For a silly show about swapping spit with all your roommates, Love Island has a surprisingly solid track record. With Love Island UK currently in its 12th season and Love Island USA airing its 7th, the franchise boasts a handful of marriages, nearly a dozen babies, and several couples still going strong as a result of the show. Marriage-oriented shows like The Bachelor and Love is Blind take themselves incredibly seriously and rush contestants to the altar, but it turns out the odds of finding lasting love are just as good, if not better, on Love Island.
‘Love Island USA’ Celebrates its First Engaged Couple
Love Island USA has yet to celebrate its first marriage or child from any couples who have come through the villa, but that milestone is getting closer. Former contestants Hannah Wright and Marco Donatelli just became the first contestants to take the next step. Last month, Marco got down on one knee while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. In season five, Hannah was the first bombshell to enter the villa, and she chose Marco to couple up with right away. Marco says it was love at first sight for him, and the pair went on to win the whole season. Now, two years later, they’re making franchise history as the first Love Island USA couple to get engaged.
‘Love Island UK’ Weddings and Babies
Love Island UK has produced multiple marriages, and a growing number of children. An all-time fan favorite couple from the show’s second season, Olivia Buckhead and Alex Bowen were the first couple in Love Island history to say “I do.” They met in the villa in July 2016, moved in together that October, and on New Year’s Eve, Alex proposed to Olivia. The couple married in September 2018 and welcomed their first child, a son named Abel, in 2022. Now, Olivia and Alex are expecting baby number two.
Season 3 produced two weddings. Runner-ups Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt had their first child, a daughter named Nell, in 2021. The couple got married later that year and went on to welcome two more children—a daughter named Nora in 2022 and their son, Brodie, last year.
Jess Shears and Dom Lever, also from Season 3, were the second couple in Love Island history to walk down the aisle. Dom was an original cast member in Season 3, and Jess was brought in as an early bombshell. Despite Dom being in a strong couple, Jess turned his head, and they remained together until she was dramatically dumped from the island. Dom stuck around for a few more days and was overjoyed to reunite with “the girl I love” when he was eliminated. Shortly after leaving the villa, they got engaged, and they were married in 2018. The couple shares two sons.
Another success story from Love Island UK is the winning couple of season two, Nathan and Cara. They coupled up on day one and managed to stick together through the whole season despite frequent bickering. The following year, they announced a breakup and a pregnancy within a few months. The former islanders managed to navigate through their disagreements, and they reunited before Cara gave birth to their son. In 2018, Nathan proposed during a trip to the Love Island villa. They were married in 2019 and had their second child a year later.
There are more weddings on the horizon; Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, the first Casa Amor couple to win Love Island UK, got engaged last year. Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott, who participated in two different seasons of the UK series, got engaged in 2021 and are currently planning their wedding. A few former Love Island couples have always welcomed children, including Cally Jane Beech and Luis Morrison, and Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury, who broke up last year and have recently reunited.
A Shocking ‘Love Island’ Couple
But perhaps the most unexpected couple to come out of Love Island never even entered the villa as contestants, but they’ve played an integral role on the show: Laura Whitmore, who hosted Love Island UK for three seasons from 2020 to 2022, and the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling. They met at an ITV party four years before Laura ever hosted the show, and they became good friends. Their relationship was kept quiet initially, but in December 2020, Laura announced that she was pregnant with their first child. She gave birth to their daughter, Stevie Ré, in March 2021, and later that year, she revealed that she and Iain had secretly gotten married in late 2020. So it turns out—romance is alive and well in the Love Island villas, even for those who didn’t come looking for it!
Love Island USA is airing on Peacock.
