Exclusive Interview
‘Love Island’ Star Leah Kateb Shares Update About New Home With Miguel Harichi
What To Know
- Leah Kateb and Miguel Harichi met on Love Island USA Season 6.
- They have been happily living together in their California home for seven months.
- Kateb reflects to Swooon about living with Harichi and their growing family of pets and farm animals.
Almost two years after Love Island USA Season 6 aired, Leah Kateb and Miguel Harichi are still going strong. In fact, it’s been seven months since the reality stars moved into their California home together.
There wasn’t a learning curve, which Kateb credits to their time on Love Island USA. “Honestly, since we lived together in the villa for two months, I think that there was really not much left to learn, so we kind of had an advantage in that sense,” she told Swooon on May 26 while discussing her partnership with Clorox Scentiva. “But I learned that he is very clean. I was worried because I know a lot of guys are not, and they’re not organized, but no, he’s super clean, super organized, so I was pleasantly surprised about that.”
The process of finding the house was easy, too. “Honestly, Miguel is such a chill person,” Kateb said. “I feel like I could have said anything, and he would have been like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s really just a calm energy… He always said when we were house shopping, he was like, ‘I just look at your face to see the closet space, and that’s when I know if you’ll like the house or not.’ So, this house had so many closets, and they were huge. So, he was like, ‘I knew you would love it, and he loved it too.'”
Since then, the process of furnishing their home has been “a lot” — though it helps that Harichi has a knack for putting things together, from their pool table to pieces in Kateb’s glam room to their chicken coop. Kateb has fostered hundreds of dogs, horses, pigs, cats, and birds since her childhood. When she moved in with Harichi, her pets and farm animals — which include her dog Blue, horse Valentino, and more — came along.
“Honestly, it’s been so much fun,” she said. “I feel it really is like our home and our safe space, like I really do look forward always to coming home, and when we travel, I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s my home.’ We really love it.”
Harichi is “100%” as into having pets and animals around as Kateb is. One of the best things about living together, she says, is not having her parents tell her that she can’t bring animals home. “I have literally converted [Harichi],” she added. “We went to this store the other day just to pick up some stuff for our chickens, and we left with three baby chicks, so it’s like we just keep adding. Honestly, he’s just happy to be here, and he loves our animals so much.”
Her dog, Blue, is their favorite out of all of their fur babies. “All of our animals need to cover their ears,” she joked. “It took her a little while [for Blue] to warm up to him because she’s a reactive dog, but now, they’re besties. She sleeps in our bed. She’s really our baby. She’s with us 24/7.”
All of their pets make Kateb’s recent team-up with Clorox Scentiva (in honor of the brand’s new Cherry Blossom and Peach scent) fitting. “I literally just had to disinfect one of our dog’s crates because our chicken was in it and she was sick, but we use [Clorox], oh my gosh, too much,” she said. “We are definitely at the top of the list of Clorox purchasers, but it’s super necessary, and I feel like we’re very careful about making sure that the house stays clean.”
Clorox
On top of having fun taking care of their pets, another thing Kateb and Harichi do together is play pranks on each other. They’ve kept it up since they met in the villa, which Kateb says “feels like yesterday, but it also feels like it’s been 10 years.” It came up when we asked about her favorite memory from filming.
“I feel like I have so many,” Kateb explained. “I think there were just so many good moments and rough moments, but I think some of my favorite moments are probably… Miguel and I would always do pranks, and we still do pranks to each other. We would prank the other people, and then we would also prank each other, so probably those memories. But none of them are on camera, so maybe that makes it a little more special for me.”
Though the jokes are a fun part of their relationship, there’s also plenty Harichi does to sweep Kateb off her feet. “I feel like he does a lot of stuff that makes me swoon, but honestly, seeing him with our animals and how much he loves them, that makes me really, really happy,” she said. “But also, his dimples. They’re my favorite thing about him. They make me swoon.”
Though Harichi told Swooon last summer that he thought he and Leah would be the first Season 6 couple to get married, they aren’t in a rush to take that step. Kateb does know the wedding dress she’s going to buy. She’s had it picked out since 2019, well before Love Island. “Some people already discovered which one it was, too,” she said. “They were posting it. I was like, ‘Man, these people really do know me, huh?'”
While a wedding is “definitely” happening one day, Kateb said neither one of them is a “timeline person.” She laughed, “We both obviously want to marry each other and be with each other. I can’t see myself being with anyone else, like ever, but I am 26, so I don’t know. Woman needs a little more time.”
