'Love Island USA' crowns Amaya and Bryan as winning couple of show's
tumultuous seventh season
[July 14, 2025]
By ITZEL LUNA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Love Island USA” culminated a tumultuous summer full
of explosive breakups and shock exits in its season finale Sunday.
A public vote (spoilers ahead) crowned Amaya Espinal, 25, and Bryan
Arenales, 28, as the winning couple of its seventh season.
The Peacock reality series has had a chart-topping run since the season
premiered on June 3. “Love Island” brings young singles together in a
remote villa in Fiji to explore connections with the ultimate goal of
finding love.
Espinal and Arenales formed a connection late in the season, bonding
over their shared Latino culture. Espinal, a New York City native, is
Dominican, and Arenales is of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent,
according to his Instagram page.
“I often said how much I wanted to provide that safe place here for you,
but little did I know that you would do that for me, too,” Arenales said
during his final speech before the winners were announced. “You said I
was the water to your fire, but you are my peace to this madness.”
Each contestant in the winning couple randomly picked from two
envelopes, one which contained the $100,000 prize and the other nothing.
Arenales got the full prize, and chose to split it evenly with Espinal.
Olandria Carthen and Nicolas Vansteenberghe were the runners-up, and
Huda Mustafa and Chris Seeley — who went through an awkward and
emotional breakup during the finale — came in third place. Iris Kendall
and Jose “Pepe” Garcia-Gonzalez placed fourth.
The show’s host, Ariana Madix, also announced that the entire cast of
Season 7 will come together again for a New York reunion, which will be
released on Peacock on Aug. 25, she said.
A season of shake-ups and scandal
The show, an American spinoff to the UK series, has shaken up reality
TV, becoming Peacock’s most watched entertainment series on mobile
devices, according to NBC Universal.
It became a breakout success and captured mainstream attention last
summer, and this season grew into a true cultural phenomenon.
“Love Island: Beyond the Villa,” a new series spinoff, premiered Sunday
and follows Season 6’s main cast as they navigate relationships, life
and newfound social media fame in Los Angeles.
This season also came under fire as two contestants — Cierra Ortega and
Yulissa Escobar — left the villa following resurfaced posts in which
they used racial slurs.
Ortega, who was half of one of the season’s strongest couples with
Vansteenberghe, left the villa just a week before the popular reality
show’s finale after old posts resurfaced that contained a slur against
Asian people. She apologized for the resurfaced posts in a nearly five
minute TikTok video Wednesday.
Friday’s episode saw the elimination of Ace Greene and Chelley
Bissainthe, setting the stage for the finale. Green and Bissainthe were
the only couple to maintain a relationship throughout most of the show.
A 'Dominican Cinderella' story
The final four couples each went on dates during the last episode before
the winners were crowned.
Espinal and Arenales were given a photo book with pictures of each other
throughout their lives, culminating with photos from their relationship
during the show. The two bonded over family traditions.
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This image released by Peacock shows Chris Seeley, left, and Huda
Mustafa from the reality series "Love Island USA." (Ben
Symons/Peacock via AP)
“With you, I don’t ever cry out of sadness. Every time I feel like a
heightened emotion with you, it’s always just like happy tears,” Espinal
said.
The date ended with Espinal and Arenales taking a picture, a final
memory from their time on “Love Island USA.” The couple then made their
relationship exclusive, noting they will only focus on each other when
they leave the island.
“I feel like I’m a Dominican Cinderella when I’m with you, and I finally
found my perfect glass slipper,” Espinal said during their date.
How ‘Love Island USA’ works
Stripped of their phones and connection with the outside world, five men
and five women arrive in the villa and coupled up based on initial
romantic interest. Throughout the season, the show introduces a steady
stream of bombshells, new contestants who are brought in to disrupt
existing relationships and build new storylines.
Contestants are routinely dumped from the villa, removed either by a
public vote or by the islanders themselves.
Under constant surveillance, contestants partook in kissing
competitions, heart rate challenges and drama-inducing games ripe for
viral moments. Halfway through the season, established couples were
temporarily separated for Casa Amor, the show’s ultimate test, and
encouraged to explore new relationships with a fresh group of single
contestants.
Amaya and Bryan, from late arrivals to America's sweethearts
Espinal made waves when she walked in as a bombshell early in the season
and has been credited for some of the season’s most viral moments.
“I never said I was perfect. I never said I didn’t have any flaws. But
at least I’m pretty, and at least I’m a little funny, and at least I’m
my own best friend,” Espinal sang to herself in the makeup room, which
prompted various covers online and inspired a Google pop-up message when
you search up her nickname, Amaya Papaya.
The New York City native, who labeled herself a “sensitive gangster,”
tested various connections, including Greene, Austin Shepard and Zak
Srakaew, that all fizzled out. Her previous partners on the show said
Espinal, who is Dominican, expressed affection too quickly.
A connection sparked between Espinal and Casa Amor contestant Arenales
late in the season after he defended her, saying that “coming from a
Hispanic household, calling someone babe, mi amor, mi vida, that’s just
how we talk.”
“Every time I talk to you, like, my energy is up. I’m walking out
smiling. That’s what I want in my life,” Arenales told Espinal during
their final date.
Espinal said Arenales lets her express her emotions freely, a difference
from her previous connections, which she said “made me feel
misunderstood and as if the love I had to give to the world needed to be
watered down, but every decision led me to find my personal prince
charming.”
Arenales ended his speech by calling Espinal, “mi diabla, mi alma, y mi
loquita,” which translates to “my devil, my soul, and my madness.”
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