Maura Higgins bids farewell to the UK with raucous leaving bash and karaoke with her pals as she moves to LA to compete on Dancing With The Stars

Maura Higgins has bid farewell to the UK with a raucous leaving party as she prepares to move to Los Angeles to compete on Dancing With The Stars.

Capping off a hugely successful year in the States, the former Love Island star is set to compete on the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.

Before flying across the Atlantic, Maura said goodbye to her friends with a day out that included an afternoon singing karaoke.

She also shared a snap of the American-themed gifts she'd been given by her pals, including an AI-generated snap of herself holding the Dancing With The Stars trophy.

Maura posted a selfie with her friends, including Dazz Reece, Sophie Laura, photographer Liat, podcast presenter Luke Hamnett and makeup artist Krystal Dawn. 

She captioned the post: 'It's my last day in the UK, love my girls and gays.'

The star then reposted a hilarious video of herself showing off her best singing skills, with Luke joking in his own post he 'hoped her dancing was better than her singing'.

While Maura has previously shared her excitement at getting to appear on the hit US show, she sparked controversy by sharing one professional dancer she didn't want to be paired with. 

Maura shared her hopes that she won't have to face the Russian professional dancer Gleb Savchenko because she doesn't agree with the 'way he talks about women'.

She said she will be remaining fiercely 'loyal' to her best pal and former DWTS contestant Brooks Nader, 29, who dated Gleb.

Gleb has since responded to Maura, as he explained he has 'never heard' of the star and insisted he will not 'lose any sleep over the opinion of someone I've never met'.

In a statement to the Daily Mail he said: 'Until I was asked to comment on this story, I'd genuinely never heard of this girl, Maura, so I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over the opinions of someone I've never met.

'It's odd to publicly attack someone you've never even met, but if that's how she wants to make headlines before the show starts, that's her choice. 

'I'll stay focused and leave the unnecessary drama to everyone else.'  

Gleb and Brooks endured a 'messy' split after they sparked a romance during their time partnered on the show in 2024. 

Maura told E! News: 'I'd be happy with anyone but Gleb. That's only because I'm loyal and I'm friends with Brooks [Nader].'

She added: 'I don't really like the way he speaks about women. I don't really want to spend all my time with someone like that. I'm like, no thank you.'

Maura is hoping she will instead be paired with Valentin Chmerkovskiy as she teased about them dancing together in a video. 

Maura's comments about Gleb come after he branded his ex-girlfriend Brooks 'the worst sex' he has ever had. 

'When I dated her, it was pretty bad. Probably the worst sex of my life' the ballroom dancer claimed to Dakota Mortensen, ex of reality TV star Taylor Frankie Paul. 

Gleb also claimed the Louisiana-born beauty often took things to a rough level that he was not comfortable with.

They began seeing one another in the fall of 2024 when they were partners on Dancing With the Stars, with it quickly becoming apparent that a romance was forming.

But Brooks intimated in an October 2024 TikTok clip that they had parted ways.  

'Gleb got way too comfortable, especially in the amount of time he was spending at Brooks’ home, to a point it had begun to concern Brooks’ people and family close to her,' an insider told US Weekly of the couple's split in the fall of 2024.

Things appeared on track again the next month, when Brooks welcomed Gleb to her family's Thanksgiving dinner. 

The duo parted ways again in April last year, with Gleb telling Page Six he was caught off-guard by their split.