NEED TO KNOW
Amaya Papaya is ready to move on.
The Love Island USA season 7 winner stole America’s hearts during her time in the Fiji villa this summer, and emerged as a couple with Bryan Arenales, whom she was exclusively seeing in the month after their win.
Just a day after the season 7 reunion aired, though, Amaya confirmed to fans that she and Bryan “are no longer together.”
“After leaving the villa, it became very clear that we were on two different journeys,” she wrote in a post on her Instagram Stories on Aug. 27. “Our visions didn’t align and relationships are supposed to be a team sport. You don’t have to drink the whole sea to know it’s salty. All love here and I truly wish him the best.”
Now, the 25-year-old is opening up about how she’s feeling following the split.
“It’s something I am still processing,” Amaya tells PEOPLE while on set for an exciting upcoming beauty campaign in L.A. on Aug. 28.
“But, I am very optimistic and very hopeful for the future,” she adds, “and I’m just happy to have such a large amount of support around me.”
Jocelyn Prescod/Peacock
The support of her “Papayas,” as she calls her fanbase, has been a source of joy since leaving the villa.
“Honestly, it really feels amazing to see that there’s so many people that can relate to me and that they see themselves inside a part of me,” Amaya says of the support she’s received since her time in the villa. “It really is such a great feeling, seriously.”
When she feels “alone or just down,” Amaya says she’s comforted by the thought of her supporters.
“Then I remember my Papayas, my family, my friends, and it really does help lift me up,” she continues, before offering a message directly to those fans: “Thank you guys so much for being a part of this journey with me.”
Kim Nunneley/Peacock via Getty
During the Love Island reunion, Bryan addressed speculation he’d cheated on Amaya, and she said their relationship was ‘healthy and great.’
When Andy Cohen asked him during the reunion, which aired Aug. 25, about the rumors that circulated online about a video of him cheating, Bryan said, “They’re trying to just throw any hate my way.”
The “cheating video,” which showed him with other women, was not what it seemed, he said.
“The hosting, I got paid to be there,” he said of the event where he was recorded. “I used to bartend back in the day. I had a lapse in judgment, and we’ve talked about it.”
That “lapse in judgement” was “pouring shots around, getting the crowd shots and stuff like that,” he added.
Amaya weighed in too, saying, “I’m also not a woman that would be with someone who doesn’t respect me. So if I’m with him and still with him currently, it’s because the relationship dynamic is healthy and great.”
Kim Nunneley/Peacock
But by the day the reunion aired, fans noticed that they’d both unfollowed each other on Instagram, and Amaya had shared several cryptic posts on social media that caused speculation about the state of their relationship. The couple confirmed their split two days later.
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On his own Instagram stories, Bryan wrote, “Unfortunately, we were not on the same page and that is okay. We have both gained clarity that we are on different paths right now. I am thankful for the time we have spent together and I wish her nothing but the best moving forward. 🖤”
