Love Island 2023: Curtis Pritchard reveals how fear of rejection on TV influences coupling up decisions

Since the new islanders arrived in the villa on Monday, they’ve had their first coupling and have even introduced another two arrivals.

Made in Chelsea’s Sam Thompson and former islander Indiyah Polack have now questioned iconic ex-islander Curtis Pritchard about the winter series, and the fear of rejection in the villa.

Sam, 30, and Indiyah, 24, both from London, were joined by Curtis Pritchard, 26, from Stoke-on-Trent, who appeared in the fifth series of the ITV2 dating show, on the Love Island: The Morning After Podcast.

In the podcast’s third episode, they started by asking: “So, do you ‘ship’ Tom and Olivia?,” which Curtis replied to, by saying: “I sort of do in a way, actually, to be fair, I thought he may have gone for Lana.”

“I just thought he had the most chat with Lana, I’m not gonna lie, his chat is a little bit dry,” he added.

Indiyah said: “I don’t really see the connection, I don’t fully understand it. She’s a lovely girl, I think she’s got a lovely personality, but I just don’t really see these two that way.”

During the episode, Sam also made it known that Olivia is his favourite islander so far, saying: “Olivia’s my favourite at the moment, because I think she’s giving Ekin-Su vibes.”

“She’s in here to actually put a stamp on the villa. I think when she leaves, we’re going to be like Olivia was ‘it’.” he added.

Sam then went on to ask Curtis about the situation in the villa, where islanders choose to couple up to stop themselves from feeling rejected or to avoid making someone else feel that way.

Intrigued by the discussion, Sam said: “I feel like the fear of rejecting someone, especially on national TV can get to a person can’t it? Then you’re just sticking with people too long.”

Curtis replied: “You can do, 100% the fear of being rejected and rejecting somebody. You don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings and you don’t want to come across as a nasty person or a player.”

The ex-islander continued: “So you have got to be so careful, people really do put too much pressure on themselves sometimes.

“I think we as viewers need to watch and be like ‘do what you want in there, for the first week so we get to know everyone.”

The discussion took note of the awkward situation, where an islander puts all their eggs in one basket, and then it ends badly. Much like Curtis, who finished in fourth place on the show with Maura Higgins - despite having spent the majority of the series coupled up with Amy Hart.

Curtis reflected on his own experience in the villa, saying: “I didn’t do this in Love Island, I put all my eggs in one basket. You can’t, you need to explore, kiss as many people as you can, get to know as many people and enjoy it - it’s only day two.”

Sam, who seemed excited in his role of host, reiterated his love for Ekin-Su for bringing the drama to the villa, and how “at the end of the day - we’re here for entertainment!”

The podcast concluded by Sam highlighting their guest’s advice, “So that is Curtis Prichard’s advice, don’t get hooked up too early.”