LOVE Island star Curtis Pritchard has defended “dumping his ex girlfriend to do All Stars” after fans branded him “fame hungry”.
In 2022, The Sun revealed Curtis, 28, had moved on from Maura Higgins with his Cinderella co-star Sophie after meeting on stage.
But The Sun revealed this week that Curtis dumped West End star Sophie just a few months before his All Stars entrance.
Curtis has now revealed that he ended the two year relationship in September because he fell out of love with Sophie.
Speaking to The Sun, Curtis said: “My dating history has been non-existent – I haven’t been on that many dates to be fair.
“I had a girlfriend just previously, obviously it didn’t work out.
“Love doesn’t always last and sometimes people fall out of love – that’s what happened with that one and that’s why I’m here now.
“I’ve not had that much dating, bar from the Love Islands and Celeb Go Dating series, I did the Mansion during lockdown.
“Bar them, I’ve not done that much dating.”
Although Curtis has come under fire for dumping Sophie TWICE for fame, the reality star insisted that he is ready for a new romance.
He shared: “I broke up with my ex just before I started my Come What May tour, so I think that was in September.
“Like I said, my last that relationship she was amazing, absolutely unbelievable and whoever she ends up with, will be a very very lucky person… she’s a fabulous girl.
“But sometimes people just fall out of love and it just wasn’t meant to be.
“So I felt ready from there to experience life and do things again.”
Curtis – who was quickly branded a villain after he brutally dumped Amy Hart on 2019 series, before recoupling with Maura Higgins – admitted he was returning to the villa with a new lease of life.
He said: “I just feel that I’m more mature and older. I’m at different points in my life, I feel very mentally driven, physically driven in life and I just want to go into it open mindedness.
“I’m not trying to create any game plans, I’m not trying to think how I want this to go or previous times, because they were different times in my life, different people.
“I just want to go in there really open-minded and organic, I think that’s the best way to kind of hopefully create a real relationship out of this.
“If you go in there with a game plan, game plans don’t always work out – and if it doesn’t work out you feel like you’re on the backfoot, you start to do things and change things to achieve the same goal as that game plan and it just doesn’t become organic and hopefully other people will do that and you can create a real connection and if it isn’t love, hopefully it will become a great friendship.”
It comes after The Sun revealed that Curtis has quietly ended his relationship with Sophie ahead of his All Stars return.
A source said: “Curtis split from Sophie a few months ago after the pair decided they were better off as friends.
“The romance had run its course and Curtis couldn’t see the relationship going any further.
“It came at the right time, as Love Island bosses were also desperate to get him back on the show for All Stars.
“When Curtis was approached by bosses, he jumped at the chance of returning.
“He’s newly-single and loves being on telly, so getting the chance to be back in the villa and to find love again was a no brainer.
“He loved doing Love Island first time around and now that he’s single it’s come at a great time for him.”
Last year, Curtis was in a relationship with Sophie, so the option to do the spin-off was out of the question.
The pair have since deleted any trace of each other from their Instagram with Curtis hoping to find his dream woman – six years after he dated Maura Higgins.
But fans also noticed that this was the second time Curtis had dumped Sophie – after having previously split from her in 2023, before his stint on Love Island The Games.
Taking to X/Twitter one fan made a claim this was the second time he had split from her in a bid for screen time.
The fan posted: “Curtis Pritchard dropping his girlfriend Sophie TWICE for love island games and now love island all stars is the biggest ick.
“What a fame hungry selfish man. Also she’s a fool for getting back with him the last time.
“Good luck to whoever couples up with him on the show.”
