‘Love Island USA’ star Kenny Rodriguez hits back at racism claims one year after JaNa Craig breakup

“Love Island USA” star Kenny Rodriguez is denying claims he’s racist a year after his leaked text messages led to his split from co-star JaNa Craig.

The Season 6 alums split in July 2025 after Craig allegedly found texts in which Rodriguez said he does not “like black women” and was “faking” his relationship.

“It was a text message with a friend that I had before [the show] and I did say a statement where I generalized and I take full accountability. It doesn’t represent the person that I am,” he claimed during his Monday appearance on “The Journey” podcast — without saying the exact content of the messages.

“I’ve dated black women before. I have black ancestry, I’m Dominican, half of my family is dark skinned. There was never a problem with race,” he said. “The problem was with how [Craig] was treating me.”

Rodriguez claimed that in the texts to his friend, he was “venting and getting fed up” about the “verbal abuse” he faced from Craig throughout their relationship.

“I generalized and I made a statement that I’m not proud of. I think it’s a bit unjust to take that situation and to have that define me,” he insisted.

According the the 26-year-old, Craig had found the texts by going through his phone one night while they were staying at a hotel in Los Angeles.

After Craig confronted him with her findings, he asked to go through her phone, which allegedly escelated the situation.

“She got all up in my face. She got physical. I said, ‘Nope. Here’s your phone. The door is there. I’m going to call 9-1-1. Here’s your phone.’

That’s the last day that I saw her. I’ve sent her a letter expressing how I was feeling during the relationship. It lasted too long.”

He claimed that after she told their fellow “Love Island” castmates about the texts and they exposed him on social media “everything came falling down.”

“She makes it seem like this came out of nowhere, like we weren’t having problems,” he claimed, while doubling down on his accusation of “verbal abuse” against Craig.

“You’re not going to treat me like that. I’m done. Because I haven’t treated you like that.”

Rodriguez claimed Craig “took advantage of the trust that we had and used that to destroy me.”

Following the breakup, Rodriguez went back to his home in Dallas. He claimed someone leaked his phone number and he was “receiving 20 FaceTimes a second.”

“All I could see was these messages like, ‘Go kill yourself. You don’t deserve to be here.’”

Craig took to her Instagram Stories following Rodriguez’s interview to dispel her ex’s claims.

“To the person who thought it was a good idea to send me a cease and desist, and then go on a whole ass podcast and make up straight f—king lies, very ballsy of you, how f—king insane!” she said. “But if you want to f—king play, let’s f—king play. I think you should give me permission to drop all the text messages. Why don’t we start there?”

She continued, “I spared you for a whole f—king year. I’ve been minding my business, literally focusing on myself and my blessings, and you thought that was a good idea?”

In her video, Craig also claimed that she was the one who was going to call law enforcement on the night she found the text messages because she felt “threatened” by Rodriguez, not the other way around.

The “Love Island USA” finalists announced their breakup in July 2025 after nearly a year of dating. Rodriguez and Craig both posted their own social media statements confirming the news.

Although neither of them never explicitly shared why they decided to end things, several of Craig’s friends shared cryptic posts on social media leading fans to believe it was racially charged.