*Contains spoilers for Love Island: Beyond the Villa*
Before fan favorites from Love Island USA season 7 stood front and center for Love Island: Beyond the Villa’s cameras, they dealt with some of their own behind-the-scenes drama. One of the show’s final couples, Iris Kendall and Pepe García González, made headlines once their connection fizzled out and Pepe dropped the bomb that he and Iris had called it quits. Iris ended up finding love with fellow bombshell TJ Palma, once they rekindled their romance beyond the villa. And it’s safe to say Pepe isn’t exactly thrilled by it.
This was translated when he avoided Iris and TJ during the first group outing on Beyond the Villa season 2, and he felt some type of way when TJ gave him the cold shoulder and wouldn’t even shake his hand.
Eventually, Pepe’s past fling, Hannah Fields, had had enough of his avoiding Iris after publicly talking down on her relationship with TJ in the press last summer. In an honestly iconic move, Hannah fiercely defended her bestie when she confronted Pepe and asked, “Are you too pussy to apologize to Iris in person?”
“I’ve always stood up for my friends, but now, I take it to a little bit of a deeper level. These are probably some of the closest friendships I’ve ever had in my life,” Hannah dished to Cosmopolitan about the interaction.
As for why she decided to come for Pepe during the group’s first major outing beyond the villa, Hannah explained, “I feel maternal toward everyone, so if somebody fucks with my babies, I gotta go protect them. I go above and beyond now, because if nobody else is gonna say it, I need to. Like, get behind me, I’m your bodyguard.”
During the outing, Hannah’s comment eventually escalated into a heated exchange with Pepe, but they decided to drop it and return to their respective groups for the sake of keeping things.
Things weren’t always so tense between Hannah and Pepe—they were a match in the villa at one point, remember? Once they got back to the U.S. from the villa, Pepe told Elite Daily that he had reached out to Hannah to debrief their “crazy” experience on the reality series and gain some closure in their connection.
“I just want to have that conversation with her and tell her how I felt,” he said at the time. “I’ve seen some podcasts that she’s done, and I know she understands it. I want to say, ‘You know what? I respect you and I want to be friends with you.’”
TBD on where they stand now, but we will say…if you don’t have a Hannah, be a Hannah.
The first two episodes of Love Island: Beyond the Villa are now available to stream on Peacock.
