The girls of “Love Island USA” said they chose to dump Gabriel Vasconcelos from the villa because “he’s constantly looking for the next best thing, and we don’t feel like the villa will ever bring him someone he’s content with.”
Gabriel says he’s still asking why.
The bombshell entered the villa on Day 2 and quickly formed connections with multiple islanders. He first coupled up with Beatriz Hatz before viewers voted to pair him with bombshell Jen Terry, a connection Gabriel says he was still growing when his journey came to an end.
After viewers voted again, this time for their favorite couple, Gabriel and Jen were left vulnerable. The boys safe from the vote chose to send Sol Mýa Dean home, arguing she was the only girl at risk of elimination not in a strong couple, sparing Jen.
But instead of Sol’s unattached counterpart, Caleb McDaniel, the girls chose to send Gabriel home, claiming he hadn’t fully committed to one relationship and would likely not settle.
In a conversation with TODAY.com, Gabriel opens up about his reaction to the reasoning behind his elimination, the criticism he received for exploring multiple connections and the moments viewers didn’t get to see during his time in Fiji.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
The main reason that the girls gave for your elimination was that they felt that you weren’t fully committing to any one connection, that you weren’t going to settle. Looking back, do you feel that that was a fair assessment?
I’m still asking myself, “Why?” Is it because I was exploring? Is it because I was doing the “Love Island” experience? I was the “craziest one,” you know? I don’t see any point about that answer. I’m sorry, but I’m completely honest and upfront with my answer, so everyone knows that … I just had to accept that, the fact that I was leaving.
After you left, Bryce defended you. He said: “Just because he’s promiscuous doesn’t mean he’s not capable of loving someone. That’s the most slut-shaming thing I’ve ever seen.” What is your reaction to that?
I mean, he’s right. He’s right. We have different backgrounds, like, it doesn’t mean that I’m … lustful, you know. Like Brazilians, we are different, and I was literally having a good time with the girls that I was with, nobody was complaining about it.
Not even Jen was understanding the fact that I was leaving. She was like, oh, s—, like, I don’t believe that. Because it wasn’t making sense. But I’m so glad that the guys were defending me because they knew about how I am, how I was treating the girls.
In this case, like, Jen … they know that my connection with Jen was growing. And yeah, like me and her know about it. That’s why I’m not worried about anything else, and I know that what I did and that was right.
How much Spanish or Portuguese were you able to speak in the villa, and do you think there were maybe some important moments that were lost on the audience or that we didn’t get to see that happened in Portuguese?
All that I have to say about it, like, all the Latin language, they’re more romantic. So when I’m gonna talk about something specific, especially for feelings, I can be more — I can give more details of how I’m feeling. Not that I’m gonna express perfect in Portuguese, but just differently, you know? And I can give more. I can go over more about it, and that’s how I feel.
I feel like English, I also can do it, but it’s not the same way. It’s not the same vibe. The thing is, if I hear, “I love you” from someone, I know that people are gonna be loving me, but I feel if I hear “eu te amo,” which means “love you” in Portuguese or in Spanish, it means more for me.
But that’s one thing that it’s hard to explain for everyone because you just feel it. Like, if I hear “eu te amo” from my mom, it’s different than if I hear “love you” — I’m gonna think that she’s lying to me, because, you know, that’s just something different, it’s hard to explain.
What do you think is the biggest misconception viewers might have about you from watching the show?
I think it was the fact that most of my conversations with the guys and with the girls were not shown. You know, it’s literally 24 hours in one hour, a lot of people talking, and if they decided they just had to put a few moments of me like, making out, that was it.
I don’t know, I mean, I think I was flirting more than everyone else, and they only got those moments. People saw me talking with Sol (for) like 5 seconds, then we went to the bed together, then I started kissing her. No, no, no! We had a conversation at least for 30 minutes before. We were talking in front of the pool for, I don’t know, like 15 minutes and then we went upstairs. We started talking like in the chairs in front of each other for 15 minutes and then we went to the bed.
So like, nobody’s seen that, and it was looking like, oh, I went upstairs with her, I say, oh, I know what I want, and “Boom.” No, but it wasn’t that, and that’s funny.
We were watching it together, like, “Oh s—, that’s crazy.”
Your goodbye with Beatriz felt really emotional. A lot of viewers saw that and felt like your connection was deeper than what was shown on our screens. Do you feel like the audience got to see the full extent of your relationship with her, or with your relationship with Jen?
I think both of my connections, they are not showing most of our things. Because we were talking the whole day, not specific when we’re going to chat. When I was pulling them for a chat, OK, I was pulling them, but during the day, we were talking about a lot of things. I feel like we lost at least 90% of conversation.
Because if I was being just crazy, just making out, probably they wouldn’t be crying for me. People need to think about it, like, “Why they were crying for Gabriel?” or, “Why were they feeling sad?” or something. Because they had something else, they had some different feelings, because we were having a good time literally. But that’s one thing that I just, I was like, as we were leaving the villa, we know that. That’s life.
Have you and Bea reconnected since leaving the villa?
Yeah, we talked. We talked two days ago. Yeah, we are good.
When you look back, is there anything that you would have done differently in your experience?
No. No, I don’t have any regrets about anything.
Now that you have your social media back and you’re hearing people’s thoughts about the season, were there any opinions that surprised you, or things that you think the public doesn’t have the right perception about?
I really appreciate everyone who is changing their opinion about me because they’re already noticing the way that I am. When I had the chance to talk on “Aftersun,” they were like, “Oh s—, like he knows how to express himself,” you know? And I like that because I am like that. I was one of the guys who was most like making jokes with everyone and talking s—. I was always like present with everyone.
That’s why I was like, “Oh, s—, I’m not — where’s myself in this episode?” But I’m good with myself, that’s the most important thing. I know what I’ve done, and in the villa, everyone knows how I was treating them, and yeah, I was literally being myself and that’s the most important for me.
Casa Amor is happening right now. How do you think you would have moved if you were in there?
Mm, good question. Everyone was asking me the same thing. Oh, guys. “Oh, Gabriel, we are missing you in Casa Amor.” This and that. But, guys, I’m not there. I’m at my casa!