‘Now I’m glad I didn’t find love in the villa’
Jordan’s fiancé Carl Woods shares his opinions on this year’s villa contestants and says that, despite his brief stint on the show in 2016, he’s glad he didn’t find love there as he’s now found his true soulmate
It’s been over a year since the last series of Love Island, but it’s back with a bang – filling our evenings with bronzed hunks, bikini bodies and a whole lot of high-pitched drama.
But Carl Woods, who briefly appeared in the 2016 series, says the ITV2 show and its parade of gorgeous singletons no longer interest him after finding love with his fiancée Jordan – real name Katie Price – who he insists blows the Love Island girls out of the water.
“Katie is the ultimate woman – there’s nobody like her. She’s the British version of Pamela Anderson and she runs rings around the Love Island girls in every way,” he gushes from his Spanish getaway. The couple are spending time there after a trip to Turkey where Jordan, 43, had liposuction surgery on her legs ahead of their wedding, tipped for later this year.
FAME HUNGRY
With his megawatt smile and tanned sixpack, Carl, 32, starred on the second series of the hit dating show, which was one of the raunchiest and most successful years to date and catapulted stars like Kady McDermott, Olivia Bowen and Malin Andersson to fame.
After being approached to join the show out of the blue on London’s Oxford Street by producers, Carl appeared briefly as a “male bombshell”, but was sent home when he wasn’t picked to join the villa after a round of speed dating – something Carl says he’s still trolled over.
Now, however, he’s watching this series cuddled up on the sofa with his “dream girl” – and dismisses the show’s stars as “wannabe influencers” who are only “in it for the money”.
He says, “The Love Island girls today are a fame-hungry bunch and I don’t see the attraction. They aspire to be just like Katie but she worked hard for what she has – there was no quick fix. She didn’t leave the villa and gain one million followers overnight! Social media didn’t exist, and when she started modelling there were no Instagram filters.
“Everyone is just in it for the money now. When I did it, it was fairly early on, so the show felt a lot more genuine – although I was told which girls to talk to and ‘focus on’ when I went in. It’s so big now. Everyone who goes into it just wants to be famous. I feel like everyone is playing the fame game now and saying things they want people to hear. They’re not there to find love.”
ONLINE ABUSE
But after meeting Jordan, who has been in the spotlight since her first topless modelling shoot at 18 and has been married to Peter Andre, Alex Reid and Kieran Hayler, Carl was thrust into the spotlight – something he says he expected but has found “difficult” after falling victim to online abuse.
Now, he offers a stark warning to Love Island contestants, advising them to be careful what they wish for, as life in the public eye can be overwhelming at times – despite how much they think they want it.
He says, “Sometimes Katie doesn’t understand how difficult it is, despite me only being well-known because I’m with her. People hurl abuse at you over nothing and you’ve got to take it on the chin. I don’t think they [the contestants] understand it. I saw last week that one of the new girls, Chloe, was even getting death threats already – it’s awful. But it’s great that Love Island put out a statement, encouraging
people to think before they type.”
Despite the sometimes unwanted attention, Carl says he feels grateful to have met Jordan when he did, and says his proposal in April, with a huge sparkler, was the “perfect time”.
MARRIAGE AND BABIES
He says, “If we had met at a different time we might not have worked out but now,
I’m a lot more mature. When I was in my 20s there’s no way I would have wanted to take on kids or have had the mentality to do that. We met at the perfect time and it works.
“I’m glad I didn’t find love on Love Island. I think I was always supposed to meet Katie, it’s fate. If we ever see a good-looking girl on the street, I’ll always tell her, ‘She’s got nothing on you’. I don’t see the attraction with these Love Island girls.”
Now the couple are busy planning their wedding, and Carl hopes Katie will fall pregnant this year, too.
“They’re our two main goals. We want to get married this year and for Katie to have a baby in the oven. We don’t want to be old parents so we’ll start IVF soon,” he says. “I just can’t wait for all of it!”
‘I’m glad I didn’t find love on the show’