LOVE Island 2026 has started in dramatic fashion with everything from a villa makeover and multiple surprise twists.
Love Island officially returned to our screens for Series 13 with a history-making twist for night one.
In an extra-long episode, 12 singletons entered the famous Majorcan villa and coupled up, albeit some of them a bit reluctantly.
This year’s class of 2026 includes an Arsenal footballer’s ex and a detective, and presenter Maya Jama was on hand looking stunning as ever to welcome them to their new home.
The premiere episode in a shocking twist, with the introduction of two bombshells who were given 24 hours to decide who they want dumped from the villa.
“We’re going to be evil,” said bombshell Yasmin when told of their mission.
Get the drama as it unfolds in the Love Island villa with our latest updates…
Day one bombshell shock
Bombshells, George and Yasmin, looked ready to step on toes as they headed into the villa just hours after the show kicked off.
These two are set to bring chaos over the coming episodes after a brutal twist was unveiled by Maya.
Host Maya Jama met the bombshell’s outside the villa and gave them the shocking news that in 24 hours one boy and one girl will be dumped from the villa.
However it seems it won’t be traditional dumping that fans are used to – the Islanders can be dumped for any reason.
Usually when a bombshell chooses who they want to couple up with their partner is sensationally dumped from the Island.
Want more Love Island?
If tonight’s episode wasn’t enough to whet your Love Island appetite, then the accompanying podcast will be a perfect addition.
Called Love Island: The Debrief it is hosted by 2025 breakout stars Shakira Khan, Yas Pettet and Toni Laites.
The trio will also appear on the panel of Love Island: Aftersun with former islanders Tyrique Hyde and Casey O’Gorman.
They will be joined by podcaster and TikTok star Joe Baggs – which The Sun revealed earlier this year.
When does Love Island 2026 finish?
ITV’s sensational showpiece returned tonight, with Maya Jama back as host and a £50,000 prize up for grabs.
ITV hasn’t officially confirmed a final date for Love Island 2026 yet, but past series give us a pretty good idea about the lay of the land.
The summer edition almost always runs for roughly eight weeks, with the live final traditionally held on a Monday night.
With series 13 kicking off on Monday, June 1, that same eight-week stretch points towards the grand final taking place on or around Monday, July 27, 2026.
Fans in hysterics at Mica’s blunder
Bajan beauty Mica’s faux pas had people laughing but she may have had the last laugh
During the first ice breaker, Maya Jama asked which Islanders each other fancied.
Maya asked Mica: “Got your eyes on anyone?”
Without hesitation, she responded: “I’d say Samjay.”
Samraj hit back: “My name is Samraj.”
But her blunder did not seem to faze him in the long run as they ended up in a couple and he said they were “100 percent natural.”
Meet your bombshells #2: Yasmin
The 23-year-old is a recruitment consultant from Kent and describeds giggling as her flirting superpower.
“I can giggle my way through everything. I’m also like an eye contact person. If I’m on a night out and I see someone that I like, it will be the eye contact that starts it. But I wouldn’t call that a red flag,” she says.
Her type is “someone who’s funny.”
“I bounce off people who are funny, so I think that’s very important to me. I love an accent – anyone who’s got an accent – could be Irish, a Manchester accent, I love it,” Yasmin says.
“Also tall. I’m really, really small, but I love someone who’s just really tall next to me, and can look after me, that kind of thing.”
Meet your bombshells #1: George
The lad is a 28-year-old professional footballer from Winchester.
“I like natural, well-spoken, well-presented girls. I don’t want too much energy or the loudest girl in the room, I don’t like all of that,” he says.
His type is “tanned brunettes, quite minimalist looking, not much make up, dresses really well, funny, charismatic, all of that stuff.”
Learning Irish
Speaking of expanding our vocabulary, Sean has taught us what a “spoofer” is in Irish slang.
He’s just slung the term at Robyn and apparently it means someone who lies or exaggerates the truth.
Do we need to buy Lorenzo a dictionary?
Maybe we’re starting to see why Lorenzo is single.
He’s managed to call Jasmine both “promiscuous” and a “bad b***h” in just two conversations.
Lorenzo’s backtracked pretty quickly both times and has promised to only refer to Jasmine as a “bad babe” moving forward.
We were promised shocks, and they were delivered!
ITV has been teasing big twists early on in the season, and the Islanders have just woken up to some shocking news from Maya.
Two bombshells will be entering the villa, George and Yasmin.
Maya has told them they have a very important task and that in 24 hours, one boy and one girl will be dumped and they can choose who will get dumped, and they can give them the boot for any reason.
And we have our first kiss of 2026, kinda
Aidan wastes no time getting started as he asks Ellie for a kiss, and she settles for giving him a peck.
He tells her: “Mmm, that was nice.”
“It was f****ing peck, relax,” she bluntly tells him.
The couples may be splintering…. already??
After coupling up Sam and Robyn go for a chat and he reveals to her he’s hard of hearing and wears hearing aids.
“That’s ok, I’m very loud,” Robyn assures him.
But she doesn’t waste any time in moving away from him to ask Sean for a chat, even though he has coupled up with Lola.
The latter is giving them side-eye as Robyn confronts Sean on why he was not picked.
The sparks seem to fly between Sean and Robyn, so maybe they’ll recouple sooner rather than later.
Our (early) Love Island couples are:
- Mica & Samraj
- Lorenzo & Jasmine
- Ellie & Aidan
- Ope & Angelista
- Lola & Sean
- Robyn & Sam
And now we couple up
In one of many twists this season, the Islanders are choosing who they want to couple up with rather than it being left up to the public.
Maya emphasises that Islanders “should go for what they want” and not hide their feelings about who they want to couple up with.
“Are you gonna play it safe, or will you step outside of your comfort zone for the right person?” she says.
This icebreaker is awkward
The Islanders were asked:
- Girls take a sip if you think any of the boys are handsome. Everyone sips.
- Maya asks the boys to take a sip if there’s a girl who is exactly their type, but only Samraj, Sam and Sean drink.
- Next Maya asks them to drink if they’ve seen a red flag in the Villa, if they’ve spotted a girl who is high maintenance and lastly, if any of the girls think the boys will be trouble.
But the girls did not seem too happy with being labelled high maintenance, and Jasmine said the boys gave red flags for not drinking when asked if their type was there.
“There are so many beautiful girls here,” Jasmine says to the boys.
International line-up
The Islanders so far seem to be from lots of parts of the world.
Jasmine grew up in Dubai, Samraj is Indian and also lived in Germany, Sean is a teacher from Galway, and Mica hails from Barbados.
