Love Island's Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen welcome first child

It's the happy ending Love Island contestants are hoping for - marriage and a baby - but while this year's singles are just getting started in their search for romance, one former show couple are living the dream.

Olivia (nee Buckland) and Alex Bowen, who met on the ITV2 dating show in 2016, announced the birth of their first child on Sunday and proudly showed him off to the world.

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Posting on Instagram, Alex shared that his son had been born on Friday and told fans his name, as well as including a happy family photo of himself and Olivia with their newborn.

He wrote: "Abel Jacob Bowen, but you can call him AJ… The day our lives changed for the better 10/06/22."

The new family appeared to be back at home and looked tired but happy, showing only the back of little AJ's head.

Meanwhile, besotted new mum Olivia posted her own family snap where she was gazing at AJ and captioned it: "Abel Jacob Bowen. You are everything. 10/06/22."

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Congratulations rolled in from stars including Frankie Bridge, Charlotte Crosby and Helen Flanagan.

Love Island narrator Iain Stirling commented: "Congratulations you guys!!!!!!"

The couple married in 2018 after meeting on the 2016 series of the show, one of its few success stories who have stayed together long term.

Michael Owen's 19-year-old daughter Gemma is currently starring in this year's series, which began on Monday, and the former footballer has called it "not something any father wants to watch".

"It’s not something any father wants to watch, is it?" Owen told the Daily Mail.

Admitting he had never seen an episode of Love Island before and so had been shocked to find the couples share beds from the first day of meeting, he said: "Luckily for me, there was no physical contact. Gemma had her back to the guy. There was space between them.

"I thought 'good girl'. No father wants to see physical contact, do they? I certainly don’t.

"If there is physical contact I think I’ll be throwing something at the screen. I don’t want to see kissing. Do not make me see kissing."

Love Island continues every evening at 9pm on ITV2.

Watch: Love Island's Liam Llewellyn quits show five days into new series