‘Love Island USA’: Val Bragg Shares Her Take on Her Love Triangle With Jesse and Deb (Exclusive)

The fourth season of Love Island USA only recently kicked off, but the first Islander has already left the Villa. In the first recoupling, Valerie ‘Val’ Bragg was dumped after her relationship with Jesse Bray failed to take off and he decided to couple up with Deb Chubb. Following her time on Love Island USA, Val got to chat with PopCulture.com and shed some more insight into what went wrong between her and Jesse. 

Nearly as soon as Val and fellow late arrival Mady McLanahan entered the Villa, they were tasked with coupling up with one of the OG Islanders. According to Val, she spoke with all of the men and Jesse was the only one that gave her “reassurance” and said that he was into her. However, she didn’t have a ton of time to foster a relationship with him before he expressed his intentions to pursue a relationship with Deb. She explained that they were only coupled up for a day and a half before Jesse said that he wanted to focus on Deb and that they didn’t even speak for a whole day within that time. 

“The thing between Jesse and I too, I feel like we really didn’t get that much time to talk … And I feel like that’s the one thing that led into us not really developing the connection that we were expecting,” Val explained. “‘Cause he did tell me, ‘I’m very much physically attracted to you more, I want to get to know you more, right now, yeah I have a strong connection with Deb because I’ve spoken to her more, but I’m very much very interested in you.’” She added, “And I think just because we weren’t able to have the conversations that we wanted, we weren’t able to make the connection that could have been. But then again, I feel like he wasn’t honest from the start.”

Viewers saw that Val was the one who confronted Jesse about his feelings after both she and Deb had a discussion about the situation. She said, “I think if I had not put him on the spot like that, he wouldn’t have said that. Honestly, he probably would’ve waited until the recoupling and then figured it out.” Val and Jesse’s conversation ended with her closing the door on their relationship, and it’s a door that she’s keeping closed. As she closes that door, Val even had some words of caution for Deb as she and Jesse continue their relationship on Love Island USA. 

“I feel like my shutting that door, it kind of just led him to just be okay, now I can just focus on Deb rather than being with two girls. But I don’t know. Honestly, if I were Deb, I would just watch out because if he did that once, what’s stopping him from doing it again?” Val said. “I get her situation because she was vulnerable. So, I get where she’s coming from. But, I think it was a little bit [that] I wouldn’t have done that myself [recoupled]. I would proceed with caution for sure. But, you know, to each his own.”