Luke Mabbott was forced to address his split from Demi Jones on Sunday after she implied that he had started dating his current girlfriend, Lucie Donlan, while they were still together.
The hunk, 25, told his side of the story and accused his ex-Love Island girlfriend, 22, of attempting to fake their relationship for the sake of her clothing brand launch.
According to Luke, he and Lucie have been inundated with hate-fuelled messages from online trolls after Demi decided to spill the ‘juicy’ information on their lockdown split.
Revelation! Luke Mabbott was forced to address his split from Demi Jones on Sunday after she implied that he had started dating his current girlfriend, Lucie Donlan, while they were still together
She revealed on Youtube: ‘So we were all happy, we came out of the villa, we came third which was absolutely amazing, we were all caught up in the Love Island craziness.
‘Then we had two weeks worth of freedom, it was red carpets, it was events, and then Covid-19 happened and we were pushed into lockdown.
‘As time went on over lockdown, I wasn’t really getting my energy reciprocated so I was getting left on read quite frequently, I wasn’t really getting any phone calls, texts or nothing.’
The former couple’s blossoming romance was captured on the 2020 winter series of Love Island, but cracks started to appear when they tried to maintain a long-distance relationship at the start of the pandemic.
Fire back: The reality star hunk, 25, told his side of the story and accused his ex-Love Island girlfriend, 22, of attempting to fake their relationship for the sake of her clothing brand launch
She continued: ‘I was thinking “it’s lockdown so surely you’re more likely to be on your phone and making an effort?” So I knew in my heart that something wasn’t right, it wasn’t really working.
‘I did say to him on numerous occasions, “how do you feel, do you want to continue this?” And he said he did and he wanted to meet up with me when lockdown finished and I was quite satisfied with that.’
As Demi lives in Portsmouth and Luke is based in Redcar, North Yorkshire, she thought it was the distance between them that ended the romance.
But as Luke travelled across the country to embark on a relationship with Lucie, 22, Demi began to think there was more to the story.
She revealed: ‘And then all of a sudden, he rang me out of the blue and was like “I need to end it, I need to end it now.” It was quite sudden which I was quite taken aback by, and it then all came out in the press very quickly.
Oh no: The former couple’s romance was captured on the 2020 series of Love Island, but cracks started to appear when they tried to maintain a long-distance relationship during the pandemic
Love lost: Demi said of their declining romance: ‘As time went on over lockdown, I wasn’t really getting my energy reciprocated… I wasn’t really getting any phone calls, texts or nothing’
‘Very shortly after, I actually received some photos via my DM from a fan that had spotted Luke and Lucie in Cornwall together. I actually never told Luke this because I didn’t want beef but I saw it and this was literally less than two weeks after the public breakup.
‘I went back and went through all of Lucie’s profile to see if there was anything on there to see that they are together, and I noticed all of these cryptic captions with loads of “shhh” emojis and about getting butterflies and secret eyes.
‘I put two and two together and obviously they must have started talking during lockdown. He then obviously wanted to meet up with her or maybe was already meeting up with her, I don’t know, and that’s why he suddenly wanted to cut it [with me].’
Luke hastily fired back on his Instagram story as he gave his own account of their separation and denied cheating with his girlfriend of five-months, Lucie.
Investigating: According to Demi, she received photos from a fan of Lucie and Luke together in Cornwall just two weeks after their public breakup and cryptic captions on Lucie’s profile
He said: ‘This is like seven months down the line, I’m happy, she’s [Demi’s] dating other people and I don’t see why it needs to get brought up again, but I’m going to tell you my story.
‘So basically we came out of the villa, she did as well. We weren’t talking for about a week and I thought to myself “I need to do something, I’m not happy” so I’m going to ring her.
‘So it wasn’t out of the blue, we didn’t talk for a week and I thought I need to ring her and explain that we’re not going to persue any further, which I did, and she said “can you wait three weeks for my clothing brand to launch to get publicity around it.”‘
According to Luke, he wasn’t comfortable with keeping up the facade of their relationship, but agreed to do so before an insider secretly revealed to the press that they had decided to separate.
Shock! Luke revealed that a close friend leaked his split with Demi to the press after they tried to keep up their relationship in the public eye for the sake of her clothing launch
He explained the situation: ‘I was thinking “my feelings come first,” I wasn’t too happy about it but I did say yes, and obviously I was talking to my mates [about Demi]… and it got leaked by someone, and she wasn’t very happy.
‘So me and Demi split on May 29 and that’s when Lucie checked in with me a couple of days after or a week after, to see if I was single and then we went on a date June 17, which wasn’t in Cornwall.’
Luke continued to completely deny meeting Lucie while they were an item, as he hoped to end his drama Demi, once and for all.
He concluded: ‘I don’t know where she’s got Cornwall [from]. If there were images, they would have been leaked to the press I’m sure, so I don’t know where that came from, and then we [Lucie] started going out in July and that’s pretty much it.
‘I would just like to squish it now… I hope everyone can get on with their lives because me and Lucie have never been happier.’
Move on: The former Love Island star completely denied cheating with his girlfriend of five-months and said: ‘I hope everyone can get on with their lives because me and Lucie have never been happier’