In just two short weeks, Ariana Madix will be back in Fiji hosting her second season of Love Island USA. The Vanderpump Rules alum took over for former host Sarah Hyland in Season 6, which became a record-breaking season for the beloved dating series. Not only were lifelong friendships formed among the cast, but three of the couples that left the villa together are still dating today: winners Serena Page and Kordell Beckham, Leah Kateb and Miguel Harichi, and JaNa Craig and Kenny Rodriguez.

“It doesn’t surprise me [that they’re still dating] because I feel like watching all of their journeys last season, you could really tell that they were so great together,” Madix told DECIDER, joking that she’d love to someday “watch all three of them get married together.”

Madix, who got her start on reality TV as a full-time cast member in the second season of Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules, gushed over the Season 6 women, who, along with their partners, will star in the new Peacock spinoff series Love Island: Beyond the Villa.

“I love those girls so much and I think that they are such amazing examples of the type of women that we really need to be able to see on TV,” Madix said. “They’re so young and I’m like, ‘You guys are so strong and so smart.’ They’re light-years ahead of where I was when I was that age. And their men are so sweet.”

With Season 7 bringing in an entirely new cast, Madix offered the newbies one piece of advice that she would also give the incoming Vanderpump Rules Season 12 cast. “[Don’t] try to recreate anything that you’ve seen or that you think might be good. I feel like that’s where people get a little lost in the sauce, so to speak,” Madix said, urging the next group of sexy singles to “be real” since that’s “what really resonates with people.”

When Madix stopped by our studio earlier this month, she also revealed which Love Island USA Season 6 bombshell she’d bring back to the villa, what it was like meeting Seth Rogen at Something About Her, and her favorite moment from competing on Dancing with the Stars. Check out the full interview below.

DECIDER: You are everywhere – on Love Island, Dancing with the Stars, Will Trent, Chicago, podcasts, brand deals, etc. From your perspective, how would you be able to sum up how the last two years of your life have made you feel? Is there anything you’ve learned about yourself? 

ARIANA MADIX: Sometimes, I think, in my younger years I would look at something that I really wanted, that I’ve really wanted to do but it was so daunting or I didn’t know where to start. But then I feel Dancing with the Stars really changed my life in a lot of ways. I think that not only did it change my life in a professional sense of where people were able to see that I’d really love to perform and stuff but it changed my life in a sense where you had this super huge daunting task every week of learning a type of dance that you’ve never done before. And every week it was like, “I can do that!” So I learned through that process and then continuing forward that no matter how daunting a task seemed, if it was something that I really wanted, I learned that I can do it and I can do those hard things and if I put the hard work to use, then I’ll be able to do it. 

You’re going onto your second season of hosting Love Island USA. How excited are you to head back to Fiji this summer?

I’m so excited. Every season of Love Island, in any country, it always brings something new and different and you never really know what you’re going to get until the ball is already rolling, the train has already left the station. I find myself in the past watching seasons, maybe the first couple episodes, I’m like, “I don’t know.” And then by episode three, four, five, I’m hooked. I’m in love with them. I want them to be my best friends. I’m like, “Please, I can’t get enough.” So I’m just really excited to see what this year’s gonna be like because it’s really anyone’s guess. 

Love Island USA Season 6 was so dramatic and filled with so many plot twists. Do you know anything about this season’s cast yet and do you expect the same level of chaos?

You never know. I don’t know anything about the cast yet. I don’t even know if the cast is solidified yet. I know that they go through a very long and rigorous casting process and sometimes those decisions are made down at the wire. So, I certainly don’t know. They might know, but they haven’t told me anything. And maybe we have some chaos. Maybe we have beautiful friendships as well as we had last season and hopefully some beautiful, successful love stories. I feel like that’s the trifecta of all the things that makes me love Love Island. 

Three couples from Season 6 are still together almost a year later – JaNa and Kenny, Leah and Miguel, and Serena and Kordell. Does that surprise you at all? Do you think they are all endgame?

I mean, it doesn’t surprise me because I feel like watching all of their journeys last season, you could really tell that they were so great together. I love those girls so much and I think that they are such amazing examples of the type of women that we really need to be able to see on TV. They’re so young and I’m like, “You guys are so strong and so smart.” They’re light-years ahead of where I was when I was that age. And their men are so sweet and I’m really thrilled that we’re getting to see more of the relationships on Beyond the Villa. That’s something I’ll definitely be tuning into. Endgame? Well, you never know. But I think right now, at least for the next ongoing future, I would be here to, like, I don’t know, watch all three of them get married together. I’m here for it. 

You have to officiate!

Yeah, I’ll officiate! You let me know. I’m gonna be the flower girl or something.

They’re going to be on Love Island: Beyond the Villa. As a reality TV icon yourself, do you have any advice for them?

Oh, thank you. I think that as long as they continue to remain themselves – they were so good at just being so true to themselves last season on Love Island. This is obviously a different setting. It’s more real-world. It’s just a different environment. But I think as long as they stick to that and be really themselves, I feel like that’s why we all fell in love with all of them in the first place. And you can’t go wrong if you’re just being yourself. 

Harrison from Season 5 came back and surprised everyone toward the end of last season. If you could bring back one single from Season 6, who would it be?

Um, Rob. No, I’m just kidding. Just kidding. I’m joking, I’m joking. Anyone to bring back? OK, let me think about the guys really quick. No. Maybe some of the girls. Maybe Liv because I feel like she never really got the guy, like, it was never the right guy and I would love for her if she did come back to really find somebody that she really liked. Because I feel like guys would come in and they would like her and then she would not be feeling them.

You almost upstage the ladies in the villa with your killer fits! Can you tease what you and your team have in store for audiences this summer? 

We don’t have anything solidified yet, but we are working on some custom things. And Emily, my amazing friend and stylist, she has put together these really beautiful mood boards to try to get some custom things. There’s one that’s for certain [that’s] kind of mermaid vibes. There’s another one that almost feels kind of medieval warrior princess. And there’s a couple of others so we’ll see. I’ve been looking around a lot at what’s out there and I’ve been seeing a lot of really cool crochet looks that I like. But it’s gonna be really tough. There’s a lot of pressure given these amazing things that we were able to find last year. We are on the hunt so send us cool stuff.

Your outfits are so good and you look so good in every single one of them. It’s hard to pick a favorite!

Thank you. It takes a village, you know, because it starts with Emily and then we have to bring all these looks to Fiji and then everything gets set up. All the things get put together. And then on the day or the night of, I have Carl and Crystal doing my hair and makeup and then you have Emily [and] Abbey who’s on set styling and we’re taping, we’re pinning. Sometimes there’s a little bit of stitching going on. And then after all of that, I have to get mic’d. So then the amazing sound team will come in and look at the outfit and go, “Um. OK, let me think about this for a second.” And sometimes the mic is in places that, you know, there’s only one place for it to go. 

Shifting gears a little bit, Vanderpump Rules is getting a completely new cast next season. Do you have any advice for the newbies?

It’s a little bit similar to the advice I would have for anyone coming into Love Island Season 7. And that’s not to try to recreate anything that you’ve seen or that you think might be good. I feel like that’s where people get a little lost in the sauce, so to speak, where they think, “Oh, well, Stassi had this one really great one-liner, so I’m going to think of…” And it never really hits. It just has to come from here. It has to be real. That’s what really resonates with people. So I feel like that’s kind of what I would give as advice to both of those people. 

Katie Maloney called the reboot “cheap” and said it felt like they were trying to replicate a recipe by simply continuing as Vanderpump Rules instead of starting a new show. Do you agree with her? 

I really think it would have been cool to follow one of the other locations like the Vegas one because that’s been open for a while. I think it would’ve been cool to say, “OK, that’s it for this cast. Now we’re gonna follow this completely new cast, but it’s also a completely new city.” I think that would have been interesting. I mean they can take that idea. They can do it if they want, still.

Producer credits!

Yeah! Hey, give me 10% [laughs]. 

Speaking of Katie, Something About Her seems to be thriving. Seth Rogen recently stopped in with his wife – and he’s been open about his love of Vanderpump Rules. What was it like to hear that he was a fan? What can you say about your meeting with him?

Oh, my gosh. Well, he and his wife are both really, really nice, lovely people. I remember hearing that he was a fan. There was a promo that he did with Anthony Mackie. It was for The Night Before movie. So, they shot these kind of pretend scenes with some of the cast of Vanderpump. And it was around that time that I had heard that he was into the show, but I didn’t get to meet [them] until they came into the shop. It was really cool. You see someone for so long on shows and movies and you never really know what they’re gonna be like in real life. You know, are they gonna be the nice, jovial person that you see doing TV interviews and stuff? Or are they going to be – no. He’s the nicest person. Hearing him laugh in person is so joyous. He has such a distinctive laugh and voice. They’re really nice people. It was really cool that they came in. 

I know you recently attended Kristen Doute’s baby shower. How happy are you for her? How will you support her through those early days of motherhood?

Oh, my gosh. I’m so happy for her. I feel like she’s probably like one of, if not the most beautiful pregnant person I’ve ever seen. As much as she’s like, “I’m so over it,” having certain feelings, I’m like, “Yeah, but you look great.” But yeah, it’s gonna be really cool to get to meet the little one. I think I might be overseas on the actual due date so maybe when I come back, it’ll be like, OK, let’s meet the baby.

She’ll be all settled in by then.

Yeah, and you know how you have to wait a second? So maybe it’ll be good timing.

Have you been watching her on The Valley? What do you think of that show?

I haven’t been watching The Valley. I didn’t watch last season at all. But then this season I’ve seen some things on TikTok. And, you know, I do have a number of friends on that show, Kristen included. And there’s clips from like the first or the second episode and it was just so dark so it’s tough. But then I feel like that’s probably how so many of my friends felt. They’d be like, “I’m so sorry, I don’t watch Vanderpump Rules.” And I was like, “Please, it’s fine.” I was like, “I get it. It’s a lot. It can be a lot.”

Do you think you’d ever make a cameo or we’ll see you in the background somewhere?

No, I don’t think so. There’s been a couple of times where something is filmed, like a birthday or something. Usually the text is something along the lines of like, “I want you to know you’re invited. But we are filming so…” And I’m like, “Yeah. Happy birthday. I’ll see you later.”

You put in your time already! Also, no reality TV fan will ever forget your time in the ballroom. What’s a memory you keep replaying in your mind from your Dancing With The Stars experience?  

Oh my gosh. Okay. So there’s a lot. Music video week when I did Britney Spears, “Slave for You,” that week was so insane. It was the week of BravoCon. And so I only rehearsed that dance – like, we had three days basically. And one of our rehearsals was in Vegas from midnight to 3 a.m. because I had to do The Bravo’s and we sang that little song or whatever. So we did that and then I hopped in a car and went to rehearsal until 3 a.m. Sometimes that comes up on TikTok or whatever, there’s a moment where that guy is saying my name and dancing the cha-cha with her partner. And the look on my face is like … because I’d had, like, two Celsius that day. I was so tired but I’m like, “Girl, I’m gonna do it.” I went all in. 

And then the other one I think of is the foxtrot when we got our perfect score. I just remember there’s a moment in that dance where it starts with us just looking right at each other and I was like – my partner Pasha is the best, sweetest, most amazing person. And I just wanted to do so well for him as well. So I just was very determined at that moment. That was his favorite dance. We were wearing him and [Daniella’s] wedding colors so the whole thing just was so meaningful and I was so, so, so glad that we got that that night because I felt like that was the perfect moment for it. 

Everyone loved you in Chicago. Do you have any other dream Broadway roles?

I always tell people my favorite show is Mamma Mia. So literally throw me in as a townsperson. I don’t care. I just want to be there to sing the ABBA music, like, it’s fine. Yeah, when I think about what’s running right now, too, I think that. Gosh. I’m going through a giant list in my head. I was going to be like, Gypsy! No, just kidding. Just kidding. No, honestly, I would also love to go back to Chicago as Velma. That would be really fun. I’m gonna have to learn “Hot Honey Rag” on the opposite side though.  

You also nabbed a guest-starring role on Will Trent. What was that experience like? Do you have any plans to do more scripted work in the future?

Oh, yeah, lots of plans for more scripted stuff in the future. It was really cool to be able to do that and just kind of get that ball rolling in a sense. One of my longest friends in LA actually wrote that episode and we’ve known each other for over 10-plus years, maybe even 15 years. So the fact that we got to work on that together was really cool and really exciting. And he wrote me as this character who does all these different, weird, cool things. So it was fun to be able to, yeah, I’m me, but I’m this crazy version of me. And that show, everyone who worked on it was so nice. And you never know walking into a situation where everyone already knows each other. But everyone was so cool and so nice and yeah, if they ever wanna have me back, I am down. 

Do you have any other projects you’re working on that you can tease?

There’s a couple of things. There’s something I feel like that I can’t totally tease. But I’ll maybe say, you know, maybe I would love to host a show of a different – you know, Love Island’s so beachy and sexy and cool – maybe I’ll host a show that has a different feeling.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Love Island USA Season 7 premieres on June 3 on Peacock.