Jacques O’Neill ‘so much happier now’ outside Love Island villa-Mel Evans-Entertainment – Metro

Luca Bish shared an update on Jacques O’Neill following his exit (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Luca Bish has insisted his pal Jacques O’Neill is ‘so much happier now’ after his emotional exit from the Love Island villa.

Appearing alongside Gemma Owen, Luca – who came second with Michael Owen’s daughter in the latest series of the show – appeared overcome with emotion as he spoke about Jacques’s premature exit from the programme.

After tense scenes with then-partner Paige Thorne and bombshell Adam Collard, Jacques made the tough decision to focus on his mental health and exit the ITV2 show.

Sharing the news with his best mate in the villa, Luca, the pair were in tears as they bid farewell to one another.

However, they’ve since had a good catch-up on the outside, with Luca sharing an update on how Jacques was going weeks later.

Jacques left the show in tear-jerking scenes (Picture: ITV)

Luca said on tonight’s reunion: ‘As soon as I got out of the villa, I think I called him before my parents, or I called my sister to get Jacques’s number.’

Enthusing he was ‘one of the people I wanted to see’, Luca appeared teary when speaking about Jacques as footage of their bromance was beamed onto screens in the studio.

Luca, here with Gemma Owen, dished on life outside the villa (Picture: Matt Frost/ITV/Shutterstock)

He went on: ‘On facetime the other day…we both knew what we were going through [in the villa]. It was a tough time.

‘He’s so much more happier now, it’s nice to see.’

Jacques, 23, removed himself from the ITV2 series, telling his fellow islanders at the time that he needed to ‘get back to himself’.

Following his exit, the rugby player said that appearing on the show was the ‘worst decision of my life’, and went on to express that he wanted to go into hiding and to delete his social media entirely after his exit.

Despite Jacques being Gemma’s ex, he and Luca were close friends throughout their time in the villa, and when Jacques decided he needed to leave, the Brighton fishmonger was left heartbroken.

‘F**king hell Jacques. I don’t even think I’d get this upset if Gemma left. It ain’t gonna be the same without you,’ he told him in the villa.

‘If Gem weren’t here, I would have walked out that door with him,’ Luca added in the beach hut. ‘He’s made the right decision at the end of the day, and as long as he’s happy I’m happy. He means a lot to me and I can’t wait to see him on the outside.’

Love Island is available on the ITV Hub.

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