Love Island’s Ekin-Su Culculoglu admits he has ‘no friends left’ after TV fame

Love Island’s Ekin-Su Culculoglu admitted he has “no friends left” after appearing on the ITV2 dating show last year.

The 28-year-old Turkish actress and her Italian boyfriend, Davide Sanclimenti, 27, were crowned winners of Love Island 2022 after beating runners-up Gemma Owen and Luca Bish.

Speaking with former contestant Joe Garratt in a Reddit chat, Ekin-Su told listeners that she dumped her former friends after they “sold stories” about her.

She explained: ‘Don’t change who you are, don’t get sucked into this ego where you think you’re a celebrity so you have to act a certain way and put people down, you shouldn’t.

‘We are all the same, I feel that even the people who clean the bathroom should respect that person because we are all the same. Stay humble.

“I lost so many friends coming out, I have no friends left because they sold stories about me.”

Winners: The 28-year-old Turkish actress and her boyfriend Davide Sanclimenti, 27, became the winners of Love Island 2022 after beating runners-up Gemma Owen and Luca Bish

Shocked by her revelation, Joe said, ‘Oh, that’s so sad, well, they weren’t friends then. That’s jealousy, man, that’s sad.

Seeing the bright side of the situation, he added: “But then you make new friends who understand you.”

It comes after Ekin-Su sparked controversy with her performance during the kick-off show of the skating competition Dancing On Ice on Sunday night as she recreated her famous crawling scene from Love Island.

And she gave the routine 100%, with host Holly Willoughby even calling the routine the “sexiest dance of all time” on the show.

Routine: Controversy ensued after she recreated her famous crawling scene from Love Island

But the performance did not get the reaction it had hoped for, with Ofcom receiving 112 complaints from the public after the episode.

Many were quick to criticize Ekin-Su’s sequin-adorned jumpsuit, which was a recreation of the one worn by Britney Spears in her Toxic music video, that the reality star was dancing around.

While the actress also crawled across the ice during the performance, an ode to the famous Love Island scene in which she crawled across the villa’s terrace to kiss her compatriot Jay Younger behind her partner Davide Sanclimenti’s back.

The sultry routine also saw her lie on her back and be swept into the arms of her partner Brendyn, complete with plenty of animated facial expressions.

THAT Crawl: The actress crawled across the ice during the performance, an ode to the famous Love Island scene (right)

Ekin-Su and Brendyn were placed in the middle of the leaderboard by the judges, who gave a score of 21.5.

But while they agreed that the star certainly had sex appeal, they expected a bit more from the performance.

‘It was very sexy. But what I want most is skating,” Judge Jayne Torvill said. Ashley agreed as she said, “Skate on your own without holding on to Brendyn, show us what you can do.”

Many viewers also took to social media to call the routine “not appropriate” for the family-friendly show, which airs before the turning point.

But the performance was a hit with Ekin-Su’s boyfriend, Davide, who sat in the audience and joked that he “couldn’t wait” to take her home.

Later in the show, the public vote revealed that the Love Island star received the fewest public votes and went up against John Fashanu, who later won.

Confident: Ekin-Su is said to be putting on a brave face and had no qualms about the routine.