{"id":475444,"date":"2026-05-31T00:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/475444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T00:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:52:22","slug":"love-island-star-reveals-strictly-link-and-famous-itv-friendship-before-villa-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/475444\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Island star reveals Strictly link and famous ITV friendship before Villa debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ope Sowande may be preparing to enter the Love Island Villa, but the 27-year-old is no stranger to life in front of the cameras. Before joining the line-up of the ITV dating series<\/a>, the West End performer has already built an impressive list of stage and TV credits. <\/p>\n

The Lincolnshire-born participant is among the new Islanders<\/a> hoping to find romance in Mallorca this summer, though viewers may recognise him from several major productions on the small screen.<\/p>\n

Ope has spent years performing professionally as a dancer, appearing in live entertainment shows and adverts before deciding to try something different. While he’s now stepping into the Villa as himself, he previously had a brief brush with another iconic location.<\/p>\n

\"ope,<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a> <\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of his Love Island debut, Ope revealed he appeared as a backing dancer during the 2024 edition of Strictly Come Dancing, performing alongside actor Sarah Hadland<\/a> and her professional dance partner Vito Coppola. <\/p>\n

“Dancing on Strictly was amazing. I had the best time and met some really cool people but it was a really long rehearsal schedule,” he recalled. “We’d start early in the morning, and end late at night.”<\/p>\n

While he enjoyed the experience, Ope also admitted that his time on Strictly was relatively short-lived, noting: “I only did Strictly for a really short amount of time, I did one episode a couple of years ago. It was a very quick turnaround.”<\/p>\n

Away from Strictly, Ope’s performance career has also included appearances in Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, and even a commercial for Walkers crisps. <\/p>\n

But one of his other jobs also introduced him to This Morning and Bake Off star Alison Hammond, with Ope explaining: “I did panto with [her] a few years ago and we still stay in touch. I reckon she’ll be championing me for sure.”<\/p>\n

\"ope,<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Love Island 2026 contestant reveals unexpected ties to famous singer<\/a><\/p>\n

Ope has also crossed paths with former Love Island stars before entering the show himself. He previously met ex-Islanders Amber Gill<\/a> and Samira Mighty<\/a> at a party, with the star calling them “really cool girls”. <\/p>\n

His focus is now firmly on his own Love Island journey – and he’s adamant that he won’t be playing up to the camera, vowing: “I’m going to be myself. No acting is going to be involved. It’s a completely different challenge that I’m really looking forward to.”<\/p>\n

Confidence certainly doesn’t seem to be an issue for the performer either. Ahead of entering the Villa, Ope insisted that he isn’t intimidated by competition from the other Islanders, and plans to fully back himself when it comes to finding a connection. <\/p>\n

“No one phases me, I don’t get threatened,” he stated. “I’m very confident in myself as a person. I love my beauty, looks and humour. If someone fancies someone else more than me, then that’s on them. I won\u2019t take it personally.”<\/p>\n

\"aidan,<\/p>\n

Joel Anderson (Islanders) Rachel Joseph (Maya Jama)<\/p>\n

Related: Love Island teacher Sean Fitzgerald reveals plan to avoid “embarrassing” his pupils<\/a><\/p>\n

Ope has also hinted that, while he’s genuinely hoping to find romance in the Villa, he’s not afraid of a bit of chaos along the way, declaring that he would never play “anything safe” as it is “boring”. Tellingly, he also admitted to having a “wandering eye”.<\/p>\n

Luckily, he already has a plan in mind to win people over, teasing: “My thing is to go for the goal and make someone laugh straight away. I think that’s the key to love and the key to getting girls.”<\/p>\n

Love Island airs this Monday 1 June at 9pm on ITV2 and streams on ITVX.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a collector’s edition exploring the royal family, is here! Buy The Royals in newsagents or online<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ope Sowande may be preparing to enter the Love Island Villa, but the 27-year-old is no stranger to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,132789,137030,1105,205041,1107,93,61,60,184510,1135,205040,132788,282],"class_list":["post-475444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-love-island","tag-collection-strictly-come-dancing","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-f2f54803-c68b-4ddf-b694-e7f3e915ef80","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-love-island-star-reveals-strictly-link-and-famous-friendship","tag-subsection-reality-tv","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}