Love Island’s latest exits: Rochelle and Erin open up

New broom sweeps clean as the dust and newcomers settle in the Love Island South Africa villa. This past week we saw the departure of Sarah, Durang and now Miss Asad the first, Erin Japhta and friendzone Rochelle van Vuuren has also made her exit.

Replacing them, two new pinups and a pair of hunks, hopefully injecting some love, lust and action into “Friend Island”, social media’s new term for the dating show where there has just been no real sizzle.

Erin and Rochelle left the villa on Friday night after neither found much love. Yet, friendzone Rochelle hints that had Jay Freemantle had managed to hold on a bit longer, she may have bagged him.

“Jay embodied everything I had gone into the villa for. He was very kind, confident, ambitious, and fun. He had high morals and so much respect for me and women in general.”

She adds: “I wish that the public were able to see more of Jay and I because I felt we had such a special connection that had begun to bloom! The other boys in the house I did not see potential in, and I always wanted to stay true to myself. I therefore did not force anything with the other people in the house once Jay had left.

I always knew that whatever I had formed with someone in the house romantically, that I would want it to last on the outside world.

The boys in the house were very close friends of mine and I was never romantically interested in them, so I wasn’t able to fake it just for the sake of the show.”

Now off air, 22-year-old Erin Japhta will be returning to Los Angeles to graduate in the next two months and pursue a career in marketing and fashion. “The first thing I am going to do after leaving the show is to go and eat a mountain of sushi,” she says.

On Love Island, the only man she wanted to devour was Asad. “I would definitely say Asad was the only guy I had feelings for and developed a proper connection with, when things ended it was difficult to move on from what I felt for him.”

She adds before Asad’s bang-a-gong with Sarah, she thought that there was a possibility to couple with the man-about-villa.  “As days went on, I was certainly waiting for a bombshell to come through the doors hoping that I would develop another great connection.

Since I did not feel a romantic connection with any of the other boys in the villa, I wasn’t able to force anything and go against what I knew to be true.”

Erin has no hard feelings toward Sarah. “I honestly love Sarah so much. She was one of my closest friends in the villa.

I think it was easy to pit us against each other and make it seem like we were not friends, but she was one of the few girls that I connected so deeply with.

Sarah and I spoke a lot about life and why we are the way we are, she even raided my closest every night and used a couple of my hair products, and I seriously loved that about our relationship. No boy could come between the special friendship we have.”

It seemed like Rochelle and Ian had a connection, and there was room to blossom. But the Demi Moore doppelganger says no. “Ian always spoke to me and said a lot of words, but once our conversations were over, something never sat right in my gut. I was never sure just how sincere Ian was with me and I felt like he always just had his eyes set on me from day one.

However, I always felt Ian was a smart boy and would have dropped whoever he needed to when he wanted to. He stayed in the friendzone because regardless of having a lot in common, he was not the man for me.

The day that I left, I had a feeling that he was going to blindside me, and I was unfortunately right. I am so content now and so proud of the way I did things this season, and I truly am not regretting any decision I made when it came to Ian.”

Rochelle now plans to return to her former profession as a social media influencer. In the next few months, I plan on working hard to continue achieving the goals I always had set out for myself.

Before stepping into the villa, I was working as a digital creator on Instagram for various brands.” She says she plans to ‘dig deep’ to work with more brands”

I would love to expand into the TV business and maybe become a TV presenter. I also plan on spending quality time with my mother who has been my biggest role-model and inspiration.”

For Erin, men are the last thing on her mind: “I am really wanting to use this time to reflect on myself, put the effort into my career and work on being the best version of myself for when the time comes.

I am also a strong believer in following your own path and when something comes naturally to see where it goes.

However, if a loving, mature, ambitious, fun, adventurous man with strong morals and values comes my way it would be very difficult to let that opportunity pass.”

Author Hein Kaiser

Hein Kaiser is a seasoned journalist, broadcaster, producer, and marketing communication professional.

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