Love Island star Luca Bish has revealed how ITV producers tried to prevent him from "pulling" Gemma Owen during early episodes of the dating show.
Appearing on Made in Chelsea stars Jamie Laing and Alex Mytton's Private Parts podcast, the 23-year-old said he was compelled to pursue fellow islanders Paige Thorne and Tasha Ghouri to enable a better storyline. Luca said: "From the start, they were like, 'Right, Tasha, Paige - focus on them, Gemma is having a thing with Davide and Liam'.
"And I was like, 'Yeah, but the public put me with Paige', and Tasha pulled me for a chat, and as much as they're both lovely, the one person that I actually want to chat to is Gemma. So on the second night, I said I wanted to pull Gemma, and they were like, 'No, you're not allowed'.
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"They were like, 'Davide has come in, he's picked Gemma, let them see what happens like with Liam and Davide - obviously a storyline there."
Luca was originally paired with Welsh paramedic Paige, 24, whilst his now-girlfriend Gemma, 19, was with university graduate Liam Llewellyn, 22, before Italian business owner Davide Sanclimenti, 26, swooped in.
Former fishmonger Luca added: "And then, I was like, nah, I'm going to try again. So, I pulled her for a chat and they had the 'Voice of God'"
Host Jamie replied: "Like Big Brother style?"
Luca said: "Yeah! We sat down and - I think she said it in our first chat anyway that actually got shown - she was like, 'well this is overdue'.
"They were like, 'Luca, to Beach Hut two please. They were like, 'No no no you're not allowed yet, we're doing this for you not looking like a player'.
“I was like, 'I'm not looking like a player, I'm on Love Island. Surely you want us to chat and see if we actually like anyone', and they were like, 'Yeah but hold off for it now'.
“In my head I was thinking, the more I hold off, the more she's going to get to know Davide or Liam. I think it was day four or five - bearing in mind this started on day two - and I was like, 'right, am I allowed?'.
"If you go to the first time we had our chat, I was like, 'do you want to go for a chat?' and she was like, 'who, me?', and I was like, 'yeah, we're allowed now', because we both were under the impression we were not allowed yet, and they actually left it in there."
Luca eventually got his way and coupled up with the daughter of Liverpool legend Michael Owen, placing second in the show behind winners Davide and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, 28. Since the end of the series, Luca appeared to be dragging his feet in not making things official with Gemma.
But on Monday, the couple delighted fans by confirming Luca had popped the question with a lavish gesture and the couple are now officially an item.
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