I was on Love Island and now my side hustle has led to a whole new career
LOVE Island star Olivia Bowen may have found fame on a TV show – but the star is now forged a surprising new career.
Olivia, 29, said she turned to DIY during lockdown but had no idea it would lead to a brand new career path.
The TV star ended up studying interior design and now renovates properties for a living.
“I did a diploma whilst COVID was happening. Obviously, we were all stuck,” she told Women’s Health.
“I didn’t have anything else to do, and I thought, “let me actually use my time to get creative and do something that could, you know, become a hobby, but also potentially become something that I work with”, which I now do. That’s where it all kind of started.”
She continued: “I have no idea where [the diploma] it will take me.
“I know that it’s something that I really enjoy. And I loved doing our house.
“We do renovate properties and rent them out. So we’re actually just about to rent out our second property and look for a third.
“So it’s taken me in that direction, which is really great, investment wise, but also it’s just the passion that I have.”
Olivia – who bought her £1.3m Essex mansion with husband Alex Bowen in 2020 – spent months renovating the property into her dream home.
The pair completely transformed the property with games room, gym, utility room complete with a miniature bath to clean their French Bulldogs and a sprawling garden with hot tub.
Alex and Olivia have become Love Island’s power couple since appearing on show in 2016, regularly topping the list of the Love Islanders who have banked the most money from the show.
Olivia confessed she now earns an eye watering £50,000 on a good month.
That is compared to taking home £1,500 a month when she worked as a sales executive and lived in a council flat prior to signing up for the show.
The series two couple were the first Islanders to marry, with a ceremony last September that netted them a £25,000 magazine deal.
Since then, they have carved out careers as mega influencers and fronted a string of big-money campaigns.
Last year the couple launched their property empire as they set up The Bowen Homes Ltd and invested £100,000 in a three-bed property in Wolverhampton.