Love Island’s Eoghan Murphy reveals what it’s really like being in reality TV ‘lockdown’

A week out from entering the villa, all there is to do is sleep, tan and go to the gym, according to one of this year’s contestants.

Life a week out for a reality TV contestant is nothing to be envied.

No phone, no TV, and no contact with friends or family, with only a minder and the odd publicist or journalist to talk to day to day — it’s certainly not how most people would picture an all-expenses paid trip to Fiji.

For Eoghan Murphy, 24, the days before entering the Love Island villa consist of nothing but tanning, gyming and taking four naps a day.

It’s no wonder he’s itching for it to start.

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“I’m excited, a little bit nervous obviously,” Murphy tells me from his Fijian hotel room, wearing his Love Island uniform of no shirt and sports shorts after a fresh spray tan.

“I just want to get in there and get coupled up,” he adds.

Gold Coast real estate agent Eoghan Murphy is starring on the 2019 season of Love Island Australia. Picture: Instagram.

Real estate agent Murphy, who enters the villa tonight as the first “bomb” of the season, sighs as he explains what he’s been up to in the week leading up to episode one.

“It’s pretty much wake up, gym, try and get a tan, sleep. I try and have about four naps a day,” he says.

Love Island lockdown is a drastic change from his high-speed life on the Gold Coast, where he works six days a week as a real estate agent for Kollosche, selling luxury properties for up to $5.3 million.

This, he says, is exactly what drew him to the televised search for love in the first place.

“I work six days a week and I don’t go out very often. I’m not that active on Instagram or dating apps, so it’s pretty hard to find someone. Hopefully, I can find a nice girl in the villa, that’s the plan anyway,” Murphy says.

Murphy says he’s dying to get into the villa. Picture: Instagram.

Explaining how he came to fill out an application for the popular global reality show, he says it all happened while lying on the couch with a hangover one day.

“Honestly, it’s nothing I ever thought of, being on reality TV,” he tells me.

“I’d just come back from a buck’s party in Vegas. It was two days after and I was having the biggest withdrawals from it, and I was lying on the couch, and something on Facebook just popped up, and I thought, ‘Let’s give it a crack’,” he says.

“It happened really quickly for me, it only sort of happened in the last month. I’m just rolling with it,” he adds.

Murphy says he’s ‘looking for a real connection’ in the Love Island villa. Picture: Facebook.

Born in Ireland, having relocated to Australia 14 years ago, Murphy describes himself as a guy with “old-fashioned values” who has long seen himself as a relationship person and doesn’t have an interest in “going out and seeing how many girls he can get with”.

He says he’s looking for a deeper connection with a “natural-looking girl”.

“I definitely want a long-term relationship (out of this), something a bit deeper,” he says.

“If we’re going off looks, definitely someone more natural, but I don’t know, I could end up with anyone. I just want to get to know her then we’ll see how we go.”

The first episode of the season airs tonight — with five girls and five guys coupled up based on first impressions with the help of host Sophie Monk.

Murphy will be thrown in at the end of tonight’s premiere, breaking up one of the initial couples.

“I actually prefer that to be honest,” he says of his intruder status.

“I’d rather that then get there and have no one step forward, and it would be harder to be a ‘bomb’ towards the end when everyone’s already coupled up, so I’m pretty comfortable with that situation.”

Eoghan Murphy will join the 10 islanders as the first "bomb" of the season. Picture: Supplied.

“Hopefully, the guys won’t be too mad and the girls are happy with me. I figure they’ll get over it pretty quickly seeing as it’s so early on,” he adds.

As for his plans after the villa?

He’s just “rolling with it”.

“I don’t want to think about it too much to be honest. I’m doing quite well at work so that was a consideration for me, but at the end of the day I’m 24. Honestly, you never know what’s going to happen,” Murphy says.

Love Island Australia airs Monday night at 8.45pm on Channel 9.

The writer travelled to Fiji as a guest of Channel 9.