Wisconsin's Carmen Kocourek discusses her magical 'Love Island USA' season 5 experience with boyfriend Kenzo Nudo

Disneyland was the perfect spot for Carmen Kocourek and Kenzo Nudo to visit first after returning from "Love Island USA."

After all, the Wisconsin woman and the former college basketball player from Arizona had a fairytale summer romance on the popular reality TV show, which featured more than 30 singles this season searching for love.

Kocourek, a 2019 Franklin High School graduate, and Nudo found it with each other almost immediately and never looked back, avoiding eliminations and temptations to make the finals where they took fourth place in a fan vote.

"Magical," Nudo said about the experience with Kocourek.

They're now looking ahead to forming a deeper connection outside the Fijian villa.

That includes while they're in Wisconsin. They've been enjoying the late summer here this week with visits to the Milwaukee Public Market and stops in the Third Ward and Harley-Davidson Museum. And Kocourek will give Nudo a full Wisconsin experience by taking him to a frozen custard shop.

There's not an ocean view that they had while filming season 5 of "Love Island USA" that they woke up to every day, but that doesn't appear to matter for these two. As long as they're together, they say, that's what's important.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught up with Kocourek and Nudo while they were here — both live in Scottsdale, Arizona — to discuss their "Love Island USA" experience, those "crazy" rumors about their relationship and what's next for them.

Here are some takeaways from the conversation, or chat, as true "Love Island USA" fans would call it.

Carmen and Kenzo almost never had the chance to meet on 'Love Island USA'

Their love story almost never happened.

Kocourek's journey on the show had been "tumultuous" during her first couple weeks before Nudo entered the villa. The 22-year-old bartender had been in a couple with 28-year-old Victor Gonzalez but it was heavy on drama and wasn't working. The viewers didn't connect with them as well since they received the fewest votes in a fan vote.

That meant one of them would leave the villa and their time on "Love Island USA" would be over after just eight days. Their fellow islanders, however, picked Kocourek to stay over Gonzalez. She was single now but it wouldn't be for long as Nudo, 26, would join the villa two days later as a surprise bombshell.

"I really have this belief if, somehow I get to stay, it's going to be for a reason," Kocourek remembered thinking the night of the "dumping" ceremony. "I'm such a big believer in fate and the universe and everything working out for a reason. So I really was like, 'I'm going to leave it in fate's hands and, if I'm lucky enough to stay, I'm going to make the most of staying and there's going to be a purpose for me staying.'"

Nudo coming in was "fate and the universe" bringing him to her, Kocourek felt.

Carmen and Kenzo also almost didn't even go on 'Love Island USA'

While Kocourek was a fan of the show beforehand, her summer plans initially didn't even include "Love Island USA." She said she planned on going backpacking across Europe.

Nudo, meanwhile, wasn't into reality TV and planned on going to Italy, where he has family.

"It was very last-minute to give up our summer plans to come," Kocourek said, adding that contestants don't even know if they'll get into the villa, when they'll enter or if they'll find someone.

Nudo added that it turns out, after finding love, he's "very happy" he went on the show, even though he felt "sooner or later, I think we would have met."

Carmen says she feels she has in Kenzo what her parents have in each other

Throughout the season, Kocourek frequently referenced her parents' marriage as something that's representative to her for what "healthy love" looks like.

"(My parents) just love and respect each other so much," Kocourek reiterated this week. "They just really complement each other so well. My mom would always be like, 'You know when you know.'"

Kocourek knew she had that with Nudo despite describing herself as a "slow burn" with relationships in the past.

"It was just the presence that I needed made me so comfortable," she said of Nudo. "I just liked him so much, it wasn't worth being a slow burn over."

The fast connection did surprise her, she admitted, but then she "dove head-first once I realized how good I felt about it."

Since leaving the show, the two have already have met each others' families and have their support. Nudo said Kocourek's parents "welcomed me in with open arms."

Carmen and Kenzo set the record straight on their relationship

But as Kocourek and Nudo were forming their deep bond in Fiji, there were rumors circulating online that the two might have known each other before the show and may have been a couple already. Yes, they both worked out at the same gym in Scottsdale at one point, something the conspiracy theorists latched onto, but the two told the Journal Sentinel they actually talked about that in Fiji (that conversation was never aired) and how their paths never crossed.

Kocourek and Nudo are here to set the record straight: They did not know each other before the show.

"No," both of them said.

"There's nothing we can honesty do," Nudo added. "We didn't know each other. For them to think that and still keep thinking that I don't know where they're coming up with all this stuff, but we're alright."

Not knowing any of this internet chatter was going on, since filming happened in near real time, the two were shocked to learn this was taking place online. They also aren't letting it ruin their experience.

"But yeah, no, I don't really take the hard comments personally," Nudo said. "I know what we have going."

Kocourek added: "It was wild to come out and see all those rumors. We weren't expecting that."

Carmen and Kenzo are still getting used to the fame that 'Love Island USA' has brought them

When you're on a reality TV show for over a month, especially one that airs nearly every day of the week, you suddenly become known.

Your social media following grows and, when you're out in public, you likely can't blend in as much, at least for the time being.

Kocourek said it's "definitely" been an adjustment getting back to normal life.

"Even when we were in Disney or Universal (after returning to the U.S.), every once in a while, people would yell out our name or ask for a picture," Kocourek said. "It was just not something any of us really expected. Like, we knew people watched the show but we didn't know it was going to be to the extent. Even we got off the plane in Milwaukee and literally the first thing that happened was, like, this group of high school boys was like, 'Oh my God, congrats.' It just feels weird.

"It's one thing for it to happen in L.A. but to have it in the Milwaukee airport was a little funny because I've been there so many times."

People also learn interesting details about you since the cameras are almost always rolling — like when Nudo told Kocourek during a chat that he wants one of his future kids' names to be Achilles.

"To come out and everybody to know that, too, and for the whole world to know is kind of crazy," Nudo said.

Carmen and Kenzo didn't win 'Love Island USA' but that didn't matter

A $100,000 cash prize was attached to the winner after a fan vote between the four finalists, but that became secondary for the two. They had already found each other, so the money would have been just a bonus.

"Honestly, all of the couples, we really forgot there was like a prize," said Kocourek, who explained she also formed strong friendships in the villa, including several "brother-sister" type of bonds. "All the couples deserved to be there. Whoever won we would have been happy for."

Since Kocourek and Nudo probably had the least drama — they successfully overcame their one disagreement in the villa late in the season — or "story arc" compared to the other finalists from an entertainment perspective, fourth place wasn't a surprise to them.

"When she became my girlfriend I could have left there," Nudo said. "It was my prize."

That marriage talk between Carmen and Kenzo in the season finale was real

Kocourek and Nudo fell so hard for each other that there was even some marriage chatter toward the end of the season.

Was that overblown in the edit? Not at all.

Nudo said "the only date that will top (what they had in the season finale) will be when I ask her to marry me."

He said he would even like to return to Fiji to do it since that's where they had so many memorable moments already as a couple.

"We both see all the little signs that brought us together. We feel like it's fate and it's meant to be," he said. "We're excited for our future together."

After their time in Wisconsin, the two will return to Arizona and continue building what they formed in Fiji.

Kocourek said they joke about marriage "because we know it's going to happen someday."