Lia Kateb has finally told her side of one of the most dramatic moments in the case. Love Island USA Season 6.
Leah, 24, continued. Call her daddy After coming in second place on season six of the Peacock series, she opened up about how she felt when Rob Rausch told her he wasn’t sexually attracted to her, a moment that went viral and changed the trajectory of the couple.
When Rob said it, “literally every bad thing I’d ever thought about myself was swirling around in my head,” she admitted.
“I’ve never felt so embarrassed in my life. I felt so rejected and disgusted,” she said. “Every bad thought I had about myself was confirmed in that moment.”
Leah said that the day before Rob told her, she’d told Serena Page how much she loved him. “I think I was like, ‘Oh, I love kissing him in bed. I want to fuck him.’ And then I heard about it the next day and I was like, ‘Oh my God. I actually went in the bathroom afterwards and threw up. I felt sick.”
Cooper asked Leah why she thought Rob, 25, would have made that statement in the first place, to which Leah replied that she didn’t know why he did it. Leah then thought more about the moment and became emotional.
“As a woman, and especially for myself, that’s really hard to hear because I feel like it took me a while to get to a place where I was happy with myself and the way I looked. I’m very critical of myself, so I think it kind of set me back, I don’t know what it was, but I think it put me in a really bad mental state, that’s for sure.”
Ben Simmons/Peacock via Getty
Choking up and wiping away tears, she continued, “It was really hard. And it was really weird to hear about, because I never would have imagined that he would feel that way. So I was shocked to hear that. It was really heartbreaking.”
Rob appeared on Cooper’s podcast just a few days before Leah, and the host also asked him about the conversation, but he said he was initially surprised that he would make such comments.
“Did I say those words?” he asked, explaining his thought process.
“We didn’t know what each other wanted,” he said of his relationship with Leah. “It was kind of weird.”
Rob expressed his desire to be “as open as possible” to everyone, saying, “I just felt like we weren’t working out sexually, you know? I thought she was really attractive and everything, but when it came to kissing and stuff, I just felt like she was holding back.”
Ben Simmons/Peacock via Getty
Later in the episode, Leah also reflected on the public’s love for her and Rob’s relationship, saying she “understands” why people were rooting for them to get together.
“We were like twins, like pieces of each other’s puzzle. There were so many moments when I thought, Oh my God, he was put here for me,” she said. “I get it, everyone in the villa was saying how lovely you and Rob are and how they all love you, so I get it.”
Leah said she is now friends with him and thinks he is a “great guy.”
“I think he’s a really funny guy. He’s a lot of fun to be around, but I think we’re just good friends. Just friends.”
Rob similarly said the love fans have for him and Leah is “not unfounded,” telling Cooper, “She cares about me and I care about her, but, yeah, I think it’s really, really hard after everything that’s happened.”
Never miss a story: Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Love Island USA Season 6 is currently streaming on Peacock.
