“She was copping a lot of hate from the public.”

Jotham has hit back at Gabby’s claims that he had a girlfriend the entire time he was in the Love Island Australia 2025 villa, insisting they are “not true.”

While Gabby and Jotham may still be coupled up on the show, this season is pre-recorded and Gabby recently told TikToker Olan Tekkers why Jotham wasn’t at an event with her.

“He’s at home with his girlfriend that he had the whole time throughout the whole show,” she claimed.

However, Jotham has since shot down the claims, saying that while he was casually dating prior to coming on the show, he never had a girlfriend.

“I was definitely talking to someone before the villa – to a few people. Some I was seeing more than others. But it was pretty much just that. I barely even went on dates. I haven’t really been much of a dater on the outside. I don’t do dinner dates,” he told TV WEEK.

Jotham explains why he thinks Gabby said that he had a girlfriend while on Love Island

The rugby player told the publication that he thinks Gabby started the rumour to take attention away from the backlash she was getting for being territorial towards him on Love Island.

“Right before she’d done that, she was copping a lot of hate from the public,” he said.

Regardless, Jotham said he reached out to her to ask why she made the claims, but he didn’t get the response he was hoping for.

“I wanted to give her the opportunity to apologise,” Jotham explains.
Gabby and Jotham in the Love Island villa. Image: Nine.
“I said I was disappointed, especially when we were on good terms. She explained how she’d been going through a tough time, she was drunk, and she didn’t know what she was saying and that she’d been hounded. In the whole message, there just wasn’t a sorry, so that’s where we’ve left it.”

While there’s been no shortage of drama between Jotham and Gabby inside the villa, he teased that the tension has continued since filming wrapped.

“There’s been a lot of drama ensuing between me and her,” he reveals.

“I’ve honestly started to become prepared with the drama between me and Gabby, it has been ongoing since coming out of the villa.”