Love Island's Adam Collard has revealed the 'real reason' that he returned to the popular ITV2 dating show during its 2022 series. The 26-year-old previously appeared during the fourth season in 2018.
Adam, who left the series with new girlfriend Paige Thorne, opened up about his reason for returning on his YouTube channel as he answered fan questions. He began: “Right, I am just going to clear this up right now. Paige is amazing and we are flying right now but everyone who goes on Love Island – it’s series eight now – people know what is coming off the back of it.
“You are getting a few followers, if you have a business like me it’s going to help amplify that and that put you in a better situation and there’s going to be loads of really good opportunities afterwards.” Alongside his reality TV career, Adam also runs a personal training business.
Read more: Love Island's Gemma Owen and Luca Bish share milestone moment in their relationship
He continued: “So yes, everyone comes on and says I am here to find love and that, yes you kind of are and obviously that is unreal but nobody is daft.
“Everyone has seen Molly-Mae absolutely smash the hell out of life and to be fair she has smashed the hell out of her relationship as well but even if you can get a little piece of that, if you have been in the villa for long enough, you know you are going to be pretty set up for life.”
One person who certainly isn't "daft" when it comes to profiting from Love Island is fellow 2022 Islander, Gemma Owen. Much like Molly-Mae Hague, who has made a staggering £4.5 million since leaving the show, Gemma has now signed a six-figure deal with PrettyLittleThing. You can read more about that here.
Since leaving the villa, Adam and Paige's relationship appears to have been going well. Recently, during an appearance on ITV's Lorraine, the couple confirmed that they were now "official". This comes after the pair were spotted eating ice cream in Paige's hometown of Swansea.
As expected, Paige's life has also changed since Love Island. It was recently revealed that the 24-year-old had to quit her job as a paramedic because of the show. She said of this: "I tried taking annual leave, unpaid leave, a career break, I tried every single avenue possible to keep my job as well as do Love Island, but, unfortunately, because paramedics and the ambulance service and the NHS in general get such bad backlash about waiting times and being understaffed and all of this, I think, from a management perspective, they were like, 'Yes, we want to fully support you'. I think they couldn’t risk me going in not knowing me as a person, obviously higher up they don’t know me as an individual employee.
"I think they were worried that I went in and then it’s like, 'Oh, the NHS is struggling this much and paramedics are struggling this much and you’ve let one have time off to go into Love Island', it might’ve created more bad press and bad backlash that they just didn’t need. Which I totally understand. So the only option I had was to resign, which I was devastated about." For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
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