Daia Details What ‘Love Island USA’ Fans Didn’t See: 2-Hour Casa Recoupling, Friendship With Serena

Love Island USA viewers may never recover from that post-Casa Amor recoupling, and according to star Daia McGhee, fans only saw the half of it.

Us Weekly recently caught up with Daia after her love triangle with Kordell Beckham and Serena Page resulted in Daia being dumped from the villa.

“When we were actually in Casa, I feel like our connection was genuine,” Daia told Us of her relationship with Kordell. “A lot that was shown were the most entertaining bits, but we were together for four days straight — we had two-hour long conversations, like, there were a lot of things that happened that weren't shown. He gave me his bracelet even though he was wearing Serena's ring. I gave him my bracelet. It was a whole thing.”

After getting hot and heavy in Casa, Kordell brought Daia back to the villa.

“When I found out I was going to the villa with him, he was like, 'I feel like I'd be doing myself a disservice if I didn't bring you back. ... I feel like I put everyone else's feelings before mine. It's time to do my [thing].' So I'm like, 'OK, cool, seems pretty genuine to me,’” she continued. “I really did like him. I thought he was really sweet.”

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Things quickly took a turn when the pair returned to find a single Serena waiting for Kordell.

“I think seeing the person that you really, really care about emotionally and you have a connection with standing there by herself being really, really upset and hurt, I think he immediately was like, 'What the f–k did I just do?'” Daia told Us. “I don't think that the connection between us wasn't genuine. I think they just had a lot stronger of a connection. At one point he said, 'Oh, Daia and Serena are neck and neck.' He was like, 'It'd take a lot to turn my head, but you're pretty much up there.' But I think that all went away when he saw Serena because they were two weeks ahead of us."

Based on the episodes Daia saw before she went into Casa, she assumed Serena and Kordell were more of a "friendship couple" as their romance was a slow burn.

"Going in from Casa, I actually thought she was gonna be standing there with another guy that she liked more,” Daia said. “We didn't see her crying on the floor [in the villa when we were at Casa] being like, 'I miss Kordell.' I feel like people are forgetting that. We didn't have that perspective. We only were like, 'She's probably enjoying her time with the boys.' I didn't expect that at all."

The recoupling left fans reeling, and Daia told Us that it was even crazier than viewers saw.

"The Casa girls didn't realize it was gonna be that hostile. And I think some [viewers were] like, 'Oh, the Casa girls are so entitled,' but no — you don't see [that] we sat there for two hours getting f–king chewed apart, just having to stand there and be confident [in] the guy that just brought us back,” she explained. “We think he likes us, but now he's getting f–king screamed at, so I don't really know what to do. It’s awkward. People got really pissed [at me] because they were like, 'Oh, you flipped your hair.' I literally was smiling because if I wasn't smiling, I was gonna f–king break down in tears. ... [After the recoupling ended, the Casa girls] all went to the bathroom and we started crying as a group."

Daia said things got so tense between the Casa and villa girls that they had to have a sit-down.

"It was really petty s–t that was happening. And then we all were like, 'They're really upset right now, we'll give them grace.' And then the next morning, it kept happening, so I was like, 'Look, you're not gonna keep talking to me like that,'" Daia explained, noting that she and Liv Walker had a particularly heated moment that fans didn’t see. "But even after me and Liv's conversation, she immediately was like,'I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I made you feel like that.' She was really apologetic and sweet. And then all the girls got together and we all had to, like, go around in a circle and say why we're pissed off at each other."

The truth circle worked — and the women were able to coexist and even become friends. Daia confirmed to Us that she and Serena got along, with the islanders even comparing notes about their private conversations with Kordell.

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“I think it was only shown that every time that I had a conversation with Kordell, I'd run to Serena, but they never really showed that whenever Serena would have a conversation with Kordell, she'd come to me and she'd be like, 'So this is what he just told me. I don't know what to do with this information.' And I'm like, 'This is what he just told me. I don't know what to do with this. And what is he telling you?'” Daia said. “We actually really had a really good connection because neither of us were like, 'F–k him, he's horrible, stop talking to him.' We were both, like, giving each other advice for the connections that we had with him."

Daia can admit that she saw the writing on the wall when it came to Kordell’s feelings for Serena.

“It was really apparent to me, like, I knew where his heart was and I knew even though he was telling me something else, I could see that he really was in love with her,” she said. “So then I was like, 'OK, Serena, I think I'm gonna break things off. I'm pretty over this whole situation, it's just not going the way I want.' At the end of the recoupling, she gave me a hug and I was like, 'I love you so much, go get your man, girl.' We definitely were planning to do stuff together in L.A. She's great."

Daia added that she "100 percent" thinks Kordell and Serena have a shot to make it in the real world, revealing she and Kordell actually made amends too.

"I didn't talk to him for three days, but then after I got eliminated, he was like, 'I'm so sorry for how I handled things.' And I was like, 'I'm sorry for how I handled things,’” she said. “We were both petty in the end and I have no ill will toward you at all."

One of the most-talked about moments from Kordell and Daia’s fling was her alleged connection to his famous brother, Odell Beckham Jr. After she entered the villa, fans claimed to have screenshots of Daia commenting on the football player’s photos and accused her of using Kordell to get close to the athlete.

“I have literally debunked every lie that they possibly have made about me because I feel like I'm actually the one getting bullied the most out of all the cast,” Daia told Us. “I'm getting a thousand people in my comments saying that they absolutely hate me and people telling me that they hope I die and all kinds of things like that. It's all based on a lie. I'm completely OK if people are like, 'I hate your hair, I think you're ugly.' Because that's just your opinion of me and that's completely fine. I can't change that. It's in my Instagram highlights, if you guys wanna see the proof of my ex-boyfriend going to dinner with his brother.”

Taking to Daia’s Instagram highlights, she points out that the alleged screenshot of her leaving a heart emoji on Odell’s page is blurry, claiming it’s Photoshopped. She also shared images of one of her ex-boyfriends from 2016 at dinner with Odell, informing fans that they have been sending hate to the wrong man and insisting she is not a liar for telling Kordell that he is her distant connection to his brother.

Love Island USA airs new episodes on Peacock at 9 p.m. ET every day but Wednesday.