Inside Love Island's Lucie Donlan search for new French Chateau with fiancé Luke Mabbott - 'It's our dream'
Love Island’s Lucie Donlan has opened up on the search for her and fiancé Luke Mabott’s search for a chateau in France. On their YouTube channel, titled The Cornish Chapel, the pair are currently house hunting for their French home. Their upcoming episode shows all the ups and downs house hunting has, as they try to find the perfect property.
"It's always been our dream to buy a chateau in France," she said. "We've been working hard renovating our chapel, and while it is a lot of hard work, we can see it paying off, so we'd love to use all the skills and things we have learned along the way and put that into a new project in France."
Lucie continued: "You will see us literally jump into a campervan and travel around different regions looking for the perfect chateau. There were so many beautiful houses to choose from. You will see the good bits, but also the harder bits, and the tough and emotional decisions that come with buying a house. Did we find our dream home? You will have to keep watching to find out!"
READ MORE: Love Island's Faye Winter heartbroken as beloved dog dies saying 'no one could have prepared me'
READ MORE: WAGs night out as Sasha Attwood and Megan Pickford enjoy lavish festive trip with £500 caviar
The pair are both into their property renovating and with the search for their Chateau, they show no signs of stopping. Earlier this year, they also purchased a chapel ahead of their wedding.
Plumber Luke and his electrician brother Liam, who work together under their Brotherhood Properties business banner, recently purchased a chapel in Newquay with a view to modernising it into an open-plan house over the coming months.
Lucie, who campaigned to save her local Whipsiderry Beach from luxury home developers last March, will step up as the interior decorator once the heavy duty tasks have been completed.
"It's a gorgeous 144-year-old building, steeped in history," the 25-year-old said as they got to work.
"I can't wait to get my hands dirty and bring this beautiful, historic Cornish building back to life. Doing DIY and renovations together is something we both love and enjoy. This is a real passion project for us and this particular one is so different from the cottage! We can't wait!"
Her 28-year-old fiancé added: "Lucie and I have a massive passion for DIY and renovation, and restoring this stunning building will be an incredible opportunity for all three of us. It's quite surreal to buy a chapel with my brother, but it’s an amazing property and we can’t wait to get stuck in."
It doesn't stop there, as back in August 2023, the couple's TikTok clips showed off an incredible transformed garden at their cottage. The search for their Chateau is their third property project.
Luke and Lucie met after both starring on Love Island at different times. Lucie appeared on series five, alongside the likes of Molly-Mae Hague and Maura Higgins, while Luke starred on the first winter edition of the ITV2 show.
In June 2020, Luke and Lucie enjoyed their first dates together after the blonde beauty slid into his DMs. Less than one month later, the pair went Instagram official. They soon moved in together and in December 2021, Luke proposed to Lucie during a romantic getaway to Finland.
Luke has previously admitted that he fell in love with Lucie at first sight but was "well nervous" when he met her.
During an Instagram Q&A, he told his followers: "I remember the first time I met her I was well nervous and thought f**k it, so as soon as I saw her I just kissed her before we even said hi [laughing emoji]."
