‘Love Island USA’ crowns winning couple following tumultuous seventh season

This image issued by Peacock shows Amaya Espinal left and Bryan Arenales from the reality series Love Island USA Photo by Ben Symons Peacock AP Ben Symons This image issued by Peacock shows Amaya Espinal left and Bryan Arenales from the reality series Love Island USA Photo by Ben Symons Peacock AP Ben Symons LOS ANGELES AP Love Island USA culminated a tumultuous summer full of explosive breakups and shock exits Sunday A society vote spoilers ahead crowned Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales as the winning couple of its seventh season The season finale of the Peacock reality series followed a chart-topping run since the season premiered on June The show brings young singles together in a remote villa in Fiji to explore connections with the ultimate goal of finding love Each contestant in the winning couple randomly picked from two envelopes one which contained the prize and the other nothing Arenales got the full prize and chose to split it evenly with Espinal Olandria Carthen and Nicolas Vansteenberghe were the runners-up and Huda Mustafa and Chris Seeley came in third place Iris Kendall and Jose Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez placed fourth The show s host Ariana Madix also revealed that the entire cast of Season will come together again for a New York reunion which will be issued on Peacock on Aug she revealed The show an American spinoff to the UK series has shaken up reality TV becoming Peacock s the greater part watched entertainment series on mobile devices according to NBC Universal It became a breakout success and captured mainstream attention last summer and this season grew into a true cultural phenomenon Love Island Beyond the Villa a new series spinoff premiered Sunday and follows Season s main cast as they tackle relationships life and newfound social media fame in Los Angeles This season has also been under fire as two contestants Cierra Ortega and Yulissa Escobar left the villa following resurfaced posts in which they used racial slurs Ortega who was half of one of the season s strongest couples left the villa just a week before the popular reality show s finale after old posts resurfaced that contained a slur against Asian people She apologized for the resurfaced posts in a nearly five minute TikTok video Wednesday Friday s episode saw the elimination of Ace Greene and Chelley Bissainthe setting the stage for the finale Green and Bissainthe were the only couple to maintain a relationship throughout greater part of the show The four couples each went on final dates during the last episode before the winners were crowned Espinal and Arenales were given a photo book with pictures of each other throughout their lives culminating with photos from their relationship during the show The two bonded over family traditions With you I don t ever cry out of sadness Every time I feel like a heightened emotion with you it s reliably just like happy tears Espinal revealed The date ended with Espinal and Arenales taking a picture a final memory from their time on Love Island USA I feel like I m a Dominican Cinderella when I m with you and I decisively detected my perfect glass slipper Espinal reported during their date Source