Entertainment

Has The 'Love Island' Prize Money Ever Not Been Shared, Because £50k Is A LOT

by Aoife Hanna
ITV/Shutterstock

Love Island Series 4 is almost over. In just a few hours, this year's king and queen will be crowned, and the winner of the £50,000 cash prize will be confirmed. But of course, the finale isn't as straight-forward as that (come on guys, this is Love Island). There's a big catch. Just one person in the winning couple is awarded the money before Caroline Flack offers them the chance to split it 50/50 with their partner — but will they? Has a Love Island winner ever not shared the prize money?

Yep, this is as about as messed up as a twist can get; Choose between a life-changing sum of money or a person you've known for a few weeks but may be in love with. Rather them than me. Of course, £25,000 is nothing to sniff at, but £50,000 is literally twice as good.

It's no secret that money issues are one of the biggest causes of turbulence in relationships, but this is like next level cray stressful. Imagine finally finding love and then they choose money instead of you? Oh and on live TV as well. Shudders. The question is, after all that romancing and falling in love, has anyone been tempted to actually pie their loved one off and keep all that cash?

Love Island/ITV

Well, let's take a look back at the very first season of Love Island, which saw Max Morley and Jess Hayes voted the nation's favourite couple back in 2015. After winning, they were asked by presenter Caroline Flack if they wanted "love or money" when tasked with deciding between splitting the prize money or keeping the whole lot for themselves individually. They then had to each give their answers at the same time. If they both went for "love" then they split the prize 50/50, but if one went for "love" and the other "money" then the person who had chosen the cash would win it all. However, if they both chose "money", they would then both go home with their little pockets empty AF. Get the picture?

Luckily, Jess and Max both went for love and split the huge prize.

A year later in 2016, the rules changed slightly for winners Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey. This time round, the pair were presented with two random envelopes, and they both had to pick one each. Inside one envelope was £50,000. Inside the other was nothing.

In case you can't remember what happened, Cara picked the envelope that had all the money in it. But did she pick love or money afterwards? She chose love of course, and hasn't looked back since.

Cara and Nathan now have a little boy together called Freddie George. The pair also recently announced their engagement.

In Series 3, Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay were crowned the winners and were faced with pretty much the same twist. The winner of the cash, in this case was series favourite Kem. When he was tasked with the decision to split the cash or take it all, the Essex boy chose bae and split the cash right down the middle. Rather awkwardly for him, the relationship only lasted 132 days after they left the villa. Never mind, eh?

With tonight's finale fast approaching, and the couples battling it out to win all that cash, will they choose love or money? Tune in to ITV2 tonight at 9 p.m. to find out.

There are just three couples left in the competition; Megan Barton Hanson and Wes Nelson, Laura Anderson and Paul Knops, and finally, Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham. However, only one of them can win.