I met the love of my life in the villa – but we still didn’t deserve to beat Mimii and Josh, says Nicole Samuel

LOVE Island runners-up Nicole and Ciaran might have outlasted series champs Mimii and Josh - but Nicole still believes they were worthy winners.

Smitten Welsh couple Nicole and Ciaran hit it off early into the summer run and were destined to make it through the series together.

Within days of returning to the UK they had moved in together and they've been glued at the hip ever since.

Many couples have fallen by the wayside in the series aftermath, most recently the series' winners, but Nicole believes Josh and Mimii's triumph was valid.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she said: "No, I don't think that we are the real winners of the series.

"I feel like Mimi and Josh did deserve that win. She went through a lot when we went to Casa [Amor]. She had a bit of an up and down experience in there whereas ours was a bit more smooth sailing, so I feel like she deserved the win, and Josh coming in the way he did all for Mimi and the way the interest was in him, I feel like they were the two winners.

"However, me and Ciaran left with each other so we're not complaining."

Though Nicole hasn't watched any episodes of her villa stint back, she says her time on the show met expectations and then some.

Ultimately, she might not have scooped the £50k jackpot, but she walked away with the prize she was looking for.

She said: "I've come out with the love of my life so it's definitely everything I hoped before I went in there.

"I never thought I'd ever meet somebody like Ciaran so it's hit my expectations and more."

The couple are taking their relationship slowly having spent its formative weeks in a whirlwind of challenges and threats from beautiful bombshells.

Though Nicole is hoping to spend the rest of her life with Ciaran, there are no immediate plans to hurry through an engagement and wedding.

"At the end of the day we are a really new relationship so I don't feel like that will be on our agenda for the next year," she said.

"However, you date to get to that stage with somebody so it's definitely on the cards, because I wouldn't be dating him if I didn't want to marry him, so it's definitely on the cards, however not anytime soon.

"We both kind of when we went into the villa and obviously told each other that we were dating to be with somebody for life because you don't want to date and not be with somebody forever, so we both kind of knew where our heads were at when we first had that conversation going on in the villa, saying that we want to find somebody now. So yeah, we both just knew."

The couple are very much Welsh sweethearts, and with hundreds of thousands of followers plenty of people want to see what Ciaran and Nicole do next.

So could a spin-off reality show on their romance be on the cards?

"I feel like in the future that may be the plans for us," said Nicole. "However we're just enjoying our time at the minute. There's shows that I would love to work on, there's shows that Ciaran would love to work on, so we'll just see what comes forward for us.

"I feel like one of my biggest dreams if I went on to another show would be Celebrity SAS, which I'm watching at the moment and I'm loving it, and Strictly, which I haven't had time to watch yet, however them two would definitely be the dream."

In the meantime there's the little matter of their first Christmas together.

The family-orientated pair have already got their plans in place and it ensures both the Samuels and Davies clans are happy.

Nicole said: "So we're spending Christmas at his mum's and then going away with my family for New Year.

"I feel like that's the Welsh for us as well, we're very family people, family is such an important thing to both of us."