Keenan Anunay decided to stick with Vickala “Kay Kay” Gray at the recoupling ceremony following the Casa Amor twist on Love Island USA season five, despite having developed a connection with Najah Fleary the past few days. Now that Fleary is out of the villa, she opened up about what viewers didn’t get to see and said she believed that Anunay changed his decision once he learned that the female islanders had received a video about the boys’ actions.
Fleary revealed in an exit interview with Entertainment Weekly that she felt confident Anunay would have recoupled with her. “We shared a nonverbal connection, we looked at each other twice during the recoupling and he made me feel very secure that he was going to choose me,” she explained. “I felt good until Carmen [Kocourek] dropped the bomb about the video. I saw [in] his face that his whole mood just switched and I feel like that moment is when he decided to choose Kay Kay.”
Fleary went on to claim that she and Anunay had many conversations that didn’t make the edit in which he revealed that he wanted to bring her back after Casa Amor. She said she wasn’t pleased to watch the show and see that Anunay made it seem like she was the only one pursuing him and pushing herself on him. “He made it seem like I was attacking him to the point where I was getting messages saying I assaulted him and that was a big slap in the face,” she told the publication. “A lot of the advances were initiated on his behalf and reciprocated. It is degrading and belittling the whole relationship that we shared.”
After the recoupling ceremony, Anunay told Gray that Fleary had made a move on him in bed when he was sleeping and he pushed her hand away. However, Fleary said his claims were false and their intimacy in bed was initiated by Anunay. “That was a slap in the face because we got intimate on TV,” she said. “We didn’t cross the line as far as sex or anything like that. We did kiss and that was not shown, so he’s lying about that. His lies just made me look back because we had a much deeper connection than what it appeared to be.”
Fleary went on to share that she felt she deserved better than Anunay and wished she’d connected with a “genuine” and “honest” person. She made it clear that she doesn’t harbor any ill will toward Gray, though, and was “praying” for her.
The islanders were starting the movie night in the villa in the 27th episode of Love Island USA season five, but no clips of Anunay have been shown yet. The second half of the movie night will air in the 28th episode on Aug. 17, and the cast will likely see in more detail what happened between Anunay and Fleary and whether it will affect his connection with Gray.