Anna Kurdys had a painfully awkward moment in Love Island USA Season 5 when she overheard Leo Dionicio and Kassy Castillo talking about her. Anna, an original Islander this season, had been coupled up with Leo basically all season long and good pals with Kassy. Imagine her surprise when she heard them flirting in what they thought was private.
In their talk, Leo revealed his feelings for Anna weren’t as strong as she and viewers believed. This was news to Anna, who was none the wiser about Leo’s true feelings. Anna told TV Insider after she left the villa that “communication” is the top issue for everyone in the Season 5 cast, and this situation proved it.
After their breakup, Anna tried things out with new Islander Kenzo, but there was nothing there. She opted to remove herself from the competition in a surprising self-elimination in Episode 12.
Sara Mally/PEACOCK
As the reality star describes to TV Insider, she wasn’t interested in coupling up with Bergie again. “Leaving the villa was a really tough decision. I had gotten really close with everybody,” she explained. Bergie and three other Islanders were the men she could choose from on that girls’ night, but she wasn’t feeling the spark with any of them.
“I already had been coupled up with Bergie, and Bergie is the type of person to go all-in [in relationships]. We already tried with our relationship, so I was kind of like, I don’t want to put him through that and then have another girl walk in and then him feel like he has to make me feel comfortable, make me feel reassured. I just feel like he had been through enough. I really want him to find his person. And at that time, my person wasn’t there, so I just came to the conclusion [that] maybe it’s time for me to me to leave.”
Prior to her departure, Anna was surprised that both Leo and Cassy failed to communicate their feelings to her. “My main thing in the house is communication. Like when Kassy was coupled up with Leo, I had told her several times, ‘Hey, I know we’re really close, but I do want to get to know Leo.’ And then after every conversation I had with Leo, I would always go to tell her so she wouldn’t feel blindsided. So for me to be really close with Kassy and be coupled up with Leo, and then to hear them talking behind my back and flirting, it was like, oh my God, this is a really hurtful thing.”
Anna flirted with Leo while he was coupled up with Kassy, but Anna defends herself with the reminder that Kassy “had always known” about Anna’s feelings. “It was obviously very tough for me to tell her that ’cause it’s super uncomfortable, but I had no idea” that Kassy had renewed her interest in Leo. That, she says, was the most hurtful part. Leo never indicated that her feelings weren’t reciprocated either.
“I think Leo and I had a really good relationship,” Anna admits. “The whole communication thing was really odd to me ’cause we always talked about how good of communication we had, so I don’t really know.”
Despite the uncomfortable situation with Leo and Kassy, Anna is now rooting for the couple. “I love them together at the end of the day,” she adds. “I honestly keep saying I think they look better together. Like, I’m not mad about it at all. I was upset about the communication for sure.”
She wants them to win it all in the end. “Oh hell yeah,” she proclaims when we ask that question. “I’m looking at their challenge pictures and that little Mummy outfit, and I’m like, yes. I love them, and the whole world thinks we hate each other, so that’s kind of funny. But I am rooting for them. I’m rooting for Hannah and Marco, Kay Kay and Keenan. I just love everybody, but just seeing Kassy and Leo, I’m like, they actually look so good together.”
Anna on a date with Kenzo in ‘Love Island USA’ Season 5 (Credit: Sara Mally/PEACOCK)
She and Leo are on good terms now. “I don’t have a problem with him; I support him. He just needs to be better at communication, treat people a little bit better,” she says. “But like I said, whenever I see cute pictures of him and Kassy, I am liking that immediately.”
Anna hasn’t watched the season back just yet. “I’m getting a lot of hate right now, so I kinda wanna lay back a little bit,” she says with a laugh, adding, “I’m a little bit nervous [to watch] for sure.”
She has no regrets about her decision to leave. “Everything happens for a reason,” she says. And she’s waiting with bated breath for the day that Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen finds his person. “I’m patiently waiting for a cute picture on Instagram of Bergie with a really cute girl next to him. I’m waiting. It’s gonna happen! … I wanna see a girl go all the way [to the end] for him. He really needs that.”
Just before Victor Gonzalez was eliminated, his beef with Bergie and Carmen had everyone jumping to Bergie’s defense. Victor told TV Insider that the villa had a tendency to be “overprotective” about the 24-year-old cast member, which led to him not being proactive about communicating his feelings in Victor’s eyes. What is it about Bergie that the cast loves so much? Anna says it’s the fact that Bergie “has a very big heart.”
“In the re-coupling, just the way he really expressed his feelings about Carmen, if he’s in a relationship, he’s not going to look at other girls. I feel like he would be so committed. He’s so ready for love, as well as the other Islanders, but something is just so special about Bergie that I really hope his person comes in.”
Would Anna do reality TV again? It’s too soon to say for sure, but there’s one person from Season 5 who could convince her to do it again. “I’m like, is Jasmine gonna be there? Because hell yeah. I would go anywhere in the world, I will do the stupidest s**t with Jasmine.”
Love Island USA, Thursday-Tuesdays, 9/8c, Peacock
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