusive, with Joey going as far as sharing a cutesy snap of him and Jessy in the holding villa shortly after their dumping on his Instagram grid with the caption, "exclusive era ❤️🔥."
In the same interview with heatworld, Jessy spilled the tea of all tea when she let slip that she was actually supposed to appear on Love Island 2023. She even got flown out Mallorca and everything. And here’s where it gets very interesting…. After Jessy was sent home by producers, Molly Marsh was drafted in by execs and flown back out to Mallorca.
WATCH: Jess on her clashes with Joey and Sean
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 💅