A few Love Island stars have appeared on TOWIE over the years, from Olivia Attwood to Jon Clark, but we certainly didn’t expect to see Love Island 2019's Joe Garratt pop up in Essex back in 2021.
Joe made a couple of guest appearances on the ITVBe show when he started dating Frankie Sims and although their romance didn’t work out, the pair are still good friends.
When we recently caught up with Joe following his dumping from the All Stars villa, we had to ask him about his time on TOWIE because, well, we’re Closer online and he opened up about how their relationship started.
Joe told us, “At the NTAs I met Frankie Sims and we just got on really really well. She asked me if I was religious and I am, I’m Christian, so it was a very weird chat up line to have but it worked.
“We spoke about things and she said about ‘do you want to go to church together?’ and I said yes. The next few days she messaged me and said basically TOWIE have asked if you want to do that on camera. I am very open with my religion and talking about it so I thought absolutely, yeah. Why not?”
He continued, “We did a church date which was weird, I’ll be honest, but yeah it was nice. Hopefully you got to see speaking about your religion and having faith is okay because I know in this generation it can be tricky.”
As for where he stands with Frankie now, Joe said, “Look, me and Frankie check in with each other every now and then. She’s such a nice girl and I’ve got nothing but love for her.
“I don’t really like bad blood with people. We dated a little bit and I think we’ve realised we’re just more friendly than romantically, shall we say? Yeah, she’s good vibes.”
The sandwich man turned reality star has racked up quite a few reality TV notches on his belt since his first appearance on Love Island and after a second stint in the villa, it sounds like he’s not ruling out a return to TOWIE either.
“If it made sense, possibly,” he teased when asked if he would considered going back on the show, although he joked, “I just think there has to be a cap on how many reality shows I can do in one year.”
WATCH: Demi and Frankie Sims on chatting to Gemma Owen, DMing Aitch and who they've blocked[]{href='https://www.youtube.com/@CloserOnline' }
Nathan Katnoria is heat and Closer online’s senior digital writer. He became obsessed with Love Island when Malin Andersson came back to confront Terry Walsh in series two and hasn’t looked back since. When he’s not interviewing former Islanders, Nathan is scrolling through their Instagram feeds for relationship updates and piping hot tea.