Mara Pirez for Love Island 2026 / ITV
Age: 25
Job: Nursery Manager
From: Luton
How would you describe your type on paper?
“Nice eyes, tall, funny. He has to be intelligent, and that’s all factors, like emotional intelligence, physical intelligence. Is that even a thing? I don’t know. But like, all the intelligence. He has to be spontaneous and romantic, but also my best friend. He can’t always be like, ‘Love you, love you, love you.’ He has to troll me a little bit!”
Who do you have your eye on in the villa?
“Kavan, Simba and Samraj.”
Can you describe your bombshell strategy in a few words?
“I’m just going to be flirty and confident, and I am going to pull every single person for a chat. Even the ones that are locked off and saying ‘I love you’. Even Sean, I will be pulling him for a chat and just going to see how it goes. I love flirting, so it’s really easy for me to do it!”
How is your flirting game?
“I heard that I have very good eye contact. My friends will tell me, ‘You look like you’re flirting again’, and I’ll be like, ‘No, I’m just looking at them’. So maybe I’m flirting sometimes and I don’t even realise it. Sometimes it’s actually bad. There will be guys that are like, ‘Yes, she wants me’, and I was just feeling good, on a wave, on a roll.”
How do you plan to handle the competition?
“Oh, I am very competitive. That is something everybody should know. But I equally don’t like to chase. What is mine is mine and it will come back to me. It depends what mood I’m in and how badly I like him.”
Love Island airs nightly at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
