Perhaps nothing this summer has been less surprising (in a good way) than the winning couple of CBS’ Love Island.
Zac Mirabelli and Elizabeth Weber coupled up in the very first moments of the show and never even contemplated breaking up, or in Love Island terms, turning their heads. In fact, as they told E! News after their win was announced, they knew they were in it for the long haul by day four, when Cormac arrived in the villa and asked Elizabeth out on a date.
“When Elizabeth came back from her date with Cormac, like right after that, we had this little moment in the bathroom, and she was sitting on the counter and she just kinda wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in close and didn’t want to let go,” Zac said. “And I knew from that moment that we had something really special and I knew that her feelings were deep for me and I had deep feelings for her. And then after that I started having thoughts of, ‘I want to make this girl my girlfriend.'”
“I think that moment really solidified us, and we know without even having to say it that this was going to be us two throughout the entire journey,” Elizabeth added. “We had made up our minds that it didn’t matter who was going to come into the villa, we were only interested in each other.”
Zac recalled forming a group with some of the other guys in solid relationships called the Popcorn Club, where they could sit back and watch drama unfold.
“I feel like from the beginning, I’ve kind of always been in the Popcorn Club by myself, honestly,” he said. “And I was just watching everything else unfold, and it kind of allowed me to have a perspective to see everything that was going on and really give people advice on some of the choices that they should make.”
“It’s actually funny,” Elizabeth added, “On one of the recoupling nights, some of the people were nervous about their decisions they were going to make. And Zac, over here, took a nap. Out cold, sleeping on the couch, and we were all joking like, Zac looks real nervous over there about the recoupling. He’s real worried about who I’m gonna pick.”
The couple is now preparing for life back in the real world and planning to binge the whole show together, but they’re not worried about actual reality challenging their relationship.
“We haven’t really talked about like how we’re going to make it work because I don’t think that’s something we really need to address,” Elizabeth said. “I feel like we just naturally work, and we have such a strong connection, and we’re very good at communicating. I can’t picture us having a ton of issues, honestly.”
“I mean, I’m sure there will be some bumps down the road, but I don’t think that they’ll be anything too crazy or out of the norm,” Zac added. “I can’t say that it’ll all be perfect because that’s just unrealistic and we’re only human beings at the end of the day, but I think the biggest thing with me and Elizabeth is we’re always honest with each other and open and we communicate, and if you have those qualities, then I think you’re good.”
The ride was pretty smooth for Zac and Elizabeth, but it didn’t necessarily go that way for everybody. Below, you can read their advice for future islanders and the answers to some of the many questions we’ve had over the course of the season about what it’s really like in that villa.
Love Island airs on CBS and will return next summer. You can currently watch the entire season on CBS All Access.