In an alternate realm, Iris Kendall found herself firmly planted on dry land. While she swept hearts away—both on the island and beyond—during her stint on *Love Island USA*, the 25-year-old recently disclosed that her TV debut could have unfolded much closer to her Los Angeles roots. According to Iris, Bravo’s *The Valley* had extended an invitation for her to join its ensemble, though she ultimately turned it down. “I knew I was heading to *Love Island*,” she shared with *The Rundown*’s Erin Lim Rhodes. “And honestly, I’m a romantic at heart. I wanted to go out there and find love; I didn’t want to be stuck in the valley.”
In fact, she had some rather colorful observations about the dating landscape in that particular LA enclave. “The guys in the valley,” Iris elaborated, “they’ll just drag you along to run their errands with them.” While she acknowledged that joining the cast of the Bravo series—which stars *Vanderpump Rules* veterans Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, and Kristen Doute—for its upcoming season might have had its charms, there was one significant obstacle. “I don’t even live there anymore,” she noted, before adding with a hint of wistfulness, “but I am a local, so... maybe I’ll move back to the valley someday.”
Regardless of what the future holds, Iris is swiftly becoming a seasoned navigator of life in the public eye. “I feel like whatever I do is a genuine reflection of who I am,” she explained. “If people pass judgment or snap photos, well, that’s just how it is. I just want to be happy and make the people around me happy too. So, whatever comes my way, I’m good with it.”
And even though the entrepreneur didn’t discover lasting love in Fiji—her romance with co-star Pepe García-Gonzalez came to an end in August—she harbors no regrets, quickly asserting that she’d leap at the chance to do it all over again. “I adore adventure,” she said. “That’s why I signed up in the first place. I was intrigued by the social experiment aspect of it all, and the fact that they handpicked these individuals specifically with me in mind was incredibly fascinating.” Iris concluded, “So yeah, I think it’s been amazing.”
