Love Island star says 'savage' confrontation with All Stars bosses cost him 2026 spot
"I’m a bit too emotionally mature for this!"
15 January 2026, 11:00 | Updated: 15 January 2026, 11:04
The ex-All Stars contestant confessed he wasn't willing to 'fake romance' this time around.
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A former Love Island star has confessed that a "savage" confrontation with All Stars producers likely cost him his spot on the upcoming series of the iconic spin-off.
Season two icon Adam Maxted, who also took part in the very first All Stars, explained that he attended a secret casting meeting with ITV bosses late last year to speak about appearing on the 2026 show ahead of its launch tonight.
But his brutal honesty about their choice of contestants for the third series and their motives behind entering the villa meant his potential place was taken off the table.
The 33-year-old opened up about the off-the-record chat in a bombshell interview, confessing that his truthfulness didn't go down too well with the team.
Explaining why he thought the dating experiment had lost its authenticity in recent years, he told The Sun: "I actually had a casting meeting with Love Island for the most recent series back in October.
"I was open to doing it again. I was like listen, if it comes up, fair enough. It’s a chance to go out there again and talk about wrestling. I know I’m charismatic. I know the public like me. I know I’m a little bit different than your usual guy that tries to go in there be all cool calm collected to impress girls and stuff.
"I show my personality, I like to have fun, I don’t take it too seriously, but it’s something that I was a little bit more honest with the producers this time."
Speaking about the candid conversation, he revealed: "I kind of said, ‘look, you’re picking the same people all the time here, yet you’re expecting them to go on and pretend that they’re in love’, so I was a little bit savage with how the show has gone, which is just my opinion.
"I was like if this was gonna work on the outside world, why all of a sudden now that they’re in a villa would they pretend to make a go of things? I mean just because you’re on TV, so I kind of said this to producers and maybe that went against me a little bit, but I was being honest."
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Since appearing on Love Island back in 2016, the professional wrestler has built an impressive career showcasing his muscles and using his agile skills to fight in the ring under the nickname Flex.
But while another appearance on the smash-hit dating show would have boosted his profile for a third time, the reality star admitted he wasn't willing to endure any fake romances to gain popularity.
Adam added: "Anytime I’ve gone on the show I’ve just said look this is who I am, if I meet someone in there and I can hit it off with them great, if not, cool.
"Whereas I think some people, because they’re so desperate to become or stay an influencer or stay in the public eye, they feel like they have to go in and play a game and try and get as much TV time as they can so they can get more brand deals and things and that’s never been my intention.
"I just initially wanted to be a pro wrestler and I said well this could be a good opportunity to get my name out there if I talk about wrestling and obviously it did help my career."
The single athlete also insisted that he 'doesn't the need to go on telly to find love' and feels "too emotionally mature" for the experience nowadays.
Adam explained: "Listen, I don’t struggle with women, I never have. So it’s not like I was desperate to go on a show to try and find a girlfriend.
"I mean I’ve always done all right and since I moved to Manchester, the past couple years’ big Flex has been doing bits, so I was open to it."
"I’m always pretty honest, most of us are going on it for a bigger opportunity or something that we want to try and talk about or we want more eyes on us to see if a brand would pick us up, and it’s like just be just be honest, don’t cry on TV after two days because some guy is off talking to another girl when on the outside world you wouldn’t care, you’d be off talking to another guy in your DMs.
"I think I’m a bit too emotionally mature for this as well, but I would go on it to kind of have fun and, probably this time, if I was doing it try and ruffle a few feathers."
Adam doesn't feature in the current line-up of Love Island All Stars 2026 contestants entering the South African villa this week, but only time will tell if he or the producers change their mind and make him a last-minute bombshell.
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