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In their first in-depth interview since leaving the villa, the couple open up about navigating overnight fame and their plans for the future
NEED TO KNOW
- Bryce Alakai and Trinity Tatum, nicknamed “Brinity,” won Love Island USA season 8 after evolving from friends to lovers
- They addressed “fake love” rumors, saying their connection is genuine and credit their friendship as the foundation of their romance
- They reveal what’s next for them as a couple, including Trinity’s potential move from Virginia to Los Angeles
This summer, Love Island USA season 8 wasn’t just reality TV. It became appointment viewing, with fans dissecting every move — and makeout — the couples shared in real time.
Over the course of six weeks, fan favorites Bryce Alakai and Trinity Tatum evolved from friends to lovers, propelling their connection above the rest. And when host Ariana Madix announced them as the season 8 winners, “it felt like a dream,” Bryce, 30, tells PEOPLE as he sits beside Trinity, 22, for their first photo shoot since leaving Fiji.
The couple, affectionately named “Brinity” by fans, is still trying to process the whirlwind. “It’s like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ It’s a completely different life now,” Bryce says.
For Trinity, who worked at Home Depot in her hometown of Newport News, Va., before entering the villa, the change has been especially dramatic. Her Instagram following skyrocketed from roughly 4,000 to more than 3 million almost overnight.
“I don’t know nothing about this [fame], but I’m very humbled and blessed to experience it,” she says. “I’m definitely not taking it for granted.”
Now in Los Angeles — where Bryce has worked as a model, actor and DJ for the past decade — the couple are settling into a reality that looks very different than the one they initially left behind before joining the Peacock show. They’re also talking about closing the distance for good.
“It’s a very high chance,” Trinity says of moving to L.A. “I don’t want to do long distance.”
Bryce adds: “We’re doing what we can to be together.”
Here, the couple opens up about their villa experience, navigating overnight fame and what’s next.
Did you have a feeling you were going to win?
TRINITY: I didn’t expect us to win, genuinely. I thought we were going to be second place and that it would be Aniya [Harvey] and Carl [Schmidt]. I was like, “Expect disappointment so you don’t get disappointed.” And then [Ariana] said our name and I was like, “Oh my gosh.”
BRYCE: Yeah. The whole thing has just been so surreal, from the way it started out so shaky to it ending with me literally saying I love her. It’s crazy.
What’s it been like returning home with your newfound fame?
TRINITY: It’s honestly scary having all these people watching me, but I’m glad that people support me and they love what I do and who I am as a person. It makes me feel like I am doing something right.
BRYCE: I feel really lucky. I’ll get 100 positive comments before one negative one, which is crazy for something like this. We’ll literally sit in bed crying, re-watching the edits of us holding each other. I’ll be in tears the whole night. But I feel bad because some of the other Islanders are just getting grilled right now.
Islander Zach Georgio in particular has been dealing with a lot of hate since leaving the villa.
Trinity: We were on the plane together coming home, and I saw how it was affecting him. People are only seeing certain clips, and people are still judging him for stuff that he said in week one. He is such an amazing person. Genuinely, he is so funny. He’s so sweet. It’s like, “What are y’all seeing?” I remember they didn’t even like Bryce in the beginning.
BRYCE: They wanted to get rid of me because of my hair. When we left, everyone was good. Aniya was good with KC [Chandler]. Everyone was at a good place. We’ve made amends about everything that happened. We have no hard feelings. And we just hope everyone knows that it is a hard process.
TRINITY: We might have arguments, but that’s what family does. You have arguments and then you apologize and move on. There’s been times I’ve apologized because my mouth can say a lot sometimes.
Trinity, talk to us about the viral “I’m Titi” moment that came from your confrontation with Tierra “Titi” Davis and KC.
TRINITY: Everybody loves that moment, but I don’t because I really don’t like getting out of character. Titi’s a really sweet girl, and my anger was not supposed to be directed towards her at all. So, it sucks. I think I was acting a fool. I’m like, “I got to chill.”
BRYCE: She’s just there for people, and she really loves Aniya. She’s going to have her back.
What was it like returning to the villa after Casa Amor and not knowing whether Trinity chose someone else?
BRYCE: I just told myself, “I’d rather get kicked out for going with my heart.” The safe choice is bringing somebody in, and then you’re guaranteed [to stay]. But I didn’t want to do that. And it was brutal. The only picture I had to go off of was Trinity in a photo booth with another guy. That’s intimate, the photo booth, so I thought I was screwed. When I walked in [and saw she chose me], I was overwhelmed with joy. I was just so happy.
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You even showed up for the recoupling in matching yellow.
BRYCE: We didn’t plan the outfits. [Production] gave me eight shirts to pick from, and I picked the yellow. I could have picked any other color. I even was going to say something if she was with somebody else, like, “Wow, yellow was a bad choice.”
TRINITY: He told me, “If you were going to bring somebody back, I was going to go in.” He was going to read me to filth. I was like, “That’s understandable.”
BRYCE: You would have, too.
TRINITY: I would have. I would’ve cried, but I was not going to sleep in Soul Ties again. I was like, “I’m just going to have to eat it. I’m just going to have to watch him be with somebody because I’m not sleeping outside again.” Girl, them two days was the worst. I was going through it.
Bryce, were you as sad as you seemed in Casa?
BRYCE: I wanted to leave so bad. I would stare [at the villa] to see if I could see Trinity. Zach and I kept looking over at the villa, going, “Home.” I was making jokes nonstop because it’s a coping mechanism for me, and none of them were hitting. It made me even sadder because I was like, “I know Trinity would’ve laughed at all of these.”
TRINITY: I wish I would’ve heard them.
BRYCE: They were corny for sure.
Bryce, your bromance with Zach was also a big topic of conversation.
BRYCE: The whole Zach thing was so progressive, too. The first night was really difficult, I think, for everybody to sleep. I didn’t sleep one second. My eyes were bloodshot from being open, staring at the ceiling. I’m like, “What did I just get myself into?” With Zach, it was the same thing. And then during [the] Paradise Cove [twist], we slept in the same bed. We started getting close. We had the same type of humor. It gets really emotional and intense in that place. So, you really need to have that laughter and that friendship. The trust gets built so fast. If you’ve ever played sports, in the locker room, everyone’s punching each other, doing crazy things. In the villa, it’s like 24 hours a day, no phone, no entertainment. So, you start doing crazy things to get a reaction out of people or out of each other.
Trinity, what did you think of their bromance?
TRINITY: In the beginning, it was so cute. But then I was like, “All right, you’re taking my man. You got to move. Y’all are doing too much.” But no, it’s so cute. Me and Kayda [Bosse] were best friends in the villa, and they were best friends. It worked out perfectly. Whenever we would have an issue, you could just feel it in the friend group. It felt off. But either way, I love their connection.
Do you remember your first kiss that first episode?
BRYCE: Yeah. She was the best kisser, hands down. A lot of the guys agreed.
TRINITY: Oh my gosh. I remember when he first walked in, I was like, “I’m not delusional. This dude keeps looking at me.” Then, we kept picking the same doors [during the challenge] every time.
BRYCE: Midway through, I will say I was like, “She’s definitely a cat lady. I know for a fact.” And I love cats too, so it’s not like it was a lie or anything [when I chose that door]. But I definitely targeted her from the beginning.
How did you move past your initial hesitations about your age gap?
TRINITY: Well, in the nicest way, he doesn’t act his age. When I first met him, I thought he was 25. For me, when I think of a younger girl dating an older guy, I think about manipulation, stuff like that. I got to know him. I got to know his personality and how he’s very articulate, and he’s very fair. My mom has always told me, “Be with somebody who’s genuine.” Even with the age gap, my mom, she supports it. That’s my biggest yes.
BRYCE: In the beginning I told her that the age gap was the only problem I saw between us. I just wanted to make sure she could really enjoy her 20s. As I got to know her, age became such a minimal thing because she is so mature. Even when she’s yelling, she’s valid.
Trinity, you also said on the show that you’d never dated a White man before.
TRINITY: Yeah. I think our biggest fear was “If their ideal type comes in, are they going to leave?” Genuinely, I feel like he is my ideal type. He’s tall, he’s handsome, he’s funny. He’s got the basics. I was like, I can’t be with nobody who’s ugly. Sorry, y’all. I can’t be with anybody who’s not attractive and not tall. I need you to be attractive and tall. We can work on the rest.
What moment do you think really shifted your relationship from friendship to romance?
BRYCE: We were always interested in each other, but we agreed it was friendly in the beginning, which honestly ended up being the reason why we were so good. I felt like the other couples didn’t really build that first. In the “Boss Bitch Challenge,” she voted for me as “faking it in their couple.” It pissed me off so bad in the moment. I knew after she did that, she was going to get hot and heavy with me [in the challenge.] I was like, “I’m about to go so hard right now.” She was like, “Oh yeah, he’s not faking it.” I feel like that really, for me, shifted the entire thing.
TRINITY: We had a conversation that night, and we were straight up with each other. I was like, “I feel like this is very friendly. I don’t like this.” And then after that, he just started to do more.
How would you say you balance each other out personality-wise?
TRINITY: Well, he’s very chill and calm.
BRYCE: She’s fiery. I feel like we’re a really good match in that way. I saw some of the memes saying like, “Oh, Bryce knows she’s going to return that food if he doesn’t like it.” She is that kind of personality. She stands up for anybody and anything she believes in. But around me, she’s also so calm.
Trinity, you talked on the show about how you’re not usually this calm in a relationship.
TRINITY: I’ve been very assertive, I guess. I feel like with Bryce, he makes me feel very calm and mellow. He changes my thought process. I literally tell everybody he could convince me the sky is green, and he’ll have actual point bullets on why. Whenever we would have heated moments [in the villa], everybody would be talking over each other. But when Bryce would talk, we would get dead silent. That says a lot.
Bryce, when did you know you wanted to ask Trinity to be your girlfriend?
BRYCE: When I came back from Casa and she was there, I knew I was going to do it at some point that week. Then our date happened. So, when we got on the jet ski, I was like, “Oh, this is going to be the time to do this.” Because it was so special, so intimate. On the boat ride back, watching her hair flow in the wind, I was like, “Damn. That’s my girl right there.”
TRINITY: It was the best date I’ve ever been on.
Islander Sincere Rhea’s family made comments about your love being “fake.” What do you have to say to people who say you were faking it for the camera?
BRYCE: We don’t care.
TRINITY: Yeah, we don’t care. I mean, we still love Sincere.
BRYCE: And you can’t blame people. It is a show. It makes sense why people could think something like that. But like I said, we genuinely don’t care.
TRINITY: I mean, 12 guys came into Casa Amor. If I was faking it, I would’ve left [with one of them]
BRYCE: I was like, there’s six Corbin [Mims] on that boat!
TRINITY: Literally. You have opportunities to get with different people, and we just chose not to. I can’t fake anything. Honestly, I just say my intrusive thoughts. I’m happy where I’m at.
What were your lives like before this?
BRYCE: I was struggling. I was working on garbage trucks, really dollar to dollar, month to month, then I would DJ on the weekends. It was a lifestyle of hustling.
TRINITY: I was working retail at Home Depot. Then I started working for my mom. Similar to Bryce, I was living paycheck to paycheck in an income-based apartment. I remember at one point my mom was paying my rent because I couldn’t.
Trinity, your mom Sonja and sister Teonja bonded very quickly with Bryce’s mom Keri and Grandma Anne on “Family Day” in the villa.
TRINITY: Our families just clicked. My mom texts his mom. My mom told me yesterday they’re planning a trip together already, we didn’t get an invite. It really feels good to have a family who genuinely loves your partner and vice versa.
BRYCE: My mom was a single mom for a decent amount of time before my stepdad came in, and I was partially raised by my grandmother. So, hearing that Trinity was also raised by a single mother, it was immediately like, “I know your life.” I feel like that was a good foundation.
Bryce, Grandma Anne has gained a fandom of her own from her hilarious one-liners like, “Somebody always gets underserved in a three-way.”
BRYCE: She always says what she feels. That’s what makes her special. Apparently, at the airport, all the flight attendants were trying to take pictures with her. And then she was at a bar in Canada, and all the waitresses were like, “Oh my God, it’s Anne!”
How were you cast on the show?
BRYCE: I got reached out to on Instagram by one of the casting people. In the beginning I was like, “I don’t know if this is going to be my thing.” But I kept doing the interviews, and it kept going well. My last relationship was two years ago, so the timing was really good.
TRINITY: Same thing with me. I was reached out to on Instagram, and my last relationship had been three years ago. I was like, “Let me just try something new.”
Are you going to watch this whole season back?
TRINITY: Oh, I’m definitely watching. I can’t really go off clips that I’m seeing on Instagram and TikTok. I would genuinely want to see what I’ve said, what other people have said.
BRYCE: I don’t know. I have a couple episodes I’m definitely skipping. Like Paradise Cove. No, that one can stay in there. So bad. There’s a few of them that I’ll probably watch. I’ll watch Casa for sure. It’s a little embarrassing, some of it.
How are you spending the $100,000 prize?
TRINITY: That’s going straight to my student loans. If there’s some left over, maybe a cute little shopping spree.
BRYCE: Yeah, I have some bills I’ve got to pay. But I definitely want to get Trinity some special things. I want to treat my lady.
How do you picture your lives a year from now?
BRYCE: Step by step, it’d be her coming out here. Then when she gets adjusted and comfortable, eventually moving in together.
TRINITY: I definitely want that. Honestly, I really just want to be where he is.
Bryce and Trinity will next be back on screens in the Love Island USA reunion special hosted by Madix and Andy Cohen, premiering on Peacock on Monday, Aug. 31, at 9 p.m. ET.
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