INTERVIEW
SOPHIE AND JOSH:
Love Island: All Stars’ loved-up couple tells Closer about their plans, who they’ve stayed in touch with from the villa and why they don’t want to move in together yet
After finishing Love Island: All Stars in third place in February, things are going from strength to strength for Sophie Piper and Josh Ritchie. Unlike most of the other contestants, Sophie and Josh had never met before they re-entered the famous villa, but they had an instant connection. Back home, which is London for Sophie, 25, and Manchester for Josh, 29, the couple are still going strong.
BOYS’ CHAT
Since getting back to the UK, Sophie and Josh tell us they’ve been soaking up their success, enjoying spending time together and getting to know each other’s friends and families. For Josh, that meant meeting Sophie’s half-sister, TV presenter and former The Saturdays star Rochelle Humes, 35, and her husband, JLS singer and DJ Marvin Humes, 35. “It was nice,” Sophie tells Closer. “Josh and Marv were together all day. Boys’ chat!” They even have a double date planned, Josh reveals, “They said let’s do one. We need to do dinner soon, but obviously it’s got to be when they’re not busy and we’re not busy.”
As Josh and Sophie will know from being on Love Island the first time around – Sophie was on the first winter Love Island in 2020, and Josh was on series one of the show in 2015 – the Islanders are often inundated with interviews, events and opportunities as soon as they leave. So it’s unsurprising that the new couple have been busy.
Of course, they haven’t been too busy for each other. In fact, things are getting increasingly serious between them, with Josh recently organising a romantic “girlfriend proposal” for Sophie and the pair even admitting they’ve said they love each other – something neither of them were expecting. “For me, because I did [the show] so many years ago, it felt like something new again,” explains Josh. “So I just went in with an open mind but I didn’t actually think I’d come off the show with somebody I’m madly in love with.”
OWN SPACE
“He’s a cutie,” Sophie responds. She didn’t expect to find a boyfriend on the show either, and says meeting Josh has exceeded all her expectations. “I thought I was going to go in, have fun, see the vibes, obviously you hope to meet someone, but you don’t actually think you’d be sitting here now.” With Josh living in Manchester and Sophie in London, the couple are trying to see each other two or three times a week. “We don’t want to be one of those couples that gets out and moves straight in with each other. I feel like we’ve both got stuff going on in our own lives,” Sophie says. “So where we’re not round the corner from each other, w
