LOVE Island star Grace Jackson has revealed she had no idea Joey Essex was going to be in the villa.
The model, 25, previously dated the Towie star before her time on the show and sparked fix claims when she arrived as a bombshell and instantly connected with him again.
Wild fan theories claimed the pair had planned to meet up there all along, but Grace rubbished the speculation, telling us it was a “massive shock.”
In her first interview after being dumped from the villa alongside Reuben this week, Grace told us: “I didn’t know Joey was in the villa. It was crazy. Honest to God, I was so shocked.
“We absolutely didn’t know that either of us were in there. And I wouldn’t wait until Love Island anyway to go and do that. I would have just done it on the outside.
“I wouldn’t have needed to wait that long to have a conversation with him or to speak to him. It would have been silly.”
The pair ended up rekindling their romance, which again Grace says she really wasn’t expecting.
She explained: “I kind of went in thinking like, right, we’re going to be living together now. We’re going to be in each other’s company every single day.
“We need to have a conversation, just whether that’s clearing the air and moving on and being civil or as friends or if there is something still there.”
Explaining their very strong connection, Grace continued: “I think when you have that connection with someone, and it was really strong with him. We were really close on the outside.
“So I think because we’d kind of left things for quite a while and they were a little bit frosty, I think that initial conversation needed to be had.
“But once it was had, we kind of did just fall back into old habits and just in how close we were and everything and like how we were on the outside.”
However their rekindled romance was short lived as Joey ended up falling for Jessy Potts after she picked him for a date.
Things turned very sour between Grace and Joey – with the pair barely on speaking terms by the time Grace got the boot alongside Reuben this week.
Love Island the live final airs Monday 29th July on ITV2 and ITVX
WITH Love Island wrapping up on Monday 29, these are the remaining contestants prior to the latest savage dumping...
Joey and Jessy
Josh and Mimii
Grace and Reuben
Sean and Matilda
Jess and Ayo
Ciaran and Nicole
