Nic and Olandria on What the ‘Love Island’ Cameras Missed

Modern Love

The New York Times

Love, New York Times, Nytimes, Essay, Loss, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Redemption, Nyt

4.3 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Olandria Carthen and Nic Vansteenberghe spent a lot of this past season on “Love Island USA” coupled up with other people, but in a last-minute twist they wound up together. Fans were divided. They read into body language, smirks, eye contact and passing comments to try to piece together whether Nic and Olandria got together out of convenience or their love was a genuine slow burn. Despite all that sleuthing, the two think viewers didn’t get the full story. In this episode of “Modern Love,” Nic and Olandria tell our host, Anna Martin, what their experience on the show was really like and what’s next for them. Here’s how to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times. Here’s how to submit a Tiny Love Story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now and love.
0:04.0	Love was stronger than anything.
0:07.5	And I love you more than anything.
0:11.0	What to love?
0:12.0	It's interesting to see how things were edited and cut up
0:18.0	and versus like the people that you know from living in that experience.
0:22.8	Like I know what the reality of everything was.
0:26.0	It's going to be hard to see like the narrative that's being pushed, especially when it comes to me.
0:30.6	Because I'm like, that's just not me, like, you know?
0:34.6	This week, I talked to the steamyest couple from the biggest reality show of the summer,
0:41.5	O'Landria Carthin and Nick Vansteenberg from Love Island, USA.
0:45.9	They told me all about what really happened at the villa, the kinds of stuff we don't get to see.
0:51.5	And they also told me what's happening with their relationship now.
0:55.3	From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin. This is Modern Love. Or should I say,
1:00.2	Modern Love Island. So you two just shot the reunion. I know you can't answer any questions
1:10.7	about it.
1:11.6	We're going to follow up once it airs.
1:13.6	But we're so happy to have you in the studio when you're in New York.
1:17.6	You are, perhaps, two of the biggest stars of the biggest reality show on TV right now,
1:25.6	of Island USA.
1:26.6	For people who don't know the show,
1:28.9	I don't know how they've avoided it, but I'll just sort of lay it out. You met in a villa.
	...

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