Kem Cetinay
Former Love Island winner Kem Cetinay on his celeb pals, his skyrocketing career and why a private life is a happy life
There’s no doubt Kem Cetinay has been smashing life since winning Love Island in 2017. As well as his role as showbiz presenter on This Morning, Kem was the backstage host on Dancing On Ice and helmed the official Love Island
podcast The Morning After.
When we meet up with him on a sunny day in central London, he’s celebrating a new venture – his second clothing collaboration with Primark. After we arrive at the high street giant’s HQ, we find Kem has brought his fashion designer mum Figen along and they’re very keen to talk about his new collection.
Rifling through a clothes rail, Kem picks out his favourites to show us. “I really like this blue shirt. From a distance it looks like a pyjama top, but it’s not,” he says. “I also like the grey tracksuit. It’s tailored trousers with a bomber jacket, but I think it looks really smart.”
It’s not just Kem’s career that’s going well – his love life also seems to be blossoming. He went Instagram official with his new girlfriend, law student Alexandra Hyzler, back in January, but tells us they’ve actually been together since September. Ooh!
Sadly, any questions about his love life are off-limits, with Kem – who previously dated
Love Island co-star Amber
Davies – admitting he prefers to keep things private.
“No matter what job I had, I wouldn’t get my relationship involved. I like to keep it separate,” he explains politely. “I personally think it gets confusing and I don’t do well with pressure.”
Here, the 24-year-old opens up to new about his bromance with fellow Islander Chris Hughes, receiving weird messages online and trying to live a normal life…
Hi Kem! You’ve done so well in many different areas of your life. What’s the secret of your success?
I don’t look at it and think I’ve been super successful, I just think
I’ve done what I wanted to do. I always said from the beginning that I was just going to be myself. I guess I did Dancing On Ice and they really liked me, so they gave me the job on there. Then I built a nice relationship with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning. A lot of my work doesn’t necessarily come from me being super talented, it comes from me getting on with people and having good relationships.
What’s been your career highlight so far?
I have to be honest with you – Soccer Aid. It’s my favourite thing I’ve ever done in my life. I can’t even put it into words. I remember last year I was scared to sit at the table with all the celebs because I felt like I couldn’t!
Do you find it hard to balance your career and personal life?
I’ll be honest, I used to. But I’m really good now. I’ve found a balance where my career comes after family and friends.
For a year and a half I was obsessed with getting to where I wanted to get to because I was so passionate and I believed I could do it, and then this year I realised that it’s not so important. Whatever happens with my career, happens. There’s a lot of pressure to always do more because someone else gets a job and you’re constantly battling. I had to change my mindset and you’ve got to trust the process.
Are you still good mates with Chris Hughes?
Yeah, I am. We don’t work as much together any more, but we’re still close. Our friendship comes before work. My family spent last Christmas at his house.
Your reality show You Vs Chris & Kem was recently repeated on ITV – was it nice to watch it back again?
We loved it and Facetimed each other while we were watching it. The reaction was even better this time around from people loving it and tagging us online. It was great to see people enjoying it as it was so fun to make and brings back such funny memories. I tore a hamstring along the way, there were broken bones and sore
‘BEING IN THE PUBLIC EYE HAS HELPED ME GROW UP A LOT QUICKER’
muscles from the crazy challenges. It was such a sweet surprise to have it come back on air during lockdown and our mums and dads both loved watching it again.
Do you think you guys will do any more shows together?
We’d love to. It all depends on timing and on what it is, but we’ll always be mates and I’m sure we’ll work together again. We’re closer now than ever and we love working together too – so watch this space!
Are you still in touch with anyone else from Love Island?
I’m friends with everyone, really. I see them when I see them, but not a lot. Outside of work, I’m very private with what I do. I’ve got all my friends from school and I keep myself to myself. I like it that way. I still live with my mum and dad even though I’ve got a house.
Why don’t you live in your own house?
It’s about not wanting to be at home on my own. When my girlfriend comes over, we stay at my house, though. It’s funny because she’ll leave and then I pack my bags and leave as well. It’s like I’m leaving a hotel! I’m packing my bags to go back to my family home, even though I’m in my own home. It’s weird. I just think, my dog is at home, my mum and dad are at home, so what’s the rush? I’d rather be at home.
Fair enough! How have you found being at home during lockdown?
I’ve found lockdown interesting as I’ve probably been more bored than I’ve ever been, but at the same time it’s been weirdly really positive. I’ve enjoyed spending time with my family and I’ve exercised loads every day and made sure I’ve eaten healthily.
I’ve spent more time with my mum, my dad and my brother than ever. It’s brought us closer and it’s made me realise I need to prioritise spending time with them when life gets back to being busy. I need to put time aside each week for us to do things together, as it’s been great.
You’ve always been open about your mental health. How have you kept on top of it during this testing time?
It’s been up and down. I haven’t been on top of the world the whole time and it’s always hard when there is uncertainty and we didn’t know what was around the corner. It’s obviously the first time we’ve experienced anything like this in our generation, so it’s natural to feel anxious. At the beginning I didn’t feel comfortable with things and it was making me
anxious, but talking to people and realising that everyone else was feeling the same made me feel more at ease. And I have learned how to control how I’m feeling. Exercise has played a big part in keeping me feeling positive and when I feel down I try to think that tomorrow is bound to be better. I know if I talk to people about how I’m feeling, it will help me. I have a few of my go-to people who I know will always make me feel a lot better after
I’ve talked things out.
Why do you think it’s important to speak out?
I’ve always been open about speaking out, but not everyone is completely comfortable with it. But I think the more people talk about it, the more it will encourage other people to.
It’s not a negative thing that everyone is talking about it. Nothing is going to happen overnight, but it’s a step forward.
How do you think being in the public eye has affected your mental health?
It’s easy for me to say that it’s made it worse, but I was suffering with my anxiety before, so I wouldn’t like to blame the industry. In many ways it has also helped me. It’s helped me grow up a lot quicker and also be more resilient at times.
What are your thoughts about social media?
I’m not on socials as much as I used to be – I’ve really cut it down. It’s not that good for work stuff, but it’s just a thing I’ve chosen to do. I found it was more of a negative to me at times and it’s about knowing when to use it. I’ve stopped using Twitter. I haven’t tweeted in, like, a year! I only go on it to look at Piers Morgan’s tweets. I could read you the last year of his tweets off the top of my head. We’ve got a love-hate relationship. He used to hate me, but I always loved him and now he loves me, so we love each other. I think he’s great.
He’s like a super villain, but he’s a softie, really.
Do you ever get creepy messages from fans?
Not creepy, but you do get the odd weird one. There’s this one account that always sends me zoomed-in photos of my hands. I said to my girlfriend, “I think I could be a hand model!” I started getting gassed over my own hands.
You once told us you had a thing about hands yourself…
Yeah, I did! I went through a stage… actually no, I still do now. I love short fingers. My girlfriend actually has short fingers and I didn’t notice it at first, so it’s like a perk now. I didn’t actually go for her because of it, but now I’m like, “Wow! You’ve got everything.”
Amazing! You’re opening your own restaurant, too. How are the plans going?
They’re going really well. It was tough during lockdown as we had to cut down on builders, but we’re back up and running again. Building work is going really fast so I’m excited to see it develop and I hope we’ll be opening soon – touch wood!
It’s very, very exciting.
And you’ve also launched your second collection with Primark, of course…
When we did this collection I wanted to make it feel like a more mature Kem because in a year you do grow up and you like different things. I think you can see the difference in the range. I obviously love both, but you can see how it’s developed over a year. There’s nothing in that range I don’t like because
I’ve put it all together myself.
It was slightly delayed due to the pandemic. Are you excited for people to finally see it?
I’m so excited for people to be able to go into stores and see it. With lockdown it was disheartening, as we didn’t know when it would be able to launch as things were thrown in the air for everyone. But now it’s come as a bit of a surprise as Primark stores are suddenly open and the first thing they have done is launch the range! I’m already hearing from people online saying they love it, so it’s been a really nice surprise after such a strange few months. My nan and grandad went into the store and saw it, which is so nice and makes me feel very proud. I’m sure it’s surreal for them to see my face in the store.
Have you ever had any fashion disasters?
Yeah, mainly because of my mum. Because she’s a fashion designer, she used to test all the new fashions out on me when I was younger because my brother wouldn’t do it. I’ll never forget one time there were 20 of us boys going to watch a football match at Dagenham and Redbridge, which is quite a rough area. Everyone was wearing
Fila jackets and hoodies and my mum was like, “I’ve got an amazing outfit for you to wear.” I wore ripped jeans, massive military boots, a V-neck shirt and a shiny leather jacket.
Everyone was looking at me like, “Where has this kid come from?” But do you know what? It helped me. After that I became so confident and now I just don’t care about what I wear.
What else would you love to do career-wise?
I want to do a mental health documentary. That’s one thing I’ve said from the start that I really want to do. I won’t stop until I do.
The Primark x Kem collection is available in store now.
See primark.com for more information