NEED TO KNOW
- Love Island USA‘s Taylor Williams was injured after being thrown from a horse during a rodeo iin Arizona
- A TikTok video apparently shows Taylor’s horse tripping and falling to the ground, and the Love Island contestant lying on the ground with an apparent injury
- Taylor, 25, finished in season 7’s second-to-last episode with Clarke Carraway
Love Island USA‘s Taylor Williams was injured after being thrown from a horse during a rodeo.
A TikTok video, which began circulating on social media on Saturday, Aug. 30, apparently shows Taylor, 25, riding a horse as he was participating in the Arizona Invitational Black Rodeo in Scottsdale.
Footage shows Taylor’s horse tripping and falling to the ground, then seemingly rolling over the Love Island contestant before standing back up. Taylor could be seen lying on the ground for a moment before officials ran over to help him.
In an Instagram Stories post, the reality star later confirmed that he had been injured when he replied to a friend who tagged him in a photo of a cowboy boot and wrote, “Sending all my prayers and positive vibes to @taylor_williams.3 for a speedy recovery.”
“‘Preciate it dawg,” Taylor wrote in reply, alongside a heart emoji.
PEOPLE reached out to Taylor and Black Rodeo USA, which organizes the annual event in Arizona, but did not receive an immediate response.
During his appearance on Love Island‘s seventh season, Taylor was candid about his career working with animals as a veterinary student and rodeo enthusiast, describing himself as a cowboy.
“If you’re not being dangerous, then you’re not living life,” he said in his casting announcement in May. “My type of girl [has a] good personality, a city girl would be cool.”
He eventually finished in the season’s second-to-last episode with Casa Amor bombshell Clarke Carraway, just behind fan-favorite couple Nicolas Vansteenberghe and Olandria Carthen.
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During Taylor and Clarke’s exit, as the group tearfully said goodbye to the pair, Clarke was embraced in a group hug by all the women. “Don’t make me cry, y’all,” she told them.
Meanwhile, when the men said goodbye to Taylor, Pepe told him, “I love you, bro,” and Ace said, “F— dog. This s— hurts. You came here and you did what you needed to do. You found somebody that was meant for you. Proud of you, man. Thank you, man, for everything.”
Then Taylor joined Ace and Nic for one last group chat. “What me and Clarke have is real. You know what I mean?” Taylor said. “I’m gonna miss y’all brothers.”
Speaking with Variety after their exit from the series — which ultimately saw Bryan Arenales and Amaya Espinal take home the prize, though they have since announced their breakup — Taylor opened up about his future with Clarke and shared that the two were doing a long-distance relationship for the time being.
“We started talking about the real world. I want her to come to Oklahoma, and I’ll go see her in Charlotte,” Taylor said, referring to his hometown of Oklahoma City. “We’ve had conversations about seeing each other outside the villa and making our relationship work.”
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