Whether it’s his current stint in the Love Island villa, his first telly appearance on TOWIE or even his time on short-lived celebrity diving competition Splash! (gone too soon, if you ask us), there’s no denying Joey Essex is reality TV gold.
The King of Reem has delivered many a memeable moment and hilarious soundbite since rising to fame in 2011 but upon entering the villa earlier this month, Joey declared he wanted to meet someone who was interested in getting to know the real him and not his telly persona.
He coupled up with Samantha Kenny and things appeared to be going well, but she soon found herself subject to claims she was a TOWIE superfan after mentioning the ITVBe show a few too many times for Joey’s liking.
We recently caught up with Patsy Field and Munveer Jabbal following their double dumping and we had to find out whether Samantha was really as obsessed with TOWIE as it’s been reported.
Chatting exclusively to Closer online, Patsy admitted that there were a lot of TOWIE quotes flying around in the villa – so much so that Joey BANNED his fellow Islanders from quoting the show that made him famous.
She explained, “Everyone was quoting TOWIE. All of the girls were quoting TOWIE. Joey put us on a TOWIE quote ban at one point and said, ‘We’re going to need to drop it now.’
“But we couldn’t help it and we said, ‘We’re not actually quoting TOWIE, we’re just quoting The GC.’ She is a living legend, so can you blame us really?”
Honestly, how iconic.
As Love Island viewers will know, Joey’s ex Grace Jackson bombshelled her way into the villa last week and this signalled the beginning of the end for him and Samantha.
Samantha was left in tears after Joey and Grace spent the night in the Hideaway before snogging each other practically in her face. After being dumped from the villa when Grace coupled up with Joey, the Liverpudlian make-up artist refused to speak to the pair and left without saying goodbye.
“When it comes to Joey, I think if I knew what I know now, I perhaps would have done things differently,” she said after leaving the villa.