‘He’s putting on a show’: What ex-Islanders have said about Joey Essex in Love Island 2024

Omar thinking he’s a producer plant is jokes

5 months ago

Iona MacRobert | Love Island 2024

The Love Island 2024 final is approaching and even ex-Islanders can’t totally explain Joey Essex’s antics in the villa.

Currently, Joey is coupled up with Jessy Potts who looks pretty identical to his ex Grace Jackson, whom is still in the villa and who he was previously coupled up with. Some of the current Islanders think that Joey is still pining after Grace – and then Lola was added into the mix, another girl that Joey knew prior to the show.

As the series is coming to an end, there’s more juicy gossip coming out from the Islanders as they’re finally speaking their minds on what they really think about Joey. It says a lot that a lot of the ex-Islanders who haven’t been on TV yet don’t actually care that a celebrity is in the villa. Maybe Joey’s reality TV days are coming to an end to make room for the new Islanders that are speaking their mind about him.

From exes to game playing, here’s what ex-Islanders have said about Joey Essex.

‘Joey is a character. He’s in his own little world’

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Ruby and Diamanté sat down with Closer to tell us all about Joey’s antics in the villa, adding that his skipping was particularly annoying when they were trying to chill out in the sun. Ruby said: “Joey is a character, is what I’m going to say. Every lunch and dinner he would be skipping. Just skip, skip, skipping and all you would hear is this rope.

“Bear in mind, you’re trying to have a nap at lunch or dinner or chill out all you could hear was, ‘ch, ch, ch, ch'”.

Explaining that the skipping was because Joey was training for Blade, she adds: “Joey was just, I’m going to say… I don’t want to be horrible about him, he is a lovely, but he is, he is just his own person, he’s in his own little bubble, in his own little world”.

‘He might win because he knows how to play this game’

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Diamanté echoed a similar tune, explaining that Joey may play dumb but he’s switched on to everything around him. She says: “One thing about Joey, I feel like he plays this ditzy, ‘La La’ Essex boy, but Joey’s not stupid.

“He knows reality TV. You know what? Actually, I think he might win because he knows how to play this game.”

‘I think he’s going to end up sabotaging his relationship’

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With the hot topic at the minute being whether Grace and Joey will get back together and whether Jessy is caught in the middle of it, Chris Taylor was another one of the ex-Islanders who said things about Joey Essex on the show. Weighing in on whether Joey’s making the right moves in the villa, he said on The Morning After podcast: “I think if I were Jessy at this point I’d be like ‘mate will you shut up about it’. And I think he’s going to end up sabotaging his own relationship for it.” Drama ahead.

‘He’s putting on a show’

@closeronline

Love Island’s Wil and Uma reveal what Joey Essex is really like in the villa 👀 @Uma Jammeh #loveisland #loveisland2024 #loveislanduk #joeyessex #fyp

♬ original sound – Closer Magazine UK

After having lived with the star, Will and Uma dished out exactly what he was like in the villa. Uma set the record straight to Closer saying “I don’t think Joey’s bitchy” to which Will backed up, saying: “No he’s not bitchy at all. In real life he’s actually sound. But, Joey’s been in this industry for 13 years or something so he knows what to do and who to talk to and how to create drama. So at the end of the day, he’s putting on a show. Quite a few people in there are trying to make good TV, me included. ”

‘He’s just a showman’

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We finally know who Emma is. When Emma Milton left the villa, she finally revealed the reason that her and Joey knew each other when she entered Casa Amor. She told Maya Jama on Love Island: After Sun: “We’ve literally been friends for about eight years.” So Joey’s act of looking shocked when she entered the villa was dramatic according to Emma, who said: “Standard Joey, he’s just a showman.”

‘They won’t last on the outside’

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Casa Amor bombshell Hugo Godfroy reckons Jessy was going to pick Jake and re couple as the pair seemed to get on well. However, the name of Joey Essex meant that Jessy perhaps felt trapped in the decision to not re-couple, as he is such a big name. Again, this is why celebrities shouldn’t be put on reality shows meant for normal people.

On The Morning After podcast, Hugo said: “They won’t last on the outside. We were in Casa with her and I think she got on quite well with Jake. We both thought she would take him back. I think if that person in the main villa wasn’t Joey Essex she would have done.”

‘Something wasn’t right’

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Dumped from the 2024 villa after only nine days, Patsy chimed in about Joey’s relationship with Samantha, claiming that he wouldn’t put in the work. She told OK: “So she knew something wasn’t right and she wasn’t getting full level commitment from him. But no one expected his ex to walk in and she was kicked to the curb.”

She adds that despite telling Samantha that he wanted to be with her, Joey still wouldn’t put any effort in: “There were some nights when he wouldn’t go near her for hours. We said to her in there, ‘Babe, that’s weird'”.

Apparently, Joey was chatting to Grace before he went in the villa

@cosmopolitanuk

Were Joey Essex and Grace together before heading on Love Island? Samantha responds to the theories 👀🕵🏼‍♀️ #loveisland

♬ original sound – CosmopolitanUK

Lets throw it back to when Samantha Kenny was dumped, the OG Joey Essex fan. Well, she revealed that apparently Grace and Joey had been texting since March which meant they likely would have known they were going on the show by that point.

Speaking to Cosmopolitan, Samantha said: “[Grace] told us that they got back speaking again in March ad they were texting a little bit again. So who knows. I definitely think he was kind of waiting for someone else to come into the villa.” The truth will be revealed at some point.

‘We had conversations that weren’t shown’

@heatworlduk

We never would have guessed @Diamanté LV 😳 @Ruby Dale #loveisland #loveislanduk #diamanteloveisland #joeyessex

♬ original sound – heatworld

Perhaps one of the only positive things ex-Islanders said about Joey Essex, iconic Casa Amor girl Diamanté Laiva continuted to spill tea when she left the villa, claiming that there was a connection between her and Joey. Unfortunately, the age difference between the pair came between them, as she is 21 whilst Joey is 33. So 13 years apart was cutting the pair’s potential sparks.

Claiming that she was surprised that Joey liked her, said told Heat about conversations that weren’t shown between them, adding: “If I was a bit older I do think it probably would have happened with Joey. He said he did date someone previously who looked like me.”

‘Is it a coincidence his 35th birthday falls on the final day?’

@heatworlduk

We’re still reeling from Samantha’s exit tbh 😵‍💫 @Patsy Field @MJ #loveisland #patsyloveisland #munveerloveisland #joeyessex

♬ original sound – heatworld

Um, Munveer Jabbal was slyly calling out the producers when talking about whether Grace and Joey will make it to the final. He dropped the bomb that Joey’s birthday actually falls on the day of the Love Island final which is July 29th. Will he prefer to celebrate without his exes in the villa or will the producers milk this moment for Joey’s screen time? Who knows.

Munveer said to Heat: “Is it a coincidence that his 35th birthday falls on the final day.” He doesn’t sound too happy about that either.

He’s a producer plant (??)

With many of the things ex-Islanders said about Joey Essex being said with chest, Omar did the opposite. Omar did not shut the rumours down that Joey is in fact a producer plant and seemed to avoid the question about whether Joey would go missing on filming dates to chat to the crew. On the 90s Baby Show podcast, Omar responded to the question about whether Joey was a plant by stumbling on his words and saying: “Guys, no comment!” So, basically a yes then.

For like this rundown of what ex-Islanders said about Joey Essex and all the latest Love Island news and gossip and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.