Maura Higgins has fuelled rumours of a rift with her Love Island co-star Lucie Donlan after unfollowing the blonde beauty on Instagram.
Longford's Maura and surfer Lucie struck up a close friendship following their stint on the ITV2 show back in 2019, often enjoying trips away together and supporting each other on social media, but Glow Up presenter Maura, 31, is no longer following Lucie, 24, on Instagram.
Fans have been suggesting the pair may have fallen out - with Maura's close friendship with Molly-Mae Hague touted as one possible theory why - but Lucie and her husband-to-be Luke Mabbott, 26, are both still following Maura at the time of reporting. Maura is also still following Luke.
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"The two used to be very close, even going on holiday to the Maldives for Maura’s birthday this year," one observer wrote on Reddit when discussing Lucie disappearing from Maura's following list, with another adding: "Rumours are they have fallen out due to Molly Mae’s pregnancy (as Lucie and Molly do not like each other, while Maura and Molly are super close), but that seems strange."
A third mused: "Maybe Lucie feels slighted that Maura kept it from her and said something or reacted to the news in a way Maura didn't like, esp seeing Lucie still follows her."
Maura and Lucie have supported each other through thick and thin over recent years, with the Irish star even sending Lucie flowers in January 2021 amid claims the Cornish surfer refused to learn how to pronounce co-star Yewande Biala's name during their time in the Love Island villa three years ago.
Lucie - who recently shared her plans to elope - shared a video of the gorgeous bouquet sent to her by the Irish beauty to her Instagram Stories at the time, alongside the caption: "Love you Maura Higgins... Miss you so much just want to give you the biggest cuddle."
The Mirror has approached both Maura and Lucie for comment on this story.
Amid the speculation about the state of her relationship with Lucie, Maura's friendship with another of her former Love Island co-stars is stronger than ever.
As Molly-Mae revealed the gender of her unborn baby early today [October 5], Maura took to her Instagram Stories to tell the mum-to-be: "You are going to be the most incredible mummy."
Despite being close pals now - with Maura even accompanying Molly-Mae to one of her scans - the two stars were once briefly love rivals - thanks to the Irish beauty taking a shine to Tommy Fury during their early days in the Love Island villa back in 2019.
Writing in her memoir earlier this year, Molly-Mae reflected on the time period when her now-best friend fancied her current boyfriend.
"Of course on Love Island she was interested in Tommy for a bit, but there is no issue there," the bestselling author wrote regarding her friendship with Maura.
"After Tommy started getting closer with me, she said to me: 'Look, I'll never go near him again in that way, you know', and ever since then we've been best friends."
She continued to explain how she often visits the Glow Up presenter in Essex, and adds how she and Tommy are actually really good friends.
"They're like brother and sister - they make fun of each other 24.7," Molly-Mae adds, before revealing she often gets a lot of questions about how she can be comfortable with their friendship.
"When you have a friend like Maura you have that complete trust," she added, putting an end to a comments about the situation.
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