Oh, how we love a Love Island journey of discovery and growth. Okay, cast your minds back to the summer of 2022 when a 23-year-old fishmonger named Luca Bish entered a villa looking for love. That makes it sound like some sort of parable, doesn't it? Okay, a twenty-something rich kid from Brighton enters the villa, instantly falls in love with Michael Owen's daughter, Gemma, and is an occasional 'knob' (his words, not ours) to Islanders like Tasha Ghouri, Danica Taylor and Andrew Le Page. It's giving very early 20s and, honestly, we can't judge too harshly as we've all been that age.
Some of you might be that age – in which case, stop it at once.
While Luca, now 25, made it to the final with then-girlfriend Gemma (who is also rumoured for All Stars, btw), he didn't get the greatest of receptions from the Love Island fandom for some of his stroppy and on one or two occasions questionable behaviour in the villa.
BUT, we love us some growth and we LOVE it when celebs own their s**t and Luca has exhibited just that in a recent interview with heat ahead of his hotly-anticipated All Stars debut on Monday 13 January.
Speaking openly about whether he's watched Love Island 2022 back, as well as some of the bad press he received at the time, he said, 'I can't really disagree with what they wrote. I learned lessons and it’s the lessons we learn from that make us who we are today. You know, I definitely look back and I think, what a knob, but that's why I'm coming on again, and luckily, I've been asked to do it another time and get the second chance to kind of show you guys the more real me.'
We love this for Luca, and despite having raised an eyebrow at some of his on-screen behaviour in the past, we really are rooting for Luca 2.0.
Speaking of his game plan (or lack thereof) for All Stars, Luca revealed, 'I’m not going in there playing it any way. I know it's a game show, but I’m just going to go in there and be myself. I finished second last time, people had their opinions, I still finished second.'
He continued, 'All my friends and family that were there before I went in last time are still there now, and that was maybe not even the best version of me, especially as it was so new and it was so raw and maybe I was a bit naive to what I was walking into. So this time around, I have no doubts.'
Side note, we are also looking forward to bringing back the fish puns.