Why Did ‘Love Island’ Finalists Iris and Pepe Break Up? Inside Their Relationship Fallout
Iris Kendall and Pepe Garcia came into the ‘Love Island’ villa together as bombshells.
Published Sept. 17 2025, 1:10 p.m. ET
Season 7 of Love Island will go down in history as one of the most successful seasons of reality TV ever, but for all of the record-breaking success on streaming and throughout social media, the actual lasting love connections left a lot to be desired. Iris and Pepe joined the season’s winners, Amaya and Bryan, as couples who ended their relationship shortly after the reunion.
Iris Kendall and Pepe Garcia came into the Love Island villa together as bombshells, but never pursued each other or showed any mutual interest. However, all that changed when TJ Palma, Iris’s strongest connection, was voted off, and she and Pepe coupled up. Now that Iris is seemingly back with her original connection, TJ, fans are wondering why she and Pepe broke up. Let’s dive in.
Why did ‘Love Island’s’ Iris and Pepe break up?
Similarly to one of his closest friends on the show, Bryan Arenales, Pepe found himself caught up in the middle of an overflow of alleged cheating rumors — all of which unfolded following the taping of the reunion on Aug.12.
Rumors that Pepe cheated on Iris began when an image of him with another woman circulated throughout social media. Eventually, the woman was identified as Melissa Pravata via a viral TikTok post. Per StyleCaster, Pepe and Melissa were both at The Cardinal at Saint John’s golf course in Plymouth, Michigan, when Melissa posted the photo of Pepe to her Instagram Stories.
She followed that up by posting even more receipts, including screenshots of them, while fans went even further and uncovered an alleged Snapchat from Melissa where she admitted to having sex with Pepe.
"Had sex with Pepe in the hotel lobby last night and have to work with him all weekend still gonna be sick," the caption Melissa allegedly wrote, read.
Shortly after the cheating rumors made the rounds, Iris addressed them with one simple move.
Making her feelings known about Pepe’s alleged cheating, Iris took to Instagram and promptly unfollowed him — and he returned the favor just as quickly.
Pepe’s strongest connection on Love Island, Hannah Fields, who has since sparked up a friendship with Iris, also unfollowed him, and he did the same to her.
Iris also posted an Instagram Story with Fleetwood Mac lyrics that pretty much confirmed that the two were done.
Iris hard launched her renewed relationship with TJ at the end of New York Fashion Week.
As the former Islanders were wrapping up their NYFW experience, Iris used the moment to step out with TJ hand-in-hand as they attended fashion shows together on the final day of NYFW on Sept. 16.
Fans, who shipped the couple during the show, went into overdrive with the photos of the two embracing, as well as behind-the-scenes video of them at their hotel.
Ironically, Pepe was also in town for NYFW, even linking up with villas besties Ace Greene and Bryan, but managed not to cross paths with Iris or TJ.
If you were paying close attention, you’ll recall that Iris and TJ remained in contact even after the show, with TJ frequently commenting and engaging with Iris’ content on social media. It appears that their relationship has now come full circle.