The pair have been plagued by break-up rumours since leaving the villa
Love Island favourites Sammy Root and Elma Pazar have found themselves at the centre of split rumours again and again since their time in the iconic ITV villa.
he pair, who exited the Love Island: All Stars villa as an item in February, have seemingly maintained a strong bond since then. Their paths had previously crossed on ITV’s The Only Way is Essex, where they “flirted a little bit” but didn’t really connect beyond their time on the show.
However, when 24-year-old Sammy made his bombshell entrance into All Stars, he was clearly smitten with Elma. Despite enjoying a blossoming romance, the couple faced scrutiny in April following a vague TikTok by Elma, 32, which led fans to believe she was hinting at Sammy being a ‘red flag.’
Yet, it’s not just the video causing a stir among their followers; Sammy suggests that even “the tiniest” actions can spark split rumours, reports OK!
The couple, only a few months into their relationship, have already established a private strategy for dealing with such speculation. In a candid chat with OK! Magazine’s Screen Time team, Sammy revealed: “I don’t really know where the rumours come from. Its usually the tiniest little thing; I could post carrousel pictures and it won’t have her in it or she’ll do the same to me, and then apparently we broke up.”
Despite the unfounded gossip, the reality TV personality recognises that some Love Island fans are deeply “passionate” about following the journeys of former contestants. “I think when people watch the show they get attached to the couples, which is understandable,” he acknowledged.
He elaborated: “I think some people probably get a bit passionate about each couple. So they like to see pictures of you with each other. Whenever I’m posting content and I’m not with Elma. There’s always comments saying ‘Where’s Elma?'”
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Regarding how they react to rumours, they take it in stride. “If I see anything about us being broken [up] out, I’ll just DM it to Elma and we’ll just laugh about it,” Sammy shared.
The ITV favourite added: “I’ll ring her and say ‘look what I’ve just sent you’ and it’ll be a post saying Sammy and Elma just broke up. And we would’ve just been sat on the sofa eating caramel nibbles.”
There have also been speculations among their followers suggesting that they were together before ‘meeting’ on Love Island: All Stars.
Some eagle-eyed fans have spotlighted Instagram exchanges between the pair from 2024, alleging these demonstrate they’d been secretly involved after their encounter on TOWIE.
However, Sammy has dispelled such notions with good humour, dismissing the idea that social media interactions suggest an undisclosed romance.
“What everyone doesn’t understand is everything that they’ve seen on TOWIE is the full extent of what happened,” Sammy insisted.
“There was nothing that happened behind closed doors. Elma and I never even kissed or spent any time together. We just we flirted a little bit and filmed a couple of scenes for the show.”
Since his departure from the ITV series, the former Love Island champion has now delved into the world of horology, operating his own watch raffle business, The Watch Draw.
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Love Island returns to ITV2 and ITVX on Monday, June 9th