She sashayed onto Love Island with so much pizzazz and chutzpah she not only stole the show but the entire series, making her one of the most memorable contestants ever.
Self-declared ‘Turkish delight’ became a fan favourite when she won the dating show over the summer, with New York magazine declaring her ‘the Best Private University reality TV star the world has ever seen’ and women worldwide calling her a feminist icon.
Her straight-talking style – self-empowerment and self-deprecation rolled into one – coupled with her instinct for exquisitely timed drama meant she left the villa with a hunky Italian boyfriend, a spin-off travel show, a £1 million fashion deal and a place on Dancing On Ice.
She and her ‘Italian stallion’ , a co-competitor on Love Island but who now lives with her, emphatically won the eighth and most-watched season of the show and have been dubbed the most successful Islanders of all time. But the accolades are disconcerting for 28-year-old Ekin-Su, who was born in of Turkish origin.
Ekin-Su Culculoglu (pictured) shot to fame after winning Love Island over the summer. The self-declared ‘Turkish delight’ has now won a place on Dancing On Ice
‘I’m trying to adjust to how I go from being bullied at school to people loving me now,’ she admits.
‘It’s just such a weird transition that I need to accept. In fact, I would say it’s overwhelming.’
Beneath her confident exterior is a vulnerable girl who was forced to learn how to stand up for herself and become self-reliant. ‘I think every confident person experiences something in their life which makes them confident,’ she says.
‘Those people are quite shy but have been through things like me, like their family divorcing, being bullied at school, not knowing who your real friends were at the time, not having people to speak to and feeling lonely and lost in life. I’ve had all of those experiences.
‘I felt lonely for a long time until I realised that I’m my own best friend and don’t need anyone else. That’s true. But there are still times when I do feel emotional and that vulnerable little girl comes out. We’re all human.’
Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Davide Sanclimenti on Love Island. They won the eighth series and now live together
On screen, Ekin-Su is every inch the Love Island bombshell with her Barbie big hair, big lips and dazzling, veneer-filled smile. Today she’s just come off the Essex ice rink where she’s rehearsing for , which starts on Sunday 15 January.
Gone are the revealing bikinis and clingy dresses, the blonde highlights and the lip filler. Instead, she looks more like a naturally stunning Disney Channel teen star in simple black leggings and a peach ski-jacket.
It’s a look she’s comfortable with. ‘When I was ten, we moved house from Islington to Essex and a new school,’ she recalls.
‘It was a very hard time because I wasn’t that girl with a designer bag or shoes, but in Essex everyone in my class had Gucci bags and Prada shoes.
‘I thought the other girls looked quite tacky with their fake tan, thin eyebrows and pink lipstick, but when I rocked up with no make-up, a ponytail and a long skirt, my Clarks shoes and a Nike bag, I was considered the weird one. But Clarks shoes are amazing because I have the widest feet,’ she laughs.
Despite a messy start to Love Island, when her confidence bordering on cockiness alienated the other girls, and the show’s psychologist said her bossiness was intimidating, Ekin-Su was later consistently named by her rivals as being one of the first to make others feel welcome.
‘I thought I’d go in the second week because I was thinking, ‘People hate me, they’re ganging up on me, everyone’s stuck up,’ but then I ended up staying to the final. My mum said the turning point was when I started to stick up for myself.
‘At school I made one friend, who was also being bullied, so I stuck up for her. Then, when I was about 12, I was a bit fat.
‘I fancied this guy but he would never look at me. In fact he pushed me down stairs one day.
‘So I Googled how to lose weight and went on a stupid diet called the Green Apple diet.
‘All I did was eat apples and skip every day, and I lost so much weight. Then all of a sudden people were fancying me left, right and centre.’
Ekin-Su reveals that beneath her confident exterior, she is a vulnerable girl who was forced to learn how to stand up for herself and become self-reliant
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But turning from the ugly duckling into the swan brought its own problems, as Ekin-Su soon discovered: ‘I had four serious boyfriends, and all four cheated on me.
‘My mum has always given me great advice – she’s a psychologist and does hypnotherapy. So for two of those relationships, she really helped me.
‘She used hypnotherapy techniques on me when I was going through a very hard time with an ex. I couldn’t get over him and was anxious and blaming myself.
‘She helped me like I was a client, and made me realise it wasn’t my problem, it was just the wrong person. Brainwashing, gaslighting, mirroring – I know all the techniques used by controlling people now.’
But 28-year-old entrepreneur Davide is in the clear. Who would have thought this couple, who had a rollercoaster relationship on the Island that saw them both have other partners (at one point Ekin-Su crawled across the terrace on all fours for a secret kiss with Jay Younger), would end up moving in together?
It’s hard to judge the potential for the couples as their relationships are formed in such an artificial way on the show, but this pair do seem made for each other.
‘Davide is great,’ she says. ‘My mum knows when a guy is toxic, but she approves of him.
‘She sees that he’s always there for me. He never makes me anxious. He doesn’t blame me or criticise me, he accepts me for who I am.
‘I’m quirky and I’m not always going to sit here and be a lady. That’s why I was myself in the villa. Do I care? No,’ she insists.
‘Do you know what, Davide’s a changed man. When I first met him I thought he was someone who looks in the mirror and adores himself.
‘I didn’t know who Davide was when I left the villa, but actually he’s really humble.
‘I didn’t want a party man and I’m pleased he wants to settle into our house. He sends me pictures of TVs and sofas, saying, ‘What do you think to this?’
‘He’s very homely – completely different to what you saw in the villa. We don’t argue as much now and can work out our differences. We’re better together than apart.’
And the feelings are mutual. On the show, Davide had to endure the humiliation of her covert kiss with Jay.
‘In the villa Davide knew me as a girl who lied, who probably was a bit over the top and a drama queen. But when he left the villa he told me he fell in love with my emotional, humble and caring side.
‘He didn’t see this in the villa because I was a strong woman, but now he thinks I’m sweet. I don’t have regrets about Jay because if I hadn’t tried him, how would I know that Davide was the one? And he is.’
In their two-part ITV2 travel series, Ekin-Su & Davide: Homecomings, in November, we saw them take a trip to rediscover Davide’s hometown in Italy and Ekin-Su’s beloved Turkey. It’s a country that not only kick-started her career, but also gave her new-found confidence.
She studied performing arts at the University of Central Lancashire before taking an entry-level job in finance in London, but after a heartbreaking split with a boyfriend she moved to Istanbul where she was talentspotted. She began to build a career on stage and screen in Turkey, appearing in a couple of hit soaps.
But when Covid struck she was stuck alone in a flat with no family or friends and a strict Covid regime. It’s the kind of isolation that might have broken many, but it empowered Ekin-Su.
‘I couldn’t even leave my home because you’d get fined by the police, so I ordered everything online. I felt like I was going crazy but instead of drinking every day, like some people did, I read books, did meditation and recorded lots of monologues, so there are about 10,000 videos of me.’
The self-reliance proved to be good training for Love Island. ‘I knew who I was and I felt I knew what I wanted in a man.
‘As soon as the pandemic was over, I said, ‘I’m not wasting any more time. I need to do what I love and I need to find the right guy.’
‘That’s why I said on the show I was there to find love. They thought I was strange and too confident, but everything I predicted in the villa is coming true.’
And more. As well as becoming the face of online fashion retailer Oh Polly – thought to be the biggest deal of any Love Island contestant – and her collections with hair brand Beauty Works and make-up company BPerfect Cosmetics, she has aspirations to star in a British soap and has been hotly tipped by exDancing On Ice pro Alex Murphy to win this 15th series.
Among the celebrities also competing are former EastEnder Patsy Palmer, football legend John Fashanu, drag queen The Vivienne and reality star Joey Essex. And Ekin-Su is determined to give them all a run for their money with her professional skating partner Brendyn Hatfield.
‘I wanted to join Dancing On Ice because I used to skate when I was a little girl and do competitions, and then I did ballet until I was 14,’ she says.
‘So when it was suggested that I go on the show, I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll be good.’ There are some similar movements to ballet.
‘But it takes time for the muscle memory to come back. My coach explained that you get marked on your body shaping so he said I’m lucky there even if I’m not great.
‘I’m not taking it really seriously, where I’ve got to have a serious face. I want to have a laugh. With my acting background it’s more of a performance for me.’
From the moment Ekin-Su walked onto Love Island, the drama she promised unfolded. From the pancake bake off between her and Nathalia Campos, which descended into a farcical feud, to her and Davide’s one-liners and takedowns (including his infamous accusation that she was as ‘fake as the Louis Vuitton from China’), we knew we were going to get a bumpy ride.
And Dancing on Ice will be no different. ‘Everyone knows I bring drama,’ she says. ‘It just happens wherever I go and whatever I do.’
- Dancing On Ice returns this month on ITV1 and ITVX
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