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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Michelle Cullen

Love Island stars who went on to bigger things - Olympics, massive music success and multi-million euro businesses

Love Island has served as a launch pad for many successful careers as contestants find themselves swarmed with calls from brands after they exit the villa.

With thousands of eyes glued to screens every night for the two month long show, islanders amass a huge amount of followers on their social media accounts, something that many companies see as a huge asset.

Whether they've been dumped from the island or have made it until the end, there are a number of different routes that Love Island has taken their careers.

Read more: Ex Love Island star Yewande says time on show was 'best decision' of her life

Below are some of Love Island's greatest success stories, from heading to the Olympics, multi-million euro companies and massive music success.

Greg O'Shea

After winning Love Island with Amber Gill and bagging the £50k, the Irishman decided to take the road less travelled and turned down major brand deals to pursue his sports career.

After focusing on his rugby 7's career with the Olympics instead, he told The Times that he's making "nowhere near as much money" as he should have after winning the show.

Greg O'Shea and Amber Gill were the 2019 winners of dating game show Love Island (ITV)

"Most of my pay came from brand deals and ambassadorships with companies", Greg explained.

"I'm in no way near as much money as I should have had coming off the back of Love Island, but I made a choice to come back to sport; I'm happy with that choice.

"I've been broke the whole time," he previously revealed. "Sevens rugby was my daytime job until I retired after the Olympics. We get paid below minimum wage. The top fellas are on 18 grand a year, and you're training full time.

"For most of us, our families had to take us back in and help us live so that we could get to the Olympics."

While Greg did say that he earned between €60-100k last year, he admitted that the brand deals off the back of winning Love Island was where the sum came from.

"I went on Love Island, and I won that big chunk of money. I got brand deals on the back of it', he explained. "I got a few big ambassadorships, and I've gotten money from them, but I'm still petrified of having no money. I even have my Love Island money sitting in a savings account.

Amber Davies

Welsh Islander, Amber Davies, has had a very successful career since winning the series with Kem Cetinay.

Although they are no longer an item, Amber has carved out a successful career in acting and musicals.

Amber Davies is currently hosting Cabaret All Stars at Proud Embankment (Brett D. Cove / SplashNews.com)

The Love Island winner, who performed at Cirque Le Soir as a dancer before the show, quickly returned to her theatrical roots.

Before the pandemic, Amber bagged a lead role in Dolly Parton's hit West End musical 9 to 5 and starred alongside Olympian Louis Smith in Bring It On the Musical Tour .

She has also appeared in other TV programmes such as All Together Now, And They're Off, and CBBC's Almost Never.

Kem Cetinay

Kem won Love Island with partner Amber in 2017. During his time in the villa, he developed a legendary 'bromance' with fellow Islander Chris Hughes.

Since then, the pair have starred in multiple formats together and continue to work together to this day.

Now a presenter in his own right, Kem has made appearances on ITV's This Morning, as well as Dancing on Ice.

Aside from television, he is also the co-founder of the restaurant Array in Essex.

Maura Higgins

Ever since Irish Maura entered the villa in 2019, viewers immediately fell in love with her.

The TV personality, who previously spent time working as a ring girl for professional boxers, finished the show in fourth place with Curtis Pritchard.

Following the end of the series and their relationship, Maura has since dated Merlin star Bradley James, Love Island co-star Chris Taylor and Strictly Come Dancing's Giovanni Pernice.

Love Island proved to be a great career move for Maura as, since 2019, she has been involved in the world of fashion, launching a line with Ann Summers and making numerous TV appearances, including on ITV's Dancing On Ice.

She is also due to appear on the latest series of Cooking with the Stars .

Olivia Attwood

Olivia Attwood shot to fame after her relationship with Chris Hughes in the 2017 series.

Choosing to stay in TV once her stint on the show was over, Olivia has made appearances on Celebs Go Dating, The Only Way is Essex and even starred in her own reality series on ITVBe.

Olivia assured that she had 'fun experiences' with Chris Hughes in the villa (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Olivia now presents a new series with ITV called Getting Filthy Rich.

The series explores the online selling of sexual content on OnlyFans.

Olivia is no longer with Love Island co-star Chris Hughes. She is now engaged to footballer Bradley Dack.

Wes Nelson

The 24-year-old Love Island star turned musician, who is now a successful solo artist, has come on leaps and bounds since he launched his first single See Nobody - featuring rapper Hardy Caprio - in 2020.

These days, Wes is making moves after reaching out to the biggest of stars - as he gets to work on a song with former One Direction heartthrob Liam, 28.

He is to release a new song with French Montana on Friday.

(Getty Images)

Dani Dyer

Dani, the daughter of EastEnders' Danny Dyer, partnered with Jack Fincham in series four of Love Island.

The pair remained with each other throughout the entirety of the competition, but when the cameras stopped rolling, unfortunately, they split up.

Dani has since gone on to have a successful career outside of Love Island, making an appearances on Survival of the Fittest, EastEnders and even co-hosting MTV's True Love or True Lies.

The TV personality and actress has also released her own fashion range.

Tommy Fury and Molly-May Hague

Boxer Tommy and social media influencer Molly-Mae appeared on the fifth series of Love Island. Since then, the pair remain together and have been very busy.

A more natural looking Molly-Mae now (Instagram)

Molly-Mae now holds the role of Creative Director at PrettyLittleThing and reportedly signed a £500,000 contract with the company in 2021.

Professional boxer Tommy has stuck to what he knows and, alongside a prosperous career in social media, has kept his foot in the ring.

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