Returning to Love Island Games Season 2 as a standout from the show’s inaugural season, Love Island UK and Love Island: All Stars alum Toby Aromolaran came ready for redemption.
Having competed in the Games before, Toby said he knew this time would be all about adapting and playing smarter. That meant forming key alliances—particularly with longtime friend and fellow UK Islander Tyrique Hyde, and Season 1 competitor Johnny Middlebrooks.
“I think I was just looking at the scenarios that was presented and the environment that was presented,” he told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in our post-Season 2 finale cast interview. “And I was looking around, I was thinking, you know what, if we don’t lock in here, we’re going home. It’s as simple as that.”
From the jump, Toby said he could feel that alliances were already set in motion by the time he entered the villa.
He explained, “It was very apparent that people were making alliances as soon as I stepped in, so those alliances were already made. Walking in, I see Ty, obviously. I’ve known him forever, basically, so I asked him about the situation. He broke it down for me very quickly and I was like, OK, cool. If that’s the situation then we need to change the whole momentum in here.”
He credited his past Love Island experiences with helping him build trust and strategy quickly.
“Luckily, being on multiple Love Islands come with multiple friends, so I knew other people in there,” he added. “I knew Justine [Ndiba], knew Johnny, and it just started from there. And then when you start talking to people, you’re building friendships. When you can trust people, especially in the games, it’s almost like a little… It’s better for yourself in it when you can trust people. Once you know people have your back out there, it’s nice. It’s actually a nice feeling because it’s so stressful.”
What happened with Garbi and that chair moment with Casey?
Toby’s late attempt to recouple with Garbi Denteh—and the now-infamous fight with Casey O’Gorman over a chair—sparked major villa drama and signaled the end of a pleasant partnership with his current couple partner, Sydney Paight. Looking back, he says he doesn’t necessarily regret the move, but he wishes he had handled it differently.
“Well, I always said that everything happens for a reason. I’m very much on… The only thing I ever regret is something that happened in my Season 1 Games. That’s the only thing I ever regret from all my Love Islands. But from this one, I’ll say I regret how I went about it and done it,” he said.
Toby said his uncertainty with Sydney, and Garbi’s strong performance in duels, pushed him to consider the switch.
“I don’t regret the decision in a way that trying to do it because at that moment in time I was debating it, debating it, and then obviously I didn’t know where Sydney was standing with the games much, very much so. Now looking back at it with hindsight, I’ll say, you know what? I would’ve loved to stay with Sydney the whole time. I wouldn’t have done the whole chair in this incident, because I know that with the challenges coming up, she would’ve smashed them all. You know what I mean?”
Toby admitted that Garbi’s duel wins made her seem like the safer choice—especially with rumors swirling that he and Sydney were the weakest couple.
“She was the best [in the basketball challenge]. But obviously, we don’t know what challenges are coming up, so I was just looking at the situation where Garbi had won two duels. She looked like she was smashing duels, so I was like, OK, cool. And then the text came in and it said, no more recoupling. I’ll be real. I kind of got scared, [but] hey, it’s natural.”
The pressure to perform, he added, was getting to him.
“I looked around, and I saw other people…and people were saying, oh yeah, you guys are the weakest couple. They made it very apparent, like Josh [Goldstein] and Andrea [Carmona] said it, Casey and Garbi said it. A lot of people were coming for us because we were the weakest couple. Maybe that got into my head a bit and I said that to Sydney.”
Despite the tension, he said he and Sydney had an honest talk after everything blew over.
“I feel like she understood where I was coming from after when it all blew over, and we actually had a chat about it. But definitely the way that I went about it was definitely the wrong way because obviously in that moment her feelings got hurt. You know what I mean?”
He added, “It’s never really an intention to do that, but at that moment in time, I felt like I was actually quite selfish, just obviously trying to change up my couple for the game aspect.”
Would he ever return to ‘Love Island’—again?
Toby’s no stranger to the franchise of course—having appeared in different series four times—but would he go for a fifth?
“I’m 26 but I feel like my soul is so old, so old,” he said with a laugh. “But I always said that the thing is, when you’re looking for… I always said even in the villa, the games, when I was in for the fourth time, I was like, people were like, ‘Oh, you came back for the fourth time. You’re doing four?’ I was like, I’m so… The way I can express this to you guys is I went in Love Island, I found love, so if there was an opportunity to find love, why would I turn it down? You know what I mean?”
Toby made it clear he’s still hopeful when it comes to love, even if he’s not sure if it’ll be in the Love Island universe again.
“That’s what I always said to someone that said, ‘Oh, you’re back for the fourth time.’ I don’t want to say never, but also, I’m very wary that I’ve done it four times. I found love once so far, so it’s like one out of four times, maybe you can go and find love somewhere else, so I don’t know. We’re all just trying to find someone, so you know what, just put yourself in their scenarios. That’s what I always say.”
Love Island Games Season 2 is streaming in full on Peacock.