Taylor Williams and Clarke Carraway may have been voted out of the “Love Island USA” villa, but they say that hasn’t impacted the status of their relationship.
“We’re still the same as we were in the villa,” Taylor tells TODAY.com. “That’s why I used the word exclusive instead of closed off. Closed off is a villa term. You’re not in the outside world saying, ‘We’re closed off.’”
Before choosing to become exclusive in Episode 32, Taylor and Clarke met in Episode 19, when the girls on the show were sequestered in Casa Amor and five new female bombshells, including Clarke, entered the villa. While Clarke was initially coupled up with Taylor’s friend Nic Vansteenberghe, during Episode 20’s recoupling, Clarke and Taylor chose to give their connection a chance.
Taylor tells TODAY.com he realized he was serious about exploring his relationship with Clarke by their second conversation.
“We had a conversation, and she pulled me to talk to me and was like, ‘I want to let you know that I’m interested in you, that I like, you know, I want to get to know you,’” Taylor recalls. “And I was like, ‘OK, cool, after we get ready.’
“And then we ended up talking like the rest of the morning. I was like, ‘What the hell? I haven’t gotten ready yet,’” he adds.
Clarke says after meeting Taylor, “the conversation just flowed.” She describes one moment when she, Taylor as well as Casa couple Ace Green and Courtney “Coco” Watson had a “therapy session.” During this exercise, Ace and Coco asked them about their connection and their plans for the future before swapping.
“That was fun, and then I was like, ‘My feet hurt,’ and then he took my shoes off for me,” she adds with a laugh.
What Happened Between Taylor and Olandria?
Before Casa, Taylor had been coupled with Olandria Carthen since Day 1 in the villa. But while in Casa, she was temporarily voted off the show after she wasn’t selected for a couple by the group of boy bombshells. At the same time, Nic was dumped from the villa.
Or, so they thought.
Episode 20 ended on a massive cliffhanger. As Nic left the villa, suitcase in hand, a black SUV pulled up, with Olandria inside. In the next episode, they were whisked off to a date and given the option to leave the show or couple up.
At the same time as Nic and Olandria became the villa’s newest couple, Taylor was pursuing his connection with Clarke. Taylor confirms Nic had expressed interest in Olandria before they were officially coupled up.
“He’s always told me he’s super attracted to her, but he never tried to explore it,” Taylor says, citing Nic’s first connection with Belle-A Walker, followed by Cierra Ortega. (Nic and Cierra chose to close off their relationship in Episode 25, then Cierra left the villa in Episode 30 after viewers resurfaced old posts in which she used racial slurs. Cierra apologized via a video she shared to social media July 9.)
Taylor adds that Nic had a conversation with him about being coupled with Olandria.
“They came back, and we’re sitting in the room. I was sitting next to him, and he asked me if I cared if he explored Olandria,” Taylor says. “I was like, ‘No, go ahead. I can’t get mad if you’re exploring Olandria and I’m exploring Clarke.’”
When the girls came back from Casa, there was yet another recoupling, and Taylor had to choose between Olandria and Clarke. Taylor ended up choosing Clarke, citing the different feeling she gave him.
Olandria was left single, before coupling up with Nic again in Episode 30 after Cierra left the villa. Clarke and Taylor meanwhile continued to grow their relationship, from having a picnic date to an energetic proposal for exclusivity.
When asked for her favorite moment in the villa, Clarke makes Taylor guess.
“The cheer?” Taylor says, as Clarke confirms with a laugh.
In Episode 32, after the guys had a day of playing 3 v. 3 basketball, Taylor enlisted his fellow Islanders to help him ask Clarke to be exclusive via a cheer that involved spelling out her name. It started with Taylor opting to give that night’s toast, and Clarke remembers thinking, “I’ve never seen you do a toast, this is going to be fun.”
“And then they start spelling everything out, and it gets to C-L, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, is this about to say my name right now?’” Clarke says. “I was just like speechless. I could not stop laughing. And they’re doing cartwheels and flips … I loved it.”
That night, the couple was dumped from the villa after receiving the fewest amount of fan votes. Taylor says he wasn’t surprised. A viewer poll from Episode 27 consistently resulted in Clarke and Taylor coming last in categories like “most genuine” and “best boyfriend material.”
“Everything happens for a reason, so I can’t be mad at it,” he says. “You know I could be upset, but it’s like I can’t be absolutely mad because this happened for a reason.”
But is there anything they would have done differently in the villa?
“Not for me,” Clarke says.
“Yeah, no, I would have rocked out the same way I did, to be honest,” Taylor agrees. “I had a hell of a time in there. If I could do it again, I would do it the same way.”
What’s Next for Clarke and Taylor?
Taylor says their exclusive relationship is “something that I see on the outside world and something that I want to keep growing on the outside world.”
But the two have quite the distance between them. Taylor is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, while Clarke is from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Clarke confirms they have plans to maintain a long-distance relationship.
“I’m going to go to Oklahoma and do the rodeo situation, and then he’s going to come visit me in Charlotte,” she says. “Definitely, like a lot of traveling, but things to look forward to.”
Taylor says he’s excited to introduce Clarke to “rodeo world,” “horses” and “country life.”
Meanwhile Clarke says she wants to introduce Taylor to “city life,” such as “fine dining.”
“You make it seem like I eat bugs for a living,” he jokes through laughter. “I’ve got that s—, too.”