Ovie Soko reveals he once cheated on an ex and nearly got kicked out of secondary school

Love Island’s Ovie Soko has revealed he once cheated on an ex girlfriend and was nearly kicked out of school in a candid new interview. 

Speaking on Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast the former reality star and basketball player, 29, described his upbringing in Tottenham, getting into trouble at college and his regrets over past relationships.

Talking about mistakes he made when he was younger he explained how he ended up cheating on his high school sweetheart with another woman when he went to university. 

He said: ‘This was a young lady I met when I was at high school in the States, we had been together for a little while, she was an absolute sweet heart, had a real innocence, she was one year younger than me so when I left to go to university she was still at high school.

‘The distance, me being in college and getting attention from ladies and being the English kid on campus, I was pretty immature I wasn’t ready to handle that attention and be in a relationship. Now looking back it’s definitely one of the biggest fluffs I’ve made in that regard. 

‘I ended up cheating on her, I was talking to a young lady it was fairly casual and it went from casual to becoming a bit more serious and before I knew it it was like having two girlfriends. 

‘The young lady back in Virginia caught wind of this and she was really heartbroken and I really hurt her feelings. It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s a nasty thing to do and it just makes you look stupid.’

Ovie fell for model India Reynolds, 28, in the Love Island villa but the couple split soon after leaving the show. 

However he did hint that he is now dating again on last week’s Love Island: What Happened Next mini series. 

On the podcast Ovie went on to discuss how nearly getting kicked out of secondary school was a game changer’ for him and caused him to ‘look in the mirror’ to reevaluate his priorities.

He said: ‘This was me being a bad boy, trying to be a cool kid, being something I’m not. Me and my mates thought it would be a good idea to try and pull off an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist of the boys PE locker room. 

‘We got our hands on the teachers keys and we broke in and took a lot of goods. Then everyone realised their stuff was gone and we were caught pretty much red-handed. The head of year pulled everyone into an emergency assembly.

‘I was taken to the headmasters office and I lied through my teeth but they had CCTV footage and then I said look okay I did it. 

‘I got suspended for 30 days, that was a game changing situation because after school I wanted to go to the states to play basketball. I had to take a really long look in the mirror. I didn’t want acting out of character to stop me pursuing that.’  

Touching on race he said he felt lucky to have grown up in London as it is such a multicultural city and compared it to his time living in Alabama when he left school.

Describing how he was once pulled over by a police car he said: ‘I just wanted to get out of that situation safely. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong but that doesn’t give you any piece of mind. 

‘Being innocent isn’t enough you just want the ordeal to be over as soon as possible, the power is not with you.’

He added that he often turns to his good friend Amber Gill, who won the show last summer, to discuss Black Lives Matter and other issues surrounding race. 

Speaking about his upcoming self-help book You Are Dope: Let the Power of Positive Energy into Your Life he said he wanted to encourage people to be themselves and that their uniqueness is their super power.  

Professional basketball player Ovie was catapulted into the limelight when he entered the fifth series of Love Island in 2019. 

Despite coupling up with India and finishing third place on the ITV dating show, the two did not last on the outside world.

You Are Dope: Let the power of positive energy into your life is out now.