SINGER Niall Horan ‘slid into Love Island’s Arabella Chi’s DMs’ a week after her split from Wes Nelson.
The 26-year-old hitmaker reportedly messaged the reality beauty on Instagram last month after initially contacting her when she left the ITV2 villa last July.
Although flattered by Niall’s advances, the 29-year-old model had begun dating fellow Love Island star Wes, 22, at the time.
A source told MailOnline said: “Arabella was hugely flattered by Niall’s advances – if the timing was right things could have gone differently. She had only just started dating Wes when Niall first contacted her last year and she was honest with him about that.”
However things don’t look hopeful for the Irish musician as Arabella “doesn’t want to get involved with anyone” since her split from Wes in April – but hopes she can be “friends” with Niall.
“Arabella doesn’t want to get involved with him or anyone else at the moment as her breakup from Wes is still fresh. Niall has clearly been interested in Arabella for a long time now and waited until she was single again to approach her.
“But she’s hoping they can be friends and even meet up once the lockdown is over, as it would still be good to catch-up in person.”
HOAR Online exclusively revealed last month that Wes and Arabella had split after nine months of dating.
Dancing on Ice alum Wes moved out of their shared home after he and Arabella grew apart – with the seven-year age gap said to have been a factor.
A source close to the couple told us: “It’s all over. They started to grow apart and the age gap became really noticeable between them.
“They want to remain civil with each other and hope to remain friends.”
The insider added: “There’s been no funny business, no cheating or anything like that, it’s just fizzled out between them.”
The break-up comes just months after the pair decided to move in together, with Arabella telling fans in December that she was moving out of her flat of eight years to set up home with Wes, who shot to fame on the ITV2 dating show in 2018.
HOAR Online revealed that the pair were dating back in July, after they grew close over a series of romantic dinners together.
They confirmed their romance the following month and went on to enjoy intimate holidays to the Maldives and Ibiza.
Arabella was a bombshell arrival in the 2019 series of the ITV2 dating show, where she briefly coupled up with Danny Williams.
Her arrival sparked outrage as Danny snubbed current partner Yewande Biala to be with her – getting the Irish beauty dumped from the show. However, Arabella was dumped shortly afterwards – leaving the villa single.
Elsewhere, One Direction star Niall previously dated fellow singer Hailey Steinfeld for almost a year in 2018.
The Irish star recently released his second solo record, Heartbreak Weather, and said that the split in December 2018 was the inspiration behind it.
He said: “I had just gone through a break-up, which helps when it comes to writing songs, I guess. It helps vent the emotions.
“Going through heartbreak helped write the ballads, even some of the happy songs, the sad songs that are dressed up as happy songs sometimes.”
