Another Love Island couple has called it quits, and their split is “nawsty.” A day after they confirmed they were still together on the Love Island USA Season 6 reunion, Kendall and Nicole have confirmed they’ve ended their relationship, and Nicole may have hinted the real reason for their split hours before their breakup announcement.
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Kendall Washington, a 27-year-old from Dallas, Texas, and Nicole Jacky, a 26-year-old from Sacramento, California, met and fell in love on Love Island USA Season 6, where they came in fourth place. Kendall and Nicole, who coupled up on Day 8, were one of the most stable couples on Love Island USA Season 6 after never recoupling with anyone else once and even telling each other “I love you” in the finale.
Things were a different story once they left the villa. A day after the Love Island USA Season 6 reunion aired on August 19, 2024, Kendall and Nicole announced that they had split less than a month after the Season 6 finale and that Kendall was the one who initiated the breakup. “On August 18th, Kendall and I agree our relationship was worth working on, and we were making plans for me to visit him in Dallas soon. However, today, on August 20th, he called and ended things,” she wrote in an Instagram Story at the time, suggesting that Kendall’s call to end their relationship took her by surprise. “While I understand and respect his decision, it’s hard to process this one. I opened up to him in the villa, and still love and care for him now. I’m struggling mentally and all I ask for is privacy during this time.”
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Kendall, for his part, also shared an Instagram Story confirming the breakup. “I have decided to end things with Nicole. It reached a point where it was not healthy for us to continue the relationship,” he wrote. “I still love and care for Nicole. I’ve never developed such strong feelings for a woman in my life. I have no regrets for the connection I made with her in the villa and it was real. She does not deserve any hate. Please stop with the negative comments/DM’s. We’re taking this time to focus on our mental health. Thank you guys.” But what went wrong?
Why did Kendall and Nicole break up from Love Island USA Season 6?
The day before Kendall and Nicole’s breakup announcement, Nicole revealed that she and Kendall were on the rocks during the Love Island USA Season 6 reunion due to a lie he told her about a nude video that leaked the day of the Season 6 finale.
During the reunion, Nicole claimed that Kendall originally told her that the video was sent years ago to an ex-girlfriend before she discovered from cast mate JaNa Craig that Kendall actually sent the video to someone on a dating app from his hotel room in Fiji before filming started on Love Island USA Season 6. “So I want to say something. Obviously, the video is not OK. Nobody deserves that. Everybody in this room can agree. That is fucked up. However, I think if you say you love somebody, in the moment, when you’re telling me about something, you have to be honest,” Nicole said during the reunion. “Instead of saying it’s from years ago to someone you trusted, an ex-girlfriend, and then I found out later from JaNa that it was in the hotel room before you go on the show to someone on a dating app is crazy.”
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In an interview on “The Viall Files” podcast on August 20, 2024—the same day Kendall and Nicole announced their breakup—Nicole revealed that Kendall was the one who first told him about his nude video after they got their phones back and were alone for the first time in their hotel in Fiji following the Love Island USA Season 6 finale. She explained that Kendall sat her down and told her about his nude video leaking before showing her a screenshot of the recording, but not the full clip. “He shows me the ends of the video. It’s like a screenshot of it. So I don’t have the context of where he is. He said, ‘I sent this to somebody in my past. An ex I really trusted,’” Nicole said.
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Nicole confirmed that she was understanding of Kendall’s situation at first and believed his story until the rest of the cast kept checking on her, which raised red flags in her mind about what was actually in the video. “Next day, we’re all filming and JaNa pulls me in the bathroom and is like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Why does everybody ask that? I’m good. I really feel for Kendall. Whoever did this, it’s really fucked up,’” Nicole said. “[JaNa] said, ‘Have you seen the video?’ I’m like, ‘No. I saw a picture.’ She’s like, ‘OK, let me show you the video.’”
Nicole explained that she didn’t care about the contents of the video but was devastated when she realized, after finally watching the recording, that Kendall had lied to her and that clip was filmed in the hotel in Fiji all the islanders stayed at right before entering the villa—not years ago as Kendall had claimed. She also suggested that the hotel Kendall filmed his nude video in was the same hotel in Fiji the final couples stayed at after the finale before they returned to the United States.
“I don’t care about the video. I really don’t. What I first noticed, because I had just been in the room with him the past night, I see his hotel room in Fiji before he went on the show. I just fell to the floor and lost it because that’s not what he told me,” Nicole said. “We were out filming something in Fiji. I went to our executive producer and was like, ‘I want to leave. I don’t want to be here anymore. I told her what happened. Of course, I went back and got my shit out of his room. I got my own hotel room for the night. We were all leaving the next day. I was pissed at him.”
After the cast returned to the United States, Nicole explained that she and Kendall didn’t have time to talk because they went to Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California, soon after they arrived home. She also confirmed that she didn’t tell Kendall that she saw the video but he found out from JaNa. “I think JaNa told him. I think he knew I had seen it because he wanted to talk to me at Universal. I wanted to have a talk privately,” she said.
Nicole also revealed that Love Island USA producers asked to film her and Kendall’s talk about his nude video once they finally sat down a couple days after the cast’s Universal Studios trip. “I think a day or two later, we had a private talk in LA. The show also wanted to film that, and I said, ‘No,’” Nicole said. “I had to talk to him without cameras around because I was questioning a lot. He was like, ‘Yeah, I lied to you. I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you the truth in that moment because my world was crumbling down around me and I thought if I told you the truth, you would leave me. You would judge me.’”
She continued, “I’m like, ‘Well, I wouldn’t have. Now I am.’ Now his excuse is that he was bored in his hotel room and sent it to some girl on Raya.’ Like I was bored in the hotel room playing fucking crossword puzzles. I just don’t get why you couldn’t be honest.”
Later in the podcast, Nicole admitted that she chose to believe Kendall’s story, though she had a feeling that it also wasn’t the truth. She told the podcast that, what she really believed, was that Kendall sent the nude video to someone he was talking to before filming Love Island USA and that person leaked his recording as a form of retaliation for going on the show while they were still involved.
What else did Kendall lie to Nicole about after Love Island USA Season 6?
Nicole also claimed that the truth about the nude video wasn’t the only thing Kendall lied to her about after leaving Love Island USA. After the Love Island USA Season 6 finale, Kendall and his cast mate, Kenny Rodriguez, hosted a party at the nightclub Vice Park in Dallas, Texas, where Kendall was accused of kicking out two Black women from his section. “He said, ‘Get them Black bitches out of the section now. They don’t pass the paper brown test, get them out of the section now.’ Kenny was cool. Kendall? Oh yeah, he sniffed that snow.” one of the women said in a social media video after the alleged incident.
To make amends, Kendall invited the women to a beach party after the club incident and posted a video of them having drinks on his Instagram Story. During “The Viall Files” podcast, Nicole, who was unaware of Kendall’s drama, accused Kendall of lying to her about whether there would be women he didn’t know at the club with him and not telling her about the drama with the women until after he posted them on his social media.
“I don’t know why he doesn’t think the truth will get back to me. There were all these girls in his booth. He told me that it was only close friends and family,” Nicole said. “And then he was like, ‘Yeah, no family was actually there and I just want to let you know what was told to me. These girls had it out for me. It’s not my fault. I had to invite them to the day party and post them on my social media because he wanted to squash the beef and clear it up that it was a misunderstanding.’”
Nicole also claimed that Kendall told her that posting the women on his social media to squash the drama was an idea that he, Kenny, and JaNa came up with, which Kenny and JaNa later denied. “He also told me it was me and Kenny. Kenny and me did this. JaNa also helped me plan this. I called her, and she was like, ‘No, I didn’t. I told him to apologize. I didn’t tell him how he should apologize,’” Nicole said.
Nicole also criticized Kendall for not giving her the head’s up about his drama with the women and why he had to post them on his social media until she saw the post. “He also didn’t clue me into anything. I sent him a screenshot of these girls on his story, and he was like, ‘Did you not hear about the drama?’”
Love Island USA is available to stream on Peacock.
