Exclusive Interview
‘Love Island Games’: Are Tyrique & Justine Still Together? They Address Their Post-Villa Future
As franchise vets, Tyrique Hyde and Justine Ndiba‘s made their intentions known at the start of Love Island Games Season 2: They had their sights set on the cash prize over love. Over the course of two weeks, however, feelings got involved. The two’s villa relationship had its fair share of ups and downs, but they made it all the way to the finale, placing second.
Even though they didn’t achieve their ultimate goal, Tyrique and Justine routinely expressed interest in each other, and during his exit speech, Tyrique said he wanted to see Justine in the outside world. So, where to they stand now that filming is over? Swooon spoke with the former contestants in separate Zoom calls on October 8, just days after they left Fiji.
Are Justine and Tyrique still together?
The couple didn’t put a label on their relationship before exiting the villa, and that hadn’t changed a few days later. Tyrique told Swooon that he wasn’t letting the pressure that comes with Love Island relationships get to him, even though he confirmed that there definitely is “something there” with Justine.
“Even though I do like like getting to know Justine, and I hope she likes getting to know me — well, she says she does — it’s still only been about three weeks,” he explained.
With it being so early, Tyrique said he isn’t sure how serious their relationship could be yet. First and foremost, he was planning on reconnecting with Justine soon. Since they arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days earlier, Justine took some time to spend with her family (hence the separate Zoom calls), while Tyrique “rested and decompressed.”
When Swooon spoke to Justine later that day, she confirmed that a date was the next item on their agenda — and starting to build “real trust” with each other. She agreed that she and Tyrique have real-world potential, but both of those things need to happen first before anything else.
“There’s always the distance thing that I will not be putting myself through again,” she added. “There’s just so many things that there, but we do communicate really well with each other. We’re very transparent with each other about everything, and he still says he wants to take me out to dinner at the very least. So let’s start there and see if we can get past that place.”
In regard to the distance, Tyrique explained that was already considering spending half of the year in L.A. and half in London, which he spoke about with Justine in the villa. However, there is a bit more to consider beyond distance, Justine added. “It’s also just, like, where we’re both at in life. You know what I mean? Like, are we both looking for something? Like, are we at that stage?”
Ben Symons / Peacock
Regardless, Justine still stood by her claim that Tyrique was her favorite Love Island partner thus far. (She won Love Island USA Season 2 with Caleb Corprew, and Love Island Games Season 1 with Jack Fowler.) Tyrique made her laugh a lot, which helped her enjoy the experience, and he said that Justine calmed him down in moments when he needed it.
“The thing about Tyrique is he can be menace. He’s untrustworthy sometimes, but he is always very honest,” she said. “So I’m somebody who actually appreciates that. I don’t like when people sugarcoat things. He’s just very straightforward, transparent. And I like that. So, you know, I’m a grown a** woman, I need somebody to always tell me what it is, and I’m going to always tell you what it is and stuff. ”
She continued. “So, yeah, he was definitely my favorite for sure, even though we didn’t win. And even though we had our differences and stuff like that, he’s definitely somebody that, regardless, we could probably even just be really cool after.”
How does Justine feel about Tyrique’s secret plan?
In regard to those differences, there was that major moment when Tyrique formulated a plan to dupe Justine. Justine was originally coupled up with Josh Goldstein, but when a recoupling happened, Tyrique expected her to choose him. However, Justine picked Josh, who in turned picked someone else. As a result, Justine and Tyrique had to pair up.
Afterward, Tyrique came up with a secret plan to make Justine think everything was fine between them, but leave her at the next opportunity. He tried to do exactly that when bombshell Gabby Allen came in, but she went with Johnny Middlebrooks instead.
Since leaving the villa, Justine told us that she’s seen clips of Tyrique coming up with his plan. “Honestly, it wasn’t surprising because in there, there was nothing trustworthy about Tyrique,” she said, “and he was definitely on his toes about me. Like, I really gave him nothing. So it was just this constant back and forth of not trusting each other.
She added that, from that point forward, they were constantly in that position. They’ve had conversations about it all since the show ended, though, and Tyrique said that it’s water under the bridge. Justine said something similar: “After [talking about it], I think we were fine, and we kind of just started to try and actually build trust between us,” she said. “I don’t know if we even now still fully trust each other, but we’re definitely cool.”
Love Island Games, Season 2, Streaming Now, Peacock
