When Essex got to the villa, “it was a jaw-dropping moment” for everyone. “They were thinking, ‘Is is here to host or to say hello? What’s he doing? Is he here to play a game with us for the next hour?'” the star recalls. “I was like, ‘Nice to meet you, I’m Joey.’ They were like, ‘We know who you are.’ I was like, ‘I’m here for the show.’ Everyone was confused. “Even Maya Jama [host of Love Island] only found out five minutes before I walked in. It was big.”
Two years ago, Essex started to put the plan forward. “It was a joke, but I was also serious. We sent a video to someone on the show who used to work with me back in the day when I first started on The Only Way Is Essex. I was like, ‘If you want a real bombshell, you know who to call.’ He was like, ‘It will never work.’ I was then training for a boxing fight for about six months, but I came back to the U.K. and trained at one of my uncle’s gyms. My phone started going off, and my manager was like, ‘Who are you with?’ I was like, ‘I’m on my own.’ We talked, and he was like, ‘What’s the show you’ve always thought it would be cool to be on? I just had a call with them.’ He was like, ‘This is a huge secret and no one can know about this.’ I didn’t even tell my sister or dad!”