In an exclusive chat with the Mirror, the 39-year-old reality star, who hit the show earlier this year, found a spark with Olivia Hawkins, but after just ten days, the couple was voted off from the South African location.
Breakup rumours that had been circulating turned out to be well-founded. In an interview with The Bombshell Briefing hosts Lauren Morris and Niamh Kirk, Marcel confirmed that the pair opted for friendship while he focused on sorting out his personal life.
He also confessed that there was pressure on them to stay together following their departure from the villa.
“Me and Liv got to know each other over six or seven days in total, and you leave the villa together and people are expecting and hoping it’s going to turn into something more, but when you get back to reality,” he said.
“I’ve obviously got a lot of stuff going on, she’s got a lot of stuff going on.”
“There was pressure to try and make something work but we both said, ‘Let’s not put pressure on our situation. Let’s just be friends.’ Because we are really good friends, we’ve got a really good bond,” he went on.
“We spent a lot of time in there, we still talk all the time. We just decided that it was best not to put pressure on our situation. We might still meet up and go to the football but we’re not going to create a situation where we’re together and the pressure of that when it doesn’t need to be that just yet.”
As for the possibility of reigniting their romance in the future, Marcel remained open-minded: “We’re just seeing how things go, just because I have so much going on in my personal life.”
He added: “For me, it’s a situation of right person, wrong time. It’s a situation of wanting to focus on things I want to get sorted out first before I dive into another relationship and put more pressure onto life”.
Marcel is currently working through divorce proceedings with his wife of two years, Rebecca Vieira, after learning of her infidelity. They share a four-year-old son, Roman.
Speaking about the fact that he was still technically married when he entered the villa, Marcel said: “Divorce can take a while, but if I’m not with someone and I’m not in a relationship with that person, is it fair for me to be like “oh cool,” I’m not going to do anything for the next year and a half or two years, whatever it is, until my divorce is filed for me to move on and start living my life again?”