Explainer

Why you might see Love Island victors' return to the North West

Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti were crowned the winners of Love Island 2022. Credit: Love Island/ITV

The 2022 Love Island finalists have revealed their plans for the future, including moving in together and career ambitions, following Monday evening’s final.Four couples made it to the final of the hit ITV2 dating show before Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti were crowned the winners and took home the £50,000 prize.

Both have links to the North West with Italian Davide running a business in Manchester and Ekin-Su being a former drama student at UCLAN in Preston.

The winning couple have strong North West links

Ekin-Su lived in Preston while studying her BA (Hons) in Acting before graduating in 2015. During that time, she was known as Susie Hayzel.

Ekin, or Susie, was known to regularly attend student club nights in Fishergate. She also worked at Ships and Giggles, on Fylde Road, as a shot girl and assisting with celebrity appearances.

Ships and Giggles owner, Andy MacDonald said: "I'm not a Love Island fan at all but I keep getting these messages and phone calls saying about this Ekin-Su.

"They say Ekin-Su used to work for you and I say, I have never had anybody called Ekin-Su work for me, ever.

"After a while I thought, what is going on? Looked on Facebook and I go 'for goodness sake, it's Susie Hayzel! Her name's not Ekin-Su, it's Susie Hayzel."

Ekin-Su was a regular at club nights in Preston and worked at one of the city's bars as she studied at UCLAN Credit: MEN media

Ekin worked as a shot girl at Ships and Giggles around the years 2014 and 2015.

She attended UCLan until 2015. A University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) spokesperson said: “We’re delighted for our 2015 BA (Hons) Acting graduate Ekin-su Cülcüloglu after being crowned the winner of ITV’s Love Island.”

Luca Bish and Gemma Owen posted images of happiness amid plans to move to Chester

The runners-up may be a spot in the North West soon too. Luca Bish, reached the final with his partner Gemma Owen, the daughter of former Liverpool and Manchester United footballer Michael Owen.

They've revealed that if the pair were to move in together, he would move to Gemma’s hometown of Chester to be with her.He said: “There is no middle ground – it’s Chester or nothing!“I’m happy to go wherever she wants me to go. I haven’t got too many commitments back home so it’s easier for me to move.“Whatever makes us happy and whatever is right, we’ll do. Hopefully if I move near her, in time we’ll get a place together.”

Gemma says there'll be no Love Island neons if she sets up home with Luca Bish Credit: ITV

Speculating about their plans to move in together, Gemma revealed she would not be replicating the colourful Love Island villa decor in any future homes.“Absolutely no neons!” she said.She added: “It would be very neutral colours. No yellow beanbags.”During the series, a yellow beanbag in the villa’s garden became a talking point after the islanders deemed it a bad omen and decided it brought bad luck to people who sat on it.Luca agreed with his partner, saying: “At the end of Love Island, I started moving the yellow pillows. I don’t think you’ll ever see me sitting next to a yellow pillow.”The latest series launched to a consolidated five million viewers across all devices, according to ITV, making it the biggest launch since 2019.Love Island: The Reunion airs ITV2 and ITV Hub on August 7 at 9pm.

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