Maya Jama was forced to keep her hosting gig on Love Island a secret from her mum.
Former host of the ITV2 show Laura Whitmore spectacularly quit the programme after last series, with bosses hunting high and low to find a replacement presenter. In the end, it was Maya who bagged the job and she's so excited for the show to start.
Now Maya is ready for Winter Love Island to kick off, with it beginning in just a few days' time, and she admits she isn't a good liar and had to keep it from her own family out of fear it might be revealed before the official announcement.
Asked if it was hard to keep it a secret, she said: "Really hard, especially when there’s loads of rumours flying around. I’m not a good liar. Even my mum I didn’t tell because she’d get too excited and tell people. So I had to not even tell my close family."
She added: "It feels amazing, it’s really, really exciting. It’s been a weird feeling because you find out and then it’s the wait and the build up. I just can’t wait for it to start. I’m counting down the seconds and the days to get to South Africa.
"I was in New York [when I found out]. The first person I told was my best friend in Bristol. She swore loads."
Maya hasn't stopped celebrating her new job as she's a huge fan of the show.
"I celebrated with different people each time. I celebrated with who I was around when I found out, then I celebrated when I got back to London. I feel like I’ll celebrate more after it’s done, then we can be like, ‘Yay we did it!’ rather than getting too excited before it’s happened," she shared of the celebrations to mark the occasion.
Maya loves how the show can bring everyone together - young and old.
She explained: "I’ve been a fan for years. It was the first reality show, other than Big Brother, that I made sure I was back at a certain time to watch and all my friends and family were speaking about. Everyone gets involved, everyone has opinions - from the older people in your family to the younger ones. It’s just fun, it’s fun to see how people play out in different situations and wonder what you would do if you were in the same position. Most of us have had a bit of a holiday romance before and it’s like watching that on telly."
