[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Love Island Games Season 1 finale.]
The first season of Peacock’s Love Island Games has declared its winners.
After intense challenges and nearly being broken up by other Islanders, Justine Ndiba of Love Island USA Season 2 and Jack Fowler of Love Island UK Season 4 walked away victorious in the November 20 finale. As the winner of her original season, Ndiba already knows what winning Love Island is like. After the eliminated Islanders picked her as the winner, she chose to split her winnings with Jack so he could share in the excitement. They were the one couple that was together all season long, after all, so for Justine, there was no winning without Jack.
The couple tells TV Insider that there would’ve been no staying on the show if the other was eliminated. Learn more about their Love Island Games journey below.
Congratulations on your win. How are you feeling today, now that you can finally say it?
Jack Fowler: Relief! Amazing feeling to wake up knowing that everyone knows.
Justine Ndiba: Yeah, especially our families. Both of us didn’t tell our families, so it’s nice to finally be able to talk to them about it.
Justine, could you tell me more about your reasons for splitting the prize with Jack?
Justine: I didn’t get there by myself. We worked so well together. Apart from my last Love Island experience, I just feel like this one was so much better, and my experience with Jack, the connection we had, the friendship that we had, I feel like overall it just was amazing and ten times better than the first time. So it was only right
Mark Taylor/Peacock/ITV
And Jack, what were you feeling when you heard her decision?
Jack: Relief! I had just come back from hospital. I mean, imagine doing all that for nothing. [Laughs] I understand the last time that she’d done the show; it was a bit different to how it was this time. So I’d rather her take a moment and think about it carefully and not rush into anything.
There’s been a positive fan reaction to Love Island Games. They’re really loving the competition element with the romance. How has it been seeing the fan reactions to your relationship, the new show format, and then you two winning in the end?
Jack: Overwhelming. I think everyone has taken it in so well. I remember sitting there going, “I can’t believe this is Love Island.” This is such a better and new way of doing the show. And, for me anyway, when I heard the game aspect of it and the challenges, I was hooked on it. I couldn’t wait to be involved in it, but to see you guys react to it in the best possible way and to take us in as a couple as well, it’s been really, really humbling and just all-around amazing.
Justine: I loved it. Honestly, I love how it’s been received, especially because it’s the first season of something, so you just never know how it’s going to go. But the fact that it’s just gone so well, and we’ve gotten so much support for the show and just as a couple, it’s been amazing, especially because there were moments in there where we were like, are they going to hate us? It just seems like we didn’t know what was going on with the other islanders and if they had problems with us, so we were like, how is this going to look? From a viewer standpoint, we’re not sure what’s happened. So it’s just so nice to get that love and for people to see our journey and just how real it was.
I don’t think you would go on any version of Love Island if you didn’t already like the show yourself. Was there any fear that you wouldn’t like Love Island Games, just as a fan of Love Island?
Jack: Where it’s the first season, I suppose there’s always a little bit of a risk. You don’t actually know what you’re walking into, but Love Island as a franchise is such a big success all around the world. It’s the biggest show that’s probably come out of the U.K. in the last ten years, so to be asked to go back on it again and with a new spin on it, I just actually couldn’t wait. And it was in Fiji! I’m from East London. Fiji is very far, so I just thought that as well was amazing to experience.
Justine: I feel like, and I think a lot of people saw, I was trying not to take anything from my previous experience that maybe wasn’t the greatest into this experience. But I feel like I owe so much to the Love Island franchise. I got so much from it, so I felt like I owed it to myself to come back and do this new version of it. And it was better than anything I expected. I loved [the competition aspect of] it because you are able to actually outwardly say like, yeah, I’m not necessarily here for love. I’m here for the games. I just love that we were able to speak openly about that, and then everything else happened naturally. It was nice. I felt like that’s what made it easier for everything else to fall into place.
Did the challenges help you realize that you were a strong pair? Not every couple would be able to compete like that together and come out unscathed.
Jack: Yeah, the challenges were definitely a big part of, obviously, the show, but I feel like because we were so much on the same page that we kind of just bonded in and around the villa anyway. But I feel like we had that bond where in the challenges, we’re going to give it 100 percent of what we’ve got for ourselves and for each other. I think going through every challenge, we just got closer and closer and then it just came to the final mega duel. We just looked at each other and were like, this is it. We have come this far. We need to make sure we give it everything we’ve got. So yeah, we did.
Mark Taylor/Peacock/ITV
What do you think was the biggest challenge for your relationship this season?
Jack: I think when Callum decided to shake up the couples and split everyone up. That was challenging because … obviously, I’m trying to stay in the show, but also, I have no control over what Justine does now because she’s not in my couple. So I’m trying to stay in; I want her to stay in. It was just a completely different complex than what we gauged or expected.
Justine: That was the biggest challenge for me because I feel like going into the game, I was like, whatever happens, if I leave outside of my couple, it’s whatever. But then, as it started to go on, I was like, I don’t want to leave without [Jack], and I don’t want to stay here without him. That was definitely the hardest part. We didn’t know how that was going to play out and if that was going to happen.
Jack: I definitely think if I was to have stayed and Justine would’ve gone, I would’ve just been like, guys, I’m out.
Justine: Yeah, me too.
Jack: Because what are we doing here? Everyone else is in their couples and doing their thing. I’m not going to wait and have another girl come here to try and win a challenge with. It’s not going to be with Justine, so I’m out. But thankfully, it didn’t get to that.
Do you think that was the first moment you realized you didn’t want to be there without each other? Or did you know that before that specific obstacle came up?
Justine: For me, I knew a little bit before that. I feel like at that point when we were actually in separate couples, that was the first time we were actually tested. But I think when I first realized it was when we were vulnerable the first time. I was like, dang, I didn’t realize how much this would affect me if our journey in here was cut short. I feel like we had just started, and then later on, once our connection got a little bit stronger and then we were split up, I was like, OK, now this is getting a little crazy. And I think that’s when I actually realized it even more.
Jack: I think the duel for me was when I really, really realized I didn’t want to leave without Justine. So when it was me and Mike in the duel, and I could see that Justine was safe, I was like, I need to win this. I need to win this to then eventually get back with Justine. So yeah, we kind of had a full-circle moment.
Mark Taylor/Peacock/ITV
That makes it romantic. You literally had to fight to stay with her.
Jack: Yeah, literally.
Justine: I loved it! I love a chance for a romantic fight. It was definitely a cool aspect of the game.
Love Island Games makes Islanders make alliances with other couples, which isn’t part of the original show. Would you change anything about your alliances if you could go back and redo the season?
Justine: No, not at all. I feel like it’s hard to say that we would change anything based on the outcome. I feel like we gained so much from the whole experience, and everything played out so well based on the decisions that we made [and] how real we were with each other and everybody else in there. So I can’t be mad about it.
What’s your relationship status now?
Justine: We’re just trying to navigate being separated by so much distance.
Jack: We’re trying our best.
Justine: We’re definitely trying our best. We’re logical thinkers. We’re realistic about what our situation is, but we also can’t deny the connection that we have, so we’re just doing our best.
And what’s next for you both?
Justine: I think we’re both very much in work mode right now. We had to do a little bit of a pause with everything happening, but yeah, I would love to plan a vacation somewhere and to see each other.
Jack: That would be nice.
Justine: We need it.
Love Island Games, Season 1, Available Now, Peacock
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
