Premiering on November 1 and concluding before the month even came to a close, the inaugural season of Love Island Games was extremely short-lived, but that did not stop Eyal Booker from pursuing a relationship with the ravishing Cely Vazquez.
For those who are unfamiliar with Love Island Games, according to Peacock, the show gives fan-favorite islanders from international iterations of Love Island — including Love Island: Germany, Love Island: Sweden, Love Island: France, and more — “a second shot at love as they compete in a brand-new format to be crowned champions of Love Island Games. In this cheeky new iteration, romance will meet reality as fan-favorite islanders are faced with both team and couples’ challenges, all while navigating dating, eliminations, recoupling, dramatic arrivals, and new competition twists and turns like never before.”
While Eyal Booker of Love Island: UK and Cely Vazquez of Love Island: USA were definitely a fan-favorite pair throughout the beloved competition series, their fellow islanders did not agree, ultimately leading to their untimely exit. At the beginning of the final episode, Cely and Eyal were eliminated after failing to receive the support of the ousted islanders — with the exception of Kyra Green and Georgia Steel — in a twist that brought back the entire cast of the inaugural season of Love Island Games as the jury.
Leaving the villa hand in hand, it looked like things were smooth sailing between Eyal and Cely — with hopes to pursue a relationship with one another post-show — but the British bombshell had bigger fish to fry. While Eyal Booker seemed to be all smiles while filming Love Island Games, it turns out that the 28-year-old had a family emergency going on back home. Keep scrolling to find out for yourself what said emergency entailed…
Prefacing that he was going to try and keep his explanation short and sweet, Eyal Booker revealed the details of this family emergency in a TikTok video, ultimately amassing a grand total of 481.4k views, 24.8k likes, and 150 comments.
“The day I was going into Love Island Games, my dad was going in for an operation to have his toe amputated. He’s diabetic — he has been since he was 10 years old — and his diabetes finally caught up with him. He started to have something called calcification of your arteries, and because your feet are the furthest part away from your heart, when your circulation goes, it starts to affect your feet. My dad went in for that operation.”
While Eyal was in the villa for Love Island Games, he admitted that his mother was on standby to let the producers know whether or not the operation was successful. In that moment, the operation was indeed successful, which is why Eyal decided to proceed on the beloved competition series, sparking up a connection with the stunning Cely Vazquez.
Despite what was going on back home, Eyal could not speak any higher of his journey on Love Island Games.
“I was then on Love Island Games for two weeks — maybe two weeks and a couple of day — having the best time of my life, living in this alternate reality where nothing else in the world even exists. It’s this really weird feeling. You have no contact with the outside world, you have no phone, you don’t know what the time is. You’re living in this unbelievable villa. There’s sun shining. There’s beautiful people all around you. The drama of the villa just feels like the only drama that exists.”
As we know, Eyal and Cely were voted off of the series just shy of the finale — ultimately shattering the hearts of winners Jack Fowler and Justine Ndiba — and what was the first thing Eyal did when he was eliminated from Love Island Games? Call his family.
Unfortunately, this call was not sunshine and rainbows like he had hoped…
“We get voted off of the show. I get my phone back. I call my family. They let me know that my dad’s operation — which was initially successful — was unsuccessful, and that day he was going in to have his leg amputated, right? At that moment, I’m just thinking, ‘What the f**k?’ Fully overwhelmed and just need to get home. Just need to get back to London.”
Naturally, Eyal booked the first flight from Fiji to Los Angeles, then immediately from Los Angeles to London. Reuniting with his family, Eyal learned that his father had his entire leg amputated while he was away, which ultimately resulted in almost two months in and out of really intense surgery, trying to save his other leg.
Fortunately, his father was okay in the end, but in this moment — despite having the adventure of a lifetime on Love Island Games — Eyal needed to be there for his family.
“The NHS, the doctors, the surgeons, thank you so much, because you were unbelievable and ultimately you saved his life… My dad was going through life changing stuff. I was just trying to be there to support my family the way that they would support me and the way that I’ve been raised to. My mom was also going through some pretty intense stuff and became quite unwell, and so I was just trying to focus on keeping my head above water and showing up for my family the way that I was raised to and the way that I show up for the people that I love.”
To close out the TikTok video, Eyal admitted that his plan post-show was to spend the rest of the year in Los Angeles with his Love Island Games castmates, spending time with Cely, attending the weekly watch parties, and more. Because he had to fly back to London on such short notice, Eyal explained that the reason he is seemingly isolated from his fellow islanders on social media is because he had to leave so soon, but there is no bad blood by any means.
Since his journey on the hit competition show, Eyal was in Spain working with the Andalusian government, in Los Angeles filming a project that is yet to be announced, and more. As for his family, his dad went into a rehabilitation center to recover from his wounds and get a prosthetic leg fitted, while his mom was finally on the road to recovery when it came to her health issues as well. Nowadays, things seem to be smooth sailing for the Booker family!
Given that Eyal appears to be a single pringle, with Love Island: All Stars right around the corner, could he make his return to the franchise in an effort to find his perfect match once and for all? Only time will tell…
Nonetheless, to watch Eyal Booker’s journey on Love Island Games from start to finish, fans of Love Island can stream the entirety of the beloved competition series on Peacock as we anxiously await a second season.
Published: Jan 2, 2024 03:01 pm