Love Island’s Kem Cetinay on wild sex and passionate romance with Amber Davies and why it all ended
THEIR wild sex and passionate romance captivated millions – but less than a year on, the love story for Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies is well and truly over.
As a new batch of waxed hunks and toned ladies prepare to enter the Love Island villa tonight, last year’s champs provide a stark warning about the reality of finding love and having sex on national television.
Kem, 22, says he knew after just five months that he would have to end it with the woman he previously thought he would marry.
Speaking for the first time about why he ended their fling, the Essex ex-hairdresser admits “the spark was going” with Amber, 21.
He tells the new episode of The Dan Wootton Interview podcast: “It was me who called it a day. I couldn’t carry on going on the way we were. We were arguing over silly things and it just didn’t feel right.
“We slowly realised we were different in some ways and started to clash more. I think we grew apart a bit.
“It was so hard because we were living together. It was just a really emotional time.”
So far, so family friendly. But there is a side of the Love Island phenomenon I simply cannot get my head around: Having sex in front of the cameras when you KNOW your family — including your beloved mum and even your grandma — are watching back in the UK.
Amber Davies reveals having sex on Love Island can be 'damaging' but she 'wouldn't change a thing'
In the cold light of day, Kem is clearly a little ashamed.
He shakes his head, saying: “I didn’t really think about it before I went on there. I just took everything as it came. My mum said she was hiding behind the cushions. I didn’t think about them watching it.
“I feel a little bit bad. But at the time, I didn’t think about that.
“Luckily for me, I was with the same girl the whole time and I met the girl I wanted from the beginning.
“It felt so right for me, I fancied her so much and I liked her so much that it was normal.
“But we didn’t think we were up to that much naughtiness. If you think about it, we had the whole day . . . we were all doing stuff and it was only in the evening when it was happening. This was three or four weeks in.
“OK, there was one day where it was during the day . . . I apologise. Sorry, Mum.”
But Kem, who will host Love Island’s official Morning After podcast during the series, defends contestants’ right to have sex with the telly cameras rolling.
He says: “I can see why people find it unusual that people are having sex on TV but at the same time, the whole format of the show being the way it is, you can’t expect them not to.
“It’s not like they are just sleeping around with anyone.
“These people are invested in relationships, they are going on dates.
“So it would be weird if they’re sharing a bed every night after a while to not sleep together. I don’t think it’s anything that should be looked down on. It’s only normal that would happen. No, I have no regrets.”
Nowadays Kem can’t go about his day-to-day life without being accosted by passing admirers.
He says: “I had these two girls come up to me in a shopping centre and they were like ‘We’ve booked a hotel room, do you want to go back?’
“I was like, ‘I’ve only just come here for shopping to be fair so . . . ’”
Yet he almost didn’t make it on to the show at all. Before heading to Majorca, Kem’s mental health was so fragile his mum was scared about the effects of taking part.
Kem, who is now a Childline ambassador, battled depression and anxiety for a decade. It got so bad he struggled to leave the house. He says: “When I went in there, I had so many things going through my head and my parents kept telling me not to go.
“My mum was crying every day and was like, ‘You’ve just got yourself together, why are you going to throw yourself into this and put yourself in a vulnerable position?’
I thought, ‘I want to give it a go. I want to use everything I’ve got around me to get rid of this stigma and help boys and girls talk more and see there’s a place where they can talk and get their emotions out and be positive’.”
Kem was devastated when Amber was romantically linked to Towie’s Pete Wicks just weeks after their split in December. He says: “The first time I saw she had a boyfriend, I burst into tears and my mum was like, ‘You haven’t cried this whole time’.
“I don’t even know why I was crying. It was really strange to see someone I was in that situation with now showing the same emotions towards someone else.”
Kem has no regrets about their whirlwind time together, saying: “She was my first love. She played a massive part in Love Island for me. She’s always going to have a soft spot in my heart, she was my first girlfriend. I think we’re both better off single.”
He adds: “She blocked me (on Instagram) after we broke up.
“We were never going to get back after the break-up. I think we drew the line there. We ended it so well and we both still spoke all the time and we just thought, ‘If we’re still speaking and we’re still on such good terms, we made the right decision’.”
Kem, who went on to appear in Janaury’s Dancing On Ice, has some advice for the latest Islanders.
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He says: “Throw yourself in a little bit vulnerable and not so caught up in what’s going to happen after.
“Be yourself. The public love a normal person. That must have been the reason I did well. I’m not a model. I was never the best-looking one in there. I never had the best body and I wasn’t trying to be the alpha male.
“I went in there completely vulnerable to everything that was happening.
“The support that came off the back of it, the people I met, the things I’ve been able to do — it’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me.”