Toni Laites entered the ITV<\/a> reality show as a bombshell and quickly won over viewers. Her love story with footballer Harrison Solomon, who was also based in America before the show, was a constant source of drama.<\/p>\n The pair faced trouble due to Harrison’s flirtatious behaviour with other women, leading to their split after Casa Amor. Harrison then paired up with newbie Lauren Wood, while Toni found comfort with dancer Cach<\/a>, her eventual partner in victory.<\/p>\n However, as the first American to clinch the title in the British series, Toni has found it tough adapting to her new UK life, resorting to sofa surfing since exiting the villa.<\/p>\n On Wednesday (October 15), the 25 year old took to TikTok<\/a> to share “the truth about the last couple of months” with her followers, reports OK!<\/a><\/p>\n Toni revealed: “I never thought that going to work, as a waitress in Vegas on a random Monday afternoon, would end putting me on one of the UK’s biggest reality TV shows. Let alone winning as the first American.”<\/p>\n She added: “I’m so grateful that you guys have put me in the position that I am in but it hasn’t been easy.<\/p>\n “I’ve been sleeping on couches and I think this is my seventh Airbnb\/ hotel at this point. Living out of suitcases is hard.”<\/p>\n She opened up about her employment challenges, saying: “I haven’t had a visa, so I haven’t been able to work or go live or produce the content that you guys want to see everyday. But I’m trying.”<\/p>\n “I can’t thank you all enough for loving and supporting me every step of the way,” the reality star expressed her gratitude.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n Toni then confessed she’s been striving to “get back to the loveable character” that Love Island fans have come to adore, but has found it difficult to be “that person”.<\/p>\n However, she appealed to her fans to “please be patient” with her.<\/p>\n The rising star also shared how “surreal” her life has become since participating in the reality show.<\/p>\n She elaborated: “waitresses don’t usually get to walk down red carpets and be in room full of celebrities that they’ve only read about online,” before adding that she is doing her best to adapt to her new circumstances.<\/p>\n Love Island is streaming now on ITVX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Love Island series 12 winner has opened up about their struggles since leaving the ITV2 reality show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,88253,347,574,30085,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-203990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-harrison-solomon","tag-itv","tag-love-island","tag-toni-laites","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Toni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Toni-Laites-LI.jpg\")
Toni opened up about living in hotels and Airbnbs(Image: TikTok\/ Toni Laites)<\/p>\n