Love Island: All Stars returns to our screens in a week's time (Monday 13 January) – and with it, a tiny piece of our soul wrecked by the hellish month that is January returns – which means, by our showbiz calculations, our All Stars cast will be jetting off to South Africa early this week, if they're not in the sky already.
While ITV do everything within their supreme power to keep the cast's identities a secret until launch night, that's no easy task in a world of smartphones, social media and eyes everywhere. And it would be a pretty spenny undertaking to fly the entire cast from the UK to South Africa in their own private jets à la The X Factor judges (the good old days).
As such, we're thrilled to report that an eagle-eyed traveller spotted none other than Love Island 2024 bad boy Ronnie 'Turbo' Vint in premium economy on a British Airways flight from Gatwick to Cape Town on Sunday 7 January – and there's even a sneaky pic doing the rounds to prove it.
The picture was obtained by The Sun and shows Ronnie keeping his head down on the flight.
While this isn't concrete proof that Ronnie is taking part in All Stars... oh, who are we kidding, of course, it is. 'Turbo' Ronnie is making a return to the villa, which most likely means that his villa ex Harriett Blackmore (the couple split a few weeks after exiting the villa together) is keeping her head down on another premium economy flight somewhere in the sky, too.
Because, let's be honest, after the nationwide jaw-drop that resulted from exes Callum Jones and Molly Smith being reunited on the first night of last year's All Stars, we know producers are going to want to recreate those Celeb Ex On The Beach vibes once again for drama-hungry fans – and Ronnie and Harriett have the bones to deliver that in spades.
A source told the publication, 'Ronnie was a breakout star of Love Island last summer and while his hopes of finding love may not have worked out, he fancies a second shot in the villa.
'He also isn't afraid to ruffle feathers, play the field and he'll also have the support of his pals Olivia Attwood and Bradley Dack behind him.
'If his ex Harriett Blackmore is also in the villa, however, things could get very awkward very quickly.'
We've had an inkling about a Ronnie return ever since we ran into him at the Winter Wonderland 2024 launch night back in November 2024. Naturally, we had to ask him if All Stars producers been in touch, and let us tell you, after decades upon decades of grilling reality stars like Ronnie, we know when one is trying to dodge a question that they can't answer.
Plus, Ronnie hid his monosyllabic responses – which included "who knows" and "they're all lovely girls" – between a Cheshire Cat grin, a raised eyebrow and even a couple of winks...
Poirot you do not need to be here.
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Ben Pulsford is a digital writer for Bauer Media, writing for both Closer online and heatworld. When he's not getting paid to gossip about Big Brother, Love Island and The Real Housewives of Cheshire, he's storming the London LGBTQ+ scene as drag queen, Beary Poppins. Both Ben and Beary are awaiting an invite to join The Real Housewives of Cheshire for series 18. The budget's not there, but the drama is 💅.