Coco Sarel is a self-confessed, terminally online lovergirl. When she isn’t debriefing the latest episode of Love Island for her 938k TikTok followers, she’s hosting red carpets for your favourite shows, like House of the Dragon, dancing away in the new eBay advert, or performing a 26-show run at the Edinburgh Fringe.

So when she sat down with PS UK to discuss all things Love Island and to introduce her new loved-up podcast, we were glad to hear it. For starters, we wanted to know her thoughts on the current season, since the end is already in sight.

“It’s been fiery and entertaining. I know people always compare the current season to other shows or other seasons, but it has been entertaining,” Sarel tells PS UK. “I love Grace [Jackson], I can resonate with her. Every time she’s been in a situation, she’s handled herself very well. But shout out to all the girls, Mimi [Ngulube], my little Welsh pocket rocket, Nicole [Samuel], they’re all fantastic.”

As a huge fan of the show, it’s no surprise that Sarel has seen some of the hate directed towards Islanders, which unfortunately always seems to ramp up, season by season, but Sarel is over the keyboard warriors.

“I don’t think 70% of the people who tweet what they tweet would be okay hearing that if it was said to them,” she says. “People are naturally going to have opinions, but I think we’ve become so far removed sometimes as society that you forget that they are real people who will read the comments, whose families are reading comments.

“Anyways, I give the Islanders mass respect, all the Islanders from every season, because Lord knows I am not walking around in a bikini on prime time television,” she adds.

When she’s not hooked on Love Island, Sarel is working on her own contributions to the pop culture world, taking listeners on a journey through the biggest celebrity love stories and complex dating dilemmas with TikTok creator Jack Remmington in their BBC podcast, Famously In Love.

“Famously In Love is so niche, Jack and I see eye to eye when it comes to all things pop culture, so it just works,” Sarel reveals. “Plus, I’m a hopeless romantic, I love love (which is why I’m obsessed with shows like Love Island).”

With Remmington, Sarel seeks to uncover the truth behind some of the most PR-quaffed, loved-up celebrity content we’ve been fed over the ages and ask the burning questions we all want the answers to, while also learning from one another about day-to-day dating dilemmas that we’ve all faced once or twice before.

“Jack and I are constantly learning from the show and each other. For example, we were discussing whether you can be friends with your exes and Jack was explaining to me that, within the queer community, it’s very normal,” Sarel tells us.

“Everybody’s friends with exes, but when you come from heterosexual relationships, sometimes that’s less normalised. So you learn all these nuanced things in a very general chat. It’s one of those podcasts you can put on in the background, whether you’re by yourself, cooking with your mates at home or chilling with your roommates. You can springboard your own conversations off of the back of it.”

Listen to Famously In Love on BBC Sounds.

Lauren Gordon is the editorial coordinator at PS UK, where she creates lifestyle and identity content. Lauren has a degree in journalism from University of the Arts London and previously worked as a showbiz and TV reporter at The Mirror US. Lauren specialises in pop culture, hair and beauty, focusing on trends, sharing in-depth tutorials, and highlighting hidden gems in the beauty industry.