Inside Love Island star Ekin-Su’s fiery bust-ups with Davide & how they’ve moved on after she found messages from models
LOVE Islander Ekin-Su Culculoglu reckons she and her telly lover Davide Sanclimenti are a match made in heaven – when it comes to bust-ups.
The 28-year-old has confessed she and her Italian stallion, who won last summer’s edition of the ITV2 dating show, argue in the “same style”.
It comes after The Sun on Sunday revealed last month how Ekin-Su was left fuming when she found messages on 27-year-old Davide’s phone from two Instagram beauties suggesting a tryst in Manchester.
She called love rival Harriet Wilson a “f***ing s**g” and accused her of “sleeping with my boyfriend”, and also took aim at the second woman, Phoebe Wintle.
But now Ekin-Su, born in London to Turkish parents, says she and Davide have moved on from that blip.
She gushed: “I can’t imagine myself without Davide, I just can’t.
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“I feel like there is no one else. Davide and I like the same things and are interested in the same things. And when we argue, we argue in the same style.”
Soon after the dispute, they flew to Amsterdam for a make-or-break trip, but at the time fans noted that she posted no pictures of him.
Speaking this week to students at Cambridge University, Ekin-Su told how she now wants to crack Hollywood.
She said: “I have always performed. Since I popped out my mother’s womb I have been an actress.
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“I have always had a quirky personality and used to play characters in my room.
"It was opposite to my looks and I went to performing arts college and got a 2:1 acting degree and loved it. I realised I wanted to do it. People used to say, ‘You can’t do that, you can’t be an actress’. I said, ‘Do you know what? I’m going to keep going’.
“It is the same if you want to be a lawyer or a politician — don’t listen to people who tell you that you can’t do it, because you can.
“You don’t need friends like that in this industry. I had two friends like that. Do I speak to them? Hell, no. You are born alone and you die alone. That is true.
“I went into this Turkish soap and that finished, and I’d thought it was crazy to try it but I did. I enjoyed it, it was a challenge.
“Next it could be me being a director or being in a weird film. I am always doing stuff on the quiet. I like to surprise people differently.
‘Mentally strong’
“I always wanted to be famous. I will go back to acting. We have some meetings lined up in LA.
“People say, ‘Oh, you are old for it now’, but I can always play somebody’s mum.
“I am not an influencer. I am not good on social media or on TikTok. I will try to do more theatre, TV, soaps, documentaries or presenting.”
Referring to her social media profile — she now has a huge 3.2million followers on Instagram — she admits she feels pressure to keep fans in the know about her and Davide’s relationship, in case people think they have split up.
She said: “Before I was on Love Island I would put an Instagram picture on there once a month. Now that I’m in the public eye, if I don’t change my profile picture people will think we have broken up or that something has happened, and it has not.
“Sometimes I feel the pressure from the fans and the public to show you are still together.
“I try to stay authentic to myself but it should be private. Love is linked to yourself — you have to love yourself to love someone else.”
Ekin-Su’s self-confidence was put to the test earlier this year when she did TV’s Dancing On Ice.
Her skin-coloured “nude” costume and risqué Britney Spears routine on the first episode sparked 112 complaints to watchdog Ofcom and she ended up in the skate-off for survival.
She survived, and mustered enough courage to return to the ice on the ITV show before eventually becoming the third celebrity eliminated from the contest.
But she admits she found the reality show challenging, which was not helped by personal struggles away from the cameras.
She said: “I thought I was mentally strong enough for Dancing On Ice and I still to this day think I was. But I was going through a lot of things. One day I will write a book and you will find out. Not to do with my relationship, but work-wise.
“I just had no voice and I could not speak, I had to perform and every weekend you had to dance.
"I loved doing Britney Spears. She is an icon and is confident.
“I was in my costume but there were dancers on the show who were half-naked and nobody got criticised — but I was. It is just how it is.
“It is a different audience and you can’t please everyone.”
‘Beauty is inside’
But the tough experience has since buoyed her self-esteem, as she has learned from it.
She added: “When people criticise you, it makes you stronger. I like trolls and I like reading comments — I’m not joking, I really love them.
“The more I see them, the more I want to be more confident. It is a reverse psychology game.”
Ekin-Su reckons she has thicker skin than most after being badly bullied at school — even detailing how mean classmates once poured a bottle of urine over her.
She recalled: “I was too confident at school, like trying to be the teacher’s friend.
“It’s just so strange. And I got really badly bullied.
“I had a horrible experience where I had no friends and I got invited to the field one day.
“I was really excited, as I felt as if I was part of the group. They invited me after school to this field after sports at about 4.30pm — and nobody was there.
“All of a sudden I saw three people and they chucked a bottle of p*s on me and pushed me down the hill.
“It was the worst experience of my life and it traumatised me. But it’s made me strong and who I am now.”
Ekin-Su, who took part in beauty contests as a teenager, has been open about having breast enlargement surgery, £4,000 veneers and a non-surgical nose job.
She said: “The reason I did beauty pageants was because I felt so insecure and wanted to feel apprec-iated. At the time I was chubbier, and I started to lose weight and got invited to a pageant. I then won.
“I did another pageant in South Korea and competed with 75 countries and came, like, 15th.”
But she added: “I then realised that looks are not real. Looks fade. Beauty is inside, brains and beauty.
“If you are beautiful then good for you, but some might like chocolate cake, some might like vanilla cake.
“Everyone is unique and different in their own way.”
Ekin-Su still receives regular counselling organised by ITV’s Love Island aftercare team, which helps her deal with the huge fame she has found since appearing on the show.
There have been bumps along the road, though.
The Sun on Sunday reported that she was involved in a legal battle with fashion retailer Oh Polly after her £1million contract with it collapsed.
Ekin-Su added of her Love Island experience: “I’ll be really honest, there was more support from the producers than from the contestants. The producers really had our backs.
“I see a psych every week. ITV pays for it but I need it, and to help with trolls. It’s not easy, as everyone knows everything about you.
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“But I have no regrets with taking part in the show. It felt over- whelming to win. It was good to be accepted for who I was.
“Loads of people in my life put me down, and it was emotional.”
