“Love Island USA” has develop into an obsession for viewers, with one couple particularly capturing hearts.
It’s been fairly the summer season for Olandria Carthen, 27, and Nic Vansteenberghe, 24, a couple who met on the present and have been dubbed “Nicolandria.”
Not solely are they objectively (and ridiculously) enticing, the pair have sparked cultural conversations about interracial relationships and the supportive partnership they mannequin.
If you might be one of the few nonetheless unfamiliar with “Love Island USA,” the collection is the American offshoot of a in style United Kingdom reality courting present through which a group of women and men dwell collectively in a villa with the hopes of discovering love and successful a money prize.
As anticipated, there’s additionally loads of drama.
“Nicolandria” have been the breakout stars this previous season, sparking headlines, and fan accounts.
Their fame comes at a divisive time, particularly with regard to points of race within the United States, and their apparent affection has supplied summer season pleasure and distraction to “Love Island’s” viewers.
Their reputation has meant immense recognition, together with endorsement offers.
Last week, NYX Professional Makeup teased a collaboration with the couple after Vansteenberghe revealed in an interview that he retains Carthen’s lip combo that includes the model’s gloss in his pocket. Vansteenberghe, who had been modeling Australian swimsuit brand Kulani Kinis since 2021, has his personal assortment on their web site now and options Carthen within the campaigns.
Carthen mentioned she isn’t just representing “Love Island” in these campaigns – she’s additionally representing Black ladies.
“Before we came into this world, Black women already had a label. They’re so quick to label us as angry Black women,” Carthen mentioned, describing how she needed to placed on a “strong suit” whereas within the villa throughout Andy Cohen’s current “After Show” on “Watch What Happens: Live.”
But in her relationship with Vansteenberghe, she mentioned she was in a position to let him take the wheel, the place he helped arrange two photoshoots for her to mannequin in Europe. “The support that I have from this guy is unreal. So, it allows me to be the soft woman that I’ve always wanted to be,” Carthen described.
It’s not the primary time that a pair who met by way of reality tv have captivated the zeitgeist. Here are a a few different {couples}:
Pam Ling and Judd Winick from “The Real World: San Francisco”
Consider them the O.G.’s of this listing.
Pam Ling, who’s now a physician, and Judd Winick, a cartoonist, linked in 1994, once they have been each forged members on MTV’s “The Real World: San Francisco,” which was the third installment of the then-nascent reality TV present. While they didn’t begin courting till after they completed filming, followers have been thrilled to be taught on the season’s reunion present in 1995 that they have been a couple.
They married in 2001 and are the dad and mom of two youngsters.
In February 2025, Winick posted in celebration of the thirty first anniversary of assembly Ling on the primary day of “The Real World” filming.
“It was my 24th birthday. And it is exactly 31 years ago today that we started filming THE REAL WORLD SAN FRANCISCO. My life would change forever in so many ways,” he wrote on social media. “But the most important by far is that I met Pam Ling. She is my partner. My hero. And the smartest and bravest and most beautiful and best person I know.”
Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter from “The Bachelorette”
Heartbreak led to like for the previous Rehn.
The bodily therapist was a contestant on Season 1 of “The Bachelor” in 2002, and have become the primary ever lead of “The Bachelorette” the next yr.
As the reality fairytale goes, former skilled soccer participant and firefighter Ryan Sutter received her coronary heart. ABC threw the couple a large wedding ceremony in 2003 that hundreds of thousands tuned into.
The dad and mom of a son and daughter now dwell in Colorado.
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Jionni LaValle from “Jersey Shore”
Gym, tan, laundry and love.
In the midst of all of the partying as a forged member of Season 3 of the hit MTV collection “The Jersey Shore,” Polizzi met entrepreneur LaValle throughout filming in 2011.
They married in 2014 and at the moment are the dad and mom of three.
Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich from “Survivor: All Stars”
The now-Amber Mariano not solely received “Survivor: All Stars,” she additionally acquired a husband out of it.
She met Rob, a.okay.a. “Boston Rob” Mariano, throughout filming in 2003 in Panama.
They acquired engaged throughout the present’s dwell finale in 2004 and married the next yr.
The couple at the moment are the dad and mom of 4 daughters.
Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton from “Love Is Blind”
The first season of Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” had one of essentially the most joyous conferences ever.
The premise of the reality courting collection revolves round contestants speaking with – and ideally falling for – one another sight unseen within the hopes of getting married. (It’s labored for some, like this pair.)
The second information scientist Hamilton sprinted in direction of content material creator and entrepreneur Speed, it was actually all love.
They married on the present in 2018, and are at present anticipating their first little one.
JoJo Siwa and Chris Hughes from “Celebrity Big Brother UK”
This one was a shocker for Siwa’s followers.
The now 22-year-old former little one star, singer and dancer was in a relationship with Australian actor Kath Ebbs when she joined the UK reality present earlier this yr
Siwa is now dating Hughes, with whom she bonded within the “Big Brother” home.
To deliver all of it full circle, he’s a former forged member of – watch for it – the UK model of “Love Island.”