Love Island USA Season 7 sent home several Islanders who were in genuine, established connections. Pepe Garcia and Hannah Fields were one of the strongest couples in the villa at the time the girls voted to dump Fields from the island, and the same went for Iris Kendall and TJ Palma when Palma failed to secure enough votes from his fellow castmates to save him from the ranking challenge. But some wise person once said that everything happens for a reason, and those dumpings clearly happened so Garcia and Kendall could find each other.
Shortly after Palma was sent home, the two bombshells connected in a way they never had before. Having both been through something similar in the villa, they found common ground, which ultimately turned into a love story of their own—and a fourth-place win in the overall show.
While they didn’t close things off before exiting the villa, Garcia confirmed to Decider that he and Kendall are dating exclusively now that they’ve returned home.
“We just want to date like normal,” Garcia said. “The show made our private life very public, and we want to try to keep it as normal as humanly possible and date like we would.”
As for what happened with their previous connections, Kendall revealed that she met up with Palma shortly after touching down in Los Angeles to have a “closure talk.” The spray-tan artist said it was “killing [her] on the inside,” and she wanted to let him know that while her feelings for him were “100% genuine” in the villa, what she currently has with Garcia is “also real.”
The former professional basketball player, for his part, had plans to reach out to Fields once his schedule died down. While he might be in a new relationship, he said that he and Fields always knew they would be friends “no matter what.”
Check out our interview with the lovebirds below.
DECIDER: Congrats on making it into the final four this season! What was it like introducing yourselves to the world in that “Dominate Tricks” challenge?
IRIS KENDALL: It was definitely scary walking in all alone. But I was like, “You know what? I’m in this outfit right now, and I’m going to go all in and just send it, basically.” I feel like I had a really fun entrance, and it was just really exciting. I definitely wanted to just be myself and have fun and go all in on the experience.
PEPE GARCIA: It was definitely exciting, nerve-racking. You have questions about what my mom and family are gonna think back home, but you’re just excited. You’re finally getting to the villa and you’re ready to get going.
Iris, Huda caught a lot of heat from viewers for the way she spoke to you during that challenge when you were kissing Jeremiah. Did that catch you off guard? And did you ever expect that you would be in the middle of a love triangle like that?
IRIS: I honestly didn’t hear what she said when I was doing it. I think there was music playing in the background. I didn’t hear what she said, but I saw her [leaning over]. I didn’t expect [to be in their love triangle]. I didn’t think that that was gonna happen. I had one 15-minute conversation with Jeremiah, and then the next thing you know, I’m in a couple with him. I was like, “Why is this happening? How did this happen? What’s America thinking? Why did America choose to do this so early on?” I thought America was gonna vote later down the line. I didn’t think it was going to be right away. I was like, “Wow, I don’t know what to think of this. I’m all alone here.”
Pepe, you and Hannah quickly sparked a connection in the beginning when she was with Charlie. Was it hard to join the show as a bombshell and come in between an established connection?
PEPE: Oh, for sure. Coming in as a bombshell, you’re told you’ve got to shake things up. And you do have to shake things up because if not, you’re going home the next day or a couple of days later. So it is tough. But I went in and I told the boys, “Look, I’m going to be as respectful as possible and I’m gonna be honest with every single one of you guys. I hope you guys do the same. As long as we do that, then it’s no harm, no foul. Let’s just enjoy the experience because this is literally what we signed up for.” Either you’re an OG and someone’s going to come test your connection, or you have to go test the connection, and you have to see which one’s stronger and who’s stronger. It’s part of the show. It’s part of the game you signed up for. So I just told all the boys, “Let’s just be respectful about it and move on from there.”
I really love the connection you both built with each other. What does that look like moving forward in the real world? Are you exclusive?
PEPE: Everybody loves that word, exclusive. We both date and we just want to date one person and that’s how we normally move, so we’re going to move the same way. So I guess yes, it’s exclusive in that sense, but we just want to date like normal. The show made our private life very public, and we want to try to keep it as normal as humanly possible and date like we would. We’ve known each other for a little over a month. That’s not a long time in a regular relationship, but we’re just enjoying it. We’re having fun and we’re just happy to be with each other and we’re just happy to be together.
You both had very strong connections with other people before they were dumped from the villa. Have either of you spoken to Hannah or TJ since leaving the villa? Or do you plan to reconnect with either of them on even just a friendship basis?
IRIS: Yeah, I actually reconnected with TJ. I had a closure talk with him and I told him, “My feelings for you weren’t fake. It was all real and with Pepe it’s also real.” I was able to express that to him and just have that closure with him and let him know how I was feeling after I got out of the villa. It was sort of killing me on the inside, because when you’re wearing microphones all the time, there are things that you want to say. Maybe things could be different on the outside, maybe people’s feelings are different than they are on the inside. I know I was being 100% genuine and I guess I wanted him to know that.
Pepe, do you have any plans to connect with Hannah?
PEPE: I do. I haven’t had time to reach out to her. The first two days, I put my phone away. The first day I was just with family and friends. The second day, I was just taking care of things from after the show as well as making sure my family was good. I reached out to her yesterday, I just said, “Hey, let’s get a call going.” But she’s a sweet, amazing girl. We knew about it from the beginning, that somebody can go home, and we knew that no matter what we were going to be friends outside of it. So I definitely want to reach out. We’ve got busy schedules.
Iris, you are one of the prettiest criers ever. You have girls everywhere trying to imitate the Iris pout. What do you think of that?
IRIS: I think it’s really sweet. I really, really like seeing it. I think it’s really cute. I’m scrolling and I’m seeing girls doing the little pouty face and I’m like, “Oh, my God, I love you guys.” It’s really cute.
On the other hand, tons of women are dying their hair blonde for Pepe. Has that always been your type?
PEPE: No, I do not have a type. But attractive is attractive. I don’t have a type. I just put all that to the side and just went with what my heart felt. I guess I just kept talking to the sweet, genuine, caring girls and that’s what I got. They were all blonde and they were all attractive. So, I’m not mad with my decision, but definitely now, seeing the way it’s come off, I should’ve, I guess, talked to a brunette or something.
Question for both of you, what were your reactions to coming in fourth place? Do you think you should’ve been higher up?
IRIS: I think that we were just happy to have more time together in the villa. I don’t think we really expected anything. We were just happy with wherever we were.
PEPE: We’re just happy with the whole experience. We both came in and when we first had our conversation, we were like, “We don’t care to be here for a day, we don’t care to be here until the end. We just wanna make sure that we’re able to stay true and genuine to ourselves and enjoy it and be happy.” That took us to the end, and then in the end, it took us to fourth. We were happy. It’s one of those things where as long as we were enjoying our time in there, we were happy with whatever happened.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Love Island USA Season 7 is currently streaming on Peacock.