As the final of Winter Love Island 2023 draws ever closer, it’s becoming harder to predict who could walk away with the £50,000 prize money.
While both Will Young and Jessie Wynter and Shaq Muhammad and Tanya Manhenga seemed like the strongest couples a few weeks back, Casa Amor almost broke them. Whereas for Lana Jenkins and Ron Hall, it presented an opportunity to finally make things work.
And someone who knows the Islanders inside out is Martin Akinola, who shares with Closer which couples he thinks are fake, and which ones are the real deal.
Martin, 27 – who joined the main villa with Tanya after Casa Amor before being brutally dumped by her when she recoupled with Shaq – says, “I think Ron is the least trustworthy Islander, I don’t know, I just don’t get a trustworthy vibe from him. He and Lana are so boring – they kiss like siblings.”
He continues, “I do feel like a lot of the Islanders are playing a game – they know who they are. Kai [Fagan] and Sanam [Harrinanan] are the most genuine couple in there. They don’t want to be involved in any drama. They just want to live their life in peace, and I love them for that.”
While his time on the show was relatively short-lived, the software engineer was loved by fans for his epic put downs, meme-worthy facial expressions and ability to stick up for himself.
He was put in an awkward position by Tanya when she revealed at the fire pit that she and Shaq had been stealing secret night-time kisses – despite her sharing a bed with Martin. After revealing she and Shaq were planning on recoupling, Martin maturely took her to one side to explain that it was out of order.
But despite everything that went down between them, Martin reveals there’s no bad blood with Shaq. He says, “It was awkward and weird, but I have no problems with him. If he wants to be friends on the outside world, I’m open.”
The same can’t be said of his former partner Tanya, however, as Martin explains, “I definitely won’t be friends with Tanya though… She just lies a lot. Everyone uses the excuse that she’s young, and she is, but I feel like she just wants to have fun.”