‘Temptation Island’ Stars Javen Butler and Shari Ligons Explain Their Heated Last Moments Together

Javen Butler and Shari Ligons may have nearly a decade-long relationship under their belts, but the couple certainly wasn’t feeling the love in their final moments on Temptation Island before being split up and thrown to the singles.

The couple opened up about their tense good-bye to PopCulture.com ahead of Tuesday’s all-new episode of the USA Network reality show, which tests couples’ love and dedication to one another on an island filled with sexy singles.

Watching their bickering back in the series premiere, Shari, 25, admits “it was pretty intense,” adding, “Me and Javen were really going at each other’s throats for a little bit.”

Javen, 25, agrees the exchange was cringeworthy now that he can watch the moments back, but the two add it wasn’t the singles’ introductions that prompted the fight, but an off-camera discussion (and a few drinks) that put them on the wrong foot.

“We were kind of picking at each other and being a little petty,” Javen explains, adding, “Shari, she’s very sweet, but when she’s in her mood, she just kind of showed a different side of her.”

Shari adds, “I think we were both subconsciously starting to develop an anxiety of ‘We’re here, we’re doing this.’ It got really real really fast.”

Shari and Javen might have drawn the eyes of their fellow couples while they were bickering, but she insists it wasn’t as bad as it might have seemed to viewers at home.

“I definitely feel like it was a little tough to watch, but at the same time those mics pick up on everything,” she explains. “When me and Javen were having that conversation, we weren’t yelling, we weren’t cursing, but those mics pick up on everything.”

The high school sweethearts, who first met at 16, have been through a lot together, but decided to give Temptation Island a try after lingering trust issues stemming from a past infidelity on Javen’s part kept making their way into the couple’s discussions about their future together.

“I have a past, and she always holds it against me,” Javen recalls of the decision to apply on the show. “She’s been this perfect girlfriend … and started to guilt trip me.”

Shari agrees she was having trouble letting go of the cheating, which is why she wanted to put her beau to the test in an environment “where we both have to face each other and there are no secrets.”

Resisting temptation might have been harder than it looked at first for Javen, however, who admits he “imagined walking around and just deflecting temptations,” but was shocked at how things change when you spend time getting to know people and start to see them as friends.

“Temptation is sneaky,” he confesses, adding of his time on the island, “I grew a lot as a person. When people tune in and see my story they’re going to see really who I am.”

Shari teased of the couple’s journey that “all the positives outweigh the negatives” in the end, but fans of Temptation Island will have to tune in to see how they fare.

Temptation Island airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA.

Photo credit: USA