Maya Jama, the host of ITV2’s dating show Love Island, has revealed why she would not be a contestant on the series.
The presenter is regularly seen confidently striding into the villa and delivering news of recouplings and dumpings, but she doesn’t think she would be well-suited as an Islander.
Jama, 28, is currently presenting the 10th series of the dating show, following her successful stint as the presenter of the Love Island South Africa winter edition in January.
In a new interview with British Vogue for her August 2023 cover, when asked if she would ever go on the show as a competitor, Jama said: “I would not be able to, at any age, strut out of the house in a bikini in front of men that are judging me based on just one sentence and what I look like.”
She went on to praise the courage of the contestants for going on the show to find love.
“The confidence of the people that go on! They’ve got a different kind of juice,” she said.
The dating show has faced controversy in recent years, with accusations of racism, misogyny, ageism and on-screen bullying. Scrutiny intensified when two former contestants – Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis – died by suicide. The show’s former presenter Caroline Flack, in circumstances unrelated to the show, died by suicide in 2020.
Last week, Jama asked fans in the live audience at Love Island’s sister show Aftersun to “be nice” and stop booing the contestants.
Maya Jama hosting ‘Love Island’— (ITV)
In the photos shot by Steven Meisel for her Vogue cover feature, Jama modelled clothes from designer brands including Valentino, Prada, JW Anderson and Miu Mui.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jama reflected on the public’s reaction to her four-year relationship with her ex-boyfriend, British rapper Stormzy.
“None of us really knew the level of importance it held to a certain group of people, us being together,” the TV presenter, who is half Swedish and half Somali, said of her relationship with the “Vossi Bop” rapper. The pair met in 2014 and dated from 2015 to 2019.
“We were both super ambitious. We were both from similar upbringings and we were both just little grafters that have made something good of ourselves.
“It was lovely when it was lovely, and then you move.”
Maya Jama and Stormzy attend the Glamour Women of The Year awards 2017— (Getty Images)
This isn’t the first time Jama has opened up about her relationship with Stormzy. Earlier this year, the presenter shared details about her experience with the then-unknown rapper. “We were so young when we met, just beginning our careers,” Jama told The Sunday Times in January. “I was starting at MTV. He’d not even released a single at that point. We were just little babies.”
Jama started her career working as a DJ on Rinse FM, and presented on MTV (in Topshop clothes she’d return the next day) and BBC Radio 1. She went on to present BBC One‘s Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer alongside Peter Crouch and Alex Horne and was the presenter of the BBC Three competition Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star.
