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Rob Rausch on \'Call Her Daddy\'
Rob Rausch on \'Call Her Daddy\'
@callherdaddy via Instagram
Culture > Entertainment

Rob Rausch’s Comments About Leah & Andrea On ‘CHD’ Are Giving The Internet The Ick

Amanda Brown

ICYMI, on July 23, Alex Cooper sat down with Rob Rausch, the most infamous heartthrob of Season 6 of Love Island US, for an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. Cooper asked all of the burning questions that fans of the show have been waiting to find answers to, but some of the answers Rausch gave are rubbing Love Island fans the wrong way.

If you’re chronically online like me, you may have seen ship edits of Love Island USA’s Leah Kateb with Rausch flooding your TikTok FYP. Rausch and Kateb’s romance in the villa was a fan favorite and had everyone rooting for them… until his wandering eye led him to bombshell Andrea Carmona who was swiftly eliminated. 

Following Carmona’s elimination, Kateb and Rausch’s romance proved to be unsalvageable. However, shippers of the two still romanticized their longing glances and small, sweet moments in the villa, holding out hope that they would find a way back to each other. But Kateb ended up connecting with Miquel Harichi in Casa Amor, with the two even winning second place at the end of Season 6, so it’s fair to assume that #Reah is over.

Cooper asked Rausch about his relationship with Kateb and he shared that there was “never a point” where he “stopped liking Leah,” though a lot of what was shown on the season had viewers thinking otherwise. Cooper mentioned how Rausch said that he felt “no sexual chemistry” with Kateb, which deeply hurt Kateb’s feelings, though he denied having ever said that. 

When Cooper mentioned how America was rooting for his whirlwind romance with Kateb in spite of her relationship with Harichi, she asked why Rausch thinks this shipping is still happening, to which he answered, “Probably all the edits” (and he isn’t wrong). He said the edits aren’t “built on nothing,” but “after everything… it would be really, really hard,” referring to the idea of pursuing a romantic relationship with Kateb. Rausch shared that the edits showing the romanticization of his relationship with Kateb weren’t exactly a fair depiction, though some showed “nice moments” for the couple.

Cooper then asked Rausch what he believes his biggest dating flaws are, and he shared that he “procrastinates” his emotions, which he believes happened in the love triangle between him, Carmona, and Kateb. “I think I’m feeling them, but I don’t process them in my brain until I have to,” he said, adding that he thinks his delayed emotional processing played a factor in the explosive fight he had with Ketab, which saw him attempting to be up front about liking Carmona.

In spite of Kateb and Rausch’s drama in the villa that came after their relationship ended, he shared how he values her friendship. “I think we will be amazing friends, and I think I’d rather just focus on that for now,” he said. “She’s an amazing person. So f*cking funny. I am laughing the whole time I’m with her usually.”

After Carmona was eliminated, she posted TikToks detailing her experience on the show and also went live to answer fans’ questions, and since Rausch pretty much said her TikToks gave him the ick on the podcast, she’s disabled her comments.

Many were annoyed at how Rausch seemed to switch things up on the podcast. X users  mentioned how he was ready to leave the villa when bombshell Carmona was eliminated, and then he ended up talking poorly about her on the podcast.

Many fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to express just how annoyed and icked out they were after hearing his responses, feeling like he wasn’t really held accountable and that his comments about what happened at the villa weren’t really adding up.

Alex Cooper definitely delivered with her interview!

Amanda Brown is a current national writer for Her Campus, focusing largely on the Entertainment & Culture vertical. She was formerly the Summer 2024 Entertainment & Culture intern, writing about all things pop culture! Beyond Her Campus, Amanda is a sophomore Writing and Rhetoric major with an Honors Interdisciplinary Studies minor at James Madison University. Amanda is the Founder/President/Editorial Director of JMU's Spoon University chapter and the Junior Social Media Manager of JMU's Her Campus chapter. She is also a member of Gamma Phi Beta. In her free time, Amanda loves binge-watching reality TV (especially while drinking iced lattes) and going on long walks (ideally using it as a yap session or listening to music). Amanda loves reading romance novels while listening to Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams.