Maura Higgins ‘doesn’t want to let people down’ as she enters I’m A Celebrity as a latecomer

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here returned to our screens last weekend (Sunday 17 November) and has seen the likes of TikTok influencer GK Barry, WAG Coleen Rooney and former boxer Barry McGuigan survive in the Australian jungle.

Tonight, former Love Island star Maura Higgins, 33, is joining the crew in the jungle alongside writer and presenter Rev Richard Cole.

Maura rose to fame on the fifth series of Love Island in 2019, alongside Molly Mae and Tommy Fury, where she coupled up with Curtis Pritchard who she dated for eight months after the show.

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Ahead of joining the hit ITV show, Maura went to Las Vegas for a big trip and avoided thinking about entering the jungle.

She told the Daily Mirror: “I've done the opposite of preparing myself. I've tried not to think about it, because when I think about it, I get so much anxiety.

"I just don't want to let people down, because everyone's been DMing me, saying 'Oh my God, I hope you're doing the show.’

"I don't want to back out of the trials and be the biggest wimp in the camp."

Maura, who will celebrate her 34th birthday in the jungle on Monday 25 November, will be the second former Love Islander to participate in I’m A Celeb after Olivia Attwood in 2022.

The Irish star claimed that even her mum was shocked she had agreed to go down under for ITV’s biggest challenge.

She said: "She nearly died. She went: 'Maura, how are you going to do that?’ She is baffled as I'm more of an indoor girl…I like my hotels. I've never slept outside.

"If spiders go over the top of my head, I might just die. I'm not a nervous person at all. I don't get anxiety. But for this show, when I think about it, I'm like, 'Oh God'”

Before entering Love Island in 2019, Maura worked as a model and ring girl for several professional boxers including Anthony Joshua.

Other contestants on ITV I’m A Celeb include N-Dubz star Tulisa, professional dancer Oti Mabuse and Loose Woman Jane Moore.

Episodes of I'm A Celeb are broadcast at 9 pm every day on ITV1 and ITVX.