Alex Bowen bought engagement ring just four months after leaving Love Island
Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland are one of Love Island’s success stories. The couple, who met on the second series of the show in 2016, became the first Love Island pair to get married last September in a lavish wedding at Gosfield Hall, Essex.
While it took them a few years to actually tie the knot, the engagement happened a whole lot quicker – just seven months after they left the villa – however it seems Alex had bought the ring a whole lot earlier than that!
Speaking on the podcast White Wine Question Time about it, Alex revealed he’d purchased the engagement ring from Lakeside Shopping Centre just months after they’d left the villa.
“She was at work one day and then I went shopping around Lakeside,” he told host Kate Thornton.
“I looked in this shop window and saw a ring was similar to the one that she wanted, and I literally just said to my best friend “I'm going to Venice next year. I'm going to pop the question” and he was like “You go to New York in three months, just do it then”. So, I did!”
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Pressed by Olivia about the timeline, Alex said on the podcast that the purchase was made two months after they left the Love Island villa.
“I feel like when you know, you know,” Alex said, when asked if that was a bit fast off the mark. “People that know me would never think that I'd be like that and then that's when I knew myself that this is the one!”
The New York proposal in December 2016 came as a total shock to Olivia.
“I won't lie when he asked me in New York, I was honestly so shocked,” she revealed. “I cry at everything and I didn't even cry at that because I was so shocked that I couldn't process anything – and then about an hour later I cried because it had finally sunk in.”
She told podcast host Kate that she believes the quick proposal happened because Alex knew she had issues with trusting him.
“What meant the most to me about him asking so soon is that he knew I had trust issues,” she said. “I think he knew that I was worried that it wasn't forever, so he did that in a way to show me ‘I'm freaking serious here’ which was very cute!”
The couple, who have launched a clothing brand together, were asked by podcast host Kate about the moment they fell in love.
“This is a situation,” laughed Olivia in response. “He basically told me he loved me in Love Island, and I didn't hear him!”
Explaining the situation further, Alex revealed it happened on the live TV final and he was super nervous.
“I just remembered looking at her, grabbing her and I went ‘I love you’ and she never heard me! When I said it, I was like ‘Did I just say that?’, then she went ‘What?’ and I said ‘Nothing!’ and we just carried on!”
Olivia finally told Alex she loved him about two months later while they out having a meal.
“She said ‘I love you’ and that was the first time she'd said it to me, not realising that I've already said it to her. And I let her think she said she loved me first!”
The couple speak more about their wedding, having sex in the villa and why Olivia wants to renew her vows in five years’ time. Listen now on iTunes and Spotify.
