This year's Love Island OG's could NOT believe it when the first bombshell of the season was Joey Essex.
To be fair, the entire viewing public went into meltdown mode when the former TOWIE star strolled into the Love Island 2024 villa all tanned skin and big grins.
![joey](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/2/2024/07/li-joey-heart-rate.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Although we are MASSIVE TOWIE fans, we don't think we could cope spending the foreseeable future in a villa with Joey Essex (no shade), therefore wherever an Islander is dumped we like to quiz them on what the reem reality TV star is REALLY like.
Casa Amor girlies, Diamanté Laiva and Ruby Dale are two of the bombshells who didn't make it back to the main villa and they stopped by Closer HQ to have a gossip about their Love Island experience.
When we asked them what Joey was like BTS, it was not the story we were expecting...
"Joey is a character, is what I'm going to say," Ruby explained. "Every lunch and dinner he would be skipping. Just skip, skip, skipping and all you would hear is this rope."
![ruby and diamante](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/2/2024/07/ruby-diamente-closer-magazine-3.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
"Bear in mind, you're trying to have a nap at lunch or dinner or chill out all you could hear was, 'ch, ch, ch, ch."
We can see it now, Joey skipping around the villa with his rope, causing havoc and living his best life as if he's the main character in some sort of rom-com.
"He was training for Blade[Siddiqi]," Diamante piped up with her fellow Casa Amor pal in agreement.
"He was training for Blade," Ruby echoed, "But Joey was just, I'm going to say... I don't want to be horrible about him, he is a lovely, but he is, he is just his own person, he's in his own little bubble, in his own little world."
![joey](https://images.bauerhosting.com/celebrity/sites/2/2024/07/li-joey-mad.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
"One thing about Joey, I feel like he plays this ditzy, 'La La' Essex boy, but Joey's not stupid," Diamanté added and we're not sure Blade would agree with that.
"He knows reality TV," she went on and we bloody hope he would, he has taken part in enough shows.
"You know what? Actually, I think he might win because he knows how to play this game."
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Emily Vierke is a digital writer for heat and Closer Online who enjoys stalking The Love Island girlies for fashion inspo especially Indiyah Polack and Ella Thomas. Emily has a soft spot for TOWIE OGs Amy and Harry, mainly because she was also not aware that the capital of India was New Delhi she DID, however, know that know it wasn't France.