Tyrique Hyde has admitted he was “fake smiling” during the Love Island final, after missing out on the win.
The footballer struck up a romance with Ella Thomas during his time in the Majorcan villa earlier this summer.
The fan-favourite couple went on to place third with 24.21% of the public vote, behind runners-up Whitney Adebayo and Lochan Nowacki with 26.85% of the vote, and winners Jess Harding and Sammy Root – who secured 34.57% of the public vote.
During Tyrique’s appearance on the Fancy A Chat? podcast, host Toby Aromolaran asked: “Third place – are you thinking ‘this could be us’ or do you think ‘oh no, it’s top two surely.'”
The summer Love Island 2023 star replied: “No, I was thinking ‘I wanna win this’, if not, top two surely. That’s what I was thinking, I’ll be honest.”
“[Then it was announced] ‘Ella and Ty are third’ and I’ve gone – in my head I’ve gone ‘oh s**t,’ but then I’ve gone ‘oh, I’m on TV!'”
“I’ve gone all fake smiling and that, then I saw Ella’s face and Ella was semi-rattled herself. But we both composed ourselves quickly.”
@nufftime Tyrique is too real for this ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ #tyrique #tyriqueloveisland #tyriquehyde #tyriqueandella #loveisland #loveislanduk #loveisland2023 #ellathomas ♬ original sound – nufftime
Love Island fans were left in hysterics by Tyrique’s comments on placing third, and flocked to TikTok to share their two pence on the situation.
One TikTok user penned: “He’s so real for this,” and another agreed: “he’s real for this bc we were all confused.”
A third said: “Lmao he def did not compose himself😂😂😂 it was all over his face.”
A fourth wrote: “We could tell 😂😂😂,” while another commented: “We could tell loool.”
