Alo, ASOS, Boohoo, Bellamianta, Coca Cola, EGO shoes, Guess, Inglot, Primark, MAC, L’Oreal, Oh Polly, Ann Summers and Victoria’s Secret are just some of the A-Z of major brands that Ballymahon beauty Maura Higgins has worked with on her way to becoming a multi-millionaire.
She may have walked away from The Traitors US without a cent as runner-up, but industry insiders speculate that she could still earn over €5 million this year.
Winner Rob Rausch made amends with Higgins for his deceit by presenting her with a burgundy Birkin Togo 30, on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
She was ecstatic with her Hermes bag but if the predictions about earning capacity post- Traitors are true, then the Birkin may be the first of a large collection – and she’ll be buying the next one herself.
Maura on The Traitors US, on which people fell for her beauty and razor-sharp wit
This year has been unprecedented for the Longford lass as her star has soared in the wake of The Traitors US. The elevated profile from the show has launched a new chapter for her in America, where people have fallen for her beauty, razor-sharp wit and inability to pronounce ‘th’.
Her Instagram profile – which has 4.2 million followers – highlights her dialect with the cheeky observation, ‘I TINK I’m just getting started.’ However, her verbal tic has only endeared her to the American public, who know a star when they see one.
Maura maintains that success hasn’t altered her. In December 2023 she appeared on The Late Late Show and said that while her life had ‘changed beyond recognition’, she could still vividly remember struggling to pay her heating bills just a few years previously.
It’s been quite the rise for the girl who left school at 16 without her Leaving Cert.
She first pursued hairdressing and worked in local salon Halo Hair Design for three years, before taking off to work as a grid girl in Formula 1 and as a ring girl in boxing. Her first taste of fame came when a clip of her drifting a car in Abu Dhabi in a Monster Energy campaign went viral. Even then her ability to command attention was clear.
When Love Island first approached her, she turned them down but on finding out that her boyfriend had been unfaithful, she accepted a second offer and the rest is history. Her act of romantic revenge would prove to be one of the best decisions of her life.
In the summer of 2019, Higgins entered Love Island as a late contestant in the fifth series, in which she made a huge impact with her cheeky personality combined with her forthright opinions.
Maura with Curtis Pritchard, with whom she finished third on Love Island in 2019
She may have pursued Tommy Fury and Curtis Pritchard with her feminine wiles and beauty but was also adept at standing up for herself when the men were less than gentlemanly.
The moment she told Tom Walker to ‘Go f**k yourself’ was pure TV gold and indicative of Maura’s mettle.
She was also frank about her sexuality, coining her signature ‘fanny flutters’ phrase to describe her attraction to a new contestant after a kissing competition. Sexy, funny and forthright, Maura left the other female contestants in the shade with her no-nonsense take on life, fiery retorts and blazing beauty. When she appeared in a Catwoman suit and kissed Curtis passionately, she sent male temperatures soaring. Her mix of flat Irish accent, strong femininity and feisty attitude proved utterly captivating and unique. Reality TV had never seen anything quite like the Ballymahon bombshell before.
An early collaboration with Boohoo after her Love Island stint
Higgins and Pritchard may have only placed fourth in the competition, but Maura was off on an upward trajectory. She had made an impact on TV bosses, revealing herself as an engaging personality who could hold an audience and anchor ratings.
After Love Island she did a documentary, Maura Higgins: You’re Joking Me!, was a panellist on Loose Women and appeared on Dancing On Ice. She subsequently presented the Irish version of Glow Up in 2021 and signed to Elite Model Management the same year. She also competed in Cooking With The Stars in 2022.
Then in 2023 she got a major break when she became a social media presenter for Love Island USA and the spin-off Love Island Games. Her success led to her presenting Love Island USA: Aftersun in 2024 and 2025, and Love Island Games: Aftersun in 2025. She had seamlessly made the transition from contestant to presenting.
‘I’ve got a brain in there,’ she would later state on The Traitors, and she undoubtedly has commercial acumen as well as confidence.
Maura’s participation in I’m A Celebrity: Get Me Out Of Here in 2024 also boosted her profile by highlighting her endearing quirks as well as her admirable grit.
Despite her phobia of spiders, she braved her fears to push through dozens of the eight-legged creatures in a food challenge and also ate disgusting dishes like pig’s eyeballs, goat’s testicle, cow teats and a bull’s penis during a gruesome Teddy Bears’ Picnic alongside the Reverend Richard Coles. When she inadvertently took the Lord’s name in vain in his presence she apologised with a hurried, ‘Sorry, Father.’ Pure Maura.
‘What a woman,’ as her mother declared in a letter afterwards congratulating her daughter on her resilience. To paraphrase, you can take the girl out of Ballymahon, but you cannot take Ballymahon out of the girl.
Maura later described the competition as the ‘best three weeks of my life, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually’ despite being voted off the show with Barry McGuigan.
The series revealed that she is loyal, warm and witty with a core of steel, despite her slim size 6 frame and glamorous image.
In the wake of that show, in June 2025, she was confirmed for the fourth season of The Traitors US, which aired in January and February this year. Maura brought her Irish charm and sparky personality to the cast which included Lisa Rinna, Donna Kelce and Rob Rausch, with whom Higgins had worked on Love Island. The two developed a close bond and resolved to collaborate to win but, as in Maura’s past, she was deceived by a charming rogue.
When Rausch was revealed as a Traitor in the final, Higgins was shocked and speechless. The audience felt for her as she was devastated when Rausch confessed he had been a Traitor from the start.
The betrayal was all the more bitter because there had been a distinct crackle of sexual tension between the pair and Maura could not conceal her distress.
‘Oh my god, I’m so stupid, I was so fooled by you,’ she declared. ‘You absolute a**hole, You pinky promised. You’re some piece of work. I was so convinced. You’ve embarrassed me.’
Despite losing to Rausch in such humiliating fashion, in the long term Maura may prove to be the real winner. Audiences in the US fell for her honesty and resourcefulness, and in The Traitors after-glow, the world is now her pearl.
This is proving to be her best year yet and she will continue her conquest of America. She has been working steadily to raise her profile with a range of appearances.
These include reporting from the Time 100 Next Gala red carpet last October, appearing at the British Fashion Awards in December, attending Paris Haute Couture week, dazzling on the Golden Globes red carpet in January, and dropping on to the front row at the LaQuan Smith fashion show at New York Fashion Week.
Looking stunning on the red carpet in Cannes this week
Just this week she flew to Cannes on a private jet as part of her role as a L’Oréal ambassador, where she has graced the Croisette red carpet with her trademark glam.
Everyone Stateside is sitting up and taking notice as Maura’s dedication to high glamour makes her a very visible presence.
Not surprisingly, this escalating profile has brought more lucrative commercial relationships.
Maura has always been astute at monetising her profile and in the past year has joined L’Oreal as a brand ambassador, signing a six-figure deal in April 2025. In February this year, she announced herself as a Victoria’s Secret partner with a glamorous photoshoot.
She operates through her company, the aptly titled The Flutter Effect Ltd, whose latest accounts to November 2024 show net assets of £9,751 and investments in fixed assets valued at £350,000, though both figures are likely to be vastly increased now.
There are also reports that she is reading scripts for Disney, who see potential roles for her in their projects. Maura is now represented in the US by CAA, a powerhouse agency which represents the industry’s biggest and brightest stars.
While she makes her livelihood as a public figure, Maura posts very little about her personal life on her social media. We have gotten glimpses of her million-plus dream house in Essex – a five-bedroom detached property purchased in late 2024 – on Instagram. She is currently renovating the gated property and documenting the process on an account, wittily titled Casa A’Maura.
She has also revealed treating herself to a new Porsche but about her love life, nothing.
She may be right to be reserved, as she has not had an uneventful romantic life. Her longest relationship was with James Finnegan pre-fame, who she reportedly dated for nine years.
She then dated Curtis Pritchard for nine months after Love Island and subsequently had relationships with Chris Taylor, another Love Island alumni, Strictly’ s Giovanni Pernice and Bobby Holland Hanton, a celebrity stuntman.
She has also been linked to Shane McGuigan (Barry’s son), Kai Widdrington, Joey Essex and Pete Wicks but maintains some are friends, not romances. She has formerly stated to Grazia, ‘There are so many more layers to me than who I am dating.’
She has however been open about her desire for a husband and family, admitting to Paul Carrick Burson, ‘I want a family. I’d love a husband, but I don’t need one. If it doesn’t happen, I am fine.’
She also quipped to him, ‘If I am seen with a man, I’m sleeping with him... watch out.’
Addressing the critics who say that she cannot keep a man, she has countered that there are times she just doesn’t want to.
‘I think it’s quite empowering to know when to walk away and not put up with that s**t. And I just won’t put up with that. Maybe I’ll never have a man because of that. I don’t feel I need one.’
It has not been all glamour – the work and perseverance to crack celebrity culture, especially in America, is not for the faint-hearted. Maura has also been candid about her dark thoughts after her first Love Island stint, telling Paul C Burson she was ‘not mentally ok’ in the glare of her new-found fame. However, in the intervening years she appears to have learnt to cope with the scrutiny, especially as her earning potential has soared.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan last March about the level of commentary her fame brings, she said: ‘They’ll do anything to tear women down and I don’t care. I know who I am.’
She also doesn’t take any of her fame and success for granted, even being christened ‘the most divine woman on television’.
Next up is Dancing With The Stars USA. She has said she would love to reach the finals but as with The Traitors, even if she doesn’t win, participating will be lucrative.
The future looks bright for the determined diva who illustrates that staying true to yourself is the secret to success, despite the detractors and an ongoing inability to master those tricky ‘th’s.