Love Island is back for its fifth outing and there are some familiar faces in its first batch of Islanders.
Remember Strictly Come Dancing‘s AJ Pritchard, professional dancer who’s been partnered with the likes of Mollie King? Of course you do. Well Curtis Prichard is his brother. And he’s a ballroom and Latin dancer too.
Here’s everything else you need to know about Curtis…
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Meet Curtis Pritchard…
Who is Curtis coupled up with on Love Island? We’ll find out soon enough…
Age: 23
From: Shropshire
Job: Ballroom and Latin dancer/Dancing with the Stars Ireland professional dancer
Twitter: @CurtisPritchard
Instagram: @curtispritchard12 (Before being announced as an Islander, Curtis already had 44.2k followers)
In case you didn’t notice from the family resemblance (and skipped the lovingly crafted intro above), Curtis is brother to Strictly Come Dancing’s AJ Pritchard. But he’s also a celebrity in his own right – at least in Ireland, where he’s been a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars (their version of Strictly) since 2017.
In his two series on the show, he’s been partnered with model Thalia Heffernan and businesswoman Norah Casey. However, Curtis hasn’t had much success so far, having been eliminated in both years before week five.
Curtis hit the headlines in late 2018 when he and brother AJ were victims of an “unprovoked assault” in a nightclub over the festive period.
While AJ suffered bruising to his body, Curtis had to have an emergency operation after sustaining damage to his knee – forcing him to pull out of the Dancing with the Stars 2019 series that started in January.
“Curtis risked his own dancing career to save mine as he threw himself in front of the attackers so they couldn’t get to me,” AJ told The Sun newspaper after the nightclub incident. “He was thinking of both my dancing career with my legs and my TV career with my face.
“He tried to protect me and in doing so saved my life and my legs from danger.”
What is Curtis’s dating history?
Up until early 2019, Curtis had been dating fellow Dancing with the Stars professional Emily Barker for two years.
“My ex-girlfriend was my dance partner. We danced with each other from when we were twelve until we were fourteen, we were the champions,” he explains.
“You spend a lot of time with each other when you’re dancing together. You’re always in a close proximity so it would be weird not to get feelings even if it’s just to be a best friend or if it’s to fall in love.”
What is Curtis looking for in the villa?
Not a girl with bad hygiene – apparently, that’s his biggest turnoff. As for his type on paper, Curtis doesn’t have one.
“I’m sure everyone has their idea of the perfect girl but I don’t. This sounds really clichéd but love is blind and I truly do believe that,” he says. “Love is blind.”
Curtis says he hasn’t been on too many dates and has never used a dating app. “All of this meeting people on social media and apps is fake. People portray their life how they want it to be and it isn’t how they truly are,” he says, presumably forgetting he’ll be entering the villa with a flock of Instagram influencers.
Just in case you’re worried Curtis will be too darn interesting to watch, he also insists he will be completely loyal to any partner he has. “I have cheated before, but that isn’t why I split with that girlfriend. I will always be loyal from now on,” he says.
What are Curtis’s bad traits?
He doesn’t have many, apparently. According to him, his number one flaw is ignoring texts. But while that might sound like a small thing in real life, it could prove quite problematic in the villa…
Instead, Curtis is much happier talking about his positive traits: “I’m great fun to be around, always thinking about other people and I’m always putting a smile on people’s faces.”
Love Island launches on Monday 3rd June on ITV2
from Radio Times http://bit.ly/2I7qImh
