EXCLUSIVE: 'Temptation Island' star David Benavidez reveals his story behind the 'threesome' and what Kate had to say after all this
David Benavidez of ‘Temptation Island’ has been on the left, right and center of the drama on ‘Temptation Island’. He has received a lot of backlash and criticism after engaging in an alleged “threesome” on the show, while his girlfriend was still around. In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), the reality star revealed what exactly happened on the night of “blackout party”, and teased us a bit about what we can expect to see as the show progresses.
David who describes himself as a “laid-back” guy, came on the show with his girlfriend of three years, Kate Griffith. We asked him how he and Kate met and he shared his story with us: “So Kate and I worked at the same software company and just kind of knew each other through other people that we had never met. So, one day on a company trip, I actually got introduced to her by one of her friends and, we met, we hung out that weekend. You know, ever since then, we kinda just been inseparable”.
You’d be surprised to know that David never watched the first season of the show before and it was a friend who had introduced him to this world. Once he saw it, he was hooked and ended up binge-watching the season and finished it in 24 hours. While watching the show, he felt that the issues and troubles the couples were facing resonated strongly with some of the problems Kate and he were facing themselves. He says that Kate had some trust issues with their relationship as both of them cheated in the past, so David’s intention of bringing her on the show was to show her that she could trust him, even when she wasn’t around.
Within the first week, viewers were shown David engaging in a threesome with Payton and Samantha, but the ‘Temptation Island’ contestant swears that it wasn’t a threesome. He gives us his side of the story, “Well, first of all, it wasn't a threesome. I know that that word has been thrown around a lot. Um, that night was a crazy night. I took a shower with Sam, after we left the hot tub. It wasn't anything more than the shower. There was no kissing, there wasn't anything else involved. And then Sam came into my room, and Payton came into my room as well at some point, and Payton and I made out. And then Payton left once I asked her about Casey and where Casey was because obviously she's been interested in Casey and Casey only, up to that point. Then, I fell asleep and woke up the next morning and Samantha left."
"So I never kissed Sam, the entire time of that party, during that party, after that party, whatever. I know on camera it looks a certain way and things can be left open for interpretation, but, you know, from, the person that actually lived through it, that's kind of how everything went down and everything happened.”
He added, “What I told people is like, look if more things happened it would have shown. When it comes to KB and Ashley, you guys saw what exactly happened. Obviously there was sexual things that happened and they showed, it was very clear of what was going on, you know?Then with Ashley and Ben last episode, Ashley said they didn't have sex, but they showed physical things happening that looked like sex. And then, when it comes to my situation with Sam and Payton, like there wasn't anything shown outside of Payton being on top of me and kissing me because there wasn't anything else to show. So, that's my story. And obviously the next day after Sam left, it was a really difficult time for me, and it's reflecting on everything that happened and I just basically felt like the biggest piece of s**t in the world and a complete failure because I just went against everything that I came here to do.”
In case you’re wondering about what happened between Toneata and him in the previous episode, here is your answer. “We didn't kiss and we certainly didn't do anything sexual. It was just more flirting and hugging each other and nothing more than that”, reveals David.
So what did Kate have to say about all of this? “When Kate and I talked at the final bonfire, there were discussions and when we came back from the show, Kate and I were still living together. We still had an apartment together. We had a lot of discussions about it, I think we're both in a good place”.
We were curious to know if given another chance would he have done anything differently on the show. We got a resounding yes from the young star. He shared, “I would totally do things differently. I mean, for one. I would never have put myself in a position where I'm, you know, Toneata is in the hot tub and she's straddling me and my hands are on her ass and all that stuff. I would never do that cause that's disrespectful to, that's disrespectful to our relationship. I certainly would, would never have done any of the things that night of the blackout party.”
When we asked him if he could tease us anything about what we could expect in the coming episodes of this season, he says, “I think a lot of people may have an idea of where storylines are going to go and how things are going to end up. But, you should definitely keep watching because again, starting with this next episode, things are really gonna start to change.”
'Temptation Island' airs every Thursday night only on USA Network. Check your local listings for more information.