She was the bombshell who cruised in and stole the show with her dramatic on/off relationship with Davide Sanclimenti, andEkin-Su Culculoglu has been going from strength to strength since leaving the Love Island villa, gaining 3m followers, landing her own clothing line with Oh Polly, and is set to appear in Dancing On Ice and her own reality show.
Speaking exclusively to Closer, Ekin-Su, 28, reveals that she’s been blown away by the support she’s received from fans, saying, “It’s been so surreal. I’m so honoured to have been given this platform and I’m so grateful for everyone’s love and support – especially when I walked in New York Fashion Week for Oh Polly – I received the loveliest comments from everyone saying how proud they were of me. I couldn’t quite believe it all. I wanted women who weren’t a size zero to see themselves represented out there and people responded really well to that.”
Ekin-Su was forced to deny that Davide had “cheated” when he was spotted leaving an event last month with two girls while she was working in LA, saying in an interview, “The truth behind that is, it wasn’t just him, it was a big group, and it just happened to be two girls in a taxi with him and his friend and it just looked wrong, that’s all it was. He didn’t cheat and he’s my man.”
Now the model – who lives in Essex while Davide, 27, is based in Manchester – says although having a long-distance relationship is tough, they are making it work.
She says, “It’s definitely hard, but with trust you can get through anything. I miss him so much when we’re away from each other, but we speak regularly so it’s not too bad. Trust is key.”
The loved-up pair have even been given their own reality show Ekin-Su & Davide: Homecomings which follows the Love Island 2022 winners as they travel to Davide’s beloved Italy and Ekin-Su’s hometown in Turkey.
Ekin-Su opened up about how much fun she had filming with Davide, revealing, “I can’t wait for people to see the show. We had such a wonderful experience travelling together and meeting the extended family. It was so romantic, but obviously you can expect that we had a couple of arguments along the way.”
Luckily, Ekin-Su and Davide have a sure-fire way to resolve any bust-ups: food. Ekin-Su laughs, “Whenever we have a little bicker, we’ll give the other person some space and then head out to a restaurant or to the gym. A nice meal usually resolves everything, but sometimes you need to get the punching bag out as well!”
On the show, Ekin-Su caused controversy when she announced that she “wasn’t here to make seasonal girlfriends” and had arguments in the villa with Amber Beckford and Nathalia Campos. But since the show, Ekin-Su insists that the girls – including her close pal Gemma Owen who landed a lucrative deal with Pretty Little Thing – have remained tight.
She says, “There isn’t one person from the show that I don’t speak to. A lot of the Islanders have had collections out as well and you would think that there would be competition, but actually, we’re all just so proud of each other. Everyone is smashing it right now – I’m always sending love hearts to the girls on Instagram.”
The Oh Polly x Ekin-Su collection is available now at Oh Polly's website.