Love Island USA‘s Pepe Garcia offered his unfiltered take on ex Iris Kendall reconnecting with TJ Palma following their split — and multiple cheating scandals.
During the Thursday, September 25, episode of the “Sorry We’re Cyrus” podcast, Pepe was asked about navigating claims of infidelity after he and Iris returned from Fiji.
“The hardest part has been having all these eyes and spectators on you 24/7 who can call out some bulls*** but aren’t always correct in what they see,” he noted. “Especially with Love Island, the fans do want to continue to play this season along. They don’t want it to end.”
Pepe wasn’t thrilled with the false narratives being created by viewers, adding, “It is an abrupt ending and anything they can potentially piece together to make a story, they will. You get to a point where everything is good and you get off and all eyes are on you.”
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While addressing how his personal life changed since season 7, Pepe acknowledged rumors about him cheating on Iris when they were still together.
“Then someone says something that isn’t true and you are there either hoping you have a support system that says it isn’t true or not,” he continued. “In my situation it is very weird. We got off the island and she had the cheating scandal.”
Season 7, which premiered in July, introduced Iris and Pepe as bombshells. While Iris was briefly paired up with Jeremiah Brown, she ultimately formed a connection with TJ, but their relationship was cut short by his elimination. Iris stayed behind and ended up making it to the finale with Pepe.
Once they wrapped on the season, Iris publicly reunited with TJ while she was still dating Pepe.
“I just said, ‘It is the first day. I don’t think anyone deserves hate,’” Pepe recalled on Thursday after getting messages urging him to “leave” Iris. “I don’t think anyone deserves that. No one knows the truth or what happened. I had her back on that one.”
He continued: “To have it in a few weeks flip and have it happen to me and through everything not have the same support. Not say anything about it. I will just stay quiet because I know the truth. It is a weird situation because she is now back with the guy she had a cheating scandal with.”
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After Pepe was accused of being unfaithful — which he denied — he and Iris called it quits.
“We’re not together anymore and it’s just the way it goes,” Pepe told TMZ in August. “It’s a tough thing when there’s a lot of eyes on you 24/7. It’s stressful. Being in the limelight isn’t always the best thing in the world.”
Pepe credited his loved ones for helping him through the breakup drama, adding, “I like to say, my friends and family and the people that support me, they know who I am as a person. And that’s honestly the biggest and most important thing for me.”
While reflecting on the split on Thursday, Pepe admitted he wasn’t thrilled seeing Iris spending time with TJ again.
“How do you jump from one person to the next?” he added. “And the next person is apparently someone she did something with and it isn’t clocking to people?”
