Joey Essex spent the night in the Love Island Hideaway with ex-girlfriend Grace Jackson – and the pair confessed their growing feelings for each other.
Bombshell Grace, 25, stripped down to her underwear as she cuddled up to the former TOWIE star, 33, with the pair passionately kissing beneath the covers in the villa’s private quarters.
Producers have given Islanders not in a couple unlimited access to the famous Hideaway, with Joey and Grace becoming the first contestants to be intimate in scenes to be shown during Tuesday’s evening instalment.
Grace and Joey enjoyed a holiday fling in Ibiza last year before their romance fizzled out when neither party would relocate so they could be together.
But now Grace, who’s from Manchester, has told Joey she’s prepared to move to London, with the reality TV star smitten by her arrival in the villa.
Joey Essex spent the night in the Love Island Hideaway with ex-girlfriend Grace Jackson and the pair confessed their growing feelings for each other
Bombshell Grace stripped down to her underwear as she cuddled up to the former TOWIE star, with the pair passionately kissing beneath the covers in the villa’s private quarters
Producers have given Islanders not in a couple unlimited access to the famous Hideaway, with Joey and Grace becoming the first contestants to be intimate
A source told MailOnline: ‘Joey and Grace couldn’t bear to be apart… they wanted to be the first to stay the night in the Hideaway and didn’t let anything get in their way.
‘It was very passionate between them and they’re certainly making up for lost time but so far they have refrained from having sex.
‘They know what it’s like being intimate together but their feelings now are stronger than ever, who knows if they will be able to contain themselves in weeks to come.’
Whispering to each other in the Hideaway, Grace told Joey, ‘I’ve missed you’ with the Essex star echoing the sentiment.
Joey has been coupled up with Scouse makeup artist Samantha Kenny, who threatened to quit the show over her feelings of embarrassment.
Grace encouraged Joey to tell Samantha about their plan to stay in the Hideaway, with the Liverpudlian seething, ‘I’ve seen you kissing over there before… bit out of order, don’t you think? I’ve just been crying in there two hours ago and then you are kissing on the daybed.’
Reassuring Grace of their decision, Joey said, ‘We need to make the most of tonight, stop caring about what other people think because at the end of the day how we feel about each other… they’re not involved in our connection at all.’
Joey’s night in the Hideaway with Grace follows their stay together in a separate villa, where they kissed in the swimming pool.
Whispering to each other in the Hideaway, Grace told Joey, ‘I’ve missed you’ with the Essex star echoing the sentiment
Joey has been coupled up with Scouse makeup artist Samantha Kenny, who threatened to quit the show over her feelings of embarrassment
Samantha told Joey he was ‘out of order’ for kissing Grace in front of her just hours after she had been crying over the situation
New arrivals Tiffany Leighton, Wil Anderson, and Grace chose an Islander to spend the night away with them in a move producers dubbed a ‘sleepover’.
After picking Joey, the pair’s connection was reestablished, with them cuddling and kissing in the pool, as Uma Jammeh and Ronnie Vint watched on.
Elsewhere in the villa, Harriett Blackmore has been left confused in her couple with Ronnie, who passionately kissed Tiffany and has emphasised how she is his type.
Ronnie was with Jess White until he re-coupled with Harriett but now his attention has shifted to Tiffany.
With a dumping looming and the need for Islanders to be in a romantic couple, several contestants are at risk of losing their place in the competition.