The winners of this year’s first season of Love Island have been announced.
On Monday night, the ninth series of the ITV2 reality show came to a close, with the public choosing Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan in the live final.
Kai was one of the series’ original contestants, having been in the villa since day one.
He coupled up with Sanam shortly after her entrance mid-way through the season, and they had remained an item ever since.
Just behind them in second place were Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins, who initially paired up on their first day in the villa, but recoupled with various other Islanders until their reunion three weeks in.
Samie Elishi and Tom Clare took third place, while OGs Shaq Muhammad and Tanya Manhenga – whose pairing lasted almost the entire season – ended the season in fourth position.
For its latest winter series, Love Island returned to South Africa for the first time since 2020, with another season set to air on ITV2 in the usual summer slot later in the year.
This ninth run marked Maya Jama’s first as host, and she returned to the villa on Monday to announce that Kai and Sanam had won and would split the £50,000 prize pot between them.
However, the live final wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.
Severe winds in South Africa meant that there was a bit of disruption, which Maya (and Love Island fans) joked about several times during the live episode:
Love Island will return to ITV2 for a new series from its usual location in Mallorca later this year.