Ellie Chadwick has broken her silence after dramatically quitting Love Island, describing the moment bombshell Elicia chose Finley Maddock at a recoupling as the point when 'all hell broke loose.' The 24-year-old real estate videographer had been enjoying a romance with Finley, but it unravelled when he fell for a new arrival.
Explosive Exit
In scenes aired on Thursday night, Ellie stormed out of the villa for good after Finley was voted out by the other Islanders. She said: 'When Elicia chose Fin at the recoupling, all hell broke loose. I was angry. As all the girls were saying, I just lost my cool. There had already been a little bit of back and forth. I more or less knew what was coming, but it had been back and forth and I just lost it. I had too much emotion in me to let out. I’d laid my cards out.'
'I couldn’t do any more. I was just hurt. It wasn’t like she had done anything wrong. She had a job to do, she was a Bombshell. I was just feeling a type of way about it, and that was okay. Everyone in that situation was feeling a type of way, mine just came out in a louder way than everyone else’s.'
Hoping to Stay
The reality star admitted she had hoped to remain coupled with Finley. She said: 'Obviously, seeing Finley up there was hard because it was a recent event and he hadn’t been in the bottom before. Then, when we got told about the second dumping and that we had to choose, I already kind of knew in my gut that it wasn’t going to go the way I was hoping, which was for me and Finley to stay there and continue to grow. There were no ifs, buts or maybes, or what ifs, or how could this play out.'
She accused Finley of handling the situation poorly: 'Finley knows fine well that I feel like he navigated it very poorly. I made that very vocal and I will stand on that. I always will. I think the communication was poor. A lot of the things that happened were not relayed to me in a proper way, which I would have appreciated. I’m big enough to take the truth on the chest.'
Learning Experience
Despite the hurt, Ellie believes she has grown from the experience. She said: 'I’m happy with that. I’m a very direct, upfront person. I just think the communication was poor and the way he handled it wasn’t great. I understand he was confused. I was understanding the whole time, but there was only so much understanding I could do.'
'There are definitely ways it could have been better, but we live and we learn. That’s what Love Island is. It’s about living and learning. I’ve learned a lot about myself there and I’ve got to give him grace on that.'
She added: 'It doesn’t mean the grafting boots are off because we’re out now, those boots are still on. I believed in the connection we had so much. I just knew in my heart that it was going to work, regardless of what was going on.'
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
