From Love Islanders to Marvel hero, Maura Higgins’ relationship history is stacked beyond belief

Maura Higgins is that girl; she not only has some of the most quotable lines in Love Island history but also a flourishing dating life with some of the UK’s hottest men.

Most of us were first introduced to Maura Higgins on season five of Love Island where she enthralled audiences with her Irish accent, killer fits, and quick wit. She ultimately came in fourth place with her partner Curtis Pritchard. After bouts on Dancing on Ice, Loose Women, and later the host of Love Island USA, Maura is back on our screens once again on this year’s I’m A Celeb following a busy few weeks.

As a late arrival to the show, Maura joined the I’m A Celeb cast on Friday night alongside Reverend Richard Coles. Though I’m undoubtedly thrilled to see her face on my TV again, the men in her past might feel differently.

1. Shane McGuigan

Before she joined the Love Island cast in 2019, Maura worked as a ring girl for William Hill and Monster where she came to know the Shane, the son of her I’m A Celeb costar Barry McGuigan. What began at the David Haye vs Tony Bellew rematch at London’s O2 Arena turned into a relationship, but it’s not immediately clear how long it lasted or how serious it was.

Though we might get the inside scoop in the Jungle, chances of a rekindling are slim because Shane is now engaged and has two kids.

2. Curtis Pritchard

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Curtis Pritchard and his brother AJ have become familiar faces on social media memes, with people often questioning how a “punching” Curtis let Maura get away. They first met on season five of Love Island where fellow contestant Amy Hart confessed to being in love with Curtis, something that is still constantly referenced on Twitter.

Though Amber Gill and Greg O’Shea won the competition, Maura and Curtis arrived back in the UK as loved up as ever. Over the coming months, the couple swatted away breakup rumours with adoring Instagram posts as their fellow castmates fell to scandal, cheating, and subsequent splits.

As you might have gathered from Curtis’ placement on the list, their relationship did not last.

“Curtis and I have made the decision to separate,” Maura told her followers in 2020. “We enjoyed a great experience from our time in the villa and want to thank everyone for supporting our relationship. There is no easy way to get through a break up and no bad feeling on either side. We tried to make it work but it wasn’t to be, and I wish Curtis nothing but the best for the future.”

At the time, Maura said she couldn’t see a future with Curtis as rumours spiralled of his scandalous cheating.

3. Chris Taylor

Hot off the back of her relationship with Curtis, Maura Higgins kept it in the Love Island family as she hooked up with fellow contestant Chris Taylor. In a tale as old as time, the close friendship evolved into something more and they soon enough became reality TV’s hottest couple.

“Obviously there was a lot of press about us for so long but we were genuinely just friends, nothing had ever happened – we hadn’t even kissed. I started going on dates again and everything,” she told the Mail Online. “I honestly never thought Chris was into me at all. I even asked him: ‘Did you fancy me in Love Island or what’s the story?’ He said he did, but when he asked me I told him, ‘no I didn’t fancy you at all!’”

Despite featuring heavily in one another’s social media feeds, both Chris and Maura maintained that it was only a close friendship. That changed in November 2020 as they confessed to falling in love. Many of us believed that Chris and Maura were endgame, which made their May 2021 split that much more devastating.

“We are both still on very good terms and this was a mutual decision where nobody had done anything wrong,” Chris wrote at the time. “We will remain friends, as we have been since day one and I will always be in Maura’s corner and have her back. We are both going through a tough time with this at the moment, so please take any speculation with a metric tonne of salt, cos this is the only truth (and as always trolls can kindly f*** off). Thank you for all the love and support you’ve given us, it’s been truly appreciated.”

4. Giovanni Pernice

Maura returned to her roots following the Chris romance, those roots being a professional dancer in the form of Strictly Come Dancing’s Giovanni Pernice. The two enjoyed one another’s company for months before going Instagram official in July 2021.

Giovanni and Maura engaged in an almost cringe-inducing relationship that sparked countless cheesy love confessions like the former posting the lyrics to Bruno Mars’ Just The Way You Are. It looked like an engagement announcement was incoming, according to sources close to the couple, but those rumours were disintegrated in October 2021 when they deleted all evidence of their relationship from Instagram.

“It’s all over for now. Maura’s absolutely devastated, it appears the Strictly curse has struck again,” a source told The Sun. “Maura didn’t see this coming and is finding it very difficult to come to terms with. She genuinely thought Gio was the one.”

The breakup was particularly hard for Maura, though she might count herself lucky with all the scandal currently surrounding Giovanni.

5. Joey Essex

As you will soon realise, kissing reality TV stars at the Pride of Britain Awards has sort of become Maura Higgins’ go-to move. In 2022, the lucky fella was noneother than TOWIE’s Joey Essex who has quite a relationship history of his own.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Maura and Joey’s fling was just that, a fling.

6. Bobby Holland Hanton

Maura Higgins’ most recent long-term relationship was with stuntman to the stars Bobby Holland Hanton, whose name would have undoubtedly been brilliant in Maura’s Irish twang. Bobby is undoubtedly Maura’s most successful ex, having stepped in for the likes of Chris Hemsworth in various action-packed Avengers projects.

Though their relationship was considerably more private than Maura’s previous boyfriends, they were pictured on holidays like Ibiza, Lapland, and the Maldives whilst also featuring heavily on one another’s Instagram pages. After just a year together, the couple called it quits, as a source told The Sun: “It was really fun for a while. But they’re different people. It’s over between them.”

7. Pete Wicks

@maurahiggins

A few concussions later… #fyp

♬ original sound – DWTS.Brookes.favs

Most recently, Maura was connected to Pete Wicks, who is currently doing his best on Strictly Come Dancing with partner Jowita Przystal. Despite sharing some public snogs and enjoying one another’s companies at hot London locales, Maura set the record straight before joining the 2024 I’m A Celeb cast.

“I mean, I’ve been on a date with many people,” she told The Mirror. “I’m not [dating]. Where have you heard that? I date but I’m very much single. Honestly, I just think the interest in my dating life is so boring. People go on dates. Like everyone goes on dates, but then it suddenly becomes that I am in a relationship with this person, or that person.”

Featured Image: Instagram/Maura Higgins & YouTube/Love Island