LOVE Island fans accused Joey Essex of ‘gaslighting’ Grace Jackson.
The former Towie star had his head turned by bombshell Jessy Potts, ruffling Grace’s feathers.
Grace was left stunned after Joey admitted that he wasn’t closed off to getting to know Jessy.
She told Joey that she wasn’t interested in getting to know other people because she felt that they were in a good place.
But it seems that Joey isn’t ready to fully commit to Grace just yet.
The pair sat down to talk about their situationship.
Joey explains: “In my head, if we can get through this, this what’s happened, it’ll only make us stronger. That’s how I see it.”
Grace says: “It’s difficult for me to sit here and be like, ‘You do what you need to do, if you feel like you need to explore something with someone else, I’ll just sit here and wait.’ I’m not going to do that Joey.”
Grace continues: “But I don’t get it, are you still wanting to get to know her. If you are, then I don’t want to be involved…”
Joey replies: “I still need to… I can’t not get to know this girl.. I just feel like if I didn’t I would be silly.”
After their chat, Joey pulled Grace in for a cuddle and kissed her on the mouth, which she told him off for.
But fans felt that Joey was playing with Grace’s emotions, branding him a “gaslighter”.
“GASLIGHTING p****, Joey is!! Grace is spot on. I don’t want her to back track. #loveIsland,” one wrote on X.
“Joey is trying to do up gaslight #loveIsland,” said a second.
“Joey is trying to gaslight Grace, I’m glad she’s not falling for his bs,” echoed a third.
Jessy took Joey on a date shortly after making her entrance to the villa.
During his date, Joey made it crystal clear that he doesn’t believe he and Grace are “closed off” and he told Jessy that they could be “trouble” together.
In tonight’s episode, Jess recoupled with Joey, which left Grace fuming.
“I have decided to steal this boy because since I’ve been in here I’ve had a few chats with different people,” she said in her speech.
“Meeting all the boys has been lovely and you’ve all impressed me and surprised me more than anticipated,” she continued.
“But I feel like I have to go with my gut who I’ve had good conversations with, so the boy I’ve decided to steal is Joey,” she said.
Joey looked stunned and whispered: “I didn’t expect that”
“Neither did I,” Jess whispered.
Grace was baffled by his reaction and in the beach hut she said: “I don’t know why he looked so shook. His actions just don’t really align at times.”
Things went from bad to worse for Grace after Joey took Jessy to the terrace.
He told her that he was glad he picked her, before pulling her in for a kiss.
