Pepe Garcia Shares Whether He Would Date Another Reality Star (EXCLUSIVE)
"At the end of the day, I want kids. I want a wife. I want to have a family."
Published Nov. 12 2025, 4:48 p.m. ET
Most of the Love Island USA Season 7 cast have kept themselves busy since the show stopped filming in July 2025. Many of them, including Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez, are ensuring their star continues to shine away from the show.
Pepe, a professional basketball player who entered the villa as a bombshell, has taken on opportunities as a model, influencer, and a part-time Labubu salesman.
In November 2025, Peacock announced that the fan-favorite would be joining some of his Season 7 co-stars — Amaya "Papaya" Espinal, Andreina Santos, Belle-A Walker, Bryan Arnelas, Chris Seeley, Clarke Carraway, Coco Watson, Gracyn Blackmore, Hannah Fields, Iris Kendall, Jeremiah Brown, Taylor Williams, and T.J. Palma – for Season 2 of Love Island: Beyond the Villa. The show will give fans the chance to see what Pepe and co. have been up to since the show ended.
However, for those of us tapped into the social media rumor mills, the athlete’s personal life isn’t much of a mystery.
Though his relationship with Iris Kendall seemed promising while they were in the villa, Pepe and Iris broke up soon after they were back home. While he and Iris have now been reduced to co-stars, the reality hunk hasn’t given up on love.
In an exclusive interview with Distractify for his partnership with Fruity Pebbles, Pepe opened up about his dating life since leaving Love Island and his now-intentional approach to finding love.
Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez wants to date a woman with “good intentions” and doesn’t care where she works.
Although he didn’t walk away from Love Island without a broken heart, Pepe told us he knows what he wants and is still searching for it, though his recent rise to fame has only made the dating scene even more challenging to navigate.
“It's a lot harder to find someone with good intentions on everything, where it's like, ‘Hey, I like you for you,’ not because ‘you're Pepe from Love Island’ or ‘I do think you're a sweet guy,” he explained. “But I don't know, at the end of the day, I personally want kids. I want a wife. I want to have a family. So not gonna ever stop looking for that.”
He also shared that he is open to finding his future wife wherever possible, including through another reality show. Pepe told us he’s not opposed to dating someone who is a current or former reality star, but isn’t searching to recreate another epic showmance.
“I honestly I have no idea,” he said of dating a fellow reality star. “For me, it's the same way as how I don't want people to look at me for what I've done, like reality TV. It's more of just, I'm going to talk to you if you're a cute girl and you're sweet and you're nice and you actually want to talk to me.”
“For me, I don't care if you have two followers on social media; if you have 200 million likes, it really doesn't matter,” he continued. “Like, it's just who you are as a person. If you just want to date me to say you dated me or talk to me because you want to say you talked to me, which has happened already, it’s like, ‘Alright, I found out very quickly. And it is what it is.’”
Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez is moving forward despite filming ‘Beyond the Villa’ with his ex.
Pepe might not have found what he’s looking for in the romance department, but he’s more than ready to fully step into his future, which includes new, fruitful opportunities. In addition to the self-proclaimed breakfast king’s technicolor partnership with Fruity Pebbles, as previously shared, he’s also gearing up to return to the small screen with Season 2 of Love Island: Beyond the Villa.
The LA-based show will show Pepe being in the same space as his ex-girlfriend, Iris, who also signed on for the season.
The couple, who came in fourth place on Love Island USA, broke up shortly after filming ended. According to TMZ, Pepe confirmed the split on Aug. 28, 2025. Following their split, Iris was spotted hugging her ex-villa flame, TJ Palma, in Los Angeles, Calif. In October 2025, they all but confirmed they were dating on Instagram by posting photos of themselves hanging out and wearing matching Halloween costumes.
TJ also signed on to join Beyond the Villa, which could result in awkward run-ins between him, Iris, and Pepe. Pepe, however, told us he’s unbothered by the thought of filming with them and isn’t letting their past issues get to him in his next chapter.
“[I’m] not really focused on that,” he told us of his ex. “Don't really want to dwell in the past and just want to look forward and go on to the future.”