Nic Explains Why He & Olandria Turned Down Beyond The Villa

The second season of Love Island: Beyond the Villa was missing some very important faces, but Nic Vansteenberghe did manage to pop up for a quick appearance in the May 6 finale. While promoting his partnership with Smirnoff Ice, Vansteenberghe dishes to Elite Daily about his “funny little cameo” on the Love Island spinoff, where he offered up some words of wisdom to his former castmate TJ Palma. He reveals that while he and his partner Olandria Carthen were resistant to being a major part of Beyond the Villa, Vansteenberghe agreed to do a quick scene that he knew would be shown “in a positive light.”

“Coming off such a big show where our lives were filmed all the time, I think we just wanted a break,” Vansteenberghe says. The main reason he and Carthen didn’t sign on for Beyond the Villa had to do with creative control. “We wanted to be able to film stuff when we wanted to. And personally, I wanted control over what I wanted to be released. I wanted to show my personality more, so I just politely passed.”

However, the Beyond the Villa team was able to persuade Vansteenberghe to make a quick cameo, in which he talked to Palma about the struggles of dating in the public eye. “I knew that it was going to be presented in a positive light going into it, so I was interested in showing up,” Vansteenberghe says. “At the time I was close with TJ, and our situations were very similar. He and Iris [Kendall] were going through issues with long distance, which I related to, so it was good that we talked.”

Vansteenberghe has maintained close relationships with his Love Island USA Season 7 co-stars — including Kendall and Jeremiah Brown, with whom he helped launch Smirnoff Ice’s Icy Island variety pack. His secret to keeping the good vibes is by staying out of everyone else’s drama. For instance, he declined to pick a side in Palma and Kendall’s feud with Pepe Garcia after Palma filled him in on the tension.

“I’m always going to form my own opinion about people. And at the time, I just wanted to be friends with everybody,” Vansteenberghe says. “I try to be chill with everyone.”

It was because of uncomfortable situations like this feud that Vansteenberghe had a tough time trying to watch the new season of Beyond the Villa. “I watched the first two episodes, and I didn’t realize how much it would impact me emotionally,” he says. “It was hard to watch. I stopped watching after those two episodes.”