Both from Arizona, Carmen Kocourek and Kenzo Nudo from season 5 of Love Island: USA had the best chance of a long-lasting relationship beyond the villa due to their proximity to one another, but did it happen?
Carmen arrived on day two of the beloved competition series, spending a night in The Hideaway as a “throuple” with Hannah Wright and Carsten ‘Bergie’ Bergersen before entering the villa. Exploring her connection with Victor Gonzalez, Carsten ‘Bergie’ Bergersen, Leonardo ‘Leo’ Dionicio, and more throughout her Love Island: USA journey, Carmen found herself unlucky in love time and time again until Kenzo arrived.
Entering the villa alongside Jonah Allman and Emily Chavez as a hot new bombshell, Kenzo instantaneously swept Carmen off of her feet, remaining coupled up all the way to the finale of season five of Love Island: USA, where they came in fourth place after Hannah and Marco, Kassy and Leo, and Taylor and Bergie.
Because of the undeniable connection that the pair had with one another — even discussing marriage after knowing each other for only a few weeks — fans of the Love Island franchise developed a conspiracy theory that Carmen and Kenzo knew each other before the show. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture, the two lovebirds put the rumors to rest.
Carmen: “No, we did not know each other at all before this. I know we live in the same city, but the last four years I’ve been in college, so I’ve actually been living in Tempe… I’ve been fully involved in school and he’s been in Europe and Mexico full time, practically living there.”
Kenzo: “I think I can see where those people are coming from. [That we’re] from the same city and we just hit it off so [quickly] that it was almost too good to be true, but it was. It really was magical meeting each other. It was just something that we came and explained. It was just fate. It was really that magical and it really was that good, so it sometimes is hard to understand that and really believe that, but it was one of those things.”
In the same interview, Carmen and Kenzo addressed the marriage comments that were made during the last few episodes of Love Island: USA season 5 as well.
Kenzo: “I think we do see it in our future, but we obviously have a lot still that we still need to be in the real world together and see how things are going to work when we’re back home and figure our schedules out and stuff like that, but we really do see it. The potential is very high.”
Leaving the villa madly in love — with Kenzo ready to pop the question — did the love between Carmen Kocourek and Kenzo Nudo last beyond their journey on the hit competition show? Keep scrolling to find out…
Lucky for fans of the Love Island franchise, Carmen Kocourek and Kenzo Nudo are still going strong as a couple, sharing dozens of photos on their respective Instagram profiles.
Most recently, Carmen shared a series of photos to her 135,000 Instagram followers for her boyfriend’s birthday on Oct. 28, with a caption that reads, “To know you is to love you, feliz cumpleaños mi amor.” She even gave him a scrapbook featuring loads and loads of their fondest memories as a gift — how sweet is that?
As for Kenzo, his most recent post with his girlfriend was just yesterday (Nov. 7), sharing some of his recent whereabouts with his 89,000 Instagram followers with the caption, “moments of life lately 📸”
Could there be wedding bells in the future for the pair? Only time will tell…
To take a trip down memory lane and watch the relationship between Carmen Kocourek and Kenzo Nudo unfold from start to finish, you can stream season five of Love Island: USA on Peacock right now.