The girls are fighting.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Peacock
Huda Mustafa, Chelley Bissainthe, and Olandria Carthen were the OG girls of Love Island USA. They entered the Villa as strangers and left as friends. Right? Right?! Unfortunately, this is Love Island and not Friendship Island. Throughout their time on season seven of Peacock’s dating show, the women called each other sisters even when they weren’t seeing eye to eye. They got through Huda’s breakup with Jeremiah Brown, but Casa Amor changed everything when Huda and Chelley became interested in Chris Seeley — who could be playing ball overseas right now. Outside of the Villa, fans on either side were picking apart their friendship. Chelley fans claimed Huda was playing the victim throughout the show, while members of the Huda HQ called Chelley a mean girl, claiming she, Cierra, and Olandria were bullying Huda, causing her to act out. The stan fighting quickly turned ugly; a fan posted a racist meme of Huda as the police officer who murdered George Floyd, with Olandria’s face pasted on Floyd’s. How did a show about making out make fans so hateful?
At the reunion on August 25, the three women will have to address it all, watch the moments that had viewers starting fights online, and finally come to a consensus about what happened between Ace and Huda during the Heart Rate Challenge. Below, follow Huda, Chelley, and Olandria’s on their journey from sisters to frenemies to gossip-podcast guests.
June 3, Episode One: Huda makes a bold entrance during their first challenge on the show; despite being paired up with Chelley, she kissed Ace. However, her attraction was not unrequited. Ace kisses Huda back in a later challenge, in addition to Chelley. (Olandria kisses ol’ boy too, but it doesn’t go anywhere.)
June 4, Episode Two: Every man is open to recoupling with Cierra except Jeremiah. Huda is kind of living for the fact that her man stayed by her side. “Y’all deserve some real men,” she exclaims, pointing to Chelley and Olandria, who sit alone at the firepit. It’s clear neither woman is happy that their partner stood up. Girl, you don’t have to play that,” Olandria replies before telling her they’ll have a “nice little chat later.”
June 5, Episode 3: Huda tearfully tells Chelley she thought Olandria’s comment was “rude,” and Chelley gives her a hug. They’re probably still jet-lagged after all, miscommunications happen among strangers. From Olandria’s point of view, she meant she would chitchat with the women about the boys’ behavior, not reprimand her. Olandria clears this up with her, and the sisters reconcile.
June 6, Episode 4: Huda is visibly upset that new bombshell Amaya “Papaya” Espinal picks Jeremiah as her home run during a challenge, calling it the “dumbest shit she could’ve ever done.” Olandria reminds her it’s “just a game.” Again, it’s only the fourth episode. Huda panics to Chelley, and who comforts her as well, despite feeling a little annoyed as Jeremiah has made it clear he’s committed to Huda.
June 9, Episode 7: Huda tells the others she’s discussed moving in with Jeremiah. Olandria is clear to the camera that she’s willing to “feed into” Huda’s “delusions” about Jeremiah, even if she normally wouldn’t with her friends outside the Villa. Which is arguably the most “true friend” thing you could do for another Islander. “If this is what my girl wants, I’m not finna be the sour apple of the bunch going ‘No girl you need to snap out of it,’” she tells the confessional. “At this point and time, she just needs support, and I can be that support system even if I don’t really support your decision.”
June 15, Episode 12: Jeremiah picks Olandria to make out behind a door in a challenge. Huda can’t resist sneaking a peek, sees them kissing “for real, for real,” and pops off, beginning the end of her relationship with him.
June 23, Episode 19: Bye Jeremiah! The girls head to Casa Amor where Chris, a basketball player overseas, and Chelley hit it off.
June 24, Episode 20: Olandria is dumped from Casa Amor. Huda cries like someone died.
June 26, Episode 21: Chris charms Chelley with some flowers. JD, Huda’s current match, calls Huda “too dominant” during a challenge, giving her the ick. She out-alphas him and breaks it off.
June 29, Episode 24: Back in the villa, Chelley is still trying to choose between Ace and Chris. However, the heart rate challenge quickly sobers her up, when Huda takes it “too far” dancing on him. Her twerking is called “so disrespectful.” As the professional (TikTok) dancer tries to get himself out of trouble, even his buddies Nic and Pepe refuse to back him up, both saying it “looked a little more than just a challenge.” Chelley herself found it hypocritical since Huda saw red when a new bombshell picked Jeremiah for a challenge.
June 30, Episode 25: It’s not going to be so easy for them to make up. Chelley tables their conversation for another day. Adding syrup to the fire, Chris makes both women pancakes the next morning, but Chelley gets an extra pancake and a flower. Is it because he feels bad about what happened the night before? Or he’s still trying to charm Chelley? Either way, Huda can only focus on the differences between their meals. At the end of the day, it is Huda getting a sweet treat after all when she and Chris kiss in the speakeasy.
July 1, Episode 26: Oh no, it gets worse! Huda and Chelley are still mad at each other and now it’s everyone’s problem, as evidenced by their “Standing on Business” callouts. They go back and forth, finally saying what they said to the other Islanders to each other’s faces. Then, Chelley accuses Huda of not being a girl’s girl, the biggest insult on the Island. Olandria backs it up by revealing to the firepit that Huda and Chris kissed.
July 3, Episode 27: Hurricane Huda is now a party of one. Olandria apologizes for making Huda feel isolated during the challenge. Finally, Huda and Chelley talk it over and all three ultimately exit the show as friends.
July 9: BuzzFeed posts a visual on Instagram showing what it would serve each Islander for breakfast if they were coupled up. For Chelley, BuzzFeed gave her a “knuckle sandwich.” BuzzFeed deletes the post and makes an attempt at an apology that gets deleted quickly. Team Chelley called the post “disturbing, disgusting, and unacceptable.” They continued, “It is the harsh reality that implicit biases can be rooted in anti-blackness, misogyny, prejudice, violence, etc.”
July 11: Chelley, the first to be dumped, stands by the fact that “Lines were definitely crossed” during the Heart Rate Challenge, in an interview with Vulture, but says she and Huda are cool. “That’s something we were able to talk about and resolve and understand each other on,” she says.
July 12: In a post-elimination video on Love Island socials, Huda tells Chelley she made her a better person.
July 16: Huda feels like she was “bullied” a lot in the villa, she tells Entertainment Tonight.
July 16: Huda dives deeper into her love triangle with Chelley and Chris with Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy. She explains again how she “brought back Chris” for both her and Chelley to explore their connection with him. So, why was there a miscommunication? “Beats me … Everybody kept talking about me, but no one was talking to me,” Huda explains. “No one gave a fuck about my opinion … I felt like I had no one.” She also addresses the rumor that she “sat on Ace’s face” during the Heart Rate Challenge: “My butt was on his stomach area and I was twerking. It was like two seconds too. No, I did not put my ass on Ace’s face!”
July 17: Huda addresses her friendship with Olandria and Chelley in an interview with Blavity and criticizes her fans who are bullying them online, clarifying to everyone that she’s not “hating” on either woman. “I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I think there are lines that are crossed,” she said, subtly addressing the racism that the two faced in wake of their feud. “And I don’t condone hate. I don’t condone bullying. I don’t condone any of that. I think people’s safeties are at risk.”
Huda goes on to defend herself against the Heart Rate Challenge allegations. “So I’m doing this in a challenge, and it’s a problem. People are like, ‘Oh, you were kissing him for a crazy amount of time,’” she says. “People were kissing my man for a crazy amount of time, and I’m cheering them on. I was doing things that I did in other challenges.”
July 17: Chelley asks her supporters to “continue to spread love and not hate” as she acknowledges the racism she’s received from viewers of the show. “To the people who used their platforms not just to recap a show but to speak truthfully about the deeper realities Black women face, your words meant everything,” she writes. “You reminded the world that we are layered, emotional, complex, worthy, and real. Thank you for holding the line of truth with me and for me in times where hate seemed stronger than usual.”
July 17: Olandria opens up about how “difficult” it’s been dealing with racism and microaggressions since being on the show, escalating to hateful messages comparing her to police brutality victims. “I heard it was even a meme of me being George Floyd and Huda being an officer,” she tells Variety.“That’s a very touchy topic for the Black community. It’s disgusting, to say the least. I don’t understand how you take a love show and make such a comment like that. I was even getting death threats. My family was getting death threats. It shouldn’t be like that at all.”
July 17: Chelley and Olandria both reportedly unfollow Huda on Instagram. Huda unfollows back.
July 22: Chelley agrees with Keke Palmer’s assumption that Huda, in the moment, was performing for herself and not thinking about how Chelley might feel seeing her dance on Ace. “Chelley had every right to be upset; Huda agreed … She was very apologetic,” Olandria adds. Chelley clarifies that she is “cool” with Huda and reminds the audience that there are no real prizes for challenges. So they took care of those plastic dolls for nothing?
August 13: Andy Cohen teases Huda, Olandria, and Chelley’s segment on the reunion while having Olandria on as a guest on Watch What Happens Live. He finds it “interesting” to see her reunion with Huda and Chelley and even calls the extended version of the “Heart Rate” challenge “dramatic” — this is coming from the guy who’s been hosting Housewives reunions for decades.
August 13: BuzzFeed publishes an article titled “What It Means to Protect Black Communities at Work, Even When Your Own Company Messes Up Like We Did,” in which it issues another apology and includes reactions from other Black employees.
August 21: Just a few days before the reunion airs, Chelley and Olandria aren’t letting the mean-girl allegations from a certain castmate get to them. “To see our fellow Islanders playing into that narrative was hard,” Olandria tells Teen Vogue. “It’s like, you knew us, why would you get out and let America, let social media get to your head? A lot of them played into that mean-girl, bully narrative. I’m like, ‘Okay, this is not fair.’” The women weren’t naïve to how they are perceived as Black women on a reality show, especially when they would criticize Huda. “How dare you guys say something like that to us, but not to everyone who was having that mean-girl energy or mean-girl moments? It goes back to the whole, you have to act a certain type of way [as a Black woman] because the moment you act ‘out of character’ you’re done,” Chelley says. “We just spoke our truth and held people accountable for their actions.”
August 21: It’s not looking good for Huda. The reunion trailer shows just how hurt Olandria and Chelley have been by Huda’s bullying allegations. “It’s like I’m seeing two different people,” Chelley exclaims, while Olandria tearfully adds, “That shit hurt, bro.” It might be the end of their friendship, for real this time.