We’re into the final week of Love Island: All Stars and the drama has, frankly, been more explosive that ever. As well as the ‘shut your f**king mouth’ row between Harriett Blackmore and Casey O’Gorman, there’s also been some major agg between Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Elma Pazar after Ekin gave Sammy Root a peck on the lips in the heart rate challenge.
The Love Island 2022 winner – who took home the £50k prize money with former flame Davide Sanclimenti – has been accused of stirring the pot on the show, with Luca Bish recently calling her out for meddling in his love triangle with Grace Jackson and Samie Elishi.
However, according to dumped Islander Ron Hall, Ekin-Su is actually ‘misunderstood’ and is totally different to how she’s coming across on TV.
Speaking to his followers on Snapchat, Ron said, ‘Ekin is very, very misunderstood. Yes, she knows how to switch it on for the camera right, that’s just a job, but she’s such a lovely person.
‘You know, sometimes she’s a fruitcake, but she’s so lovely, like she means well.
‘I think she’s had a really difficult past and I remember the conversation that me and her used to have all the time in there. Like she’s so, so sweet.’
Ron added, ‘I actually really, really do like her.’
The winter Love Island 2023 star isn’t the only Islander to come to Ekin’s defence after leaving the villa as Chuggs Wallis recently admitted he was ‘surprised’ at how ‘sensitive and vulnerable’ she is.
‘I genuinely think she does want to find someone to “do” life with,’ he added.
Giving her relationship with Curtis Pritchard his seal of approval, Chuggs continued, ‘Curtis is the biggest teddy bear ever, he's very mature and he's very ambitious with his work and really wants to go and do good things, so I think they're a very mature couple. I think they have a good chance of staying together on the outside, as long as there’s no major work distractions from both of them.’
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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.