Love Island 2023 winner Sammy Root gets real about his split from Jess Harding

Jody Coffey

Sammy Root and Jess Harding were crowned the winners of the 2023 series.

Love Island 2023 winner, Sammy Root, says he and his ex-girlfriend Jess Harding are ‘doing fine’ following their breakup.

The former couple met on the tenth series of Love Island with the public voting the pair as their winners in the series finale.

News broke earlier this month that they had decided to call it quits, with Sammy admitting this was a ‘shock’ to him. However, Sammy now says he is adjusting to single life following their breakup which ‘ended on nice terms’.

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Speaking to The Mirror, he described his and his ex-girlfriends’ time on the ITV reality dating series as an ‘amazing experience’.

“Winning it was a cherry on the top. We got out and we had a lot of fun and we kind of ended things on nice terms.

“I still wish her the best and I think she does [for] me. I saw her at the Pride of Britain [Awards] the other day, we said hello. It is just one of those things. I think we are both doing absolutely fine.”

While the pair are amicable now, at the time of their split, it appeared that Sammy was intiantlly upset with the decision to call time on their relationship.

He took to Instagram to share his disappointment about their breakup.

“I thought I would come online to address today’s news about me and Jess. Yes we had a private conversation regarding our relationship but this was left up in the air as Jess is still away and we haven’t had a chance to speak in person. For me to then see today via the media that we had officially broken up came as a total shock,” he wrote.

“I genuinely saw a future with Jess. I was committed and respectful to our relationship. Unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way you’d hoped. Despite how this has all played out today, I think Jess is an amazing woman and genuinely wish her all the best,” the statement concluded.

Jess, in response, took to her Instagram to acknowledge the news surrounding their breakup and confessed that she was ‘sad’ but that it ultimately was for the best as the two were ‘different’ people.