Ellie speaks out about why she left Love Island and where she and Finley really stand now

Ellie Chadwick has just left the Love Island 2026 villa, after she decided there was no reason for her to remain on the show. The Islanders had to make a decision to dump two cast members, and after Finley was chosen, Ellie decided to walk.

It was a tough watch. After Finley was dumped, Ellie said she was “at peace” with knowing she wouldn’t find a connection with anyone else, and seemed to say that despite everything Finley had done, she was open to leaving and seeing what happened between them.

Now, in her first interview since walking, Ellie has spoken out about how she feels. She said it felt “surreal and bittersweet” to be leaving the villa. “I wanted to find someone and I found it. There was no point in me staying until the end just to be a placeholder, it didn’t sit right with me,” she said.

“Nothing in my gut told me I needed to stay. I knew full well in my gut, my heart and my head that leaving was the only and the best option for me, so that’s what I did.”

via ITV

Explaining her decision to go with Finley further, Ellie said: “Obviously, seeing Finley up there was hard because it was a recent event and he hadn’t been in the bottom before. Then, when we got told about the second dumping and that we had to choose, I already kind of knew in my gut that it wasn’t going to go the way I was hoping, which was for me and Finley to stay there and continue to grow. There were no ifs, buts or maybes, or what ifs, or how could this play out.”

Most Read

We now know the specifics of the four indecency charges the dad of 16 rescued kids is facing

The names, ages and nationalities of all 32 Costa Concordia victims, and how they died

Bonnie Blue shares traumatic content from before, during and after her ‘milk me’ stunt

That being said, Ellie hasn’t forgotten how Finley was with Elicia. “Finley knows fine well that I feel like he navigated it very poorly,” she explained of that situation.

via ITV

Ellie continued: “I made that very vocal and I will stand on that. I always will. I think the communication was poor. A lot of the things that happened were not relayed to me in a proper way, which I would have appreciated. I’m big enough to take the truth on the chest. I’m happy with that. I’m a very direct, upfront person. I just think the communication was poor and the way he handled it wasn’t great. I understand he was confused.

“I was understanding the whole time, but there was only so much understanding I could do. There are definitely ways it could have been better, but we live and we learn. That’s what Love Island is. It’s about living and learning. I’ve learned a lot about myself there and I’ve got to give him grace on that. It doesn’t mean the grafting boots are off because we’re out now, those boots are still on. I believed in the connection we had so much. I just knew in my heart that it was going to work, regardless of what was going on.”

Overall, Ellie described her Love Island 2026 journey as “up and down, left and right” and concluded: “I’ve been pulled from pillar to post but I wouldn’t change it. The true experience is that you don’t just find out about connections and relationships, you find out a lot about yourself. Even if you don’t find anyone from it, which I hope everyone does, you find out a lot about yourself and that’s beautiful in itself.”

For all the latest Love Island news and gossip, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.