Love Island USA’s Pepe and Iris Want to Talk to Their Exes After the Villa

Love Island USA’s Iris Kendall and Jose “Pepe” Garcia-Gonzalez haven’t forgotten about the other connections they made in Fiji.

Days after the season 7 finale of Peacock’s addictive reality show aired, the couple said they have plans to connect with their exes, Thomas John “TJ” Palma and Hannah Fields, respectively.

“I do want to have a conversation with TJ,” Iris, 25, exclusively shared with Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 15. “I feel like I definitely owe him an explanation for everything that has happened. It’s definitely different in the villa than the outside world. It was definitely a lot.”

While Iris admitted that she hasn’t really seen much of what TJ, 23, has been posting online since he left the villa, “I definitely want to give him that conversation, for sure.”

While the twosome hadn’t talked at length as of this interview, TMZ posted a video of Iris and TJ seeing each other for the first time in Los Angeles on Monday, July 14. In the clip, the pair shared a hug and seemingly appeared to be smiling as they caught up. They were also greeted by costar Austin Shepard.

“Looking back, I think it has been a long time coming,” TJ previously told Us of Iris and Pepe’s connection. “They both came in together and they’ve had a lot of shared experiences and they really know each other well. If she was gonna get to know anyone, it would probably be him. I’m not mad about it.”

When it comes to Pepe’s connection with Hannah, 23, the professional trainer, 27, said he wants to connect with the woman he was initially coupled up with when he entered the villa on day nine.

“I definitely want to give her a call at some point,” he told Us. “She said something very nice about … we all came in here as strangers and no matter what, we should leave as friends. I definitely wanna give her a call at some point, reach out and just see how she’s doing.”

Pepe acknowledged that Hannah and Iris are “pretty good friends,” and he wants to keep it that way.

“I just [want to] make sure that she knows that this isn’t, with Iris, it wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing,” he explained. “It’s something I’ve been feeling for a while. As bombshells, we couldn’t really do much about it. I’m thankful that I got the opportunity to do it now, even though it was towards the end. But yeah, I just wanna reach out and make sure that she’s doing all right.”

Both Iris and Pepe said they are grateful that both of their Love Island USA exes are handling things like “very mature people.”

At the same time, things can change before the cast comes together for a highly anticipated reunion special.

On Sunday, July 13, Peacock announced that Andy Cohen and Ariana Madix will cohost the Love Island USA season 7 reunion show. The special “will feature this season’s winners, fan-favorite couples, and this year’s bombshells for an up-close and personal look back at their experience in the Villa.”

The Love Island USA season 7 reunion premieres on Peacock Monday, August 25. Catch up on old episodes anytime on Peacock.