Ovie says he went on Love Island because it was ‘a chance to go on TV’

He had ‘no idea’ how popular he was going to be

1 year ago

Love Island icon Ovie Soko has revealed the real reason he chose to go on Love Island, admitting he had “no idea” just how much of an effect appearing on the series had.

Ovie won the hearts of the nation when he appeared as a Casa Amor bombshell in 2019 and cruised straight through to the final alongside India Reynolds.

The former Islander was a professional basketball player before entering the villa, and still is. Speaking on the Three Shots of Tequila podcast, Ovie admitted he “genuinely didn’t know” just how big the show was as he had never watched it before.

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“I went to school with a girl who was on the series before me. I watched like one or two episodes because my friends were like, ‘Yo Alexandria she’s on TV’. So I just looked because I wanted to see that she was on TV. After I had seen her, I never really watched it because I’ve always been doing the ball thing. So every time I’m back in the summers, I’m with the mandem, I’m going out. I’m not really watching TV,” he explained.

“I hear people talk about it so when I went on the show it felt like everyone around me they knew more than I knew. I was like, ‘It’s a chance to go on TV’. So I just took it from that perspective. When you get in there you see mad cameras. After three four days you forget.”

Ovie entered the main villa alongside Anna after she chose to recouple with him before recoupling with Jordan. Ovie later coupled up with bombshell India Reynolds but they soon had an “amicable” split after their time on the outside.

via ITV

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Ovie told the podcast hosts he had every intention to go back to playing basketball, as he had “no idea” the show was going to “pop off” like it did. The basketball player was in the villa with the likes of Molly-Mae Hague, Maura Higgins and Amber Gill – who went on to win the series.

“The plan was to always go back to ball. I had no idea it was going to pop off or it was going to blow [up] like it did,” he admitted, continuing: ” My whole thing was before I went into the [villa] I told them my only stipulation was my basketball contract if my agent has to be able to call someone and tell me what contract offers I have so I could still negotiate my basketball contract from while I was in there.”

He explained that after he got out of the villa, he spoke to his agent and eventually worked out a balance of doing PR off the back of his Love Island success and his basketball career.

Ovie is now playing for the London Lions of the British BBL and the EuroCup Basketball after joining the team in July 2022.

Love Island 2023 is on ITV2 and ITVX. For all the latest Love Island news and gossip and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.