Traitors star Maia's life off-screen from wild pregnancy announcement to TikTok fame

BBC's hit show The Traitors is back on our screens, and contestant Maia Gouveia has already caused plenty of drama after betraying her sister at the round table in tense scenes

Since entering The Traitors' castle on day one, Maia Gouveia has already become one of the series' most memorable contestants - but her life off-screen is just as endearing.

Having entered alongside her sister Armani, Maia, 25, proved that she wasn't afraid of turning on her sibling just days into the show when she admitted that she was "60%" sure that her sister was a Traitor.

In a dramatic turn of events, Armani was quickly banished from the castle when her fellow contestants correctly identified her as being a Traitor. But despite successfully figuring out the identity of one of the three original Traitors, it clearly didn’t make it any easier for Maia. As she watched her sister uncover her true identity, the mum-of-one was left in floods of tears as she admitted: “Even though I know she's a Traitor, that's still my sister; she is everything to me, so it felt weird to betray her.”

Away from the castle, Maia is a self-confessed “full-time mum” to her daughter Ava, who is two years old. Prior to entering the castle, the TV personality opened up for her reasons for applying for the reality show and admitted that the cost of raising a child was a factor in her decision.“Second one was the money. My daughter is going to nursery soon and that's expensive. It's like having a mortgage, so that was also a motivator,” she explained.

Maia, from Essex, has amassed more than 26,000 followers on Instagram where she gives fans a peek inside her life as a mum. In one particularly sweet post, The Traitors star reflected on becoming a mum in her twenties. “She makes me the best version of myself, how could I not be happy?,” she wrote.

And over on TikTok, Maia was already a star before entering the gameshow, having secured a whopping 150,000 followers and more than 12 million likes across her videos. Prior to becoming a mum to little Ava, Maia filmed herself doing a pregnancy test while at work and the video has since been seen 2.2 million times. In the clip, she could be seen panting and flapping her hands in shock after seeing the test turn positive. "I have to work now and I just found out," she gasped.

Back in September, Maia also shared the exciting news that she was expecting her second child with partner Alex in similar fashion. After revealing that she’d been “so sad” and “so moody”, Maia’s mouth dropped open in shock as she discovered that she was pregnant again. Joking about the situation, she joked: “I was meant to get wavey with the girls this week” before stating that she needed to get her life “on track”.

Meanwhile, fans of the show would be relieved to know that Maia and sister Armani appear to have made up following their dramatic encounter around the round table. In an interview with This Morning, Armani discussed the moment she was banished and admitted that she knew “it was the end of” her before revealing that the pair had a plan.

“She forgot. She would take one side of the room, I would take the other, and then we could come back and give our information to each other,” she said. The contestant added: “Obviously, I would love my sister to win and then give me back half the money.”