Love Island winners now set to rake in thousands
Millie and Liam take dating show crown
AFTER eight weeks of romance, tears, cringeworthy dates – and a couple of explosive rows – the latest series of Love Island came to an end last night.
Fashion buyer administrator Millie Court, 24, and Liam Reardon – a 22year-old Welsh bricklayer – were crowned the winning couple of the reality dating show.
Essex girl Miss Court was then presented with a gold envelope containing £50,000 and given the choice of keeping the money or sharing it with Reardon.
She opted to share the prize and they embraced as the seventh series of the hit ITV2 show ended.
The cash is likely to be the beginning of a lucrative future for the pair.
Ahead of yesterday’s episode, Miss Court had just under one million followers on Instagram meaning she could earn at least £1,970.32 for every sponsored post she makes, according to loan agency LoanPig.
Reardon has 504,000 followers and can expect to earn around £1,092.39 from each uploaded photo. It hasn’t all been plain sailing for the couple with Reardon briefly having his head turned by another young woman in the competition.
But he and Miss Court overcame the blip and earned a legion of fans for their romantic
‘I knew I only had eyes for you’
chemistry. Bookmakers Coral had already installed them as favourites to win prior to last night’s result. Reardon also then asked Miss Court to be his girlfriend minutes before their victory was announced.
They beat marketing executive Chloe Burrows, 25, and semi-professional footballer Toby Aromolaran, 22, into second place. Fellow couple Kaz Kamwi and Tyler Cruickshank came fourth, with Faye Winter and Teddy Soares claiming third place.
After leaving Love Island, all the couples can expect to rake in thousands due to their social media following. Fan favourites Liberty Poole and Jake Cornish, who had been coupled up since the first episode of the show, gave up a place in the final last week when they called time on their romance and left the competition.
Miss Poole, 21, who has overtaken Miss Court with one million followers, will earn the most out of this year’s islanders, taking £2,081.23 per post.
Miss Court and Reardon were drawn to each other straight away during their time in the Majorcan villa. But when Reardon kissed another girl during a spell at a second villa – Casa Amor – their relationship hit the rocks.
But to the delight of viewers, the couple managed to get things back on track, making their relationship ‘exclusive’ days later. They then said they loved each other on their final date over the weekend.
Last night’s episode saw the remaining four couples wake up to their final day in the villa and prepare for their ‘summer ball’ in which they made their declarations of love to each other. Miss Court told Reardon: ‘I walked into the villa not knowing what my journey was going to hold. However, I knew I only had eyes for you.’ She added: ‘Things took a turn for the worse but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay away and I just wanted to be back in your arms. I’d happily let you sing to me for the rest of our lives!’ One episode of this series saw Love Island receive a record number of Ofcom complaints following a foul-mouthed tirade from Miss Winter.
The broadcasting watchdog revealed 24,763 people had complained after she got angry and swore at her love interest Soares over a perceived lack of honesty. Many viewers considered her to have overreacted. The week leading up to the final had an average 2.1million viewers, according to TV ratings provider Overnights.