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Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller Join 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 35
Maura Higgins has encountered her share of traitors in her decades of dating.
While she's always been an, er, faithful, "I've already got severe trust issues," she told Elite Daily in February. "I've been cheated on by the majority of my exes—that's the reason I've been celibate for a whole year."
At the time, the Love Island UK alum was explaining why she was unbothered by Traitors ally Rob Rausch's gameplay that landed him the $220,800 cash prize and her a $16,000 Birkin-shaped consolation.
"If I wasn't used to that kind of guy," she noted, "I reckon I would've been crying, storming out, never speaking to him again."
Instead, the 35-year-old is focused on a new partnership—she and Summer House standout Ciara Miller announced as the first contestants for the 35th season of Dancing With the Stars.
"I'm a strong believer in manifesting," the Ireland-bred star shared at Hulu's Get Real House Live April 22. "I had it on my vision board. And now it is happening, which I cannot believe, and I know it's going to be so, so hard, but because I really want to do it, I'm going to put my all into it."
And should she emerge from the ballroom with more than just a mirrorball trophy...
"I don't want to bring just anyone into my energy," she explained to Cosmopolitan weeks after Traitors' February finale. Having spent the past year pouring into her career and herself, "I don't even think of men," she added. "I'm not saying I'm not open, but I'm not checking my DMs to see who's in there."
Potential suitors, however, might want to ask themselves, "What would Harry Hamlin do?"
Because when Higgins was at Traitors costar Lisa Rinna's house for an event, her husband of nearly 30 years "gave a speech, and I sat there thinking, 'That's exactly what I want,'" she recounted. "He spoke about her with so much respect, and he adores her."
"When I listened to Harry Hamlin," continued Higgins, "I genuinely thought, 'That's the type of relationship I want. I want a man to let me be me and not try to dim my light.'"
And she's certain to sparkle once she hits the ballroom. While she admitted, "I've got two left feet," she does have a few professional dancers on speed dial...
Maura Higgins/Instagram
James Finnegan
Had Maura Higgins follwed a less high-profile path, she may have rode off into the sunset with Irish car salesman James Finnegan. Meeting as teens, "We were with each other nine years," the Love Island UK alum detailed to Cosmopolitan in March 2026. "I was engaged. And obviously, when you meet someone young, you don't really go out for dinner. You kind of just, like, meet up and, like, sit in each other's cars."
But eventually they reached the end of the road. "I genuinely believe if I stayed with that partner, I would have never moved out of my hometown and did what I wanted to do with my life," Higgins continued. "As much as I cared for him, I knew I didn't want to marry him or have kids with him. And I think that kind of cemented the decision for me."
Philip Sharkey/TGS Photo/Shutterstock
Shane McGuigan
Higgins got in the ring with boxing coach Shane McGuigan a year before she turned up to the Love Island UK villa. When David Haye and Tony Bellew faced off in 2018, she was working as a ring girl, while he was commentating. But the distance—he was in London; she was still in her native Ireland proved to be the knockout punch.
Matt Frost/ITV/Shutterstock
Curtis Pritchard
Though dancer Curtis Pritchard was initially paired off with Amy Hart. When Higgins arrived as a bombshell on Love Island UK, the future Aftersun host turned his head. They exited the villa in 2019 as a pair and remained that way until their March 2020 split.
But despite the fanny flutters, Higgins said it wasn’t a love match. "You're in this confined space," she explained to The Times in 2025, "and maybe you think you like someone that you probably wouldn’t on the outside.”
ITV/Shutterstock
Chris Taylor
Months after her split from Pritchard, Higgins dropped a bombshell. "He's mine," she wrote in a since-deleted November 2020 Instagram post of fellow Islander Chris Taylor. Echoed Taylor in a separate post, "Turns out I fell in love with my best mate."
Months later, however, he was back in the friend zone. "I became friends with Maura, and then, yeah, we were mates for ages, and then it kind of progressed into other things," he later shared on a 2024 episode of Celebs Go Dating. But while he’d fallen hard, he didn’t feel those feelings were reciprocated.
Beretta/Sims/Shutterstock
Giovanni Pernice
After Higgins was spotted with Strictly Come Dancing star Giovanni Pernice at the Italy Euro 2020 match in June 2021, it appeared she found herself a new ballroom partner. Though they hard launched their pairing on Instagram, by that October her dance card was wide open.
David Fisher/Shutterstock
Joey Essex
Sometimes a shift is just a shift. Though Higgins was spotted kissing The Only Way Is Essex star Joey Essex at the Pride of Britain Awards in October 2022, he later insisted to RSVP Magazine, "Me and Maura have always been in the sense of just friendship."
While they sometimes bump into each other in their London neighborhood, he joked, "Have you seen the pictures? I was dragged into that kiss!"
BACKGRID / SplashNews.com
Bobby Holland Hanton
For nearly a year, Higgins enjoyed an, er, marvelous romance with stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton, a stand-in for the likes of Chris Hemsworth. But in March 2024, she confirmed her new single status to Closer. And while her DMs were open to other Hollywood-adjacent stars, "I'm not going to do that, be flown to Hollywood for a first date," she added. "They have to come to me!"
RV/JP / SplashNews.com
Kai Widdrington
Back at the Pride of Britain Awards in October 2024, Higgins was photographed taking a spin with Strictly Come Dancing pro Kai Widdrington, but the two were never officially in lock step.
SplashNews.com
Pete Wicks
"I don’t feel like I need a man," Higgins insisted to The Times in January 2025 when asked about her relationship with another TOWIE alum, Pete Wicks. "But I’ll date, and I’ll see where something goes."
It appeared she and Wicks were headed in the same direction. "We have the same sense of humor, she's super intelligent and I think that is sometimes what people don’t realize about Maura," he explained during an appearance on the We Need to Talk podcast that same month. "She’s incredibly witty and we have always been there for each other in the past six years at a distance where we have always kind of been friends and been there for each other and whatever else."
But by February, their bond had grown decidedly thorny, with Higgins showing off the red roses she’d sent herself for Valentine’s Day.
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