Fans demanded he hand back his share of the Love Island winners' pot after dumping Amber Gill by text.
But now the jilted champion says Greg O'Shea can keep his half of their £50,000 haul despite earning it for being on the show for under a fortnight.
Amber, 22, is reportedly already a millionaire by landing a deal to be the face of fashion firm Miss Pap.
She laughed off suggestions she should take all the prize money after the way he acted following their shock win.
Speaking to The Sun's Fabulous magazine, she joked: "Nah, he can keep it.
"I needed someone else to win and we won it together. I don't hate him, I'm just disappointed in him, really.
"All wanted was a little bit of effort on his part to come to London or Newcastle to see me, and we'd had a discussion about that a couple of days before.
"Then he texted me on the day I was supposed to fly to Ireland."
She added: "I think in the future I'll look back on this as a blessing in disguise. I can focus on work and spending time with my family and friends."
Married former Islanders Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen told The Mirror that their relationship was lust, not love.
Alex said: "They didn't really know each other that long, they were coming towards the end, there weren't really deep, deep feelings there.
"Obviously he fancied her, she fancied him. I think that's all it was really, like a bit of lust."
Olivia added: At the end of the day, if you really loved someone and really wanted to be with them, you'd make it work regardless.
"They're just not meant to be together, I think that's all you can say.
"You either fail really hard or it really does work. We're just so lucky that it actually worked. You really do get to know each other really quickly and really well."
