Kenzie Calls Out "Sexist" Treatment From Love Island Co-Stars
"It was hard. I didn't feel that supported."
Kenzie Annis wasn’t always feeling the love during her stay in the Love Island USA Season 8 villa. After getting eliminated days before the season finale, Kenzie revealed that she’s seeing some of the dynamics from a whole new perspective looking back at everything. In particular, she pointed out a “sexist” double standard in how many of the other women in the villa treated her “exploring,” as opposed to how they responded to Sincere Rhea’s similar situation.
While Kenzie emphasized that she was able to maintain good relationships with her female castmates, she did face an obstacle after movie night. The event showed Sincere’s intimate connections with Sol Dean and Amora Robinson while he was still supposed to be committed to Melanie Moreno. Although the women laid into Sincere for disrespecting Melanie that night, it didn’t take long for Aniya Harvey and Kayda Bosse to chant “Team Sincere” and encourage Melanie to take him back.
However, Kenzie didn’t feel she got that same support when she explored different connections to try to find the best fit. On the contrary, Melanie, Jen Terry, and other castmates reprimanded her for juggling multiple men.
“I don’t know why the girls were holding me to a different standard than Sincere,” Kenzie said during her July 15 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “Especially after getting out, it does feel sexist almost. Because I’m not a male, and it’s like I can’t move like them, maybe? It was hard. I didn’t feel that supported at the time.”
Kenzie added that although the women talked it out and “did get over it,” that lack of support affected her friendships in the villa.
At other points in the interview, Kenzie touched on how she was “upset” and “confused” by how Melanie began pursuing Corbin Mims despite assuring her that she wasn’t interested in him. This all led to speculation over if Kenzie and Melanie are friends after the show, which was seriously called into question after one of Sol’s recent livestream’s caught Kenzie seemingly complaining about how Season 8 was “the Melanie show.”
Kenzie clarified that she was talking to Jaiden Bacciocco in the viral clip just about how the TV show wound up being focused, and not bashing Melanie as a person. “Me and Jaiden were definitely talking about them, but not in an awful way,” Kenzie said. “I f*cking love Melanie and I’m going to stand by her. I feel like we were just saying she did get a lot more screen-time than a lot of other people who were in couples. But there was never any sh*t-talking about her; I would never talk sh*t about my girl.”
