Love Island’s Jacques O’Neill has hinted he still has feelings for Gemma Owen after he revealed he had ‘sex flashbacks’ during the heart rate challenge on Tuesday’s episode.
In the challenge, the cast are strapped with monitors so bosses can judge whose heart beat fastest for whom during a sexy dance.
The former flames topped each other’s heart rate charts, to the dismay of their current partners Luca Bish and Paige Thorne.
After the challenge, Paige was left upset that she failed to get Jacques’ pulses rating and sat down for a conversation with him about it.
However, the situation went from bad to worse as Jacques admitted he had experienced flashbacks to sleeping with the 19-year-old during her dance – leaving fans appalled.
As Paige sat on Jacques’ lap during the chat, he said the night had been ruined by her “sulking”, saying: “It's a challenge, mate. You're pissed off about something.”
He asked: “You're actually bothered about me and Gem?” Paige replied: “It's not great, is it? It could have been any other girl and it was Gem.”
Jacques tried to defend the result as he said the exes only kissed each other on the cheek, but as Paige still seemed hurt he said: “F*** off. You're just being pathetic.”
Paige replied: “It's not being pathetic. You asked me what was wrong, I'm telling you what was wrong. Don't come at me and call me pathetic. It could have been anyone else.
“Obviously it's not your fault, I know that. I would rather you would just say it instead of saying it wasn't me, it came from above.”
Jacques then became frank and “truthful” as he said: “If I'm going to be honest, maybe it's because we've experienced something like that before, so it just sort of brought on flashbacks.
“Obviously it would do if you had slept with someone, you're going to get those thoughts. That's the honest reason why I thought it could have been Gemma.”
Clearly upset, Paige replied: “You're not over it, still got a thing there. You're going to have that chemistry still lingering there.”
ITV2 viewers at home were left horrified by the admission, given that the pair dated while Gemma was still school-age.
"Jacques calling Gemma a clown and telling her to shut up, then later on saying he got flashbacks of having sex with her 16 year old self?? this man rlly does see women as objects," commented one fan on Twitter.
Another added: "a flashback to what Jacques? picking Gemma up from school?"
A third wrote: "I don't know how Love Island kept Jacques saying that he had flashbacks of Gemma being sexy when they dated and we all know Gemma was SIXTEEN at the time."
A fourth pointed out: "You have a Duty of Care to your Islanders. Currently, you are standing by as Jacques has been accused of bullying Remi, being rude to Ekin-Su, being dismissive of Gemma and showing signs of emotional abuse towards Paige. He needs to leave."
