Love Island USA’s Zak Questions Bryan’s Intentions With Amaya

Love Island USA star Zak Srakaew has seen your DMs about how he “fumbled” Amaya Espinal — but he thinks fans should be cautious about shipping her with Bryan Arenales.

When asked whether he thinks Amaya, 25, and Bryan, 28, make sense as a duo, Zak, 30, told Us Weekly, “Not at all.”

“I’m not gonna lie. Obviously, he stood up for that one conversation. But throughout the whole season, he not once mentioned he wanted to pull her for a chat, not once mentioned that he wanted to couple up with her or get to know her,” he said during an exclusive chat with Us on Wednesday, July 9. “So I was very confused when he was like, ‘Yeah, I wanna speak to Amaya.’”

As Zak and Amaya struggled in the villa, he told Us he gave Bryan “the green [light]” to approach her.

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“I respected him in some ways because he did ask me, ‘How’s you and Amaya?’ I said, ‘I think me and Amaya are done. I’m gonna go over to her and apologize to her.’ So just that last scene when she said me and Zak’s romance is over when she’s wearing that muumuu — that’s the moment when I was supposed to cut everything off with her,” Zak recalled. “But there was a conversation we had and we both just looked at each other in the eyes. And that’s when I realized, ‘I actually like this girl more than I thought. … Wow, I actually don’t feel like I could cut her off right now.’”

Zak said he didn’t know that Amaya and Bryan had kissed around the same time.

“Bryan didn’t tell me once, ‘Yo, me and Amaya kissed.’ He kept his cards really close to his heart,” he said. “He never spoke about how romantic it was. So for me, I was clueless this was all going on while I was trying to make up with Amaya. I didn’t know they [were] getting on like this.”

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Since Zak was dumped from the villa, Amaya and Bryan have gotten hot and heavy, hooking up in the hideaway. As the show wraps up this Sunday, July 13, the twosome have a good shot at winning the $100,000.

“From my point of view, I didn’t think about the money once. I forgot all [about] the cash prize,” Zak told Us. “I’ve been looking to move to America soon for a long time — that’s the main reason I went on Love Island. I genuinely went on there to find an American girlfriend. I felt like if I’m gonna move there, it would make sense for me to find one. And it’s the first time [I’ve been] single in a very long time. But I don’t really know the other guy’s motives. I felt like Bryan was a little strategic.”

One criticism of this season is fans think the cast might be more motivated by money than a love connection.

“I felt like some people might be in there for the money, but I felt like a lot of people were genuinely trying to find a connection and unfortunately, compared to the previous seasons, it was very difficult to find a connection,” Zak said, suggesting that the group moved on too quickly. “No one wanted to work on their relationship. No one wanted to fight for their relationship. As there’s something wrong, people are just ready to move on.”

As for his own relationship with Amaya, Zak called their romance “a little bit too much for me.”

“Amaya, she’s a great girl. We have such good chemistry. But there’s certain things … when you just met somebody, and they expect the girlfriend treatment straight away — that’s the one thing I couldn’t give her. Behind the scenes, she’d always want, like, reassurance. She always wanted [to] kiss all the time. She would like me to, I don’t know, cuddle or whatever,” Zak told Us. “And I just didn’t give her that straight away. And I felt like she felt like I wasn’t being genuine toward her. I’m a not a slow burner, but I’ve been in long-term relationships all my life and I said to myself, next relationship, I’m going to go in it with how I feel and take it slow and just get to know that person a little bit better and start off as friends before I take anything serious.”

In a separate chat with Us, Andreina Santos — who was previously coupled up with Bryan — hinted that she was disappointed by his actions, but she’s still rooting for him and Amaya if that is what is best for them.

“I love Amaya and I think she deserves a good man. I’m not there anymore, so I don’t know if it’s actually genuine and the potential that they have as a couple, but I just hope that he’s treating my girl right — better than he treated me,” Andreina, 24, said.

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Andreina’s last interaction with Bryan was when he opted to stand behind Jaden Duggar in an elimination challenge — instead of her.

“It was definitely a surprise that Bryan voted for Jaden instead of me, because he never one time mentioned that he was even feeling Jaden,” she told Us. “And the only reason why he [told me] that he was pulling Jaden for a chat was because I felt super weird about pulling Pepe without telling him. So I was like, ‘Hey, I’m pulling Pepe for a chat.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m pulling Jaden.’ I’m like, ‘OK, so you weren’t gonna tell me that you were gonna pull Jaden, but OK.’”

Andreina said the situation “took me by surprise.”

“I think it was our first conversation, we were talking about how important it was to communicate properly and be transparent. So him just never saying anything about Jaden, I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” she said. “But everything happens for a reason.”

Andreina reiterated that she is rooting for Amaya.

“When I came back and I saw that everybody loved Amaya, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Yes!’” she said. “Because she is the sweetest person ever and I think she deserves all the love. I love the girl.”

New episodes of Love Island USA stream on Peacock every weekday — but Wednesday — starting at 9 p.m. ET.