Love Island's Harry admits he 'handled things the wrong way with Helena and Shakira'

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Love Island star Harry Cooksley has admitted he 'handled things the wrong way' when it came to his infamous triangle with Helena Ford and Shakira Khan.
Harry Cooksley thinks he 'handled things the wrong way' when it comes to his infamous triangle on Love Island. The footballer, 30, was coupled up with Helena Ford for weeks on the ITV2 dating show before moving on to Shakira Khan, 22, and they eventually finished as runners up last week.
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Now, in their first joint interview as a couple, Harry has spoken out on his behaviour in the villa which saw him play Shakira and Helena against each other time and time again. He also sat back as Helena and Shakira took the triangle drama out on each other. Just days after the final, he has admitted that he hasn't actually spoken to Helena but gave a positive update on the status of their relationship now that the show is over.
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He told Christine Lampard on Friday's edition of Lorraine: "I think I definitely handled things in the wrong way with Helena and Shakira. But at the end of the day, Helena and I are now moving forward as friends. I haven't actually spoken to her since I've been out but we had a couple of conversations before she left the villa and I'm delighted it's amicable." It comes after reports of all the celebrities rumoured to be joining BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2025.
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Christine then quizzed Shakira on how she felt during the whole situation, and she said: "Honestly it was heartbreaking and having to watch it pan out every day was so tough. I think in the outside world you can have a bit of distance, you can speak to each other. It was something I'd never experienced before."
Elsewhere in the series, Harry had to deal with his ex-girlfriend Emma Munro arriving as a Bombshell during the Casa Amor portion of the competition and joked that he and the other boys had been hitting the gym every day in an attempt to impress the girls before all the drama unfolded.
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He added: "I think I was buzzing, all the boys were so buzzing. We were calling it the Promised Land, we were gymming every day. We were training like it was the World Cup final and then the girls would come out, Emma was sat there and I just put my head in my hands. I hadn't seen her for months, probably since last year so it was such a surreal feeling."
But in the end, Harry ended up with Shakira and even though they were beaten to the £50,000 prize by Cach and Toni, he knew that Shakira was the one for him in the villa.
He explained: "I think it was just one conversation that we had. I would make comments towards her and me actually had a chat one-on-one for the first time in weeks and it was just natural, we expressed how we felt. I'd buried a lot of emotion while I was in there and it just kind of came out."
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Despite this, Harry and Shakira are still hesitant to label themselves as exclusive on the outside world as he said: "When we rekindled and recoupled, I only had eyes for Shakira, there's no one else I would want to get to know. That hasn't changed since coming into the outside world. But I think exclusive isn't such a thing on the outside in terms of saying 'Oh, we're exclusive.'"
There had even been rumours that Harry was not single when he went looking for love in the villa, but he has now insisted that was never the case. He said: "I couldn't have been more single before going into the villa."
Clearing up any speculation, he insisted that there were no current girlfriends at the time, as he said: "My actual girlfriend was in the villa, my actual ex-girlfriend was in the villa. There wasn't any exes or current girlfriends. "
"I was definitely dating, definitely seeing people. But there's the process of no guarantee, you're not in the villa till you're in the villa, you can't talk about it. I only told four people, my closest friends and family so I wasn't going to go shouting that about!"
Shakira was initially coupled up with Harry in the early weeks of the competition, but they got together again just days ahead of the final and he told her: "I came in here and thought it would be a lot of fun. Finding you in a villa in Mallorca was not on my bingo card this summer. I do regret taking too long to tell you how I felt. We both know this is more than surface level - I think it always has been for me."