“Love Island USA” star Daia McGhee wants to make it clear that she doesn’t have a thing for Odell Beckham Jr.
During an exclusive interview with Pvnew’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast, the reality TV personality, 27, shuts down social media speculation that she seduced OG contestant Kordell Beckham in an effort to eventually date his older brother, Odell Beckham Jr.
“If people literally looked at logic just for, like, two seconds here, do you really think I was going to make out and allegedly dry-hump Kordell to then turn around and be like at the Thanksgiving dinner when I’m sitting around with his family like, ‘Hey, OBJ, you wanna go in the room?’” asks McGhee, who notably had intense physical chemistry with Kordell.
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“Does that really make sense?”
McGhee formed a connection with Kordell, 22, during Season 6’s infamous “Casa Amor” episodes, in which couples are tested when they’re separated and forced to mingle with new batches of attractive men and women.
Ultimately, Kordell chose to bring McGhee back to the main villa, while his previous partner, Serena Page, was left single and scorned.
After several heated exchanges between the trio, it became evident to McGhee that Kordell still had feelings for Page, 24, and called things off with the actor-model. (Kordell and Page eventually rekindled their romance and are currently recoupled on the unscripted series, while the latter eventually developed a friendship with McGhee.)
Amid the discord, the cast — known as “Islanders” to fans — participated in a challenge that clued them into what the public had been saying about them in real time online, as new episodes of the show are edited and broadcasted five nights a week hardly a day after they’re filmed.
It was during this segment that McGhee was accused of having a crush on NFL hunk Odell, 31, and leaving flirty comments on his Instagram page. Visibly upset, the influencer railed against this notion as cameras rolled, insisting that the optics didn’t match her reality.
McGhee later clarified that an ex of hers had dinner with the Miami Dolphins wide receiver and shared a photo from their night out on social media, the only time she could fathom such internet activity on her part.
“My excuse was, like, ‘I’m sure the only [photo] that I ever would have liked or commented with your brother in it was, like, my ex went to dinner with him. And I don’t think your brother posted it, I think my ex posted it and maybe I commented,’” the Los Angeles resident shares.
“They had three photos of him with this brother. They’re not friends, they just happened to be at dinner together,” she continues, emphasizing that she was frustrated by the “fake” narrative. “And there’s literally three images of them together on my Instagram Story if anyone wants to go look into my Highlights.”
One allegedly doctored image sees McGhee’s account posting heart-eyes emojis beneath a photo of Odell’s, but the heart that typically accompanies the side of a comment is inexplicably blurry.
“I was really disappointed that that comment even got brought up because I feel like if they fact-checked it, they could have easily saw it was a Photoshopped comment,” she explains.
“There’s, like, hearts on the side where you can like the comments and my comment, it’s like a half-heart. Like, it’s very clearly Photoshopped. I’m like, ‘You guys didn’t think to check that before adding it in there.’”
Meanwhile, McGhee — a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community who made her “Love Island USA” exit last week — asserts that athletes are not her type. In fact, she prefers musicians.
“I didn’t have a mastermind plan to take [Kordell’s] brother. That would never happen,” she says before adding, “And my celebrity crush is Kehlani, if anyone wants to know that.”
“Love Island USA” — hosted by Ariana Madix — is available to stream on Peacock.
