Love Island’s Rosie Williams reflects on ‘finding herself’ after split from boyfriend Wayne Davies

She split from her ex boyfriend Wayne Davies following a two year romance last year.

And Rosie Williams has now opened up to MailOnline about how she has since moved back in with family in Manchester and has given herself time to ‘reflect’ on her future following the breakdown of her relationship.

The Love Island star, 29, admitted it wasn’t a position she expected to find herself and said: ‘I will be 30 this year and I never thought I would be back living with family or starting again.’

Revealing it gave her a moment to pause and rethink her choices, Rosie said: ‘My most recent break up had made me find myself again and think, actually, what do I want and how do I feel?’

Rosie never cited the reason for her split from Wayne, but at the time she cryptically teased ‘the truth comes out in the end’, when she announced their break-up just before Christmas last year.

Giving further insight into the decision, Rosie told MailOnline: ‘Some of my followers message me asking how do you do it and I have told them to keep in mind that if someone doesn’t want to be with you then you can’t make them.

‘As long as you know that you have been a good person, then you should be able to walk away with your head held pretty high.

Rosie, who appeared on Love Island in 2018, revealed that she hasn’t always felt positive about the decision and has suffered ‘bad days’ since moving out of the home she shared with Wayne. 

She said: ‘Don’t get me wrong I have had my bad days too, and it’s okay to cry and feel sorry for yourself as long as you don’t do it for too long because you have to keep going.’

However she insisted she is now on a more positive path, and said: ‘I think 2021 for me is going to be about self-love because I invested the last two years into a relationship and a house with someone else.

‘It’s possible to sometimes lose the path you’re on and because I jumped straight into a relationship after Love Island, I haven’t had a chance to think about what I want to do with my own life, so I think I sort of lost my way a little bit.’

Rosie, who has been spending her time over lockdown focusing on her fitness, also said she is proud to have lost over a stone in weight.

Explaining the positive impact fitness has had on her mental health, she said: I’m really into fitness at the moment and decided I would have no more excuses not to work out, especially during this lockdown.

‘I suffer from anxiety and after my break up it got worse so I put all my energy into fitness. I did three home work outs one day and felt so much better. I have loved nothing more than focusing on my physical health.’

Hoping her own journey will help others who have gone through similar situations, Rosie said: ‘One of the biggest sayings I live by is you have to fake it until you make it.

‘If you don’t want to get up out of bed you kind of have to make yourself. Your life isn’t going to fix magically and I was stripped of my comfort at the time.

As well as focusing on a new fitness plan, Rosie has also been working on the rebrand of her office wear brand, WhiteCollar, which she launched in August.   

The reality personality had to re schedule the launch from April after the first national lockdown was put into place.

She plans to expand her next collection to also incorporate more casual looks including lounge wear: ‘I definitely want to put more time into my brand WhiteCollar and keep adapting it as we originally started off being a work wear brand with the aim of modernising office wear.

‘However, with the pandemic, all the offices have been shut and people don’t need suits anymore, so we have tried to make it more casual by showing people that you can wear shirts with a pair of jeans or joggers with a jumper.

‘I was panicking about the business after launching it in a pandemic, but I made peace with the fact that it was out of my control and have accepted that we will have to adapt it now with a working from home range.’

Looking into the future, Rosie shares her excitement for a post pandemic world: ‘Once the pandemic is over, I am excited to get back to events, award ceremonies and just start socialising again.

‘I am most excited to experience things now from a single perspective as I was only single for a month after love Island until now.

‘Although, I would definitely say use this time to sort out the ground work of how you want to feel and where you want to be when things go back to normal.’

As well as embracing her new single status, Rosie said she has also enjoyed getting her confidence back and is looking forward to enjoying life rather than worrying about what she looks like.

She said: ‘For me, getting my confidence back and exercising, that’s all about setting the ground work for when I can start working again and doing bikini photo shoots, or going on holidays where I can go on the beach and have fun, instead of worrying about what I look like.

Detailing how she felt before, Rosie said: ‘In the past I got to the point where I would go to an event and cry because I felt really uncomfortable in myself.

‘I want to appreciate being me instead of feeling so self-conscious to the point where I want to go home.

‘Taking photos for me has been a chore over the last year, whereas now I am really enjoying my work again and gaining back my confidence. I think people forget that when we as influencers struggle, we really do struggle, just like anyone else.’

Rosie, who recently overcame Covid-19 is currently living with her aunt and uncle, who are both classed as ‘vulnerable’.

The TV and three of her family members tested positive for the virus and she revealed it began with body aches and headaches, which she originally thought were due to exercise.  

She said: ‘It felt like having the flu after a few days and the coughing and breathing difficulties were really bad.

‘I think people do really need to look after themselves, we can all be really naive to it when it isn’t happening to us. It definitely isn’t a joke.’

Rosie arrived in the Love Island villa as a ‘bombshell’ and quickly turned the head of resident heartthrob Adam Collard, who was coupled with Kendall-Rae Knight.    

Reflecting back on her time in the Love Island villa Rosie said: ‘I think I have really matured since then because when I was on TV I was a massive party girl and always chasing something because I have always felt like something was missing.

‘That’s why I thought to myself when the show came around, you only live once so let’s go and have some fun. Now, I would say I am a lot more settled and much more mature.

‘I would be conscious when I first went out after Love Island just in case anyone was around and how I would be perceived. You get a quick realisation that you are being watched wherever you are.’

Rosie reveals how she struggled with comparing herself to others on social media: ‘Since love Island, I have really struggled with comparing myself to other people and I think our followers think we have got it all sorted out when in reality it has the exact same impact on us.

‘That’s something I really want to work on, loving myself again and being confident in myself and who I am so I can go places and do things while I like who I am.

‘It’s a horrific time in terms of what’s going on but if you are at home and healthy then you should really utilise the pause in your life to think about your next steps.’