On Love Island USA, the competition is getting tight, and as fans fall in love with some couples, others have to go. Sadly, Chazz Bryant and Bella Barbaro were one eliminated duo. Chazz initially entered the villa as a bombshell with his older sister, Bria Bryant. He and his sister picked each other’s partners, and while Chazz felt that Timmy Pandolfi was a great fit for his sister, Bria coupled him up with fan favorite contestant, Sereniti Springs. Fans were happy to see Chazz giving Sereniti the affection that they didn’t think she was getting from her prior partner, Tyler Radziszewski. However, Chazz broke fans’ hearts when he chose Kat Rose over Sereniti, and sent her packing.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Chazz and Kat were a perfect match either. Kat seemed more interested in another Love Island USA bombshell, Jared Hassim (whom she ended up self-eliminating for) after he and his partner Chanse Corbi were voted off. At Casa Amor, islanders like Jesse Bray and Jeff Christian stayed loyal to their partners, Deb Chubb and Nadjha Day, but Chazz joined Isaiah Campbell in exploring other options. He initially hit it off with Gabby Kiszka, but left their romance at Casa Amor, and returned to the villa with Bella instead.
Once at the villa, Isaiah left Bella’s friend Phoebe Siegel for his original partner, Sydney Paight, and Phoebe decided to get to know her friend’s partner instead. As she was warming up to Chazz, Bella was hitting it off with new bombshell, Joel Bierwert. She seemed quite confident about her connection with Chazz, and has no hard feelings towards Phoebe for wanting to get to know him. Screen Rant had the opportunity to talk to Chazz and Bella about their time on the show, and whether there is a future for them away from the Love Island USA villa.
Chazz, coming into the villa, you were initially coupled up with Sereniti. Do you think Bria made the right choice, or was there someone else you would have wanted to be coupled up with at the time?
I think Bria 100% made the right choice in choosing Sereniti. Going into the villa, she was definitely on the top of my list, and in terms of who was most open to getting to know new people, Sereniti was the one. Mady would have been the other choice, but Bria did make the right choice in picking Sereniti.
Chazz, a lot of fans were upset to see Sereniti go, and thought your recoupling speech sounded like you were about to choose her. Why did you decide to recouple with Kat instead?
I know there were a lot of fans that were sad to see Sereniti go, but things just weren’t going the way that I thought they would be as deep into the couple that we were in. We had our bumps in the road and stuff, but in terms of the speech, I was actually trying to pay my respects and acknowledge the fact that I did have a connection with Sereniti at the beginning of my speech. Then halfway through, when I was talking about this girl being able to appreciate me and the girl that I was comfortable with, that was me speaking of Kat. So I can see how people misinterpreted it and thought that I was talking about Sereniti as a whole, but at the same time I didn’t want to give away exactly who it was that I was going to be choosing. I wanted it to be unknown until the very end. I was a little nervous, I can not lie. It was a big moment, but I don’t think that I was speaking just of Sereniti, I was definitely speaking of both girls at the same time, and I always knew I was going to choose Kat. It might’ve come off where I did sound like I was speaking solely of Sereniti, but that wasn’t it, and I meant no disrespect toward Sereniti either.
Chazz, from the viewer’s perspective, it seemed obvious that you would bring Gabby back to the villa. What did fans not get to see about your connection with Bella? Why did you choose to bring Gabby to the Hideaway?
Obviously, Casa Amor was a short period of time; it was four days. The first two days, I had a strong connection with Gabby, and we were actually voted to go into the Hideaway. It wasn’t my choice, but I did want to experience it, and so did she. So we went through with it and wanted to see if there was any more of a connection on the intimate side and stuff like that. So we kissed, had pillow talk, cuddled, and that was pretty much it. We had fun with each other, and coming out of the Hideaway, I also wanted to get to know Bella. Bella was always on my list, I just didn’t get the chance to explore that, have more conversations with her and see if there was a connection between her and I, so that’s kind of what I did with the remaining days I had in Casa Amor. Me and her spent the night with each other, and we kissed, and I felt there was a stronger connection between me and Bella than Gabby, so that’s where my head was at in terms of bringing Bella back to the villa with me.
Bella, were you okay with Phoebe and Chazz getting to know each other, or did you feel betrayed since you two had such a strong friendship on the show?
Me and Chazz had a conversation about if anyone were to come in or anyone would want to steal one of us for a conversation that we were going to be open to seeing where a connection could go. At the end of the day, it’s Love Island. You don’t want to leave with any regrets. You don’t want to leave with ‘oh my god, I wish I spoke to that person’ or ‘oh, what would it have been like if I pulled this person to the side.’ When Phoebe and Isaiah ended things, she pulled me to the side, and they didn’t show this conversation in the show, but she did tell me, ‘hey, I kind of want to pull Chazz for a talk and see how it goes. I might feel a connection there. We didn’t really get to talk much at Casa.’ They were more on a friend level at Casa, and she was all with Isaiah. So I told her, ‘listen, if that’s something that you want to explore and see how it goes, I appreciate you pulling me to the side and letting me know about it. All I ask is that if you do talk, keep me in the loop, let me know what’s going on, and keep updating me about it.’ It’s no hard feelings for me on that. It’s like at the end of the day, we’re on a show where you’re talking to everybody, and you’re seeing what connection works.
Bella, if you stayed on the show longer, do you think you would have deepened your connection with Chazz or explored things with Joel?
I think at that point, I was kind of leaning more toward Joel; sorry, Chazz. The conversations that me and Joel had were just very genuine, and it was like an instant click. We were talking for a really, really long time. Obviously, they only show bits and pieces of the conversation, they don’t actually show how long the convo is, but I felt a genuine, real connection with Joel. When we kissed, I felt something. So yea, I think I definitely would have pursued and tried to continue things with him.
Do you have any intentions of pursuing a relationship with each other now that you’re out of the villa, or do you think your connection was better left on the show?
Chazz: Me and Bella are still very good friends, and me and her aren’t burning any bridges. In the future, we’ll probably catch up, connect, and just see where things go, but in terms of relationship status or anything like that, we’re just moving with the flow. I don’t know if she’s going to reach out to Joel when he gets out and stuff like that, but I guess we’ll see what happens in the near future.
Bella: I can agree to that.
Love Island USA streams Tuesdays through Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on Peacock.