What did you miss?
Tasha Ghouri has opened up on the moment she knew it was over with Love Island partner Andrew Le Page – during the Strictly Come Dancing semi-final, after she found out she was in the dance off.
Ghouri, who found fame and love on the ITV2 dating show with Le Page, took part in Strictly’s 2024 series and told Rylan’s How to Be in Love podcast that despite her then-boyfriend appearing to be supportive of her in the competition, things were very different behind closed doors.
The reality TV star shared that she had called Le Page for support during the live Strictly semi-final after discovering she was in the bottom two and would face the dance off. But she found her boyfriend busy gaming and realised “I deserve better than that” when he wouldn’t put his gaming console down to reassure her.
What, how and why?
Tasha Ghouri made it to the final of Strictly 2024. (BBC screengrab)
As she entered Strictly 2024, Ghouri claimed she had no worries about falling victim to the Strictly curse, saying that her relationship with Le Plage was strong. But the pair split early in 2025, with news of the break-up leaking while she was on the Strictly live tour.
Ghouri admitted to Rylan’s How to Be in Love podcast: “Strictly happened and that made us grow apart even more when it should have brought us closer, because it is such an intense 13 weeks. It’s a bubble.” She claimed that Le Page had been struggling with what direction he wanted his career to take, while she was living out her childhood dream of competing in Strictly.
Read more: How to break up with someone gently, as Strictly’s Tasha Ghouri shares her regrets (Yahoo Lifestyle)
Asked about whether he had been supportive during the gruelling BBC series, Ghouri, who had often talked about going on double dates with Le Page, dance partner Aljaz Skorjanec and his wife Janette Manrara, revealed the reality.
Tasha Ghouri went up against Pete Wicks in the semi-final dance off. (BBC)
“On social media, it did look like that, it did come across that he was supporting me, but emotionally at home, he wasn’t,” she claimed. “I remember this one time I was in the dance off in the semi-finals. I called him and said I feel really nervous. He was just sat there gaming. Didn’t stop gaming, didn’t put his console down, his headphones off and say ‘talk to me’.”
Ghouri identified the semi-final as the moment she knew her relationship was probably over, saying: “That’s where I started to really think I deserve better than that. Why am I settling for something I’m having to really beg for?”
The pair made it to Christmas together, but she admitted: “My head was still in it, but my heart had left quite a long time before that. I think I emotionally checked out a while before.”
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Regarding the difficult decision to split, Ghouri said: “Love Island fans are so invested in your relationship from day dot, I felt like I was breaking everybody’s hearts, not just his.”
She became tearful as she recalled cutting herself off from Le Page after the split, confessing that they are not on speaking terms at the moment. Ghouri cried as she said, “That’s my biggest regret, how I treated him in that break-up. I should have been so much nicer than I was.”
The couple spent two-and-a-half years together. (PA Images)
“No matter if they’ve treated you in a bad way or done anything bad, there’s still a heart in there,” she added. “I really regret how I broke up with him.”
But Ghouri continued: “I’m not here to be in a Love Island relationship to please the public, I have to put my happiness first.”
She hopes to be friends with Le Page in the future, saying: “We never had that closing chapter. You know when you have that last chat and have that closure – we never had that and it’s still kind of lingering.
“I feel like one day we will have that closure chat. He was also my best friend. At the time, he was everything. I do hope one day we can get back in touch and find that civilness between each other.”
What did Tasha Ghouri say about her Love Island controversy?
Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page formed a couple at the beginning of the 2022 series of Love Island. (ITV)
Despite becoming a couple with Le Page early in the dating series, when Casa Amor week hit, they tried out new partners – but only Ghouri was vilified for getting to know a bombshell contestant.
In their week away from each other, Le Page had enjoyed intimate moments with bombshell Coco Lodge, while Ghouri had shared a kiss with Billy Brown. It led to an awkward chat where Le Page had to reveal the extent of what he had done before getting back together with Ghouri.
But although her time with Brown was much more tame, Ghouri found that she faced much more disapproval in the villa than Le Page, as well as trolling from TV viewers.
She said: “In that villa there was boys doing so much worse, but I was getting so much agg from them for just having conversations. I only had one kiss with Billy.”
Pressed on why she thought she faced “double standards”, Ghouri explained: “I felt like it was quite misogynistic. When a girl does something so little it’s blown out of proportion, the worst thing that ever happened. But if a boy was to have three-way kisses with other people, it’s applauded.
“I wish I had so much more strength in there to stand up for myself, but I didn’t because I felt so cornered…it was double standards, that was the hardest part of my journey in the villa.”
How to Be in Love with Rylan is streaming now on BBC Sounds.