Winning the $50,000 over Eden and Erin was a huge shock, but loved-up Love Islanders Grant Crapp, 22, and Tayla Damir, 21, feel they’ve won a bigger prize, each other.
The electrician from Canberra and the radio announcer from Perth talk to WHO about moving in together, the cheating scandal with Lucy Cartwright and their marriage plans. Cassidy, who?
Congratulations! So what’s the plan?
T: Pretty much from here I’ll fly and see my family and Gran’s going to meet him and then we’ll go and see his family and then we’re going to head to Sydney, where we are going to start our next chapter. I’ve got all my stuff already there. That’s where we will be living and finding a new place.
So you guys are moving in together?
T: Yeah, we are yeah. I’ll be getting in to work and Grant’s got his little business, a clothing brand that he started up. We’re just going to focus on spending time just us, with no microphones on.
Is it weird not having cameras?
T: It’s the funniest thing, we got back to where we were staying last night. We were there for two hours before coming in today and there were points where we started whispering and we just looked at each other and started pissing ourselves laughing, like, “no one’s even listening to us, why are we trying to be quiet?” (laughs) It’s really surreal.
So what did happen when you were finally alone?
T: Do you know what? Absolutely nothing, I was like “I need my two hour beauty sleep. I’m going to make the most of this two hours and we can enjoy each other’s company tomorrow night.” He just looked at me with this face, like, I’ve waited this long I can wait another night.
So nothing happened, not even in the hideaway?
T: Look, there was some frisky business but we never slept together in the villa.
Were you surprised to win?
T: We were so shocked. Even when Sophie announced it, I thought she might have stuffed up. I thought,”What? This isn’t supposed to happen.”
G: Me and Tayla didn’t speak about winning once, we weren’t even sure if we were going to make the Top 3.
T: The best thing about winning is that people can see how genuine our love was. And it’s really comforting to know that Australia is backing us and when we get out of here, we’re going to have the support that we weren’t expecting.
Who did you think would win?
T: In our minds it was going to be really close between Josh and Amelia and Eden and Erin. We thought Josh was going to be the favourite with Australia because he is such a genuine person. And then Eden and Erin were together since Day 1. So we kind of just assumed Australia would be backing them, not seeing what we saw in the villa.
So why do you think you did win?
T: Looking back on it now, we were really tested as a couple and were completely genuine to ourselves. We were never playing the game or even thought about the possibility of winning. I think Australia could relate to some of the struggles we went through.
How did you cope with the tough times?
T: We just stuck together and that’s what got us through, making sure we were keeping the lines of communication open. Because it’s really easy to fall in to a trap in the villa of bottling things up or just talking to everbody but the problem and that was something we didn’t do. We made sure we were always talking and expressing our emotions. Sometimes a little too much! But it was good because it brought us closer every single time. I don’t regret any of it.
Why do you work together so well?
T: I think we have a really good balance of I’m probably more of the maturity in the relationship and Grant is the fun side. It just works, we bring out very good qualities in each other.
What do you like about each other?
T: Oh my god, watching back our highlights reel last night, I was like, “Oh My God, we’re disgusting! We kiss 24/7! What’s wrong with us?” What I like most is he always has my back and he showed that in the villa. I could make him the worst coffee in the world and he would still make it seem like I’d done the most amazing thing. He just always supports me and that’s what I was looking for going in to this villa was someone who loves me, no matter what. That’s what I’ve found.
G: Tayla is everything I asked for. When I signed up, I was coming in looking for a girlfriend. I would never expect to really meet a girl like Tayla. She’s really brought the best out of me. I started off rough in the place, I wasn’t true to myself. Everyday with Tayla was just a fairytale. I fall more and more in love with her, everything from her smile, her beautiful little freckles. She wakes up in the morning and she’s got the funniest face you’ve ever seen.
T: Oh My God (both laugh)
G: It’s brilliant. The day I asked her to be my girlfriend is just a day I’m never ever going to forget. I’m so grateful to have met her and now she’s my girl, let’s see what happens.
T: Have you noticed he says girlfriend a lot, he likes telling people that. (laughs)
What do you like to do together?
T: It’s really hard because in the villa there’s very limited things we can do but we just enjoy each other’s company. Making sure we’re having fun, that was a big thing for us. We were always doing something. There was the time we got the boxing pads out, having a little box.
G: She actually punched me in the face once.
T: I didn’t mean too. Or did I? We’ll never know. We just like adventuring, coming up with our own fun. Stuff that we will definitely do on the outside. I think for Grant, his favourite thing to do was sit there and watch me cook his food.
He says he doesn’t think he’s good enough for you.
T: That’s fine, I think he is, and that’s all that matters.
Tayla, did you hesitate at all about splitting the money?
T: Do you know what? I actually didn’t, not even for a second. I was just like, at the end of the day what’s mine is his now. It would have been pointless, we’ll be spending the money together anyway.
What if the choice had been all the money or love?
T: I would have taken Grant for sure, money is nothing if you’re not happy and he makes me happy. So obviously I’d pick him.
So what are you going to spend the money on?
T: Do you know what’s so funny, we got asked this last night and we had never considered or even had the conversation that we would come close to winning, so when we got asked what we would do with the money, we looked at each other really stunned. Like, I don’t actually know. Grant has one of his best mates who was in a really terrible accident. So I know a lot of his money is going to go to his best mate’s family and making sure they have the support they need to get him better. For me, my money is going to go towards the move to Sydney and finding a place for us. I think we’re going to save a bit of it and go on a holiday when everything kind of calms down and spend some time with family and friends. And reimburse my mum for all the bikinis she bought me before I went on the show.
Will either of you be catching up with Cassidy after the show?
G: Oh yeah, for sure (sarcastically). She, me and Taz will be catching up for coffee.
T: She’s actually moving in with us! Haven’t you heard? We missed her so much in the villa. (laughs). No I think we’re going to be the bigger people and if we were to run in to her on the outside world I don’t think it would be anything other than a “Hello, How are you going,” that’s about it.
You skyped each other’s parents on the finale.
T: Yes we did, it was so amazing to see our families. We obviously had been deprived from talking to them for six weeks. To introduce my boyfriend to my family was a massive big thing. It was really nice.
Grant, are you worried about meeting Tayla’s dad?
G: Nah, not really. I had a bit of a chat with him, he’s a shy bloke, speaking on television’s a bit tough because he’s not used to it. But when we get back I’m sure me and him will get along and have a few quiet ones together. I’m looking forward to meeting him.
Will you be doing any anger management classes?
G: (Laughs) I won’t be. Maybe Tayla will!
T: You know what, if he can put up with me for six weeks, he’s got enough patience for anything.
Tayla, you got quite upset when he was standing up for himself.
T: I just don’t like aggression. I’ve seen that with a few partners I’ve been with previously and that was a quality that I don’t like. So when I saw some kick offs in the house, it kind of just made me take a step back and have a reflection moment. But I know Grant is with me and has my back and the anger was never towards me. So that’s all that matters.
Grant, how do you feel about Eden now?
G: The funny thing is me and Eden got along really, really well Week 1. I feel like me and Eden are very similar. We have a laugh, but we do back ourselves.
T: They both have big egos. (Laughs)
G: Sometimes similar personalities clash and we do clash. I’ve got no bad blood against him. I don’t think we are ever going to be mates outside of here but I’ve got nothing bad to say about the guy. And I hope all the best for him and Erin.
Tayla, how do you feel about Erin?
T: I don’t have a bad word to say about Erin, to be honest. We had our ups and downs in the house. But at the end of the day, nobody else would be able to understand the experience we had in that villa. It’s something me and Erin will always be able to understand. In the outside world, you’re not going to get along with every single person and we all have massive personalities but you just learn to live with it and suck it up and deal with it. I think me and Erin did have some laughs in the house and that’s what matters.
Grant, tell me about your fitness brand.
G: I’ve got my own clothing line called Royal Apparel. I’ve had it for about eight months now, that was going really well before I went in to Love Island. I do most of the design, I have a manufacturer, but my brother helps a bit and also my mum.
T: I’ll be taking over that too. (both laugh) Whatever styles I feel like wearing will be the styles that come out
Tayla, will you model the clothes for him?
T: For sure, I’ll be the face of it.
G: She will. It’s actually going all right for me, so I was very happy with how it was kicking off. Hope my brother has been doing a good job. I’m also an electrician so I’ve worked with my old man for a bit. Just doing a few jobs for him. I’m also a private investigator, so I was also doing a bit of that as well.
T: I don’t think his life is very private anymore. We might have PIs on us now!
Speaking of that, who is Lucy Cartwright?
G: I’ve explained this to Tayla. She was a girl I was seeing well before the show. We never had anything serious. It was a bit of a fling. Once I signed up for the show, I just made it clear I wanted to go and hopefully find a potential partner and we ended finishing up things and this is where I am now. So I made that very clear to Tayla that I wasn’t in a relationship with her before the show.
So Lucy’s not your live-in girlfriend?
G: We heard that, it was in the challenge.I almost want to call her and invite her over to my house.
T: We’ve have a spare room for her, in case she no longer has a house (jokes).
So you’re not in contact with her?
G: Nah
So Tayla, you’re looking for a job in Sydney?
T: Yeah at this point I’d like to get back in to presenting. It’s the degree that I’ve done and I’ve thoroughly enjoy it. Anything in terms of TV presenting would be amazing or radio because I really do enjoy the fun side of radio as well. So I’m open minded at this point. But I was actually thinking of writing a book before I came in here. Just about things I’ve gone through in my life and I think it would be a really good story.
Like a self-help book?
T: Yeah, pretty much. You’ll have to wait and see.
Will you be getting married and having kids?
T: We’re 21 and 22! So we’re very young still but you never know, there may be a Mrs Crapp one day.
This article originally appeared on WHO.
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