Maura Higgins is notoriously tight-lipped about her love life – despite rising to fame on Love Island in 2019 aka series five. However, she let her guard down briefly last week during an episode of I’m A Celebrity when she opened up about her rumoured romance with Strictly Come Dancing’s Pete Wicks.
Maura, 34 – whose famous exes include Giovanni Pernice, 34, and Curtis Pritchard, 28 – told fellow campmate GK Barry, 25, that although she’d been papped ‘with her tongue down’ the TOWIE bad boy’s neck, she’s still very much single, claiming, ‘People can date and not be in a relationship… What’s the point in getting involved too soon when you just don’t know where it’s going to go?’
And now a source tells heat that while Maura does have strong feelings for Pete, she’s trying to protect herself as she’s been burned before.
‘Maura’s had her heart broken by guys in the past – she has a habit of falling hard and fast for people. That’s why, despite the fact she really likes Pete, she has been careful not to commit too fast this time,’ we’re told.
The reality stars first sparked romance rumours when they were spotted having lunch together back in August. They were seen together again at the end of October, getting cosy at a Pride Of Britain Awards after-party, and Pete was then photographed leaving Maura’s Essex home on his 36th birthday a week later.
Although it’s Pete’s sizzling chemistry with his Strictly pro partner Jowita Przystał, 30, that have been grabbing the headlines of late, it seems that it’s his long-time acquaintance Maura who has really won him over. The Irish star indirectly confirmed that there was something going on with Pete when she admitted in the jungle, ‘It does [feel different this time], but then is it because we've known each other for a long time?’
Maura may be keeping her cards close to her chest for now, but our source says that she has hope for the future now she’s out of the jungle.
We’re told, ‘She went to Australia determined not to talk about Pete, which is probably why she’s not even referred to him by name. But she does hope they can be together and Pete seems to want that, too. He’s not been one for settling down in the past, but things seem different this time.’
