Love Island contestant Matthew MacNabb has revealed how he struggled during his first week in the villa as he coped with the heart-breaking loss of a friend just a fortnight before the show began.
The Downpatrick man told how he met with a psychologist while in the villa and ‘cried for an hour’ as he attempted to process a ‘crazy’ few months leading up to that point.
The 26-year-old marketing consultant said the psychologist helped him to appreciate that life was an adventure with ups and downs and to ‘embrace’ his Love Island journey and make it ‘epic’.
And he thanked the show’s creators and ITV for being supportive and getting him help.
Opening up in an Instagram post about the loss of his American friend, Ryan Freeman, Matthew wrote: “My life has been crazy the past few months.
“From one of my best friends passing away two weeks before Love Island, to entering the villa and experiencing all that came with it. I’m not going to lie, the first week in the villa I struggled a lot.
“I was thinking of my friend and wanted my loved ones around me. Meanwhile, I was wanting to be my usual happy, positive self to really show who I was.”
Matthew went on to tell how talking to the psychologist helped him treat the Love Island experience as an adventure and to ‘be present’ and ‘grateful’ so he could start to live his adventure to the best of his ability.
“This life is an amazing story and you are the main character in it,” he wrote. “Live without fear, go for what you want, because someday the story will end, so make it epic.”
Ryan, 27, passed away on July 11, just weeks before Matthew entered the Love Island villa.
The pair became friends when Matthew moved to California, where he lived for a year and a half. In a social media post following Ryan’s death, Matthew spoke of a ‘special’ friend who had come through some ‘horrible things’ in his life but had ‘such strong compassion and love for people because he had suffered so much and he never wanted anybody to feel his pain’.
In the online tribute Matthew said that his friend had taught him to be a kinder, more compassionate man and to live life ‘in the moment’. He said he had enjoyed some ‘amazing adventures’ with Ryan and would honour his memory by living his life to the full.
“When I look back on my time with Ryan, I look back with grateful eyes of beautiful moments and amazing adventures,” he wrote. “I don’t look back with regret. To me that is life in its purest form.
“I wish I could do more to celebrate Ryan. However, I’m going to honour him by living his message, loving life to its fullest, never letting fear get in the way, being kind to others and appreciating every moment I have in this life. The true Ryan Freeman way.”
