Joey Essex made shock career move worlds away from reality TV just days before entering Love Island villa
JOEY Essex secretly plotted a major career move days before entering the Love Island villa.
The reality star, who first found fame on The Only Way Is Essex, seems to be planning a different path when his time on the ITV2 show is through.
Having appeared on nearly every possible reality show – including Towie, Splash, I’m A Celebrity and Dancing on Ice – Joey is now setting his sights on becoming an actor.
The 33-year-old set up two production companies at Companies House in the days leading up to him heading out to Majorca.
Top TT Limited is a joint venture with fellow Towie star James “Diags” Bennewith.
He is the sole owner of Fusey Productions, named after his now-defunct Essex clothing store which shut its doors in 2020.
Sources told The Mirror that he’s on the show “for both love and loot”, and he’ll focus on the new ventures once he returns home.
“He wants to find The One but is also a shrewd businessman and sees the money-making potential,” the source said. “He’s tried many things but has yet to make the move into movies and he sees this as his chance.”
Joey has amassed a fortune since first appearing on Towie back in 2011, using his skills in business to expand beyond his dim-witted reality star persona.
If he does break out into Hollywood, he will be joining his cousins Demi and Chloe Sims, who have tried to crack America with their reality show, House Of Sims.
But first he has bigger fish to fry as he tries to make it through Love Island unscathed.
Currently, Joey is coupled up with Liverpool lass Samantha Kenny, but his head was turned on Friday with the arrival of his ex-girlfriend Grace Jackson.
Grace entered the house as a bombshell with Tiffany Leighton and Wil Anderson, and while she admitted her relationship with Joey ended in a “frosty” manner, the pair were sharing passionate snogs in front of the group during a game later that evening.
The kisses left Samantha devastated and feeling like she’d been “put on the back burner”.
On tonight’s show, Grace, Tiffany and Wil will be given the chance to have a “saucy sleepover” with the islander of their choice – with the decision rocking the villa to its core.
Sources have confirmed to The Sun who they pick leaves one couple coming under threat and the ever-growing love triangle getting more tangled.
Follow our live coverage of Love Island which continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.