Lexy Thornberry had a long run on this season of Love Island Australia, walking in as the first bomb within the first few days. Her journey came to an end last night after three attempts at romance, but she’s assured the audience she felt it was a good time to split.
“It was my time to go, I was really ready to leave by the end of it,” she told WHO following her elimination.
Last night’s final re-coupling left Lexy partnerless. Prior to the final picks, she had been paired with a bomb, Hugh Yates, but had admitted to him that she didn’t feel their connection growing. This led Hugh to pick Eliza, leaving Lexy single and dumped from the Villa, alongside Jade Shelford.
However, she did have a very full journey on the show, and became someone often defended by the audience, given the treatment she received from fellow Islander, Ryan Reid.
Lexy stole Ryan away from contestant Ari Kumar in the first week of the show, and the pair remained a solid couple until Casa Amor, where the original cast were tempted away from their committed couplings by a new cast of girls and guys.
Ryan’s head turned toward Tayla Mellington, who became his partner in the villa at the end of Casa Amor, much to Lexy’s dismay.
With all three corners of the love triangle now out of the villa, we were desperate to get Lexy’s side of things, and find out how it all went down. While not everything made it to air, she was happy to share what villa life with Ryan was really like.
What drew you to Ryan when you first walked in to the villa?
His eyes, straight away! I hugged him, and he was the only guy that I remembered, he was just giving me the eyes, and I was like ‘oh wow’.
You’ve said that you saw red flags with him but ignored them. Were there specific moments that gave you warning signs?
Yeah … there were a lot of little moments, but I really tried to look past them because I wanted to make it work with him. I kind of wish I’d brought them up or addressed them, and maybe I could have avoided the whole situation. We could have coupled up with other people before Casa…
Ryan has claimed that he mentioned some concerns with you about your connection prior to Casa Amor – around the time you guys did a compatibility test together. Is that true to how you saw it?
No, it’s not. Not at all. The concern he brought up with me was the concern that I had brought up with him three days beforehand – it was just that all our conversations were really fun and goofy, but I don’t actually know him properly as a person yet, we hadn’t had any deep conversations yet. He kind of just repeated that back to me. That was the only concern, but he didn’t actually say any concerns about our relationship … he’s probably just trying to save [himself] a bit.
How did you feel about how quickly he moved on?
I was very, very shocked because we were very strong, and he actually did tell me the day before Casa that he saw me in his life after the show, because that was one of the questions I asked on the compatibility test, which wasn’t aired. I was very confused, because all the girls were on my side, [saying] “Lex, Ryan is not going to do anything to you, he’s going to pick you,” all this stuff, I had a lot of opinions in my head from other people … telling me that he was loyal, and I was seeing a completely different thing. It was really terrible.
A lot of viewers were upset about how Ryan seemed to treat you when you reunited. Were you shocked by his behaviour?
I was really shocked. I didn’t think he would just switch straight away and start treating me like the enemy. It was really upsetting, and there were a lot of things that didn’t go to air as well, like rude comments that were too rude to air, he got in trouble from the producers for something he said to me … it was terrible, so I wasn’t very sad that he left. It was kind of like a weight of my chest…
It seemed like Tayla backed off Ryan when she saw how he treated you when you were all in the villa. Do you have any advice for her in terms of their relationship?
I was really careful in the villa not to talk about Ryan to Tayla, because I didn’t want to seem spiteful and catty. But, I feel like Tayla has a good judge of character … I think she did have some warning signs with Ryan, with how he treated me, but I don’t really have any advice for her, because I think she already knows what she should do [laughs].
Stepping away from the boys, what was the experience of living with all the girls like in the villa?
It was the best experience of my life, hands down. We’re actually already planning girls trips for this summer, like go up north, go to Hamilton Island … I’m really excited.
Who do you think will win Love Island?
Personally, being in the villa, Chris and Zoe, but from the episodes I’ve seen, I feel like Mitch and Tina are the favourite.
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