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Warning: Love Island USA Season 6 spoilers ahead. They officially closed off their relationship in week 4, but are Kendall and Nicole still together after Love Island USA Season 6? Their off-camera drama could pose a problem.
Related: Which Love Island USA couples are still together across all seasons?
Kendall Washington, a 27-year-old from Dallas, Texas, and Nicole Jacky, a 26-year-old from Sacramento, California, were one of four couples in the Love Island USA Season 6 finale, along with Kordell and Serena; Leah and Miguel; and JaNa and Kenny. Kendall was an original islander who entered the villa on day one, while Nicole was a bombshell who arrived on day six.
Related: Who’s still together from Love Island USA Season 6?
Kendall and Nicole coupled up at the fourth recoupling after Kendall’s breakup with his original partner, Hannah Smith. They remained together until the Love Island USA Season 6 finale, where they were announced as the fourth place finalists, and even made it official in the fourth week after Kendall asked Nicole to be his girlfriend.
Kendall and Nicole were also one of two couples who got alone time in the hideaway. (JaNa and Kenny were the second couple.) Though Kendall and Nicole seemed to be one of the most solid couples on Love Island USA Season 6 and the only couple in the finale to not recouple once, what fans (and Kendall’s ex-girlfriend) think is another question.
Are Kendall and Nicole still together from Love Island USA Season 6?
Kendall revealed he and Nicole were still together—for now—in an interview on “The Viall Files” podcast on July 30, 2024, though he couldn’t confirm whether they would still be together by the time of the Love Island USA Season 6 reunion on August 19, 2024.
“Nicole and I really want to just work on what we have currently and adjust that to real life,” Kendall said. “Right now, outside the villa, yes, we are together, and it’s just an adjustment of, ‘OK, what is our life? How do we make this work on the outside?’”
During the interview, Kendall confirmed that he and Nicole have continued to use the “love” word with each other—which they first told each other in the Season 6 finale—and that their relationship “for sure” felt different outside of the villa. “We’re honestly just taking it day by day because being in the public eye and seeing everyone’s opinions, it affects people differently,” Kendall said. “When I see any negative comments about me or Nicole and me, I just brush it off. But Nicole takes things differently.”
When asked whether he thought he and Nicole would still be together by the time of the Love Island USA Season 6 reunion, Kendall told the podcast. “It’s not 100 I’d say because there’s no guarantees on what will happen. I don’t know the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen in a week or a day. It will be a lie if I said 100 percent chance because I just don’t know. But I believe that when we have those conversations, it can go well.”
That same week, Nicole also shared an Instagram Story in which she asked fans for their understanding amid claims she used Kendall to get to the finale of Love Island USA Season 6. “Some of you have noticed that I’ve been quiet and not posting much so just wanted to provide an update,” Nicole wrote. “While Love Island was an amazing experience, things have not been easy since leaving the villa.”
She continued, “There’s much more to share on what has happened since coming home, and for now, I’ve been taking time to process – these are real feelings and my real life. Thanks for understanding. Love y’all.”
Kendall and Nicole’s comments are a stark contrast to their interview with Us Weekly the day after the Season 6 finale aired, in which they revealed their plans for their relationship now they were back in the real world. (Kendall and Nicole also follow each other on Instagram, at the time of writing.)
“[Sacramento] is not far. It’s good that she lives in California because I have a lot of family there — my sister and my mom are in California,” Kendall said, referring to Nicole’s hometown, which he described as a “three- [or] four-hour plane ride” from his hometown of Dallas. “So it’s a win-win situation when I go there, I get to see Nicole and I also get to see my family.I know my family eventually wants me to move back to California so my mom, specifically, is excited that Nicole is from there.”
Nicole also confirmed that she and Kendall had moved past their awkward moment in the finale where he told her “I love you” and she didn’t say it back. “Kendall caught me by surprise on the date. I’m not gonna lie. Those words mean a lot to me. I just don’t say them to anybody,” she said. “I just needed a second to process it. It’s scary. I don’t know if anyone else out there can relate, but those words, they mean a lot. I’ve been burned in the past, and I think by the time the finale came and I’m writing my speech, that’s when you leave it all on the table. I didn’t wanna have any regrets. And I’ve known how I felt about Kendall for a long time, so I did my big one. I just said it. It scared the living s–t outta me, but it’s good to know that it’s reciprocated and all is well and I really couldn’t be happier.”
Kendall added, “She’s a tougher shell and that’s one of the reasons why I do love her and why it was just such a big moment for us. I’ll always remember that.”
After the Love Island USA Season 6 finale, fans speculated that Kendall and Nicole weren’t together after they were missing from a TikTok video a fan shared of the other three Love Island USA Season 6 couples—Kordell and Serena, Leah and Miguel, and JaNa and Kenny—at a restaurant after filming ended. Kendall and Nicole’s missing appearance was likely due to his nude video leak.
Related: Who’s went home on Love Island USA Season 6 in order
A nude video of Kendall leaked on Twitter the day of the Love Island USA Season 6 finale, which led fans to call on the show to protect him, which may be the reason why he and Nicole weren’t seen in public like the other final couples. Kendall’s sister, Taylor Washington, also shared an Instagram Story calling on Love Island USA to take care of Kendall’s mental health. “I do not have the capacity to respond to everyone individually but I appreciate everyone reaching out concerned about Kendall’s mental health. I am too,” she wrote. “@LoveIslandUSA I really hope y’all have serious mental health resources in place for him so he doesn’t come back from the high of this experience to seeing he’s been unfairly exposed on top of the general reality TV backlash. If y’all have a history of suicide from people on your show, I’d really hope you all get a handle on this expeditiously.”
Kendall also addressed the nude video leak himself in his first Instagram Story since returning from Love Island USA. “What a way to get my phone back y’all,” he wrote. “I just want to address the content that came out from my past. That was something I shared to someone in confidence and trust. It’s unfortunate that it’s no longer private but it is what it is.”
Not much time has passed since when the Love Island USA Season 6 finale filmed and when it aired. The Love Island USA Season 6 finale aired on July 21, 2024, while voting ended for the winner on July 19, 2024. That meant that, at the time the episode made it on Peacock, the final four couples, including Kendall and Nicole, had only been out of the villa for a day or two. Coye Simmons, an original contestant on Love Island USA Season 6, also confirmed to The Sun that episodes air only a “matter of days” after they’re filmed.
Related: Meet the Love Island USA Season 6 cast
The odds for Kendall and Nicole’s relationship, unfortunately, don’t look the best. Only three couples from Love Island USA’s past five seasons are still together at the time of writing: Marco and Hannah (Season 5 winners); Bergie and Taylor (Season 5 finalists); and Kyra and Will (Season 3 runners-up),
Distance is also a main reason that many Love Island USA couples—as well as couples cross the franchise internationally—break up after leaving the villa. Kendall is from Dallas, Texas, while Nicole is from Sacramento, California. That said, it is possible for Kendall and Nicole to make it work. All three of the Love Island USA couples who are still together today are from different states—and even different countries. Marco is from Ohio, while Hannah is from California; Bergie is from Minnesota, while Taylor is from California; and Kyra is from Hawaii, while Will is from Colombia. In comparison, Texas to California is a lot less further than some of these distances.
Related: When each contestant went home on Love Island USA Season 6
Another advantage is that Kendall is an original islander who arrived in the villa on day one, while Nicole entered as a bombshell less than a week later on day 6. Of the three Love Island USA couples who are still together now, all three of them have at least one member who is an original islander.
The biggest obstacle to Kendall and Nicole staying together, however, could be Kendall’s alleged ex-girlfriend, Miami Dolphins cheerleader, Ariana McClure, who shared a since-deleted TikTok claiming that Kendall broke up with her to go on Love Island USA Season 6. “Me realizing that his karma for ending it with me to go on Love Island is having to say my name every time he sees the host,” Ariana wrote in a TikTok video.
Though Ariana didn’t confirm that her ex-boyfriend was Kendall, many fans speculate that he was the ex she was referring to because of where Kendall’s hometown is. Prior to cheerleading for the Miami Dolphins, Ariana was a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys based in Dallas, Texas, where Kendall is from. Though Kordell, who was coupled up with Serena, and Kenny, who was coupled up JaNa, are also from Dallas, Kendall is the only Love Island USA Season 6 contestant to follow Ariana on Instagram, according to TikTok account @therealkatherine. “This makes me believe that this TikTok is 100 percent about Kendall,” the account said. He is playing Nicole so that he will win. I don’t think he actually likes her which makes me so sad because I love Nicole. She deserves better.”
Users on Reddit also speculated that Kendall is Ariana’s ex-boyfriend because he also follows Ariana’s sister and friend. The user also cited Netflix’s docuseries, America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, in which Ariana talks about her other career in medical device sales, the same industry that Kendall works in.
“If Kendall has no haters, I’m dead. This guy is SO FAKE and he’s literally been bouncing and giddy through all his friends’ breakdowns. He def thinks he’s ‘top dog’ because of his relationship with Nicole being the only solid one in the house, but I think they’re fake af and a boring couple,” a Reddit user wrote.
Another user added, “He isn’t even good at hiding it at this point… He thinks he is a lot smarter than he is. And the message that he is pushing is actually pretty harmful. It annoys me that they keep giving him the screen time. PLEASE do not vote for this clown. He has to go.”
Love Island USA is available to stream on Peacock.
