Faye Winter rose to fame on Love Island in 2021, winning over fans with her witty one-liners and no-nonsense attitude, and ended up reaching the final alongside then-boyfriend Teddy Soares.
She has been thriving ever since – amassing 1.2m Instagram followers, starting her own business and continuing to work with Guide Dogs UK. But, sadly, her relationship with Teddy came to an end last month.
Opening up about their relationship breakdown, Faye tells Closer that it has been “really tough” but she’s “getting there”.
Faye, 27, says, “Heartbreak is one of those things where you’re grieving somebody who’s still here – I’m grieving someone who is still very much around. I’ve never been in a situation before where I’ve had to deal with a break-up in the public eye and I’ve found that really difficult.”
The former lettings agent, who hails from Devon, finished in third place with Teddy, 27, and relocated from the coast to live with Teddy in London several months after their Love Island stint. While their relationship lasted 18 months, and they even got a golden retriever called Bonnie together, it unfortunately wasn’t meant to be.
And after the latest series concluded a few weeks ago – with couples Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins, Samie Elishi and Tom Clare and Tanya Manhenga and Shaq Muhammad finding love and reaching the final – Faye offers her advice for this year’s couples out in the real world.
She says, “It’s really hard. I don’t think you truly know that person until you come out of the villa. It’s easy to be in the bubble! You really need to build your relationship again – build the foundations, but with the whole of the UK looking at you. You need to get your priorities right. They’ll need to try to figure out what they want from life.
“I think you can get very lost in this industry if you’re doing things that you don’t genuinely believe in, don’t genuinely love or you don’t have a real passion for. You’ll not only get lost very quickly, but you’ll lose who you are – that’s when it becomes a bit scary.”
Meanwhile, Faye – who has been open about her cosmetic procedures in the past, admitting to a boob job and Botox – has been praised recently for following the new “natural” celeb trend of dissolving her fillers. She appeared on ITV Tonight to discuss the dos and don’ts when it comes to non-surgical cosmetic enhancements.
“I had the most incredible response,” Faye tells Closer. “But it’s also very scary. It’s big for me to open up and be like, ‘I looked ridiculous on TV’.
“I’ve opened up about my journey with it – I’m a very open and honest person. When I was asked to do it, I was like, ‘If I can help one person, I will help one person’.”
Looking to the future, Faye says that she’ll focus on her career, rather than putting pressure on herself to settle down – and is even considering freezing her eggs to reduce that pressure.
She says, “This year is my year for growth and finding my space. I’ve got such amazing projects coming up; projects that are new to me and if they work, great, if they don’t, they don’t. No expectations.
“I’m just going to keep doing me and Bonnie. A year of us. I’m 28 this year and a lot of people are like, ‘Your time is coming’. It’s hard, because everybody focuses at this age on marriage and kids, and all the rest of it. I’m going to look at freezing my eggs this year – and having me and Bonnie time. We just keep moving forward.”
Follow Faye on Instagram.