As she prepares to launch her interior design app, Love Island star Olivia Bowen has shared that the reason she was able to protect her mental health after the ITV show was because she had her now husband Alex
Olivia Bowen admits she was ‘lucky to have’ Alex after Love Island
Olivia Bowen has admitted that she was “lucky to have” her now husband Alex Bowen after appearing on Love Island, as she opened up about protecting her mental health after the ITV show. Ahead of the release of her interior design app, Olivia sat down with The Mirror to talk about her experiences.
The star was an OG cast member on season two of Love Island, back in 2016 when she was still Olivia Buckland, an sales executive from Essex. “It was an early season and after season one nothing really happened. People weren’t getting all these deals,” Olivia said. She wasn’t expecting to be a star. In fact, she thought she might sell Land Rovers when she came back from the villa, because she didn’t think she would get opportunities in TV off the back of being in Love Island.
READ MORE: Olivia and Alex Bowen share dreams of living abroad and hopes for their childrenREAD MORE: Love Island’s Alex Bowen undergoes vasectomy after Olivia’s ‘very scary close call’
“Then it did kick off in season two, so it was a very different reception to come out to than what I expected!” she laughed. Because of her experience, she encouraged anyone who jets off to the Villa in the future to take care of their mental health. But how did Olivia stay sane? “A lot of that was down to Alex…
“I’m very lucky to have had him to lean on when we came out and he was going through the same thing as me so I think it always helped that we had each other and we could speak about everything that we were going through together.”
She added: “It was a huge life change. Not just lifestyle – my whole life completely did a 180. I have a really strong group of friends too and I have really strong relationships with my family so I’d always you know go to them and look to them for support and advice as well.”
Olivia never wanted to be an influencer, though many might say she’s become one after leaving Love Island. “I guess if you asked someone who knew of me they’d say I was an influencer but I don’t feel like that because I just feel like me,” Olivia explained. “I guess I just feel like I’m a person that people know online. I never really think of myself as an influencer more of like a online pen pal.”
It’s one of the reasons she’s set up her Interior Design Clinic app. After doing an interior design course, Olivia knew that she wanted to help her online following to do up their own homes, and not just because many would ask for her help after seeing what she did with her house.
“This basically came about because I studied interior design in lockdown and before that I was just rubbish,” she joked. “I always made the wrong decisions, I spent a lot of money making the wrong decisions. I think I painted one of my hallways in one of my old houses about five times within a month because I could never get it right.”
She continued to say that she knew an interior course wasn’t possible for everyone. “I know that time, money and all different things mean that so many people who want to know about interiors can’t find the time, money to do the interior course online. The other option is having an interior designer come to your house and do it for you but that is so expensive.
“So we thought what can we do that would create something to help other people find interior designing easier. We came up with the interior design clinic app where you describe what you want and it will come up with your whole design for your room and then you’re able to shop the different items that have come up in the image.”
She added that it is “really amazing fun” and almost “addictive” but entirely created to give people as much confidence as possible with their design choices. Olivia said that she became “really confident” at interior design after her course and “always wanted to make other people feel as confident” as she was.
On Love Island, Olivia has often been considered one of the show’s biggest forces of nature, with confidence that many can only dream of. But she says her confidence comes with age and that what people saw on Love Island wasn’t necessarily what she felt.
“I do really think it comes with age,” she said. “When I went into Love Island I had faked it. ‘Fake it till you make it’, that kind of thing. I really wasn’t as confident as people would first think. I had such a confidence issue in school and now I literally don’t care but I do think it comes with age.
“I think you always look back in hindsight and wish that you had this kind of mindset when you were younger. But it just doesn’t work like that. It takes time. It takes learning yourself.”
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