Love Island’s Luke M starts lockdown romance with Lucie Donlan after split with Demi Jones
LOVE Island's Luke Mabbott has set his sights on fellow ITV2 star Lucie Donlan a month after splitting with Demi Jones, The Sun Online can exclusively reveal.
Earlier this month, Demi, 21, confirmed her relationship with Luke was dead in the water due to "little effort" on his part.
She told how social distancing and the 312 miles between her Portsmouth home and his pad in Redcar played its part.
But now The Sun Online can reveal that the Justin Bieber look-a-like has started a romance with another Love Islander - who lives even further away from him than Demi - 22-year-old Lucie.
A source told us its early days for the reality TV pair but: "Luke and Lucie have been speaking for a few weeks but they haven't actually met up yet".
The Sun Online have contacted Luke M and Lucie Donlan's reps for comment.
In recent weeks, eagle-eyed fans spotted that their Instagram captions heavily hinted at the romance while Luke has liked all of Lucie's posts.
In one Instagram post, Lucie tellingly captioned a swimsuit shot, "Dear tummy...Sorry for all the butterflies lately.
"I swear it’s not my fault.. it’s his 🤫🦋🦋".
Yesterday, Luke M also hinted at the romance on his feed when he captioned a shirtless shot: "Since you’ve been around I smile a lot more than I used to."
But it seems like Demi is trying to warn Lucie off her former flame.
After Lucie posted that she was "catching feelings not flights'", Demi posted her own sexy Instagram with the caption: "Honey take my advice, catch that flight'".
The romance news comes after Demi told how social distancing and the 312 miles between her native Portsmouth and his home in Redcar took its toll on their romance earlier this month.
The stylish influencer and heating engineer were never official despite coming out of the sun-soaked villa as a couple, and she has revealed the lack of communication during the coronavirus pandemic sealed their fate.
The Sun Online exclusively confirmed their sad split last month.
Yet it was his lack of response to her messages which proved the biggest issue.
Newly-single Demi told the MailOnline: "We've completely called it off now, I think it was brought about more from his behalf than mine, but we're mutual and friendly.
"With lockdown, it drove us apart and we live so far away from each other. I feel like there wasn't a lot of effort made with communication, so we drifted as a result. It's a shame and bad timing."
She added: "As lockdown went on, little effort was made so it was called off. I feel like the ship has sailed now due to the way it was handled.
"I feel like we were supposed to be honeymoon phase, I'd text him often but that wasn't really reciprocated. He is a lovely boy."
Yet the brunette, who came in third place with her man on the show, insisted their is no bad blood between the pair and she was looking forward to meeting up with him when social distancing regulations allow.
The couple got together in the villa after Nas dumped Demi for Eva in Casa Amor.
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Speaking of the break-up at the time, a source exclusively told The Sun Online: "It's no huge drama.
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"They're just better off as friends. They had a good run but they have split for good."
Meanwhile, Lucie appeared on 2019's summer installment and coupled up with Joe Garratt, who she split from in December.