VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Love Island’s Will Young On New Book, TikTok Fame & Girlfriend Jessie Wynter

In a new uInterview, Will Young, the Love Island alum, also known as Farmer Will, spoke about his new book on farming and juggling his work, social events and life with his girlfriend, Jessie Wynter.

Young explained to uInterview founder Erik Meers how he started out educating people about farming on TikTok. 

“It’s done a very light-hearted fun way but also it’s got that educational aspect and kind of like the real truths behind farming,” he said.

Young wrote a new book, For The Love Of Farming, so that people could have an additional resource to learn about farming. 

His TikTok journey began during the Covid-19 lockdown when one of his friends encouraged him to start posting his videos publically after sharing them on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

He recalled how after he shared his first video it “got such a fantastic response.” He decided to continue with this as he had discovered a “niche” for these types of videos. 

His TikTok account attracted the attention of the producers of Love Island, who cast him on the reality show. He went on to meet Wynter while filming the series.

He explained that he wasn’t sure what to expect after agreeing to go on the show, as he had never seen the dating series before.

When he first arrived on the set in a South African villa, he experienced a culture shock “because obviously, I was working all the time, 24/7, you know, and then you just stop, and it’s just a sudden stop.”

He wasn’t used to this type of life, leaving him “on edge a little bit, I was like I should be up, I should be out in the fields, I should be doing something, but no you’re just sitting back, relaxing, obviously.”

When he came back from the show, he had to juggle finalizing his book, working 17 hours a day on the farm and helping his girlfriend get used to her new life.

Wynter also experienced a culture shock when being introduced to the farm.

The couple both took a minute to reflect on their decision.

“We were like right is this going to work? Is this what we both want? What do we want? Where do we see ourselves?” he recalled.

Wynter is originally from Tasmania, Australia, which is even more rural than where Young lives.

He recalled how “she came to the farm and she kind of looked at me and my family and she was like, ‘You call this country? You know this isn’t country. You know you’ve got neighbors, you’ve got a road.’” 

Young’s family have been farmers since 1850. When he was 17 years old, he decided that he wanted to work on the farm and explained that “the reason why I am so passionate is it’s all I’ve known kind of like for my whole life.”

He has a 10-year vision for the farm to create a “glamping” – high-end camping – experience for guests. “I want to have a ‘glamp’ on the farm where the public can actually come to the farm, and it’s almost like a day in a life.”

Young also described how it is a challenge to juggle his hectic schedule.

His main goal is “trying not to burn myself out,” which he so far has been successful with.

“It is just keeping the love and keeping the passion and as long as I’m happy, and I’m enjoying it, then it doesn’t really seem like work, to be quite honest,” he explained. 

Young shared that his least favorite job on the farm is fencing, which he describes as “boring.”

He would much rather be feeding the animals, especially at “breakfast time” when “you’ll just have all these different animals almost like poking their heads over the fence or in between the fence waiting for you to go over and get their food and then you dish it out.”

It is his favorite part of the day.

“It just puts you in such a positive mindset just seeing,” he said. “You know, all these lovely animals waggling their tails, enjoying their food sort of thing.”