Love Island's Liberty Poole reveals 'pieing off' boyfriend in awkward encounter

Liberty Poole has finally found love after trying and failing to find a romance that could last on ITV's Love Island - but her current relationship stalled when they first met

Love Island star Liberty Poole has revealed she rejected boyfriend Joshua Raybold years before dating him.

The 25-year-old reality star - who shot to fame on ITV's dating show in 2021 and returned to the villa this year as one of the All Stars contestants - started dating Josh earlier this year following her return from Love Island in South Africa. But she has known her new man since she was a teenager - and has now revealed she once turned him down.

Josh used to work as a club promoter when Liberty caught his eye. However, she feared he was a "bad boy" and so was reluctant to even contemplate dating him.

Liberty turned him down - however it seems his persistence eventually paid off. Reflecting on the true origins of their relationship, Liberty said, during a joint interview with him: "Me and Josh actually met when I was 19, but you did club promotion... And I thought he was a bit of a bad boy, so I kept pieing him off, which makes no sense because my taste on Love Island was worse."

Josh then said, in their interview with Closer Magazine: "I kept trying, didn’t I? It was thousands and thousands of DMs, that was. I asked you on a date about four times before you actually said yes. Never give up kids."

Liberty has previously gushed about her love for Josh during another interview. She told the Secure the Insecure podcast back in June: "I've known Josh since I was, like, 19. So, even before I went on the show. I literally looked back the other day and he has always been in my Instagram likes and everything since before Love Island and he's always kind of dropped a hint or tried to take me out. I kept pieing him off and was like no, no, no!"

Reflecting on the fact they moved from being friends to something more, she added: "I don't think I've actually ever been in love or really knew what that was until I met Josh." Love Island fans will of course recall that Liberty's love life has not always been this smooth.

She fell for Jake Cornish on the show in 2021 when they were contestants on season 17 and they were early favourites to win the show. However, the romance soured and the romance imploded when footage was relayed to the villa which showed Jake bad mouthing his supposed girlfriend.

The pair were so torn by the revelation that they opted to remove themselves from the villa rather than carry on with the competition. The pair then had an awkward reunion on Love Island: All Stars when it aired at the beginning of the year. However, Jake removed himself from the show as he feared things would get too awkward for them being under the same roof once again.

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