From Longford to LA: The rise of Maura Higgins

As Maura Higgins prepares to take to the Dancing with the Stars ballroom in LA, Evelyn O'Rourke looks at how a one-week Love Island gamble became an international media career.

"I said to mammy, I’ll be home in a week."

When Maura Higgins packed her bags to head into the Love Island villa in 2019, she thought it would be a one-week wonder.

Instead, it became the TV appearance that changed her life.

Born and raised in Ballymahon in Longford, the rise and rise of one of Ireland’s biggest media stars has all happened in a head-spinning seven years, and there were no nepo-baby connections to help her get there.

This week, Higgins will take her next steps towards conquering the entertainment industry as she shimmies out on the shiniest stage in America.

She has been paired with Mark Ballas (son of Shirley Ballas, judge on the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing) to dance her glittery socks off on the ABC juggernaut Dancing with the Stars, season 35. The series is an audience and online hit, with last season’s finale drawing 9.24 million viewers across ABC and Disney+.

With social media sites buzzing about her appearance on the show, and many social posts featuring her behind-the-scenes antics with her endlessly patient partner, whom she calls "MAAAAAARK" in her fabulous Longford tones, she is clearly mining this opportunity for all its glittering worth.

If she can make a splash on this show, her career will take yet another massive leap.

She has already ticked off a number of career highs at this stage, not least being named on the TIME100 Creators list for 2026.

Have no doubt, the 35-year-old fashion influencer, model, presenter and reality show star, with 4.3 million followers on Instagram alone, is a serious businesswoman, with estimates of her net worth around €5 million.

With a new Disney+ reboot of Blind Date coming to screen in 2027, Maura Higgins has stormed her way through the notoriously tricky global media landscape.

The clues to her success lie in her screen presence, where she comes across as relatable, funny, disarmingly honest, smart and authentic, the key word to media success these days.

While her rise has been stratospheric, it began humbly with a message.

"I think it was on Instagram, looking for Monster Energy girls…" she explained in a 2024 interview with Paul C. Brunson on his We Need to Talk podcast.

She answered the message and so the Higgins machine cranked up into gear.

But the IRL story of Maura Higgins began in a familiar Irish way.

She was born to parents Sharon and Seamus Higgins on 25 November 1990, the youngest of four siblings.

She grew up attending the local primary school, Forgney National School, and headed on to Ballymahon Vocational School for her secondary education.

Leaving school at 16, she was set on becoming a hairdresser, went to training college and followed that with apprenticeships in salons, "where I was sweeping the floor and making the coffee and I loved it at the beginning, starting off doing the odd blow-dry," she recalled.

For years, the expected plan was for her to build her own clientele and eventually open her own salon in Ballymahon, but she had started to dream of a bigger adventure.

"I did the hairdressing, and then I was getting a bit bored," she said.

The Monster Energy brand was looking for models to promote it, and the opportunities for travel and excitement sparked something in the young Higgins.

"I was like, 'imagine being a Monster girl, you’d get to travel around the world.’" Initially reluctant to try out, she decided to do the trial and "I loved everything about it. They sent an email the day after saying we’d love you to join the team."

She signed up, eventually quitting the day job and hitting the road.

"I loved it," she recalled, explaining how "I met so many people, I travelled the world and some weeks I was taking nine flights a week. It was amazing."

Enjoying the glamour of the work, when Higgins had quiet weekends, she worked as a ring girl and grid girl, appearing at boxing fixtures and promoting F1 racing.

She also appeared in the music video for Get Low, by Zedd and the late One Direction star Liam Payne.

She worked hard on her social media profile, understanding the power of the platforms, and she caught the attention of the producers of ITV’s Love Island.

Before she entered the villa, she had clocked up approximately 40,000 followers and, in 2019, she decided to accept the producers’ invitation and join the cast for season five. It was a gamble and her hopes were modest.

"I said to mammy, I’ll be home in a week because you couldn’t vote from Ireland, so who was going to vote for me?"

Higgins handed over her phone to producers, tuned out the outside world and stepped into the villa.

Fireworks, chaos and headline-grabbing dramas during her series propelled her onto the front pages and, while she came fourth in the show, she emerged as a front-page personality with over 1.5 million new followers. She also introduced a new generation to the colourful "fanny flutters" phrase.

Later in the same interview with Brunson, Higgins openly spoke about the "dark times" she experienced when she emerged from the villa.

She said that when she finished the show she had "no home in the UK, no friends" and it was a struggle.

She also spoke about her childhood and, movingly, about the impact the death of Andrew, her best friend, had on her and how she carries that loss.

The topic of Love Island was also chewed over, and she said: "I’m so grateful for Love Island because I wouldn’t be where I am today without it."

Back to 2019, post her Love Island appearance, and while her romantic life was a hot topic for the tabloids, Higgins was cooking up her next canny business move, embracing the TV invitations coming her way. She went on to appear on massive UK ratings programmes, including ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2020 and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

In 2021, RTÉ came calling with Glow Up Ireland, produced by IndiePics, offering Higgins her first television presenting role.

Niamh Bradley McBreen, series producer, said that "it was a big moment for Maura as it was her first time doing autocue, working on scripts and learning the behind-the-scenes skills integral to a busy TV studio" and "she really worked hard at it and she stands out as she brings sparkle to the screen, she just lights up on camera."

The producer believes that Higgins understood the opportunity of hosting the show and recalled how she "worked so hard on that show, getting up at 5am to ensure that she was camera ready on set at 8am."

She understood how useful it would be on her reel, and she was disciplined, professional and did not miss a beat of "a really intense three-week shoot".

Her commitment was clear, Bradley McBreen said, adding that "she was just lovely with all the contestants, the energy in the studio lifted when she walked onto set."

Since then, her career on the small screen and even smaller screen has blossomed. And Maura Higgins, the businesswoman, understood: where the followers flock, the brands follow.

She has built an impressive and lucrative brand image, with earlier collaborations including Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo and Ann Summers followed by campaigns with major global names including Victoria’s Secret, L’Oréal Paris, M.A.C Cosmetics and Guess.

TRESemmé has also appointed her as its first Head of Hair.

In recent years, Higgins has made serious inroads in US television. After hosting Love Island USA: Aftersun, she reached the final of The Traitors US earlier this year, where she first met her now Dancing with the Stars partner Mark Ballas. She has since been announced as co-host, alongside Traitors winner Rob Rausch, of Peacock’s Get Me Out of Here, an updated US take on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Fashion and lifestyle writer Bairbre Power described Higgins as something of a "chameleon", pointing to the evolution of her style from the looks associated with her early reality TV days to an increasingly sophisticated red carpet image.

Power said Higgins "had a gift for commanding attention on the red carpet", adding: "However I think her innate gift for dramatic flair and her ability to absolutely ‘sell’ an outfit with how she poses and works the camera adds to the media’s fascination with her."

For Power, one look in particular showed that transformation.

"For me, her best fashion moment was a very ladylike look for Royal Ascot last June where she wore a full-skirted ivory, demi-couture dress by Sabina Bilenko with long gloves and chic Jane Taylor hat."

For arts and culture journalist Kate Demolder, Maura Higgins’ success in the US can be explained by the fact that "while she’s beautiful and entertaining, she’s also leant into authenticity, which is the buzzword of the moment."

"At a time when we have to second guess whether videos are AI or not, here we have this person discussing the elephant in the room, not changing her accent and talking about formerly taboo topics like filler and wigs. She’s played by the Dolly Parton rulebook, and as such is in for a long and lucrative career."

This week, Maura Higgins steps onto a shiny dance floor in LA knowing there is more than a glitterball trophy up for grabs.

Seven years after telling her mammy she would be home from Love Island in a week, she is still aiming for the stars, with the global army of fans she has built cheering her on for every twirl and pirouette.