In a Love Island first, a detective is heading to the villa. Lola Deal, 28, is the villa’s very own Miss Marple and suspects that her job could come in handy.
“I think my training will pay off,” the detective from Kent said. Having studied criminology at university, trained to spot clues and made a career out of solving crimes, she explained: “It’s made me quite good at reading people and sniffing out the bulls***.”
As such, Lola has a good track record of dating “green flag boys”. It’s a record she’s hoping to keep up in the villa. “I’ve been so lucky with the boys I’ve dated,” she said. They’ve always been lovely people. Proper green flag boys.”
View 3 ImagesLola, Samuel and Angelista in Love Island(Image: Joel Anderson/Shutterstock)
Lola had to take a career break to be on Love Island. She explained: “I do enjoy being a detective but I would never say never to change. And having that thing where you can manage work and relationships has been hard.
“I am looking forward to being able to build a connection with someone where you don’t have to wait 10 days to see them again,” she said of going into the villa.
For Lola, it would be great if someone else in the villa was “ambitious and nice”. To summarise her type, she said: “I like tall, Italian looking. Dark hair normally, even though I always end up with blondes! Light eyes but again, I’m not too fussy. I like someone who is quite big as in a good cuddler, good muscles kind of way.
“In a personality, I like someone funny, I think funny goes such a long way. I like someone who is smart who can teach me things. I like book smart but even if they’re not book smart I like someone who is like actually teaching me stuff.”
View 3 ImagesLola is a police detective(Image: Instagram/ @loladealx)
She added that she also has a thing for people who are kind to others. “I saw someone helping someone else get a buggy down some stairs. That was fit.”
As for what she’s not looking for: “Someone really cocky, but not in a fun, fit way, in an arrogant cocky way. I don’t love that or someone who doesn’t really have much about them – the same type of chat.
“So many things give me the ick! If someone says they are a ‘cheeky chappy’ that makes me sick to my core. It’s such a thing people say and I’m like don’t ever say that again, horrible! My big ick is backpacks, but nobody is going to have a backpack on in there! With a backpack there’s too many things that can go wrong, I’m like ‘angel, stop’.”
Lola has expressed a lot of excitement at being on Love Island, and has said her brothers are equally excited – but may not watch all the episodes.
“My brothers are very excited!” she said. “One has said he will watch the first episode and then get his girlfriend to screen the other episodes and make sure there’s nothing in there that he doesn’t want to see.”
Love Island returns Monday 1st June at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX
Article continues below
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
