Tyrique Hyde says he turned down a return to Love Island USA this summer because he wanted to stay focused on his relationship with Samie Elishi. He made the remark on a KICK live stream on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, framing the decision as a choice between another franchise run and where his personal life stands now.
The timing matters because Hyde remains a familiar face to Love Island viewers. Best known for his run on Love Island UK Season 10, he was coupled up with Ella Thomas from Day 1 by the U.K. public and finished third. He later came back through Love Island Games Season 2 as a bombshell, teamed up with Justine Ndiba and reached the finale before losing to Lucinda Strafford and Isaiah Campbell.
Hyde’s relationship with Elishi explains the decision he says he made this summer. The pair began dating in the winter after her Love Island All Stars win with Ciaran Davies, and they soft-launched things in April during a romantic getaway to Morocco. In that context, his refusal to go back into another villa format reads less like a career pause than a line he was willing to draw around what he has now.
There is still a twist in the picture. Even as he said he passed on Love Island USA, Hyde was also recently revealed to be taking part in Love Island Aftersun in the UK alongside Maya Jama. That keeps him inside the franchise orbit, just not in the role fans on social media may have expected when the USA casting chatter surfaced.
What Hyde has made clear is that the offer, if it came as he says, did not outweigh his relationship. The open question is how far that franchise presence now extends, because his live-stream comment answered the USA return directly but did not settle whether his next on-screen appearance will be a one-off UK spot or something more.
