Maura Higgins breaks I'm a Celeb silence with hungover admission and potty mouth warning

When it comes to preparing for three weeks of jungle-life, many campers choose to swear off alcohol.

But not so for Love Island star Maura Higgins. Jetting straight into Australia following a boozy blow-out in Las Vegas, she is clearly feeling the after-effects. "Honestly, I'm not good….I feel like I'm in The Hangover, I've even got the shakes," she laughs in an exclusive chat with The Mirror.

"I have no clue what time it is, I don't know where I am. In fact, I've done the opposite of preparing myself [for the jungle]. I've tried not to think about it, because when I think about it, I get so much anxiety."

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Maura can be forgiven for her unconventional pre-Jungle prep. She will become only the second ever Love Islander after Olivia Attwood to appear on the ITV show…and the Irishwoman is determined to fly the flag for the show’s former contestants.

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

She says her mum was left flabbergasted when she told her she’d signed up for the Jungle. "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," she says. She refused to camp even at festivals. "I'm always like, 'no, get me back to a hotel,’" she laughs.

Trials, too, sound like they could be somewhat of a struggle. "If spiders go over the top of my head, I might just die," she says. "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'." When Maura burst onto our screens in 2019, it’s fair to say she ruffled her fair share of feathers in the Love Island villa.

So what can we expect when she enters the camp alongside Rev Richard Coles as one of the late arrivals? "It's been five years and I think I've matured, but I still have a potty mouth," she explains. "I'm still the same kind of girl but I'm not going to go in and annihilate anyone. However, if someone gets on my nerves, I'm not really one to hold it in. I do speak my mind. If someone patronised me, I get really irritated. Like, that's one thing that really drives me mad."

Maura will arrive in camp amid fervent speculation she is dating Strictly star Pete Wicks, with the pair having been spotted kissing at the Pride of Britain Awards last month. Asked if she had been on a date with Pete, she replies coyly: "I mean, I've been on a date with many people."

But she is keen to play the relationship firmly down. "I'm not [dating]. Where have you heard that? I date but I'm very much single," she says. "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."

Unlike Love Island, where contestants are dolled up to the nines, Maura says she is relishing the prospect of proceedings being "proper stripped back." "I've not even got my brows done…I've not done anything," she says. "I cannot wait to just not have to get up and put makeup on and care about it, because it's not that type of show. Like, you're not really in there to look good, are you?"

She is also enjoying the prospect of a digital detox. "I never care about my phone really. Like, even on Love Island, a lot of the Islanders were complaining about missing their phone. I was like, 'I'm loving not having my phone'."

ITV bosses will be hoping that her late introduction will invariably upset the equilibrium in the camp - leading to conflict. But Maura is hopeful she will fit in just fine - and is looking forward to learning all about Coleen Rooney ’s Wagatha Christie exploits. "I want to talk to her about that....I'm bit nosy like that," she says. "I would do the exact same and put up something on my story and just have certain people view it to catch that person out. That is the way my brain would work."

There is one part of jungle life that she is distinctly nonplussed about….the jungle shower. "I mean I'd probably fall over and break my leg. Like, that's what will happen to me. I've packed my bikinis, but I haven't really thought much about it. I'm a bit worried about that water being freezing cold. I hate cold water, so I could be the girl that doesn't shower the whole time."

Asked if she was worried about putting her foot in it, she says anything can happen. "I talk a lot, so I struggle with that. Like, I don't really think before I speak a lot of the time. So God knows what I want I am going to say," she says. But she is unconcerned if viewers don’t take to her.

"It just doesn't bother me. I actually just find it funny. Like, I'll screenshot bad comments and put them in my group chat and we just have a laugh about that." Finally, I ask what she hopes people will take from her jungle stint. "They will learn that I can be quite soft...I'm not just this hardcore girl, 24/7. I do have a big heart, so I hope they see that."

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