Love Island’s Luca Bish has claimed the ITV show’s producers ‘kept him’ from speaking to Gemma Owen at times.
The pair came runners-up this year, narrowly missing out from being crowned King and Queen of the villa to Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti.
During their time in the villa, Luca’s behavior sparked backlash and complaints from viewers, as he was accused of ‘bullying’ Tasha Ghouri, reducing her to tears, and of ‘controlling behaviour’ towards Gemma.
Luca caused uproar during the highly-anticipated Mad Movies night, in which he accused Gemma of ‘flirting’ with Casa Amor bombshell Billy Brown, where he fumed to the boys: ‘I don’t even want to talk to her tonight. Made me look like an absolute f*****g w****r I ain’t going f*****g near that bird.’
Since leaving the villa, the pair have gone from strength to strength back home – having already been on holiday together, met each other’s families, and even done the almighty food shop.
But it turns out that Luca was held back from approaching Gemma at the start of the series.


Having both entered the villa on day one, Luca was paired up with paramedic Paige Thorne, who was booted from the villa ahead of the final with returning bombshell Adam Collard, while Gemma was actually coupled up with Liam Llewellyn, who was the first islander to leave this series.
‘I actually wanted to pull Gemma from the start but they [producers] kept holding me back so I could focus on the connections I had at the time,’ Luca revealed to Grazia.


Elsewhere in the interview, Luca admitted he ‘went too far’ when it came towards his behaviour towards Tasha.
The fishmonger said: ‘With my controlling behaviour it took me watching it back to realise what I had done but with the Tasha situation, I realised I took it too far whilst I was still in there.’
Speaking about watching the show back and accusations of controlling behaviour, he added: ‘I can hold my hands up and agree with that – I was. There are parts where I’m thinking this is not how I behave on the outside world. Why did I do that?’

Fans are desperately waiting for Luca and Gemma to take their relationship to the next level, officially becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.
Luca recently teased fans over his plan to finally make Gemma his girlfriend while on their mini-break.
Posting a video of himself enjoying an evening on holiday the international dressage rider, he said: ’Just out for an evening stroll with my girlfriend… psyche!’

He captioned the video: ‘Mission “ask Gem to be my girlfriend” is in motion.’
In their exit interview, Luca hinted at when he’s going to make his relationship with Gemma ‘official’, explaining that ‘there is a plan’.
‘It will hopefully happen in the next month and I’m sure you’ll see it unfold. It’ll be something to do with a swimming pool,’ he teased.
Love Island is available to stream on ITV Hub.