‘Love Island’ Fans Think Carrington and Kierstan’s Political Views Might Have Played a Part in Their Breakup
Love Island Season 2 is finally over and the final couple walked away with $100,000. But they, of course, weren’t the only ones to find love; a few other couples did too. But there was a lot of heartbreak as well.
One pair that seemed solid but fizzled out was Kierstan Saulter and Carrington Rodriguez. And some fans think it might be because of Saulter’s political views. [Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for the whole second season of Love Island]
Kierstan Saulter got into ‘hot water’ when a photo of her and a Trump flag surfaced
The American version of Love Island just finished its second season, with fan-favorite couple Justine Ndiba and Caleb Corprew winning the top spot. The couple in the bottom spot was Rodriguez and Laurel Goldman, which isn’t all that surprising considering Rodriguez’s head-turning so late in the game. But he did have a stable partnership with Saulter earlier on as well. However, after their final date together, Carrington shared he wasn’t feeling it anymore.
With the editing of the episode, it looked like Kierstan brought up her job and love for parties, and it seemed like that’s what made Carrington realize they were no longer compatible.
However, after a screenshot from an older video of Saulter surfaced, fans had other ideas. The photo appeared on Reddit with the title, “time to unstan keirstan.” She is seen with a group of women and they’re in front of a Donald Trump flag.
In an interview with the After The Island YouTube channel, Saulter clarified that it wasn’t her boat or dock, but did note it got her in “hot water.”
Fans online think that Carrington’s comment about ‘different lifestyles’ was actually about politics
While overt political views are typically edited out of Love Island, social media tells all, obviously. And Carrington’s a Black Lives Matter supporter, which typically doesn’t mesh well with Trump supporters’ ideals.
In an Instagram post from July 10, Rogriguez is with friends holding up signs in support of Black Lives Matter. It looks like it could have been at a protest. And in another post before that, on June 2, he took part in the Blackout Tuesday trend, and posted the caption, “BLM, no more being neutral / silent. #blackouttuesday.”
Fans noticed this and figured that Carrington’s “lifestyle” comment was actually about their differing political opinions. Reddit user u/andrea247 created a post about this and wrote, “We are living in polarizing times (to say the absolute least) and it would make sense that Carrington wasn’t up to dating someone pro-Trump.” They continued with: “And he is now with Laurel who seems liberal and is also pro-BLM (based on her social).”
The user also mentioned that if politics were a part of the conversation, CBS probably would have edited it out especially if Trump’s name came up.
Saulter denies being a Trump supporter but doesn’t deny agreeing with some of Trump’s policies
Kierstan’s seemingly pro-Trump views did come up on that episode of After The Island, as stated before. She did deny being an actual supporter of President Trump. But, as she stated on the show, supporting the police is important to her — she has her dad’s badge number tattooed on her — which makes her pause from denying support completely.
“I’m very uneducated in politics and I really do not know where I stand. There are all these candidates and I pick things from each one that I like,” she admitted. “And everything that Trump says, I don’t agree with. I do appreciate his appreciation for law enforcement because that is a majority of my family… And I like that he supports the military. But there’s a lot of things that he says that I’m like, ‘What are you saying?’”
She also noted that her support for police and law enforcement doesn’t mean she’s anti-Black Lives Matter. “Just because I support my dad and my family, doesn’t mean I’m anti-anything else,” she said. “I’m not a gung-ho Trump supporter.”
Considering their relationship is in the past, Carrington and Kierstan probably won’t comment on whether this was the last straw. But it seems like Saulter also has a plan to educate moving forward, regardless.
