The long-awaited mysterious break up questions have been answered, as Dami Hope has officially spoken out for the first time about his shock split from Indiyah Polack.
The pair appeared on series 8 of Love Island, both entering on day one and eventually coupling up together and becoming fan favourites until the final, where they eventually came third.
Although Dami and Indiyah were absolute couple goals and loved by many, they split up in early 2026, after over three years together. Although neither of them had announced a breakup prior, fans became suspicious of social media content that notably excluded each other.
The rumours first sparked in December when Dami posted an end of year photo dump with no trace of Indiyah to be seen. The press confirmation came in January when outlets reported the couple has sadly decided to part ways citing a difficult time.
Shortly after the split was reported, a viral TikTok showed Indiyah kissing her Inside co-star, Marlon Lundgren Garcia, at the London restaurant Duck and Waffle.
This forced Indiyah to address to scandal. She posted a statement to her Instagram story in early January admitting she had “made a mistake’’ and “took full responsibility’’, continuing on to say she would not be commenting any further.
While Indiyah had addressed the scandal early on, Dami remained silent until now, appearing on the We Need To Talk podcast with Paul C. Brunson.
Dami was questioned on why he had never spoken out properly before this interview, and he confessed he still has a level of care for Indiyah, but felt he needed to set the record straight.
He revealed how he had known about the kiss early on and he had to deal with it privately as he and Indiyah had a public relationship: “She eventually came forward and said this is what happened, and for me, I had to process it, I’m processing it privately. No one knows this is happening.”
@weneedtotalkpod Watch the full episode on YouTube by searching ‘We Need To Talk Dami Hope’ @Dami Hope ♬ original sound – We Need To Talk
He went on: “The story just wasn’t adding up. Eventually, she came forward to tell me. I said, ‘I can’t be in this relationship,’ but at the same time I know we have this public relationship.”
Dami said the pair had spent the morning of the viral kiss together, and he had helped her to pick out her outfit for the day. He also shared how he had no problem with opposite sex friendships but there had to be boundaries.
He added that if either of them was going on a night out they would typically text about what they were doing, but Indiyah was gone the whole night and didn’t say a word. He had been texting her throughout the night and he hadn’t gotten a response until 1pm the next day.
“Things didn’t feel right,” he said.
After the truth was revealed, the pair were still living together while trying to navigate the issue. Dami explained how Indiyah had been sharing her struggles with mental health on social media, which led to Dami getting blamed for not ‘’looking after her’’ properly.
The pair privately split up before Indiyah’s birthday just days later, but Dami said he felt he still needed to show up to support her, as the internet didn’t know.
“People might say, ‘Oh, it’s just a kiss’, but then I don’t actually know what the full story is, because there are certain elements that confuse me,” he said.
Dami also revealed to Paul that the pair are currently civil, but they do not speak regularly.
“We are giving ourselves that window of space to just heal and process this. To just go our separate ways,” he said.
Words by Nia Hayden