Cierra Ortega’s surprise exit from Love Island USA shocked reality TV junkies and her fellow Islanders...but one thing it didn’t do was prompt Nic Vansteenberghe, her Villa boyfriend, to leave with her, despite the fact that they had just “closed off” their relationship (that’s Love Island speak for they decided to be exclusive). Well, now that the season is over and all contestants have been freed from Fiji, Nic can reveal the real reason he didn’t leave the villa with Cierra.
Nic, who came in second place with his new couple partner Olandria Carthen, explained what happened when Cierra left Love Island USA during a recent appearance on Chicks in the Office. “After Cierra and I closed things off and she was removed from the Villa, I didn’t—again, she just left. It was a completely normal day and she just left,” he recounted. “I was told that she was gone for I think it was some sort of personal reasons or something along those lines. Very vague. Was never told the details of anything.”
Nic continued, “I definitely strongly considered leaving. And then I had a talk with myself.” After some consideration, he decided to stay because he worried about what kind of behavior he might be unwittingly endorsing by leaving. “I said, if whatever is happening in the outside world is something I don’t align with, then, you know, that could be perceived as me supporting that. And so I did give myself the chance to stay in the villa.”
Nic added that now that he knows the whole story, he has “a better perception on it.” He didn’t go into details on his current relationship with Cierra but admitted that “it’s been a lot” and said he’s “still taking the time to process.” He did not comment directly on Cierra’s use of a slur or her apology.
This echoes what fellow Islander Zak Srakaew said after he left the Villa last week. Zak was dumped from the Villa on the same night as Cierra—although unlike Cierra, he wasn’t asked to leave the show due to racist social media posts. And he wasted no time before jumping on social media to tell his side of the story.
“When Cierra left, the producers gathered us all together,” he said during a TikTok Live. “They said, ‘Unfortunately, Cierra has broken some of the policies of our guidelines and she will no longer be here in the Villa. That is the only information we can give you guys.’”
According to Zak, the Islanders weren’t given details on how, exactly, Cierra had broken the rules of the game, but it sounds like they had some suspicions. “At the end of the day, as much as you want to feel sorry for somebody, if you know they got removed from a show for saying something offensive, you can’t really feel sorry for them until you know what it is,” he said.
As for Nic’s reaction to the news, Zak said, “Nic was really upset that she left, but at the same time, he couldn’t really be super upset or he couldn’t express how he felt about the situation until he found out what she had done or said.”
