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“Love Island USA” wraps its eighth season on Sunday evening, and, like many, the MPR News Reverb team has been trying to keep up with its near-daily episode releases.

MPR News found two Minnesota connections to justify following the reality TV show: “Casa Amor” bombshells Carl Schmidt, who is a Carleton College alum, and Ronnie Gunter, who is originally from Shakopee.

In the show’s lingo, these are attractive people brought in midway through the season to tempt existing participants into exploring new romantic connections.

Gunter, 25, resigned from his job in New York City to join Love Island. The former Division I lacrosse player returned to Minnesota after his time on the show.

He sat down with MPR News on Thursday morning ahead of the show finale.

Editor's note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How would you rate your experience on the show?

It was 10 out of 10. It was a great experience overall. Even just being there was awesome. I loved it. It was incredible. Everyone there is nice.

You have your phone now. What was it like to see so many strangers talking about you online?

I've kind of had it before-ish. I went viral a bit for looking like Jalen Hurts. I know they're just sitting in their room doing nothing but kind of hating. People are going to say everything. I don't really let it get to me. But it was weird for sure.

It was definitely bigger than I've ever had it. People saying — it was either Jalen Hurts or Shamar Moore, Chris Brown. Somebody said Charlie Kirk, and I was just like, ‘Wow, never got that in my life. But sure, love it.’

It was wild, but it was fun. It was good. I love reading all the hate comments. Because at a young age, my dad was just like, if everyone hates on you, just laugh at them, it's just going to piss them off more. And I'm like, sounds good. So now I just find it all hilarious.

What did your mom have to say about your experience on the show?

She was proud of me. Definitely watched with some eyes closed, but she loved seeing me on there. She loved the shoutout I gave her, which was awesome, because she's everything to me.

There’s a lot of making out and really intense dancing. You're picking people up and making heart-shaped pancakes. How do you prepare to be on the show?

I didn't do anything. I know Carl [Schmidt] took salsa dancing. He taught us some in the villa, which was awesome. But for me, I was kind of winging it. I kind of just said, I've got through this process just being myself, so don't really change anything. Just keep doing what I'm doing.

I love to cook anyway and I dance as much as I can, I guess, at bars.

You're from Shakopee and back in Minnesota for a bit. What do you like to do when you're here?

Obviously, hang out with my friends. I still have so many friends here, which is awesome.

Went up north for the Fourth of July, which is always a good time. We always go up to a family friend's cabin up in Cohasset, just rip around the jet skis and on the boat, and have a couple beers with like family friends. We had a big crew up there.

I love just being outside here. The nature here is always awesome. So as much outside time as I can. I try to not stay inside, especially in the summer, even though it's hot right now.

Were you finding yourself talking about Minnesota when you were on Love Island?

A lot of people always ask where I'm from. I was always going, ‘From Minnesota but live in New York.’ And like no one ever hears anybody from Minnesota for some reason, so they all ask: ‘Is it cold up there right now? What's going on?’

I'm just like, no. It's 90 degrees. It's hot. It's actually so hot. I was outside yesterday, just sweating.

But no, yeah. I love talking about Minnesota. I think it's the most underrated state ever, and I think it's the best place to be all the time. I love it so much.

At MPR, we’re really big on the Minnesota State Fair. Are you a state fair person?

Crazy stat for me: My mom is a huge, like grade A state fair person so I've been every year since I was born, except COVID and last year when I moved to New York. Every other year I've been.

If you were bringing the Islanders to the state fair, what would you recommend that they do?

Me and my mom have a system that we go through, like we have staples we got to visit every year. So we go to like Miracle of Birth, gotta hit that. We go to the Coliseum, gotta watch some cow shows and the alpacas. Gotta hit Australian fried potatoes. Obviously get Sweet Martha's, fried pickles. Gotta hit Dino’s [Gyros], they always have great live music and you just kind of chill and have a good time there. Giant slide. Gotta walk through the Grandstand, always see what they got going on in there. It's a big fairground, so trying to hit as much stuff we can. Go to The Hangar. And the dog show, too, is always a good time.

Is there anyone that you're rooting for to win the show Sunday? Who do you think will be America's favorite couple?

From now getting my phone back and seeing how the media is taking everything, I think Bryce [Alakai Dettloff] and Trinity [Tatum] will win.

I personally would love to see Carl and Aniya [Harvey] win, even though Dylan [Wrona] is also my boy. But Carl is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and he's also a Minnesota guy, so gotta root for him. They're great together.

Do you think Corbin Mims is a robot or do you have evidence of him being a real person?

I have evidence of him being a real person. He was alive and breathing in front of me. I haven't interacted with him, but I believe he's real. I think he's just got a really deep voice. 

Is there something that you think the public is missing out on or not understanding?

They see what they see and I think no one really kind of realizes that a lot of conversations aren't being filmed or they get cut off. So they just kind of take what they see and run with it and they don't realize that this is a show. It is edited for drama-fication.

It's realer than I thought, for sure. I definitely thought it was a little bit more kind of staged-ish. But no, it definitely is pretty real. Like all the conversations are very real and people get invested. I mean, you have no phone. You're in there for 24 hours a day with these people, and you're spending all this time together and in such a surreal experience. You get very emotionally invested in everything.

Like those six guys I came in with there, I told them, ‘you might not be in my wedding party, but you'll definitely be invited to my wedding.’ And I met these guys for two, like four days?

You kind of get trauma bonded a bit, being in that villa with everything and doing all this crazy stuff. It's awesome but I think people are missing just how much time is invested in it and how much we're all doing. You know, you only see so much.

I think I'm going to try out this social media thing. Hopefully, it goes well and goes over well, but I'm giving myself a good little timeline to do it all. And then if not, I mean, try to find another job.

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In his first interview with media, Ronnie Gunter shares about his time as a bombshell on “the Island” and his go-to Minnesota State Fair spots.

Courtesy of Ben Symons | Peacock

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