“Love Island USA” star Nicole Jacky finally broke her silence “to provide an update” after her partner Kendall Washington’s “private” videos leaked online.
“While Love Island was an amazing experience, things have not been easy since leaving the villa,” she wrote on her Instagram Story Thursday.
“There’s much more to share on what has happened since coming home, and for now, I’ve been taking time to process — these are real feelings and my real life.”
Jacky, 26, concluded, “Thanks for understanding. Love y’all.”
While Washington, 27, was in Fiji filming the sixth season of the Peacock show, videos of him completely nude on a bed circulated online — unbeknownst to him.
After the season finale, during which Washington told Jacky he loved her, the contestants were reunited with their phones.
“What a way to get my phone back y’all,” the medical sales rep posted on his Instagram Story the next day.
“That was something I shared to someone in confidence and trust. It’s unfortunate that it’s no longer private but it is what it is,” he explained, concluding his message by expressing gratitude for his “experience” on the dating competition series.
Despite the leak, it appeared the couple were still together, as Jacky told Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” that they were going strong.
“I am dating to marry. I take this seriously,” Washington chimed in before joking, “I’m getting very old.”
Although when she spoke to us she still had not reciprocated the L-word, Jacky said it was because she does not take it lightly.
“I’ve said ‘I love you’ twice in my life now. And it was always after someone had said it, and I think I maybe said it too early or when I didn’t mean it,” she explained on the podcast.
“I think I got hurt; I ended up hurting people because of it.”
The brunette bombshell, who is also a medical sales rep, made it clear that she does not want to reciprocate the word “just to say it back.”
“[It’s] scary stuff, but I’ve trying to be open and vulnerable and give it a chance, and I think it’s paying off very well,” she shared.
