Love Island's Olivia and Alex Bowen share heartbreak at losing one of their twins

Love Island's Olivia Bowen has described how she "felt numb" after losing one of her twins.

The reality TV star, who tied the knot with Alex in 2018 in what was the first Love Island marriage, endured vanishing twin syndrome (VTS), a miscarriage which causes a pregnancy involving twins to become a pregnancy involving one embryo. She went on to give birth to Sienna last month, albeit having lost the other baby.

Speaking for the first time about the tragedy, Olivia, 31, said: "I felt numb at the start then I needed to talk. But I try not to take anything negative from it any more – we’re lucky to still have Siena here.

"We went for the eight-week scan and as soon as she showed us my belly, you could see there was no heartbeat and no movement from one of them. I couldn’t look at Alex because I knew he’d be heartbroken. It was such a shock because there’d been no signs."

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VTS affects up to 15-35% of twin pregnancies, research suggests. Olivia, from Chelmsford, Essex, experienced an otherwise healthy pregnancy until the crushing news earlier this year.

Recalling the ordeal, Alex, 34, said this week: "It (grief) always hits me really hard straight away. I took myself off to the bathroom to cry (upon being told the news) because I could see how much pain she was in." When Alex learned he was going to be a dad to twins, he described the moment as the "most amazing feeling".

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Olivia, who met Alex on the second series of Love Island in 2015, was admitted for an emergency caesarean section. The reality TV star lost lost 2.8 litres of blood as she gave birth to Sienna, their second child after son Abel was born in June 2022.

Speaking in the new interview with the Daily Mail, Olivia continued: "I lost 2.8 litres of blood. We didn’t know what was going to happen but we got here safely in the end. You realise what you’ve got and what matters. You realise how fragile everything is."

The couple say the grief has brought them stronger, nearly ten years after meeting on the ITV programme. Alex arrived on day 18 as "a bombshell" and Olivia coupled up with him two days later, with them going on to finish as runners-up on the show.

Praising the value of determination and grit, Alex said this week: "We’re not quitters. When times are tough, we just work through them."