Curtis Pritchard is known for three things: dancing, making everyone a coffee in the morning, and *that* Hollyoaks scene. But in 2024, the star of Love Island 2019 is focusing on something totally different: making lots of money.
That’s not just his money, though. Speaking to Closer, the reality TV star revealed that he said no to returning to the villa for Love Island All Stars in order to focus on his soon-to-be-released financial investment app Fint.
“I did get asked to do it, to be fair, and I turned it down,” he said. “Not because I don't like the show or anything. It's just I was planning on doing other things at the time really, like focusing on Fint. So the timing, truthfully, it was all wrong. It wasn't for me, not this time, no.”
Still, that hasn’t stopped Curtis – who dated Amy Hart and Maura Higginson his series – from tuning into the spin-off, currently filming in South Africa. After all, plenty of his series five cast mates have headed into the villa, including Chris Taylor, Arabella Chi, Joe Garratt, and Joanna Chimonides.
But it’s Anton Danyluk who’s most impressed Curtis – along with us, a little surprisingly. Curtis always saw it, and said that the pair had many “deep chats” about “business” during their first time in the villa. “He's been more of a mature, great character, but a funny character as well in elements,” he said.
While fans have branded Anton’s transformation the shock of the series, Curtis (who, smartly, has never watched his series back) is a little surprised. “I thought he was loved in our one, wasn't he? I thought he was like the people's favourite?” he said.
When we told Anton gave some viewers the dreaded “ick”, Curtis chuckled: “I think he did, didn't he, actually. Anton; he's a character, he is. But once you get to know him, actually, properly… what you're seeing now is Anton, really.”
Curtis might have said no this time around, but he dipped his toe back into the franchise’s pool for international spin-off Love Island Games in Fiji. Here, he appeared alongside All Stars’ most controversial couple Georgia Steel and Toby Aromolaran. Curtis described Toby as a “cool, cool guy”. What about Georgia and her love triangles? “She's creating a bit of drama, creating a bit of chaos in there. But you know, she's having fun.”
Had he gone on the show, Curtis said his eye would have been on Molly Smith. “She's a northerner, go on,” he said. “She's an attractive woman, isn't she, and she's got good banter. She seems nice from what we're seeing on [the show].”
But instead, Curtis is choosing to focus on himself in 2024. Among his projects is the app he’ll release later this year, which has been created in collaboration with his Strictly star brother AJ and his financial manager. The aim is helping people with minimal experience of investing who “want to actually change their future” and get involved while still avoiding scams.
There are other exciting projects in the works too. Curtis and AJ have a passion for supercars and, having got their racing licences last year, are already planning content for their YouTube channel Bros Torque Supercars. “We're going to try and create a little YouTube series [about] racing and see if we're good enough to do it, sort of like ‘dancers to racing’,” he revealed.
Personally, Curtis is challenging himself to “learn something new every single month” in 2024 – a goal we could all do with taking, really. “I haven't done this whole new year's resolution rubbish because no one ever sticks to that,” he said. Having appeared in pantomime over the Christmas period, he’s focusing on performing, too.
“I've wanted to start my singing again, my acting again,” he said, with news sure to delight fans of his iconic Hollyoaks cameo desperate for an update on Trish’s engagement. “I want to focus on myself and grow as a person. And then if I do that, all of the work projects I'm doing around me, I truly believe they will just grow with me because it'll just bring good vibes and everything and it will all work together. That is my goal, pretty much, for 2024.” He paused. “And get on a TV show. I don't know which one.”