{"id":568877,"date":"2026-08-14T14:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568877\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:32:12","slug":"love-islands-simba-opens-up-caring-for-his-mum-with-motor-neurone-disease-from-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568877\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Island’s Simba opens up caring for his mum with Motor Neurone Disease from 10…"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I feel like it’s made me the man that I am now. It’s given me so many skills, so many credentials.”<\/p>\n

14 August 2026, 13:48 | Updated: 14 August 2026, 14:39<\/p>\n

\"Simba<\/p>\n

Simba spoke about his mum’s neurological illness on Good Morning Britain.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nITV \/ Good Morning Britain<\/p>\n


\n\"Facebook
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Love Island’s Simba has revealed what it was really like to become a young carer at 10 years old when his mum was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.<\/p>\n

Simba Kudyiwa<\/a> met Angelista Gunda<\/a> on Love Island<\/a> series 13, and while we were shown the ups and downs of their relationship on the ITV show, there was a huge part of Simba’s life that the pair bonded over which was never explained on the show. <\/p>\n

After Simba saying his mum “smiled bares” during the show went viral, Simba exclusively revealed to Capital<\/a> that she has a neurological illness called Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and can only communicate via smiling or her eye-gaze. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Capital, Angelista shared that while in the villa they spoke a lot about Simba’s mum and how he cares for her. Now, Simba has opened up further about his mum’s condition and how he became a young carer at just 10 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Simba<\/p>\n

Simba shared a picture of his mum and Angelista to his Instagram story.<\/p>\n

Picture:
\nInstagram<\/p>\n

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Simba shared that at the beginning of his mum’s condition, his parents did the best they could to “protect” him and his younger brother from the severity of the situation but explained that he naturally fell into the role of helping to care for her from the start.<\/p>\n

The Love Island star revealed one of his earliest memories, saying: “I think I was probably about 11 years old and she started to lose strength in her hands. I think she would say that probably in terms of like her upper limbs, that’s where the disease started to affect her quite significantly to begin with. <\/p>\n

“And she was struggling to\u2014 I think she parked up and she was struggling to put the handbrake up. And I remember she called me to the front. She was like, ‘I need you to lift up the handbrake’. <\/p>\n

“So I think little things like that that started to, you know, kind of make me question a little bit, like, ‘Okay, what’s going on with Mum right now’, you know?”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Simba questioned over viral Love Island moment<\/p>\n

Simba explained that his mum’s illness instilled a sense of responsibility on him at a very young age. He said: “Massive responsibility, from such a young age. I feel like as well I kind of had a sense of responsibility just looking after my younger brother, you know, being an older brother. <\/p>\n

“And now you’ve got mum to look after as well. But I feel like looking back, I’m definitely proud of myself. I feel like it’s made me the man that I am now. It’s given me so many skills, so many credentials.”<\/p>\n

And speaking about how Angelista has responded to the situation, he said: “I feel like with Angelista, it’s the empathy, you know. It’s easy for people to feel sympathetic towards my situation, but It’s been such a short amount of time in which we’ve known each other, but I can just see [that] she kind of feels how I feel, and that’s, that’s massive for me.”<\/p>\n

Listen live to Capital, and catch up on any shows you missed, on Global Player<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I feel like it’s made me the man that I am now. It’s given me so many skills,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-568877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}