‘Love Island’ Frontrunners Nicole Jacky and Kendall Washington Share Relationship Update After Turbulent Reunion

We just sent off Love Island's electric Season 6 with the dramatic reunion. And we already have news coming out of it, as Nicole Jacky and Kendall Washington have announced their split on social media.

The announcement came via a post on Tuesday via Nicole's Instagram stories. "On August 18th, Kendall and I agreed our relationship was worth working on, and we were making plans for me to visit him in Dallas soon," she wrote. "However, today, on August 20th, he called and ended things."

Related: Love Island Cast Members Reveal How Often the Sheets Are Changed

"While I understand and respect his decision, it's hard to process this one," she continued. "I opened up to him in the villa, and still love and care for him now."

Kendall then followed up with his own statement via Instagram stories. He chimed in, "I have decided to end things with Nicole. It reached a point where it was not healthy for us to continue the relationship. I still love and care for Nicole. I've never developed such strong feelings for a woman in my life. I have no regrets for the connection I made with her in the villa and it was real."

He then went on to preemptively cushion any social media fallout, writing, "She does not deserve any hate. Please stop with the negative comments/DM's. We're taking this time to focus on our mental health."

Kendall and Nicole met during their first week in the villa during Love Island Season 6. Once the two were together, they immediately coupled up, and stayed that way for the rest of the season. The two made it to the finale, where they finished in fourth place. Immediately following the finale, the couple told Us Weekly they were excited to pursue a long-distance relationship following their return from Fiji.

"It’s good that she lives in California," Kendall said, "because I have a lot of family there — my sister and my mom are in California. So it’s a win-win situation when I go there, I get to see Nicole and I also get to see my family."

Things went radio silent for the couple in the weeks following the finale, with Nicole eventually addressing her absence by writing on social media, "Things have not been easy since leaving the villa. There’s much more to share on what has happened since coming home, and for now, I’ve been taking time to process — these are real feelings and my real life."

Related: Love Island Couple Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury Split After Five Years Together

Those real feelings certainly got aired during the much-anticipated reunion, which filmed on August 14 and aired on August 19. As Kendall explained their difficulties in communicating, Nicole interrupted, saying, "Communicate? You have not been communicating. You never have been."

Discussion then turned to a controversy centered around Kendall, who had an NSFW video from a hotel room leaked the day after the Season 6 finale aired. While Nicole acknowledged how "f--ked up" the situation was for Kendall's private matters to be made public, the video provoked rampant speculation as to their relationship status. And she revealed that Kendall did not make an effort to defend her publicly or even check in with her during the situation.

"This just puts me in such a f—ked position because I care about you too, and I love you, and people are questioning that,” she noted at the time. "Even though you let the world think we’re not together, we’re still together." Unfortunately for the couple, given the recent announcement, it's become very clear that are indeed not together.

Next, find out why fans compared the Olympic Village to the Love Island villa.