Watching his girlfriend of nearly five years in bed with another man certainly wasn’t what Rick Fleur expected for his first Temptation Island bonfire. After telling Ashley Goldson “the cuffs are off” when it comes to their time with the singles in the Island villas, Rick told PopCulture.com ahead of Thursday’s all-new episode of the USA reality show that he certainly didn’t expect her to jump into bed with KB so quickly.
“As you can see in my face [at the bonfire], I was super shocked,” he said of watching back the footage of Ashley and KB. “It was a lot of shock, embarrassment. Like, I know this chick did not bring me here to be doing this … off-the-bat full-blown cheat.”
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Looking back at his comment about the cuffs being off, Rick admitted he didn’t expect it to send Ashley spiralling with fears about what he was doing with the singles in the men’s villa.
“To be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be as impactful when I did say it,” he told PopCulture. “I just meant, like, you’re here and I’m not cuffed to you … we both know what we signed up for. I didn’t know she would take it so literally and take it down that route of actually being single.”
Ashley cheating definitely wasn’t his concern heading into Temptation Island, where he was looking to redeem himself from his past infidelity in their relationship.
“I was more concerned about what I was gonna do,” Rick said, explaining the message he wanted to send to his girlfriend was, “Ashley, chill the f— out. I can chill out and be around women and not want to act out like a single guy.”
Despite being “hurt” by Ashley’s relationship with KB, Rick wanted to focus on his own journey moving forward, not on getting revenge.
“It wasn’t like a ‘Game On’ type of situation,” he recalled. “It was ‘OK, I’m hurt, this sucks. I want to use this time to reflect, heal, and grow from this.”
And while his chemistry and relationship with Medinah definitely took a step forward during last week’s episode with the pair’s first kiss, he assured fans of their connection, “That s— was real.”
Looking back on everything, Rick has one piece of advice for couples considering a stay on Temptation Island: “Don’t go to Temptation Island. Warning! Warning! So not go to Temptation Island. …It’s a mind f— to be honest.”
Temptation Island airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA.
Photo credit: USA
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