Your average twenty-something would splurge £50k on holidays, cars and clothes - but not Love Island’s newest champions, Toni Laites and Cach Mercer.
The lovebirds, both 24, instead have far more humdrum things in mind for their loot.
Toni, who is a Las Vegas cabana waitress, said: “I need to pay off my student loans. I want to invest it. I don’t want to go on some crazy shopping spree.”
Cach, a dancer from London, agreed: “Cost of living crisis, I’ll save it!”
It comes despite making history, with American Toni being the ITV2 show’s first ever international bombshell to win.
She entered on the first night of this summer’s series and coupled up with Cach a month later, during Casa Amor.
Toni said: “I feel like I’m representing a whole nation! I didn’t expect to make it past week one.
“Hopefully now we will just find time to enjoy one another’s company and not let everything else take over.”
Cach added: “It feels amazing to win. I was 100 per cent authentically myself and luckily the public liked it, so I’m buzzing.
“I appreciate every moment on the show, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.”
Toni will be remembered as one of the series “Big Three” - a name coined by fans for her trio of friends, with Shakira Khan and Yasmin Pettet who came second and third respectively.
Toni added: “Friends I will have for life. That was a big takeaway. The girls were my rock for the eight weeks.”
She’ll be spending more time with Cach than the girlies, though, as I can reveal ITV are set to offer the couple a spin-off show which follows their transatlantic relationship as they navigate love outside the villa.
A source said: “Even without the win, Cach and Toni’s story should make great TV just due to their exciting lives. It will also be a chance to include Shakira and Yasmin when they visit Toni and catch up on the outside.”
Shakira, 22, had a rocky journey in the villa but came runner-up with bad boy Harry Cookesley, 30.
She said: “The best romance of the series for me is Toni and Yas. Absolute weapons. I love those girls to bits.
“They will be bridesmaids at my wedding and godmothers of my children. I couldn’t have done a day without them.”
No mention of Harry, there, though… probably for the best.
Rob just boobed with Liz
Rob Rinder’s first meeting with Liz Hurley ahead of their new Channel 4 reality show The Inheritance saw her accuse him of speaking to her boobs.
The series, out later this year, sees Liz play the dearly departed glam benefactor of a fortune stashed in a stately home, where 13 contestants compete for it while Rob acts as executor.
He told the That Gaby Roslin podcast: “When Elizabeth and I met, she was magnificent, she is the person a young gay man would want to marry before realising he would have to do geography he wasn’t interested in.
“She was wearing this gold magnificence which she is wearing in the [show] promo in the coffin.
"I started talking and she said, ‘Are you talking to my breasts?’ I said, ‘Yes, actually I am’.
“Well, it would be absurd not to, since they are there. I mean, ‘Are you looking at the Alps?!’”
Prime Video thriller The Terminal List: Dark Wolf drops on August 27. The prequel comes three years after the hit first series and focuses on the backstory of Ben Edwards, played by Taylor Kitsch, who served alongside Chris Pratt’s Navy SEAL character James Reece.
Richie’s radio Escape
Strictly and Radio 2 star Richie Anderson has landed a new gig away from the airwaves – joining the presenting roster of Escape To The Country.
Richie joins the long-running show for its 26th series and in his first episode will be seen helping a couple of fellow Brummies to find the perfect character property in the rural Midlands.
Richie said: “It’s a real honour to be joining such an iconic TV programme and a brilliant family of presenters.
“Escape to the Country is one of the reasons I moved out of London for a quieter more rural way of life.”
Richie joins regulars including Alistair Appleton, Nicki Chapman and Jules Hudson when the show returns to BBC One later this month.
