‘Love Island USA’ Winners Olivia and Korey Discuss What’s Ahead for Their Journey Together (Exclusive)

While they had quite the unique journey to get there, Olivia Kaiser and Korey Gandy were named the winners of Love Island Season 3 on Sunday night. The two coupled up toward the end of the season after realizing that they wanted to take their friendship to the next level. After leaving the Love Island bubble, Korey and Olivia spoke with PopCulture.com about their connection, winning the show, and what’s next for the lovebirds.

As fans know, Olivia and Korey were good friends before their relationship turned romantic. According to the couple, they both knew something more between them when the Casa Amor twist took place. When asked when they knew that there was a spark between them, Korey said, “For me, it was Casa Amor, you know, when Olivia and the rest of the girls left. At first, we had that kind of initial high of, oh, we got five new people, let’s welcome them in the villa, make them feel like they’re having a good time, et cetera. But I just remember going to sleep that night, and I was thinking about Olivia, and I was like, ‘Dang, I actually miss this girl.’”

Korey adds throughout the “whole entire time,” he was comparing how it was with the new girls versus how things were with Olivia and everyone else. “So, for me, that was when it really started to hit my mind that there might be something a little bit more than like a friendship with Olivia,” he said. As for Olivia, she had a similar answer for when she knew she and Korey could become more than friends. She explained that when she went to Casa Amor, she “wasn’t making the connection” she “wanted with any of the guys” there. “I just kept thinking about Korey too. I had no idea he was thinking the same thing,” Olivia said. “So, going back, I was just really winging it and going back… Thankfully, luckily enough, he reciprocated those feelings, and here we are.”

Olivia and Korey were both “OGs” on Season 3 of Love Island, meaning they were there from Day 1. According to the couple, they’re unsure if they would have made things work had they coupled up at the very beginning of the season. In other words, they were always meant to be friends first.

“We talk about this all the time. If we were to couple up on day one, we probably wouldn’t have worked out. I think we were too guarded,” Olivia explained. “Actually, no, we were. We were too guarded; we weren’t ready … I am so happy that it worked out that way because I’ve never had a boyfriend or anyone that I was talking to or with, be a best friend first. It’s kind of just always just been hot and heavy from the jump. And I think a lot of important decisions in my life have been skewed because me and that person weren’t on the same page. So, the fact that we’re on the same page and now we just get to enjoy each other and just have a good time, it’s like honestly, indescribable.”

Even though they just got out of the Love Island Villa, Korey and Olivia already have some plans about what’s next in terms of the future of their relationship. “We’re kind of free birds,” Olivia said. “We run our own… I run my own business, so I can leave whenever I want to. He is on track to just succeeding in life so he can do whatever he wants. So yeah, we’re just going to have fun; we’re going to travel a lot.”

Korey added that they’re down for anything “spontaneous” with Olivia. “Like she said, we’re both kind of in a position to where there’s nothing tying us down to where we live and everything like that,” he said. “We can just wake up one morning and just like, ‘Let’s go to Greece, that’s what we’re doing.’ So I’m excited.”

All episodes of Love Island Season 3 are currently available to stream on Paramount+. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by ViacomCBS Streaming, a division of ViacomCBS.