‘Love Island Games’: Johnny Shares His Side to All of the Villa Drama

The first season of Love Island Games was full of drama, and much of it stemmed from one individual in particular, Johnny Middlebrooks. The Love Island USA alum found himself at odds with several women during his time in the Villa, as he coupled up with Imani Wheeler, Jess Losurdo, Courtney Boerner, and Aurelia Lamprecht. While Johnny definitely appeared to be the season’s playboy, he expressed a different version of the events during an interview with PopCulture.com and shared his side of the story. 

The most significant relationship drama that Johnny experienced was with Love Island Australia alum Jess. As viewers saw, he moved on with Courtney despite being coupled up with Jess. However, Johnny explained that Jess closed the door on their relationship, leaving him confused when she expressed her frustrations with him at one of the firepit recouplings. He said, “It makes it look like I was just telling her [Jess] sweet nothings and saying, ‘Oh, I like you so much, you have nothing to worry about,’ but really, Jess just friend-zoned me and we basically just ended the whole romantic side of things.”

After they seemingly ended things, Johnny moved on with Courtney. Fans got to see how things shook out after Johnny told Courtney that he had been waiting for her to come into the Villa. But, as he puts it, he was trying to express that he was waiting for someone who was the “best of both worlds” in terms of the competition and the romantic connection. 

“It just made it seem like I was just this snake, this menace that’s just talking behind everyone’s back, and I’m just sitting here like … because that was out of context completely,” he explained. “And that’s why when Jess snapped on me, I looked at her like… Because we just friend-zoned it, ‘Why are you snapping on me?’ And what I really said to Courtney, it wasn’t even bad at all, it wasn’t malicious one bit. So I’m getting this rap that I’m this vindictive maniacal guy, but really I’m super transparent and honest with these girls.”

Johnny also shared his side of the story as it pertained to the end of his relationship with Courtney. He said that Courtney was the one who cooled things off after the duel between Jess and Liberty, and Jack and Mike. The Love Island USA alum claimed that they agreed that they were “locked in” when the bombshells first came in, but that after the duel, she told him that they “closed things off too early.” Johnny thinks that Courtney may have gotten in her head about the situation, but that after this point, he moved on with Aurelia. 

Even though Johnny said that he led with honesty, it did seem as though many of the women he was courting were incensed by his actions. When pressed on whether he was as forthcoming as he could have been with those women, he maintained that he tried to be as transparent as possible but that he did admit that he “100%” could have done some things differently. Johnny said, “I made it my ultimate goal to be as transparent as possible with everybody, and I know that I was. I know that I respected everybody, even though it doesn’t look like that. And I know that people probably just won’t believe that regardless.”