Love Island Champion Displaced After Sinkhole Emerges on Driveway

A victor from Love Island has described the “strange, unusual, crazy” incident of a large sinkhole appearing on his driveway, likening it to a scene “like we were in a movie”. Liam Reardon, who secured victory in the 2021 season of the ITV reality program alongside his girlfriend Millie Court, has disclosed that the sinkhole emerged directly in front of the residence he shared with his family as a rental property. Approximately 30 residences in Merthyr Tydfil were evacuated on 1 December, with certain occupants relocated to hotels and others finding accommodation with family members. Efforts to stabilise the sinkhole are currently underway in Nant Morlais, situated within the Pant area of the town, and the timeline for residents’ return to their homes remains uncertain. During an appearance on the couple’s podcast, he stated: “It’s gone viral on TikTok and everyone’s commenting, speculating what they think it is. “Some people think it’s aliens. I’m reading it and it’s just weird because it’s outside my front door.” The Reardon family had taken up residence in the property approximately two months prior, following the sale of their previous family home. Liam recounted traversing the specific area where the cavity subsequently formed on Saturday morning. He recounted: “We got a call at 2 o’clock in the afternoon saying we had a small sinkhole at the end of our drive. From there, it progressively got worse and worse throughout the evening,” “We were in the house Sunday morning, having breakfast. The neighbours were out on the street, we had highway maintenance and engineers and stuff, all in our street,” he continued. He further described: “Then all of a sudden, our front gates and our front wall just disappeared into the hole. Our driveway started eating away.” “So then everyone’s on the street [shouting] ‘get out of the house, get out of the house’. I’m having a cup of tea now, a cup of coffee, my yoghurt, my eggs, and the driveway’s just falling away,” he added. “We could hear the thumping of the ground just disappearing. It was like we were in a movie,” he concluded this part of his account. He mentioned that they were compelled to “pack a case quickly and evacuate the house” and have since been unable to re-enter. “Luckily, none of us are injured… but it’s a big inconvenience,” he commented. He also stated: “It’s the run-up to Christmas, we are virtually homeless.” “Our dogs Dolly and Otis, they don’t know what’s happening, they don’t know if they’re coming or going,” he expressed concerning his pets. “We’ve been there a couple of months and they’ve kind of got used to that place and now we’ve had to move out and we’re in this random AirBnB and the dogs don’t know where they are again,” he elaborated. He concluded: “Reality is, we’re out of our home, we don’t have a home now to live in.” Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.