Love Island's Ultimate Bombshell Ekin-Su talks about her experience on All Stars

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Again.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Literally this time around, I feel like you had the
time of your life. Like, as a viewer, I was latching.
I was like, she actually seems like she's so so happy.
Were you actually as happy as you seemed?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I was.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
I was just myself. I was carefree, I was loving life.
I was happy, you know, I was just It's nice
when you know who you are and you go into
a show loving yourself, because if you don't love yourself,
then that's when you know you weren't going to have fun.
So when you do love yourself, you find your partner,

(00:35):
you have fun, you let go of things, and you
just enjoy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
So what did you tell yourself this time around? Because,
like you said, the what.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
You as of you?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Or I just felt like you.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Were so carefree, you were so vulnerable and you just
look so open to find love and it was just
amazing to watch.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thank you. I think personally for me, like I've always been,
this is who I am, and I just know myself more.
I believe in myself more, and I just thought, you
know what, like this is how I'm feeling. I'm just
going to be me and just continue just exploring, and
you know, at some point I was like, I'm going
to cry, Like I'm just gonna like I don't need

(01:16):
to be strong all the time, Like I was holding
my tears in so much. But at the point where
I was like, you know what, it's it's fine because
we're all human and there's going to be people who
understand and who can relate, and I just thought, let
it just all go. And you know, there was times
where I thought I actually forgot who I was. You know,
you are there is an element where people kind of
put you on a pedestal and they're like, yeah, but

(01:37):
you're ecking soon and I'm like, yeah, but I'm just
a girl here to find love and just here for
the same reasons as everyone else. So you know there
is that element too in there.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, come on, I'm just a girl, because that's what
that's my motto. I'm just a girl. I'm just a girl.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Oh what made you go back to say, Okay, I'm
going to do this all over again and and hope
that it actually happens this time.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
What made me go back was thinking, it's just going
to be a laugh, It's going to be fun, and
if I find love, it's going to be a bonus.
And also the fact that you know, I wanted to
rewrite my love story. I really wanted to rewrite because
I wanted to just leave that in the past twenty
twenty two and come back who I am now and

(02:27):
write my own journey. And obviously finding Curves was a bonus.
So I'm very happy and I just had a laugh
and it was nice to be reminded of where I
came from. You know, it felt like home.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
And I know you spoke about how your perspective was
going in a little different this time, But in terms
of your actual experience, how did it differ from the
first time that you were.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
On I think both experiences are the same, but not
the same the first round, I think, obviously you're twenty seven.
I had no idea what the life would bring sort of.
I was always fiery, don't get me wrong, And you know,
it was fun at the time. There were different people

(03:10):
at the time, you know, different subjects were going on,
and different people will bring out different sides to situations.
But I always had fun. I think both times I've
had fun. Both times I've learned lessons. The first time
I definitely learned lessons about myself and I grew from
that onwards. Second time again, I've learned lessons about situations.

(03:31):
You know, sometimes it's good to deal with conflict differently.
You know, like I definitely deal with sort of getting
into almost arguments differently Now. I kind of I just
don't shout as much as I used to, or you know,
I kind of just get in my own sort of
mindset and I just think, well, what is rational to do?
What's the right thing to do? People deal with things differently.

(03:53):
Do people mean things when they're having arguments, when they're
saying words? You know, we say things in a heat
that moment, and we all need to remember that we
are just human and we are here to just find
love and you know that's how I like to see people.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
And would you say that this time around it also
was a little bit easier because you had friends in there,
like I know Luga.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
When we spoke to him, Oh I love Luca.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, he was singing your praises and it's so nice
to have you in the villa. Did you feel like
it was just nice to kind of have that like
security blanket one.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Hundred percent, Like me and Lucas spoke before the show,
like we always chat. We FaceTime, and he had a
rough idea he saw me leaked in the press, and
I kind of didn't want to tell him, but I
was like, listen, I said to him, if you do,
I do it. Like I'm not going in there without
a friend because it's scary. And you know, we're both
from the same show. We've both had relationships that didn't

(04:44):
work out. And I always said to him, listen, you're
my brother. I'm always going to have your back regardless.
And I think Grace is really, really, really well suited
for him, and I'm just happy to see him happy,
you know. And we've been talking ever since, and yeah,
he's he's such a vulnerable sweetheart, and I think he's
such a good role model for guys out there because

(05:06):
he has allowed himself, especially on TV, to let go
and show that vulnerable side. And I think it's so
beautiful and I think people should take no.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
He called himself a lover boy, and I was like,
that's exactly what.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
He's the most thoughtful guy ever, and he will go
beyond for anyone.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Literally, So when we were speaking to him, he just
kept saying, like, Ecken, I love Ecken.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I love Ecken, and.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
He was even saying like she's TV gold and I
was like, she is and I can totally see her
on screen again, would you do more television?

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Girl?

Speaker 3 (05:39):
I'm born on TV. I'll be on TV whenever you
want me to. Thing is with TV is I can
just I don't. I'm not intimidated by cameras. I'm not
sort of this is what you get, the aptrical, whatever
you want to call it. I'm like this in real life.
I'm like this twenty four to seven. Sometimes I think
to myself, me and my friends, we think, gosh, Ecken,
you need a camera to follow you all the time

(06:01):
because the amount of stuff that happened to drama, like
not even like just even going from one location to another,
stuff happens like Yeah, I would one hundred percent be
back on the screens.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yes, we like, are keeping up with eck and sou.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
We do? I'm game for that. Yes.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
And so I know you've been out of the villa
now for like a week and a half.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
What has it been like to go from like, you know,
cameras in your face or just knowing that cameras are
around twenty four to seven to having this now time
to have your love story away from the cameras.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
It's been busy since I got back for me being
on camera off camera, it's the same thing. I've been
like this off camera, and I've been like this on camera.
You know, in the villa time, we have lunchtime where
you're not filmed. The cameras are wrong, but they're not
filming you, you know, at the villa time. And the
thing is, and this is something that me and my

(06:53):
me and my man like we when we were good,
I was plaiting his food up every day and I
was allowed to. Girls and boys are separate, and you're
not really allowed to go where the boys are. And
it's a different table across the island, and I would
plate up for him, sneak and leave it there every day,
every lunch. But you guys won't see that. But then
when the Danielle situation happened, naturally, obviously, I just I

(07:16):
was like, Maye, you can play your own food, do
you know what I mean? I get Danielle to do
that now, you know. But it's the little things, you know,
like which obviously makes it authentic, and you guys only
see an hour of it. So I do feel like
now we're out of the villa, it is more real.
It is more like, well, this is my life now.
I live here, you live there, We've got our friends

(07:37):
and family. Now it's all exciting. I want to take
him to the US. There's so much I want to
do with Curtis and just hopefully like go the whole
way in because girl, I don't want any more boyfriends.
This is the last one.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Now.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
We don't want to see another ekinsuit coming on again.
You know this is.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
It figures class.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
I mean, one of the things I love watching with
you and cre Is is like you guys were able
to kind of keep things private even within the villa.
Like even when you guys kind of made things official,
you were like, yeah, we're not going to tell anybody.
What was like? Is that more would you say maturity
or it is just something that's special to this relationship
that you wanted to kind of keep things a little
closer to the chest.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
For me personally, it feels real that way, And I
know that it's a show we fined. When you live
in there for twenty fours, you don't actually care that
much that there's cameras and it is a show because
it is real. It is authentic how we're feeling in there.
And you know how the saying is, when you tell
one person, it goes round. And the one thing we

(08:38):
learned was when in the beginning we said we were
closed off, and look what happens. You know, everyone was
having an opinion and it just it got bigger than
it did, and for me it felt more real, especially
in the Hide of Way when Curses was talking about
being you know, my girlfriend and stuff like that, that
felt like a real relationship. It didn't feel like, oh,
you know, this person said this, and it wasn't like amplified.

(09:01):
And in the real world, a relationship is between two people.
You don't live with six or seven people under the
same rooftop, you know, you don't. It's just not real.
So for me that's when I knew as well, the
chance that we would have under the covers at night
that no one was you know, that wasn't shown when
Curtis told me he really liked me. That was initially

(09:21):
under the covers at night when people were asleep. So
for me, that's when I knew it was real.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah again, I'm really literally loving this so much. You
have a glow to you. You just seem so happy.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
I want everyone to be happy. Happiness is the best
thing in the world because even when things don't go well,
you're still happy.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Like the thing is, you were happy coming in by yourself,
like it wasn't just like, Oh, I met Curtis and
he brought me this happiness.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I love the package.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, Like I said, you have to love yourself and
you have to understand that life isn't always going to
be flowers and rainbows. Life will give you some tests.
It's like the villa does. If you have if you
can overcome them test when you're feeling really, really low,
you can get back up.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
It's a word. I love it. And so in terms
of you and Curtis, what is next?

Speaker 2 (10:15):
You guys think have you guys started talking about the
families meeting each other, you meeting his family?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
What's next?

Speaker 3 (10:21):
What's next? Is everything? Just basically I've learned lessons from
another relationship in the past, the public one. I think
and Curtis Is were so alike, right. We believe that
a relationship should definitely be private, but we don't believe
that you should rush in and move in together just

(10:43):
like you know, oh, a month and you move in.
No no, no, no no no. It's healthy this way to
have my place his place, I go stay. You know,
when the time is right. Eventually we will discuss that option,
but because of peer pressure, and I know fans always
want to like add pressure, We're not going to do that.
He's going to meet my family, hopefully next week before

(11:03):
my mom flies to Turkey. I've met his brother, adorable.
I've met the brother's girlfriend, Zara. I can't wait to
meet his mom, dad, granddad, everyone, because they mean so
much to me. And you know, the thing is, I
don't feel anxious in a relationship for once, Like it feels.
It feels good. I feel relaxed, you know, like sometimes

(11:24):
I might not hear from Curtis for two hours on
I don't. It's fine. We have lives. But previously my
previous relationships I did feel on edge. But I don't
feel that this time.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
This has got beautiful to hear Eckin. I love hearing this.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, the progression of it are okay. So to wrap
things up, I want to do kind of a little
bit of a rapid fire. So you say the first
thing that comes to your mind. You can explain it
can just make it short whatever you want. So yeah,
we can just go ahead and get started. What song
do you associate with your season of Love Island this year?

Speaker 3 (12:00):
I would say, Oh, I've got it on my phone.
I've got it on my phone, wait for it. Good
luck babe, babe from Chapel Rohan.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yes, I love that, okay?

Speaker 2 (12:15):
And who do you who did you think was gonna
win this season of Our Stars?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
If I'm honest, like, I love Luca and I love
Grace and I also love everyone's a winner. When you
find love, you will win. So for me, I don't
really want to pick anyone, but you know, obviously Luca
is my bro, so you know I was rooting for him.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
He was rooting for you too, he told us he
was like I thought she was gonna win? Okay?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
And who would you fan out over knowing they watched
this season?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Who would I sorry?

Speaker 1 (12:46):
With a people? Would you fan out?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
In terms of celebrities if you found out that the
celebrity watched your season of who would you fin out?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I know that I found out really hardcoret over Margot
Robbie when she watched our season A so I think
her again And all, so maybe someone like Angelina Jolie
or Brad Pitt, you know, like I mean, i'd be yeah,
very very at Jennifer Anderson's Starstruck Beyonce, like I'm.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
There watching Mom Island watching it.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
I'd be like, I'm ekins gone, She's painted.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
And then in terms of games, you guys played a
lot of games this season, which is one that you
would say like, I would never want to play that again.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Lauren, I actually want to. I like games, and I
feel like in the villa you got to put everything
into it, like some people I felt like weren't giving
it everything in the games like challenges, and I feel
like you're on Love Island, like this is a test,
go for it. You know, this is about being confident.
This is about finding that confidence and breaking that shell

(13:49):
of yours and taking a risk. Like for me, I'd
go in harder in some of the games, like let's
let's let's bring the fire in. You know, people need
to be honest in games, and I felt like I've
felt like I was always honest, but I don't want
to give names. But for like, some people could have
said more or done more in the challenges, which would
have been good.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
We look, we know, we love a TV moment from you,
So I appreciate all of your honesty.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
And I would also wrap up something as well that
has I just want to say that, you know, obviously
the rumor situations when you come out, you hear things
and stuff, but there's not been major stuff that I've seen.
But there's something I do want to address, and I
think the misconception about the idea of that I might
not think Grace's is suited for Luca. I saw something

(14:37):
online about something which I laughed with Luca about that
was an opinion of mine in the villa. That's it.
You know, I love them both. I think they're great,
and you know I've addressed that issue with Luca as well.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
We laughed.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
He laughed, Yeah, and it's all good. Like I don't
understand all that that I might think that they're not. No,
that's not true. I actually think it's quite funny. But
it's all loved for everyone.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
You know.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
It's also sometimes like as human beings, we all say
something to somebody.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
You're like, dang, why did I say?

Speaker 2 (15:08):
It was a little petty or whatever, or sometimes it
was just something.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
It's just something that it's an opinion of myself in
the villain. You know, I thought that Luca was into
Grace Moore, and that's fine, but like, I actually think
that Grace is a sweetheart. She's lovely and they're great together,
and you know, like he's killing it. So when I
when I see those stuff, it just makes me laugh
because we're so close. And I actually called Luca about
it and we both just had a little laugh about

(15:35):
it because you know, you know how people fans can
get into your head.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, because I was going to ask that too.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, No, I get out. It's such a misconception and
I don't want, you know, people thinking like that because
it's not true.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Okay. And then now I guess in terms of I know,
you said you called Luca to speak about this rumor,
but who was your first call after you got your
phone back once the season was all.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
It wasn't. It wasn't my manager because we already spoke
to our managers in the villa the night of the final.
It was my mom and I spoke to her for
about an hour because she's a therapist, she's a counselor,
so it felt it was like speaking to a counselor
she adores Curtis. Oh my god, my family. And then
I rang my brother, my dad. Yeah, like I'm not

(16:23):
gonna lie. I quite like not having a phone, So
having the phone back felt a bit like alien to me.
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Again, I didn't know your mom was a therapist.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
I mean, now, surely in the way that you express yourself,
it all makes sense now, honey, I get.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
It from my MoMA.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
No, yeah, she's she's a therapist and she's also a
hypnotherapist as well, so she's done a lot of a
hypnotherapy on me, but she knows a lot about So
I was actually thinking my head on the show. My
mom's probably watching the show thinking this person is this person?
But no, nothing bad to say about my love curt
It's like she's she's just finally finally sees I am happy,

(17:02):
and she hasn't seen that in years with me. So
she's like fingers crossed. This goes the whole that always
you know, the end to the end, because that's what
we want.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
You know, we wanted to a girl. We wanted to
for you.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Want love for everyone. Everyone needs to find everyone. I
always say this, if there's another star, all Stars next year,
and there's probably islanders thing is should I go on it?
Should I not?

Speaker 1 (17:27):
You?

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Should? You should take a risk.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
And go And then last, but at least I wanted
to ask what has been your favorite memory of this season?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
My favorite memory had to be definitely the heart rate
challenge and little like I think, just like little chats
during the day, just I quite like the simple things
you know in the morning when you wake up and
then your man makes a coffee, just little simple things

(17:59):
like and then also the Talent Show, the date with
my with my man, also having my boundaries, like when
I actually finally said how I felt felt good, Like
it was like like I was building it in me,
building it in me, building it in me, and then
I just had to and it felt like like a

(18:22):
weight was lifted off my shoulder.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, yes, said enough.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
It was so fun watching you this season, and I
love seeing you fine love, and I can't wait for
you to come to the States and come to the Eyes.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
I'm coming in two weeks. Yes, yes, you've got both
of you and hug you both and go for lunch
and drinks.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Would love that, love it, and I can't wait for
you to bring Curtis because he doesn't know what the
US is all about yet.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
And he's got to New York City, and I think
he's going to visit me when I'm out there. So
I'm flying to Texas first and then going to New York.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
So, oh my god, you have the show all about it.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Also, apparently we look like Chris Humphreys and Kim k.
There was a picture that went viral on Twitter of
me and Curtis sitting there watching the fashion show and
it went viral and me, me and me and Cuts
were laughing and we're like, actually, I can see it
a little bit, but let's just type our marriage last
longer than that.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
That's the truth. That's the true.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Oh I felt like, how has it been? I'm kind
of going on script now. I saw you at the
fashion shows with Curtis and you guys were matching.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
How nice is that?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Like?

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Are you guys like the matching couple? Do you think?
Is that your vibe?

Speaker 3 (19:33):
It's our vibe? And I feel like Curtis is such
a he just lets me shine, babe, Like he just
he makes me take the lead, do you know what
I mean? It's like he just believes in me and
it makes me just it makes me shine more and
I'm just even more myself around him, and he looks
good in a suit. I'm not gonna lie, And everyone
says the height difference is just perfect.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yes, I mean, I can't wait to see y'all dancing
around in the like. That's what I'm really looking forward
because you need.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
A dance competition or a show together. We do something together,
you know that'd be so poor.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Oh my god, we need to get you on Dancing
with the Stars in the US second, Yeah, get beyond.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Honestly, I would love to do soth I Peder went on,
I would love to do Dancing with the Stars, especially
for the US because US is my it's my love.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
We love you, we love you.