Star of Love Island Jess Harding has opened up for the first time about why she and her ex-boyfriend Sammy Root decided to split.
While the couple are the most recent winners of the dating game show, the MailOnline revealed on Tuesday (October 3) that they are no longer in a relationship.
‘Things have changed since leaving the villa’
An inside source explained that it was a mutual decision to remain friends. It is believed that they struggled to keep a romance outside of the show.
They said: “Jess and Sammy have called it quits. Things have changed since leaving the villa and Jess has realised they’re better off as friends.”
Recovering from their break-up, Jess is currently in Ibiza and has been documenting her vacation with her 845,000 Instagram followers.
On her Instagram Story, the 23 year old participated in a fan Q&A where she answered a couple of questions about her split from Sammy.
After someone asked how she was doing since becoming single, Jess said: “It’s been over a week now since we split, so I’m getting there. We shared a once-in-a-lifetime experience together, so of course I’m sad.”
When asked for the reasoning for their break-up, she responded with: “I really don’t want to go into detail by doing a big statement, but we’re just very different and behave differently and that’s it.”
Sammy was in ‘total shock’ over their split
While Jess said she isn’t going to be making a “big statement”, the same can’t be said about her ex. Sammy has shared his version of events with his Instagram followers.
According to the 22 year old, he found out about their split through the press.
Even though they had a “private conversation regarding our relationship”, Sammy said it was “left up in the air”. He claimed that to “see today via the media that we had officially broken up came as a total shock”.
Sammy continued: “To be totally clear – I at least wanted a face-to-face conversation to see if our relationship could be saved and felt this would be the respectful way forward.”
Sammy said he “had the most incredible experience winning Love Island” and that he “genuinely saw a future with Jess”.
He added: “I was committed and respectful to our relationship. Unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way you’d hoped.”
Despite their messy ending, Sammy said he still thinks “Jess is an amazing woman”. He concluded: “[I] genuinely wish her all the best.”
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