- Amaya “Papaya” Espinal and Bryan Arenales made history as the first Latine couple to win Love Island USA last summer.
- The pair had a public breakup shortly after the season 7 reunion amid cheating allegations.
- They navigate their split on Love Island: Beyond the Villa and tell Cosmopolitan why they decided to talk things through after Amaya originally maintained she wanted no contact with her ex.
*Contains spoilers for Love Island: Beyond the Villa*
The reality TV gods have really blessed us, because America’s Sweetheart, Amaya “Papaya” Espinal, is officially back on our screens thanks to Love Island: Beyond the Villa. We’re already looking forward to all the iconic one-liners she’ll potentially drop during the spin-off’s second season, but now we no longer have to wonder how the New York native handled her public split with Bryan Arenales after they became the first Latine couple to win Love Island last summer.
During the two-episode season 2 premiere of Beyond the Villa, the former flames decided to talk through their split and how they’d navigate group settings with the rest of their castmates. Of course, this all went down when Bryan texted Amaya at Iris Kendall and TJ Palma’s Friendsgiving get-together, which he and Pepe García Gonzalez weren’t invited to. As for why he felt that was the right moment to reconnect with Amaya, Bryan exclusively admitted to Cosmopolitan, “It was just the timing. I wanted to rip the Band-Aid off.”
“Going into this season [of Beyond the Villa], that’s just the conversation I really wanted to have with her, and not around other people,” he explained. “Just me and her, being able to talk about this past summer and how everything was post-villa.”
After Bryan and Amaya took home the Love Island USA crown last summer, he denied allegations that he had cheated on her during a public appearance at a nightclub. However, on August 27—just a few weeks after they appeared together at the Love Island USA reunion—Amaya publicly revealed that they had broken up because their “visions didn’t align.”
As for where she stands now, Amaya maintains that she leaves her old relationships in the past and goes no-contact with her exes (especially now that she fully has a new boyfriend!)
“I’m still following the policy of not being friends with any exes. However, that doesn’t take away from being able to have a mature conversation, especially when things were left very unclear,” Amaya told Cosmo.
While the second episode ends with Amaya receiving a text from Bryan, we still don’t know what their conversation entailed (yet, anyway). But according to Amaya, “There were things that just needed to be said.”
She continued, “I feel like that was exactly done, and I can’t wait for that to be shown to the audience, and for me to still stand on business and not be friends with any exes.”
Excuse us as we lock in to catch the next batch of Love Island: Beyond the Villa episodes to find out. The first two episodes are now available to stream on Peacock.
