Their toxic on-screen Love Island break-up left us open-mouthed this summer during the eleventh series. But Grace Jackson now exclusively tells Closer there’s no bad blood between her and ex Joey Essex – who split from his girlfriend Jessy Potts last month.
Grace, 25, says, ‘We don't really have much to speak about. Once you go back into your real life, there's no need to kind of drag out that animosity, what went on in there can stay in the villa. We both just said, “Let's leave it at that.” There's no awkwardness, and we're all a very tight-knit group.’
Old flames Grace and Joey, 34, seemed to be untouchable from the moment she entered the villa as a bombshell, but viewers’ jaws dropped when the former TOWIE star did a complete U-turn and dumped her for new bombshell Jessy. And after that, the pair butted heads throughout the rest of the series, with Joey also sparking friction with many of the other Islanders.
While Grace has now split from her romantic connection Reuben Collins since leaving the villa, she says she’s grateful for her time on the show for the friendships she made. She says, ‘I'm really, really close with Harriett, Uma and Matilda. I speak to them literally every single day.
‘That was one of the things I went in thinking, having an argument with a man, I'm like, “Oh, I don't care about that”, but the last thing I wanted to do was argue with any of the girls. It's so cliche, but I am a proper girls’ girl. I didn't have any arguments or any drama with any of the girls. Everyone as a group was really close, so it was nice not to have arguments. There's enough of that with the men.’
Now, four months on from the villa, Grace is onto bigger and better things, even making her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week walking for EGO. She also collaborated with the brand for her own fashion line, a dream she's had since her university days. She told Closer, 'It’s something that I've always been really interested in. This was just major to me, to be involved in the design process and be working alongside such a big, reputable fashion brand, was just incredible. From start to finish, I absolutely loved it.'
The Grace x EGO Dark Rosa collection is available to buy from ego.co.uk
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Sarah O'Byrne has been writing for Closer since May 2023, but this is mainly just to fill time until her Love Island application gets accepted.