After finishing Love Island All Stars in third place in February, things are going from strength to strength for Sophie Piper and Josh Ritchie. Unlike most of the other contestants, Sophie and Josh had never met before they re-entered the famous villa, but they had an instant connection. Back home, which is London for Sophie, 25, and Manchester for Josh, 29, the couple are still going strong.
Since getting back to the UK, Sophie and Josh tell us they’ve been soaking up their success, enjoying spending time together and getting to know each other’s friends and families. For Josh, that meant meeting Sophie’s half-sister, TV presenter and former The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes, 35, and her husband, JLS singer and DJ Marvin Humes, 35. “It was nice,” Sophie tells Closer.
“Josh and Marv were together all day. Boys’ chat!” They even have a double date planned, Josh reveals, “They said let’s do one. We need to do dinner soon, but obviously it’s got to be when they’re not busy and we’re not busy."
As Josh and Sophie will know from being on Love Island the first time around – Sophie was on the first winter Love Island in 2020, and Josh was on series one of the show in 2015 – the Islanders are often inundated with interviews, events and opportunities as soon as they leave. So it’s unsurprising that the new couple have been busy.
Of course, they haven’t been too busy for each other. In fact, things are getting increasingly serious between them, with Josh recently organising a romantic “girlfriend proposal” for Sophie and the pair even admitting they’ve said they love each other – something neither of them were expecting.
“For me, because I did [the show] so many years ago, it felt like something new again,” explains Josh. “So I just went in with an open mind but I didn’t actually think I’d come off All Stars with somebody I’m madly in love with.”
“He’s a cutie,” Sophie responds. She didn’t expect to find a boyfriend on the show either, and says meeting Josh has exceeded all her expectations. “I thought I was going to go in, have fun, see the vibes, obviously you hope to meet someone, but you don’t actually think you’d be sitting here now.”
With Josh living in Manchester and Sophie in London, the couple are trying to see each other two or three times a week.
“We don’t want to be one of those couples that gets out and moves straight in with each other. I feel like we’ve both got stuff going on in our own lives,” Sophie says. “So where we’re not round the corner from each other, when we do see each other it’s nice. It’s nice at the moment to have our own space.”
Josh agrees, “Yeah, I think if we moved in that would be kind of rushed, but now we’re spending a couple of days apart and it makes you miss the person more. We see each other two or three days maybe, if not more. Either I’m going to London or Sophie comes up to Manchester.”
One recent occasion that got everyone together, was the All Stars night out, featuring Tom Clare, Molly Smith, Casey O’Gorman, Callum Jones, Hannah Elizabeth, Demi Jones, Luis Morrison, Jess Gale, Eve Gale, Josh and Sophie – and it made for some highly entertaining Instagram stories.
“It was fun,” says Josh, who previously dated fellow reality star Charlotte Crosby. “It’s hard to get out with everyone at the same time because obviously everybody is so busy, but when you do have a night out it’s really nice.”
Josh and Sophie are also trying to plan a double date with the winning couple, Molly and Tom. Sophie says, “We were meant to go to Alton Towers with them but they cancelled on us. Tom had a work thing annoyingly, so we’re going to do something with them after. And Calum and Jess as well – whenever everyone’s schedules meet.”
While some of the couples from the recent series have already broken up, including Georgia Steel and Toby Aromolaran, and Arabella Chi and Adam Maxted, Josh and Sophie have no regrets about going on the show again.
“I’m grateful for the second chance,” says Josh, “I wanted to go in and find somebody I connected to, and I feel like I did that.” Sophie agrees, “Being on the first All Stars sounded like an exciting, fun thing to do, and meeting someone in the process was just a win win.”