THE former girlfriend of reality TV star Joey Essex dumped him after he spent a wild night out with Rita Ora, we can reveal.
Lorena Medina, 28, said the pair had a furious bust-up after he was snapped entering singer Rita’s home in the early hours of the morning.
He was holed up for 13 hours in her mansion after the pair had tried to avoid being seen together by taking separate cars between venues. Lorena initially suspected her man of cheating.
There is no suggestion Joey slept with the Hot Right Now singer but Lorena has not spoken to him since the row which prompted them to agree to end their romance.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “He was the love of my life. I was ready to have children with Joey. We talked about marriage almost every day.”
Mexican Lorena fell for former Towie favourite Joey, 29, while filming MTV show Ex On The Beach in Spain last summer.
She said: “We were both crazy and passionate. I fell in love with him and moved to England right after the show. It was the craziest thing I have ever done.”
‘FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM’
She moved into his home in Chigwell, Essex, last September and said the couple were inseparable.
She said: “We were so lovey- dovey and relaxed at first. He is silly and makes me laugh. We’d watch his shows because I didn’t know who he was.
“We’d watch re-runs of Towie and Educating Joey Essex. I liked them.”
“I struggled to understand him. He uses slang like ‘reem’. He would say, ‘Baby, you look reem’. I would say, ‘What does that mean?’”
Model and singer Lorena said they soon realised they “didn’t really know each other”.
Lorena said she missed her homeland’s warm weather and friends and felt isolated in Joey’s home as she waited long hours alone for him to return from work.
She told how the pair had their first big fall-out on Valentine’s Day during a holiday in Turkey. She said: “We were a little drunk and I did a little five-second lap dance for him. He got very upset.
“He said, ‘Why would you do that? The woman I marry would not do that.’ I told him, ‘I’m dancing for you, you’re my man. We’re having fun’. Then I said, ‘My ex-boyfriends would have been like, ‘Wow, that’s so hot.’ He got mad.
“He said: ‘You know what, get back with them.’ The worst thing is I’m pretty sure he was going to propose.
“He had set up a photographer and his best friend was going to come down with something that night, I don’t know what.
Joey didn’t tell me it was a girl and he didn’t mention Rita Ora
“He told me, ‘You’ve ruined it. It was going to be so special. This was going to bring us together forever.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘You’ve ruined it’.”
Joey and Lorena agreed that she would move back to LA to resume her Playboy modelling career but they continued seeing each other weekly despite the 11-hour flight.
She said she found him increasingly jealous and insecure.
Speaking from a female friend’s flat in Hawaii, she said: “I’m Mexican and we are very welcoming, touchy and affectionate with everybody, not just my boyfriend.
“For him that was suspicious and I think that, like most guys I have dated, I was too wild for him.
“He was asking about my exes and if they were contacting me and yes they were, so he got upset.”
On March 6, Joey told Lorena he was going out with a friend but did not say it was Rita.
The pair partied at central London club Laylow before heading to her home in upmarket Holland Park, West London, at 4am.
The next day he was seen emerging with Rita and pals. Devastated Lorena only found out he had been with Rita when she saw pictures in The Sun the next day.
She said: “I knew Joey had spent the night out because I had talked to him when he was in the cab on the way back to Essex.
‘I WAS TOO WILD FOR HIM’
“He told me, ‘I had a crazy night and I stayed at my friend’s’ and that was fine. But he didn’t tell me it was a girl and he didn’t mention Rita Ora. I told Joey, ‘This s*** can’t happen. Are you crazy?
“How would you feel if I spent the night with some guy?’ I was very upset and was like ‘F*** this. I don’t trust you. I don’t trust what you are saying’.
“We were crying, screaming and hanging up the phone so much I got eczema all over my body. “I didn’t want to speak to Rita and I don’t hate her.
“I respect her, she is super-talented. But after that Joey and I decided it was best if we didn’t talk any more.
“We said goodbye and agreed we were hurting each other too much and that it was time to end it and I haven’t spoken to him since.”
She said she now accepted Joey did not cheat but insisted she was right to be suspicious. Joey was quick to deny anything happened with Rita.
In a previous interview, he said: “We have known each other for years. She’s a nice girl but we’re just friends.”
How To Be Lonely star Rita, who has previously dated singers Calvin Harris, 36, and James Arthur, 32, later admitted to being obsessed with Joey.
But she added: “It’s insane. Why can’t people be friends? Honestly, it’s annoying.”
Joey, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the stars of Channel 4 show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
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In it celebrities are put through their paces by former special forces experts. Lorena said: “I cannot watch Joey on television right now because it is too painful.
“I’ve been crying into my pillow thinking about the future we were supposed to have together and how it has all been taken away.”
