A year after islanders JaNa Craig and Kenny Rodriguez placed third in Love Island USA’s Season 6, the couple, who had been dating since the season’s finale, is now making headlines for their messy breakup. It’s safe to say the “terrible, disgusting, and disappointing,” split has majorly surprised fans. And after JaNa’s friend spoke out about the breakup on social media, it seems like JaNa may be as shocked as everyone else by what may have gone down.
Let’s look back on what happened: The couple had posted an IG video together just hours before fans noticed JaNa removed all traces of Kenny from her social media and unfollowed him on Instagram, a move that many other Season 6 cast members — including Leah Kateb, Rob Rausch, and Kendall Washington — also did on their own accounts after JaNa posted an IG statement stating that she and Kenny were no longer together. It wasn’t until JaNa’s friend, Charmane Smith, posted an Instagram Story Tuesday night, calling Kenny “racist,” a “clout-chaser,” and a “cheater,” that fans started getting clued in to what was going on. Her Campus reached out to Kenny’s team for comment on Charmane’s post, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
If there’s one thing fans can gather from Smith’s IG Story statement, it’s that it’s not a good look for Kenny. Smith cautions: “My advice for women in relationships: if you have access — go thru your man’s phone TODAY. Search keywords like ‘I don’t like black women, I thought I would get more money from this, I’m faking this relationship, going on the show would be for clout, I can’t wait to be done w this so I can f**k hella b*tches.” Smith has since deleted the Instagram post and made her account private.
While this might have been hard for fans to believe at first, JaNa also warned fans about what was might have been going on behind the scenes in her own breakup statement Tuesday afternoon, saying that she’s seen all the breakup theories, but that “none have matched up to how terrible, disgusting, and disappointing it truly is.” She also said that “discovering that someone you loved isn’t who you thought they were and that the relationship you thought you were building hasn’t been genuine since day one has been truly devastating.”
Kenny was quick to reply to JaNa’s IG Story with his own breakup statement, saying, “The past few days have been incredibly difficult,” and that “despite how deeply you care for someone, you come to the hard truth that the relationship was not something that could last long-term.”
JaNa snapped back almost immediately at his public statement, telling him to “stfu,” calling him a “manipulative liar,” and warning him that her first statement was her “being nice” and not to piss her off. Sheesh. So, it’s clear that something big went down, though fans don’t know exactly what it was for sure just yet.
Smith wasn’t the only one to publicly back up her friend on social media. In fact, multiple cast members of the season spoke up on behalf of JaNa and slammed Kenny for what he seemingly did to JaNa (which is still unclear to everyone on the outside). Leah Kateb responded to Kenny’s IG statement, saying, “Put a sock in it ChatGPT headass. Tell the truth for once! Racist, clout/money hungry and a scammer since day 1!!!” Fellow Islander Kaylor Martin responded to Kenny by calling him a “poor excuse of a man,” and saying he “lost the most beautiful genuine soul.” Her Campus reached out to Kenny’s team for comment on this accusation of racism, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, fans who have been keeping up with Beyond the Villa, a new TV show that follows the Love Island USA Season 6 cast as they navigate their lives outside of the villa, are not as surprised about the couple’s split. The show addressed the tension between JaNa and Kenny in its first episode when Kenny was not ready to move in with JaNa despite how close they already lived, and JaNa’s eagerness to do so.
As fans impatiently await Kenny’s answer to the scathing responses he’s getting online, they speculate whether Smith’s claim in her IG Story is true — that Kenny was faking his relationship with JaNa. And, considering how quickly the cast jumped on board to unfollow and publicly slam Kenny, there’s no doubt that something went down — fans just can’t be too sure what it was yet.
Episode 4 of Beyond the Villa drops July 31.