Everything We Know About Gemma & Jacques’ Relationship – & Break-Up

Imagine being locked in a villa for eight weeks with your new partner, your ex, and their new partner. It might sound like a bad dream, but this toe-curling scenario has been masterminded by this year’s Love Island producers. Exes Gemma Owen, 19, and Jacques O’Neill, 23, are currently sweating it out together in Mallorca, whilst currently in new partnerships with Luca Bish and Paige Thorne, respectively.

Everything started out well, with Owen and O’Neill having a chat to clear the air, and Owen immediately stating that she was happy for Thorne to get to know O’Neill. However, many viewers were quick to do the math on the pair’s previous relationship, and calculated that Owen was just 16 when she got together with the rugby player, who would have been 20 at the time. One viewer tweeted, “really hope someone calls out the age difference of when Jacques and Gemma were dating cos 16 and 21 is crazy.”

But why did O’Neill and Owen really split up? Well, the last few days have seen both new couples run into difficulties centred around Owen and O’Neill’s past relationship. Although the exes seemed on good terms, O’Neill confided to Bish that their relationship hadn’t all been smooth sailing.

He said, “I’d much rather be with Paige than Gem. One thousand per cent. I could literally go out with Paige, be myself, next day wake up and have no issues at all, even if I’ve said something wrong. But if I did that with Gem, I’ve got questions to answer the next day.”

Owen later explained that, “with Jacques, at the end of the relationship, I did not trust him.”

When Owen confronted O’Neill, he walked away from the conversation and called his ex a “clown.” Fans were quick to call out his behaviour towards women when later in the same episode, he referred to Thorne as “pathetic”. One Twitter user wrote, “Jacques needs to learn how to speak to people he’s so disrespectful“, while another added, “The way Jacques is speaking to Paige? Big big red flag”.