Joey Essex and Jessy Potts have split on Wednesday just seven weeks after leaving the Love Island villa.

The ITV2 stars, who met on the latest series of the dating reality show, confirmed the break up with TOWIE star Joey, 34, insisting he hopes to stay friends with Jessy, 35.

The pair said they ‘tried to make their relationship work’ but after leaving the Love Island villa it ‘just wasn’t meant to be’.

Joey told The Sun: ‘Unfortunately, we have decided to call an end to the relationship but I hope we can continue to be friends. I truly wish Jessy the very best with whatever she does in the future.’

Jessy added: ‘I appreciate the Love Island experience I had with Joey, we tried to make it work but it wasn’t to be.

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Joey Essex and Jessy Potts have split on Wednesday just seven weeks after leaving the Love Island villa

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The ITV2 stars, who met on the latest series of the dating reality show, confirmed the break up with TOWIE star Joey, 34, insisting he hopes to stay friends with Jessy, 35

‘I’m so grateful to everyone who supported us and look forward to all of the exciting opportunities ahead.’

The pair fell in love during series 11 of Love Island and made it all the way to the grand finale.

But less than two months on, it was recently rumoured that the pair were ‘hardly speaking’ amid their busy schedules.

A source told The Sun: ‘Joey and Jessy have barely spent any time together as he’s been so busy doing nightclub PAs – it’s causing a lot of friction between them.

‘At Ronnie Vint’s Eggiboff event it was noticed by a lot of people that they hardly spoke. Sadly it looks like it’s only a matter of time before they split.’

Jessy herself recently noted that things had become ‘hard’ as they tried to navigate their relationship away from the bubble of the villa.

She told heatworld: ‘We’re organising when to see each other, and I think it’s hard because you compare it to the other couples.

Jessy also noted that it was always going to be ‘different’ for them because Joey was resuming his ‘normal life’ as a celebrity, whilst she had to learn to cope with her newfound fame.

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Joey said: ‘Unfortunately, we have decided to call an end to the relationship but I hope we can continue to be friends. I truly wish Jessy the very best with whatever she does in the future’

She added:  ‘They’re with each other 24/7, whereas we always knew it was going to be different because he’s catching up on his normal life, whereas for the rest of us we’re thrown into a new life.

‘Everything is new and we’re waiting for things to come up. It was always going to be slightly different.

‘We’re both making the effort and everyone’s speculating that we’ve broken up. We’re working it out