Chris Seeley and Kay Kay Gray‘s journey on Love Island Games was cut short after a shocking elimination — and an injury — but where will the couple go from here?
Us Weekly caught up with Chris and Kay Kay on Thursday, September 25, shortly after Chris injured his finger and Kay Kay lost in a duel that ended their journey in Fiji. Despite the setback, Chris and Kay Kay were taking the shakeup in stride as they considered their future together after forming a connection in the villa.
It feels like Love Island Games is a chance to do things differently compared to your initial seasons. How did each of you approach this spinoff? What were you maybe hoping to get out of it?
Kay Kay: For me, it was so important to represent who I am today vs. who I was two years ago. My season was two years ago and I definitely wanted to do things differently. The first time, I stuck to one person — and I really stuck to that person. This time, I was like, “You know what? I’ve got to explore my options. I’ve got to just be free and do me.” So I feel like I did that.
Chris: I wanted to come in with a different mindset compared to season 7 of Love Island USA. I was just taking whatever came my way and going about it. This time, I wanted to have my own path and direct it the way I wanted to go. I was coming in with that competitive mindset and focusing on the things I wanted to focus on, which is trying to get to that money. Although it didn’t work out in my favor — I am proud of how my whole experience went.
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Obviously, your time was cut a little short. But were you able to get a redemption — or at least show a different side of yourself?
Chris: Especially compared to season 7, I am way happier leaving how I left this time. Although leaving single wasn’t a bad thing, but just I feel like that moment and all the s*** that I had to deal with during season 7 was too much. With this, things were going really well until it didn’t. I’m very proud of that. With this maybe being my last time, I love the ending. I’m for sure OK with how things went.
Kay Kay: I feel like, this time around, I had fun. I was enjoying myself in that villa. I was making connections and I was making friends and I was showing my personality a lot. I felt more free to be me and more loud and more open with my energy. I feel like I did that.
Would you come back for another season of Love Island Games or another season of Love Island USA? Are you leaving that door open or closed?
Kay Kay: It depends on my singleness.
You two just got out, but what is your relationship status? Are you going to put a label on it? Are you going to see how it goes?
Kay Kay: We’re just doing things at our own pace that is comfortable for us. There’s no labels or pressure yet. We’re just taking it as it comes and still getting to know each other. We literally just met two weeks ago. Realistically, there’s a lot I need to learn about him and there’s a lot he needs to learn about me, and we’re just having fun with it right now.
Chris: We are just going with the flow and taking it day by day. There’s a lot we gotta learn and then a lot we gotta figure out. She’s in Dallas and I’m in L.A. right now. So we gotta figure out what that looks like. And going forward, we are seeing if we even want to continue that — which I’m sure we both do as of right now. It’s looking good. But like she said, no labels and no pressure. Just simply still getting to know each other how we were with no Villa and no games.
Chris, how is your finger doing? We were worried that you were not going to be able to possibly play ball overseas in the future if needed after that injury. Are you on the mend?
Chris: My finger is doing better. It’s not broken. I got an X-Ray after the duel. I did just sprain it and got a little bit of ligament tendon damage. It’s not too bad. I still can’t do a full fist or bend it the way I want to or lift things. But it is getting better progressively. Of course, I didn’t want to go out that way, but I feel like it wasn’t worth taking the risk of it getting worse.
Obviously, this was a shock because you guys were the first power couple. Do you feel like being crowned may have made you a target?
Chris: I feel like we had a huge target on our back — especially after the first couples challenge. It led to the Heart Rate Challenge, when people were purposely not trying to get their heart rates up and it worked out in their favor. Then we became vulnerable. It hurt going from being the top of the top to the bottom. It somewhat felt like some karma for sending Solène and Mert home. But overall, the cards were dealt the way they were, and we just had to take it on the chin and accept it.
Kay Kay: I also was saying the whole time we were the power couple, “They’re gunning for us. They are going to be out to get us.” I knew it. I didn’t know it would be so soon and I didn’t know it was actively happening, but I knew it was only a matter of time. Just because it was so early and we’re the first people to be the power couple. So we’re going to be the first people they try to get out of there, and they got us right on up out of there too.
Is there anyone that you’re frustrated with?
Kay Kay: No. Honestly, those aren’t the vibes. At the end of the day, it’s a game. We’re all there to play the game. Especially when you get power to make power moves, you’ve got to make those power moves, because at the end of the day, we’re all there for the same reason. Some of us are there for love, fun, money, whatever, but we want to win. You want to keep your spot in that villa, because even if you leave, you can’t pursue the love that you came for. So at the end of the day, everybody wants to stay until the end, so everybody has to kind of prioritize ourselves. There’s really no bad blood from my end on who I don’t want to win or anything like that. It’s all love for everybody.
Chris: Same here. There’s no hatred toward anybody and no bad vibes. Of course, certain people had to make certain decisions that [were] best for them. We may not agree with it in the moment, but overall, we have to respect it. It is a lot about strategy and planning. We all want to win that money, so we can’t really take it too personal. Like I said, take it on the chin and just accept what happened.
Is there anyone that you want to see win Love Island Games this season?
Chris: Everybody. I hope we all meet up after this and go out and have a great time together and just talk about all the good times and the tough times we had to get through. I’m hoping it’s soon.
Kay Kay: I’d love to see Andrea [Carmona] in the end win it all. I feel like she deserves it. I feel like we both went into this talking about how this was our redemption arc. We both went out of Love Island USA on our seasons in a crazy way, so we just kind of bonded around that. I think she’s very deserving of it and I think she really has the potential to come out on top. So I’m rooting for her, but I can’t wait to see everybody. It’s going to be a big reunion.
Chris, how would you say Kay Kay is different from what you had in season 7 [with Huda Mustafa]? And when looking for a match this season, were you both looking for something different compared to what you initially wanted in your first seasons in the franchise?
Chris: Compared to Kay Kay’s season to now, I see a lot of maturity and growth. I see she actually is willing to be open and she wants a different experience, which is why I was explaining to her that, “I want you to do whatever you need to do to fulfill your whole experience.” I’m glad that she did it the way that she did it. I feel like a lot of people were upset at the fact that I didn’t want her to be open or I didn’t want to kiss her or I didn’t want her to talk to certain people. But I wanted that for her because I genuinely saw her whole season and saw what she went through. I was like, “Nah, she doesn’t need to go through that same thing.”
I think she had a certain mindset that she wanted to come here with and she definitely went about it the right way. I am proud of her for that. For me, I came in with a competitive mindset. I wasn’t even really looking for a connection. If it came along the way, then it came, but that wasn’t my main goal with this. I wanted people to see my true personality away from all the bulls*** that was going on in season 7. Also, my competitiveness due to me being a professional athlete. So I was just trying to showcase that as much as possible as well as be there for her and let her have her experience as well.
Kay Kay: Same for me. I felt like getting to know Chris, he’s so different [from] what he has been portrayed as. I was just getting to know how sweet he was and how understanding and how mature he is. So I felt like America deserved to see that part of him. I don’t know if it showed all the way. Of course, you aren’t going to get as much as I’m getting, because I’m there with him 24/7. But I’m really proud of him.
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How aware were you of each other’s seasons?
Kay Kay: I watched his season, so it was really fresh. But I definitely had my eye on him. When the producers are asking me, like, “Who do you have your eye on?” I would mention him and say, “I think Chris is cute.”
Chris: For me, Kay Kay’s season was the first season I had watched ever of Love Island, especially from start to finish. Of course, you see little clips on social media that you pay attention to. That’s funny. But watching it from the first episode to the end, her season and then season 6 were the only seasons I saw. So with her, I only knew her situation. Not too many other people though.
Would you say Love Island Games works more in your favor in terms of finding romance because there’s not as much pressure?
Kay Kay: I think so, because it’s not so intense going into this. Connections are a thing, because it is Love Island, but everybody’s working towards a common goal of winning. At the end of the day — no matter what you said you came for — everybody wants to win. So it’s like when you focus on that, people are just falling in love along the way. I think it’s more natural that way. It’s more genuine that way. It’s not, “We’re just going to talk and fall in love so we can win this thing.” It’s more like, “Do we work well together?” We’re building the connection instead of forcing the connection.
Chris: Which I think happened in our situation, because with her mindset coming to [the show], she did want a true connection as well as [to] win it. But then my first initial intention was to win. I think once we kind of got each other’s intentions, and down the line as we worked together and won, we organically liked each other even more. That was how I wanted things to go and play out.
I’m totally fine with how things played out and I’m glad that we’re still sitting here together. I didn’t want to force anything and I didn’t want to press the issue on me trying to forcibly find the connection while being in there. I knew it was going to happen organically, whoever I was going to end up with. So overall, I’m glad it was her though. I did mention her in my intro video too, as far as wanting to be her.
Speaking of your intro video, Chris, you mentioned that you don’t want to carry a woman unless she’s worth it. So would you say that Kay Kay is worth it?
Chris: Kay Kay is worth carrying around. She’s very light. I can carry her all day.
New episodes of Love Island Games are released six days a week — except for Wednesdays — on Peacock.
