LOVE ISLAND EXPOSED! Angelista Was READY to Enter the Villa Last Summer — Then Producers Dropped a SHO-CK Twist!
Love Island fans are still reeling from the dramatic journey of Angelista Gunda and Simba Kudyiwa, who battled their way to a third-place finish in this year’s final. But the 24-year-old has now dropped a bombshell of her own: she was supposed to be in the villa a full year earlier.
Speaking candidly on the Not My Bagg podcast with Simba this week, Angelista revealed she had already flown out to Majorca last summer, ready to enter as an original islander or early bombshell alongside the likes of Shakira, Harry, Toni, Yasmin, Helena, Meg, Dejon and the rest of the 2025 cast.
“So, I was supposed to go on last year, and they said OG or early bombshell. And then I flew out with all the other OG’s. So, it would have been two weeks before the show started last year,” she explained.
What followed was a prolonged and emotionally draining wait in the holding villa. Weeks dragged on without the call to enter. Angelista described a particularly vulnerable moment during the second week when the reality of her situation hit hard.
“It didn’t end up working out. I had two chaperones, and I had a little moment to myself… sometimes I just get emotional. Do you know what I mean? I’m an emotional person. So I just cry,” she said. “So, I was just in my room [on] one of the days. I think it was like, the second week [in the holding villa]. Obviously, I wasn’t an OG. And then I had a little tearful moment to myself.”
Producers later floated the idea of bringing her in for Casa Amor. Angelista firmly declined. She told them the guys in the villa at that point simply weren’t her type and that she refused to pretend otherwise.
“Before Casa, they were like ‘Yeah, we want to get you on Casa’. And I said, ‘No’. I said, ‘The guys on there anyways, this year… the guys genuinely, they’re just not really a bit of me. I don’t see myself grafting’,” she recalled. Producers asked her to name her top three guys, but she struggled. “I’m not about to go and fake it. I can’t do that.”
Instead of forcing a connection she didn’t feel, Angelista packed her bags and flew home — a decision that ultimately set the stage for her far more successful run the following year alongside Simba.
The couple’s story, of course, was never short on drama. During the same podcast appearance, Simba was confronted with pointed comments from two former castmates — Casa Amor bombshells Carlos Borges and Neveah David — who accused him of using Angelista for “clout.”
In an appearance on the Tea Time podcast with Will Njobvu, Neveah claimed Simba was primarily chasing fame, while Carlos suggested the islander had been strategically playing the long game to reach the final by pairing up with Angelista after Casa.
“I think he’s playing a game. I think in his mind, he thinks that if he does what he does with Angie, that’s going to get a ticket to the final,” Carlos said. Neveah added that she didn’t believe Simba was necessarily in it to win the show, but rather for the attention, noting his habit of delivering one-liners he seemed to think were more impactful than they were.
Simba’s response to the accusations was brief and pointed. “Shock. Just shock,” he said. “I’m never going to answer that, I’m sorry. Shock. I mean, those two? Shock.”
The comments carry extra weight given the history between the three. Neveah had initially connected with Simba during Casa Amor before the pair clashed and cut ties. Simba later returned from Casa with Mara, only to rekindle his romance with Angelista shortly afterward — a move that mirrored a classic Love Island storyline of a boy returning to the girl whose heart he had broken.
Looking back, Angelista’s near-miss the previous summer feels like a pivotal “what if.” Had producers slotted her in as planned, the entire trajectory of series 13 — and the couple who captured so much of the public’s attention — could have looked very different. Instead, the delay, the rejection of a forced Casa entrance, and the emotional honesty that followed paved the way for a genuine connection that took them all the way to the final.
In a show built on twists, this one may have been the most consequential of all.
