Love Island’s Cynthia Taiwo reveals unseen footage that led to the infamous “straddle scene” and opens up about the real reason she cried at the recoupling.

Chatting to hosts Bobby Norris and Stephen Leng on the showbiz gossip programme Access All Areas, the reality star spoke candidly about her experience on the show: “There’s a lot that goes on that you don’t see. You don’t see that I had a conversation with Shaq [Muhammad], you don’t see I had a conversation with Ron [Hall], you don’t see I had a conversation with Tom [Clare]. I had a lot of conversations with Ron actually in the sense of the Casey [O’Gorman] situation.” 

She continued: “After the night of the straddle I was really worried that it was a bit much because that’s just how I am. That was something I would have probably done in real life, just not on the terrace. I was really worried about it so I spoke to Ron and he was like “no I don’t know what you’re talking about. Casey loved every single second of it!” The reason why Casey was lying down on the terrace was because he’d hurt his neck behind the scenes doing a pull up. So that’s why he was lying down.” 

Later in the interview, the dental assistant and baker opened up about coming to terms with being rejected by co-star Casey O’Gorman: “I’m really fine about it. At the end of the day, he’s made his decision, he thought that was the best decision for him. I have to accept it; I can’t do anything to change it.” 

She continued: “When I love, I love so intensely, and I did really like him. I still really like him! I think he’s a great guy, I think he’s really lovely. We got on like a house on fire, obviously you guys saw that. So it is disappointing when you don’t get picked because I genuinely thought that I was probably going to get picked.”

The 25-year-old also revealed the real reason she cried at the recoupling scene: “Ron was looking at me, Tom was looking at me. Everyone was looking at me apart from Casey. Certain scenes got cut. I made a comment of “I guess I’m the girl that never gets picked” and Ron was basically saying “Cyn I promise you someone will pick you” and that’s when I really started to cry and I turned around. That’s what set me off.”

Listen to the full episode, also featuring Shazia Hussain, Olivia Bowen and Alex Bowen here.