How to successfully slide into my DMs, by Eyal Booker

Eyal. The deep one from the Love Island villa. The one who tried a lot to get famous before striking it big on ITV2.

Since leaving the villa Eyal has done a lot of Instagram stories, been spotted modelling merch for Sheffield Hallam freshers, and generally been loving life.

But what goes on behind those dreamy eyes? We had a chat to find out how to slide into his DMs and more.

Eyal claims he never knew Alex was behind him when he snogged Megan

"I know there was a point where it looked like I kind of kissed Megan in front of Alex and the country went in on me for that. From a viewer’s point of view, I would have done the same, I understand it.

"But if people would have seen the lead up to that moment where me and Megan kissed, and heard what she’d been saying to me and also, hand on heart, I never knew Alex was behind me. I pulled him straight away because someone came up to me and said you do know Alex was just there and we spoke about it and I said and he knew I'm not a malicious person and would never have done that on purpose.

"There was never any argument to be had. It was just shit timing and people only saw a quarter of what actually happened."

Islanders can't have chats with a cig any more, or in the pool

"There's no-one allowed in there. There's one person at a time so there's no chats. That's the whole point – you can't chat anywhere that isn't on camera."

The other place the contestants are stopped from chatting is the pool, as you can't wear your mic. "If you are talking in the swimming pool then you get shouted at," says Eyal.

One of the new girls has taken his fancy

"New Laura. She just seems quite vibey and I think she likes surfing, I like surfing. Sold."

Eyal's always had an ear complex, apparently

You've surely seen the meme of him looking like Mr Tumnus. Now Eyal has too, and sure, he can recognise the parallel.

But apparently mentioning that to him reminds him of an insecurity: "I've always had a bit of an ear complex and you've just brought that complex out again, so thanks."

He had over 1000 messages when he first turned his phone on

"It was madness. On WhatsApp, everyone I've ever met really came out and just supported me. Getting through all those messages and showing how much it meant to me that they supported me, along with trying to speak to my family for the first time and my boys, was difficult.

"Instagram was never expected and it was a bit of a shock. My DMs were nicely filling up. I left the island a single man, so you can never argue with a few nice DMs. There are a few DMs still doing their thing – now more than when I came out, which is interesting."

You won't get away with lazily sliding into his DMs

"Send me a message that is slightly more than just a 'hey how are you'. Be quirky or jokey – something that you think is gonna connect with me, or pull on the heartstrings or make me laugh.

"I used to have pretty bad luck back in the day with Tinder."

Pret or Greggs?

"It depends. Pret doesn’t do a sausage roll like Greggs does but Pret does do a good chicken and pepper toastie and I’m a big fan of toasties. It just depends what mood I wake up in."

It's toastie mania in the villa

"Do you know what? It’s no lie we eat a shitload of toasties. Everyone’s making toasties all the time. Dani was the toastie master and she was an angel in there cooking toasties.

"You don’t really see us eating but I think people have so much to judge us on. Last thing we need is someone judging us on how we eat a toastie."

Shag, Marry, Avoid: Plato, Aristotle, and Kant

"I would shag Plato, I would marry Kant, and I would avoid Aristotle. One night, there's a lot of words of wisdom there."

Him and Hayley are okay now

" Evidently me and Hayley are not compatible and we’re not really on the same page – as we saw by our conversations. It doesn’t mean to say that she’s a bad person.

"No two people are the same in this world and some people get on and some people don’t. It’s not like we didn’t get on, we just didn’t meet in the middle.

"I’ve seen her at a few events and it’s all amicable, and we catch up and say hey, then that’s about the end of our chat and we go our separate ways."

The show isn't staged, according to Eyal

"I don’t really understand why the show wouldn’t show the hideaway, so I’m not sure whether that’s actually happened or it hasn’t. I can only speak from my experience, and it was never staged for me."

Recommended stories by this writer:

• Is the lie detector real? An investigation

• Did Jack actually leave the Love Island villa last night?

• Another islander who looked different before the villa? Sign me up