Love Island Games gave Kendall Washington the chance to find love and compete for money — but what are his plans after a dramatic elimination separated him from Garbi Denteh?
Us Weekly caught up with Kendall on Thursday, October 2, shortly after a joint duel kept Garbi in Fiji due to an accidental injury in the ring that cost Nicola Gauci Borda-Warr her place on the show. Kendall, meanwhile, faced off against Josh Goldstein and lost, which left Garbi without her partner.
It feels like Love Island Games is a chance to do things differently. How did your approach here compare to season 6 of Love Island USA?
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I wanted to approach it with care where I get to potentially find a connection and we do some games on the side. So I wanted to focus on the connection side and I’m glad that I started off great with Garbi too. But then as the days went by, we realized the intensity of this process. You can’t just lay back and focus on your connection and then just do these challenges.
Every single day someone is vulnerable and someone is talking about how to get someone out of the villa. People are crashing out and it is a high, tense environment. I tell everyone that this felt like Survivor because every single day you have to just fight for your life in there.
But I think it helped me on the connection side because it didn’t put pressure on me. This was a great and healthy mix where I still got to have some of those conversations but without the pressure. Then we could talk about the game and the strategy.
Was there any hesitation in joining Love Island Games or did you want to show a different side to yourself?
100 percent. That’s the reason why I said yes to Love Island Games because I thought the environment was going to show more of a laid back side to me. I feel like that really showed and I’ve gotten so much positive feedback. At the same time, it’s another way to just have fun. I thought it was gonna be like us playing games and I find someone. It’s all fun and games. But no, it was not fun and games. There were levels to it.
Is this the beginning of gamer Kendall?
I think it made me not want to do [serious competition] shows. The fact that there’s other shows that are strictly about that and no love involved … I’m not gonna cancel anything out but I feel like I’m more on the love side than the game side. The environment is just so high, tense and stressful. I feel like [if I am] going on a show like Survivor, I cannot be on edge the whole time.
Love island Games loves to trip people up by bringing in exes, so were you worried they would bring [your ex] Nicole Jacky in? Would you have been nervous to be in the villa at the same time?
I won’t lie and say that I didn’t think that she was going to come on [the show]. I thought there was a possibility but, if she came in, it wouldn’t throw me off my game. I know she is very competitive. She would have probably done extremely well, but I know it’s not like me and her were going to couple up. She would have been an ally to me, but obviously it never happened. She never joined the show, but that thought did cross [my mind].
You were eliminated over a one-second difference. How did it feel in the moment?
I was honestly overwhelmed with emotions. I was just rambling about why I went on Games and what has been motivating me because that was all the emotion. At the same time I knew I had unfinished business in there with Garbi. It was sad. I was sad, but at the same time I was proud of, like, how far I came. I mean, I’m head to head with, I will say, the toughest competitor in there, Josh. And, like, he wanted it more — hands down. He wanted it more, like, he’s doing it for his sister. So, like, there’s levels to this when it comes to the game, and that’s what going into this season. I didn’t think it was going to be that deep, but it is. It is that deep in here. When you go into that arena, I can’t explain to you, like, the pressure and your heart’s racing, you feel the Islanders look watching you on. I felt that with my dude, with Marvin, and it just sucks that it had to be true.
Are you still frustrated with anyone or the situation?
At the end of the day, we put ourselves in a vulnerable position where the power squad got to choose between me, Josh and Casey [O’Gorman]. I knew they were going to choose Josh and I. They weren’t going to choose Casey. They saw an opportunity and they jumped on it. It’s part of the game. Can I be salty about it? Yes, I can be salty about it. But at the end of the day, they drew the better hand and they got to make that option.
As the hours and the days go by, I’m accepting it and I am just grateful for the experience I had because I was fighting tooth and nail — two duels in three days.
Garbi is currently avenging your exit in the villa. You two ended on a hopeful note, but tell me where your head is at. Are you aiming to get in touch once she’s out?
That’s what’s going to give me peace. Obviously, I want to see her ASAP. I would be mad if she got eliminated because I’d be salty. But I know she’s in there and I really hope she continues to kill it. She has the mentality for it. I’ve seen her grow so much in just two weeks. But I wish we had time to talk so when all this wraps up, we could actually chat about everything — about us and the outside. Especially the last couple of days, we just talk about survival. But I know she’s trying to avenge me in there.
When you first met, Garbi shared with you that she is a virgin. Any reservations there? Were you surprised by that admission on a show like Love Island or were you just grateful she felt comfortable enough to trust you with that?
I was grateful that she had the confidence to tell me that. It made me feel like, ‘OK, wow, we’re already starting to go on the right trajectory.’ That’s not something you just tell anybody. And when she told me that, I just wanted to let her know, ‘Hey, that’s awesome.’ I respect the hell out of that.
I gained so much more respect for her in that moment because that’s something that’s tough to come by nowadays, especially in an environment like Love Island. Garbi is just such a genuine and authentic girl. That is just a test to her character. She is saving it for the right person. It might not be for religious reasons, but it’s because it’s hers to give. That’s why my respect for Garbi went through the roof after that.
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Obviously you had some issues with Gabri after the Lucinda [Strafford] drama over the Baby Bird challenge. How did you work through it?
It was such a tough situation because Garbi really didn’t have an explanation on why she did it. I could have handled that situation a lot better looking back at it. Because it was tough. I should have just taken Garbi’s side with it because I didn’t. What Lucinda told me did put doubt in my head. I shouldn’t have let it creep in like that, but it did.
I apologized to Garbi for that because I got to trust the girl I’m actually coupled up with and not question her again. I, for sure, regretted how I handled that situation but it got us to a point where we rekindled things and we got stronger from that. I knew Garbi and I weren’t going to be perfect in that whole experience from start to finish. So having that first argument put things into perspective for us and it made us stronger after it.
In what ways have you grown in relationships since we first met you?
I’m more in a moment of peace. My last couple of years — especially on my season — when it came to love and connections, I felt like I was just trying to force so much, so fast. When I would feel something, I chased that.
I would try to put myself in a position where it was like, ‘This is going to work no matter what.’ Now I’m at a point where I don’t rush things. I’m very tedious when it comes to the “getting to know each other” stage. I don’t want to put myself in a position where I feel like I know this person, but then I don’t. So time is more of an ally to me. That’s why I’ve grown a lot when it comes to who I put my faith in and what kind of girls I’m going after.
More of my walls are up. But then that’s made me more mature when it comes to things, like, who I want to date and who I want to trust to meet my family and take those next steps. With Garbi, we both had no pressure on each other. Again, I wish we talked more about things on the outside, but it’s just the game.
Who from Love Island would you recommend for season 3?
If anyone is single, I feel like Connor [Newsum] would do great on this. He’s such a physical dude. Also Rob [Rausch] would do well. JaNa [Craig] would kick ass in this because she’s a beacon on the social side too.
New episodes of Love Island Games are released six days a week — except for Wednesdays — on Peacock.
