Love Island stars Sean 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and Lola Deal have confirmed they are now boyfriend and girlfriend, three weeks after leaving the ITV2 villa.
The Galway Gaelic football player surprised Lola with an extravagant display of red balloons in a hotel room spelling out the message 'Will you be my girlfriend?' The pair shared the moment in a series of Instagram photos posted on Tuesday, with Sean joking that Lola is now 'officially a WAG'.
Lola responded to the display by commenting that she was the 'happiest girl alive'.
Fellow Love Island contestants were quick to congratulate the couple. Priya Jaswal wrote, 'Buzzing for you guys!', while Yasmin Hadlow commented, 'My fav people ever so happy for you.'
How Sean and Lola's Love Island journey unfolded
Sean, an Irish Gaelic football player, and Lola, a police detective, coupled up on day one of the current series and later told each other they were in love just a few weeks into their time on the show. They were seen as one of the strongest pairings in the villa before running into tension with fellow contestant Julia.
Following a public vote, Sean and Lola landed in the bottom three least favourite couples, alongside Samraj and Mica, and Martha and Jordan. Favourite couple Julia and Lorenzo were handed the power to decide which couple would be dumped from the villa, but Sean and Lola chose to leave on their own accord instead.
They told Lorenzo: 'We've found each other and we're so happy and you guys haven't had a fair shot. Don't stress yourself out Lorenzo, we're happy to pick ourselves.'
The clashes with Julia
The couple's exit followed a series of rows with Julia after Sean's stint in Casa Amor, a separate villa where islanders are tested on their loyalty to their partners. Julia took issue with Sean's comment that he 'needed a test' in Casa Amor to determine whether his connection with Lola was genuine.
Lola then called Julia a "b**ch" during a tense exchange at the firepit, a recurring gathering spot on the show where islanders often argue things out. The confrontation prompted a backlash against Lola online, with viewers accusing her of "mean girl behaviour" on social media platform X. One viewer wrote that Lola was "really threatened by Julia and she doesn't even try to hide it," while another said she was "showing a really unpleasant side to her." Others suggested Julia was "the bigger person" and questioned why Lola seemed so hostile toward her, with one concluding she was "simply jealous and bitter."
Lola on leaving the villa
Speaking after their exit, Lola said it was "the perfect end" to their journey. "Me and Sean were really happy to have gone. I think we had the most incredible time there," she said. "We met the most incredible people and most of all, we found each other. The other two couples there had so much left to give and so much left to learn about themselves, whereas me and Sean were in a really good place."
She added that giving Lorenzo a break from having to choose who left, after he had struggled with the decision before, felt like the right thing to do. "We went in there for love and we found that, so there was nothing more we needed from it," she said, adding: "How deeply we both fell so quickly as well, I couldn't have asked for a better journey with someone. It was incredible."
