paige love island

Someone call 999! Paige Thorne is the Welsh paramedic on Love Island this year

She’s described her dating history as a ‘failure’


It’s the most important day of the year – Love Island is returning to our TVs tonight and I *cannot* wait. ITV2 kicked off the celebrations last Monday when they released the Love Island cast list, and the very first Islander to be announced for the 2022 series was Paige Thorne.

Paige is 24 from Swansea, where she works as a paramedic for the NHS. She’s described herself as “down to earth” but said she doesn’t usually make it past the first date. Let’s hope she has more luck on Love Island!

This is everything you need to know about Love Island’s Paige Thorne:

24 year old Paige is a paramedic and wants to return to work after the villa

via Instagram @paigethornex

Love Island is no stranger to cast members working in the NHS, however Paige Thorne will be the first paramedic on the show. Paige said she feels “guilty” about leaving her job to appear on the show, and only gave her bosses three weeks notice.

She said: “I didn’t tell my bosses in advance, I probably gave them nowhere near enough time that I should have. But you don’t find out until really close to the time if you get on the show. I didn’t want to risk my chances and start saying stuff beforehand.

“I gave them three weeks’ notice, which left it all a bit up in the air because I didn’t give enough time but yeah.”

However, Paige has vowed to return once her time on Love Island is over, saying: “I will 1000 per cent go back to being a paramedic. I love my job it gives me everything I could want from a job.”

Paige is from Swansea and joining Love Island because there’s no men there

Ahead of her time on the show, Paige said she was joining Love Island because there is no one for her to date in Swansea, “there is just no-one I can find, I’ve tried and there’s just nobody there anymore. I need to break out and broaden my horizons and Love Island just brings everyone together for me.”

She’s a foodie

via Instagram @paigethornex

Paige loves to cook for her friends and family, and says her signature dish is a Sunday roast, “My roasties are up there, I think Gordon Ramsay would be impressed – I think he would be like ‘9/10 or 10/10’.” Well we know who will be doing the cooking in the villa then.

To win a guy over Paige will definitely cook a meal rather than sing or dance. And for the right man Paige loves to prep meals for them and even bake them cookies on the weekend.

“Whoever I’m in a relationship with, I look after them really well, probably too much! I put their work clothes on the radiators in the morning so they’re warm to get into, bake cookies on the weekend, meal prep for them, I like to do all the little gestures that just mean a lot.”

Um, Paige can I date you?

Paige has described her love life as a ‘failure’

via Instagram @paigethornex

Paige said even though she’s a big fan of romance, her own love life has actually been a failure, including one date where her date’s car battery died outside her parents house and she left him outside.

“There was this one date, it was a few years ago now, we went to the cinema and the whole time he just sits there profusely sweating. It’s not even warm inside, it’s normal temperature. He’s got his hand there for me to take it and I am like, ‘There’s no way I am touching that.’ He drives me home and he just wants to sit and talk to me. He’d left his head lights on in the car the whole time. I got out, he pulled down his window and he was like, ‘My car battery has died.’ Outside my house where my parents live! I was literally like, ‘Ok, bye.’ I just left him there with his dead car battery.”

Paige said she falls in love quickly and ideally, she would bump into a guy getting a coffee and fall in love that way. Maybe a guy in the villa can surprise her with an iced coffee?

She wants to stick to ‘girl code’

When asked if she would step on another girls’ toes for a guy she likes, Paige said she would try and stick to girl code and chat to the girl first, “I would only do it if it was absolutely necessary and the guy was worth it. I would still stick to some sort of girl code, I’d be like, ‘Look gal, I know you like him too but we are both here for the same thing.'”

Friendship seems to be important to Paige and she said her mates would describe her as “down to earth” and “a good friend”. She said she’ll often go and pick up her friends from nights out even if she has work in a few hours.

She has 14,000 followers on Instagram

via Instagram @paigethornex

Paige has a classic Instagram account for a 24 year old, full of pictures from her graduation, nights out, and her travels.

In the last few years it looks like Paige has travelled to South America, Germany, and Spain.

Love Island 2022 starts on Monday 6th June on ITV2. For all the latest Love Island 2022 news and gossip, a first look at each episode, and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

Inside the Instagram accounts of this year’s Love Islanders

Meet Gemma: The 19-year-old on Love Island 2022 whose dad is Michael Owen

23-year-old Indiyah is the ultimate cool girl joining the Love Island 2022 cast