Maura Higgins built her career on Love Island UK before becoming the emotional center of Season 4’s biggest twist on The Traitors, a runner-up finish that turned into one of the most talked-about betrayals in the show’s history.
Her path to reality-TV stardom started thousands of miles from the Traitors castle, on a beach in Mallorca.
From Love Island to Global Recognition
Higgins is an Irish media personality who first broke through as a cast member on Love Island UK, building a large following through her frank, confident personality during her time on the villa. That platform carried her into a career well beyond reality TV, including modeling and brand partnerships across the UK and Ireland.
The Season’s Most Loyal Faithful
Higgins played the entire Season 4 game as a loyal Faithful, forming her closest bond of the season with fellow player Rob Rausch, whom she never once suspected. That trust carried all the way to the finale, where Higgins helped banish Eric Nam under the belief that the ending would come down to a Faithful-versus-Faithful vote.
Learning the Truth
Instead, Higgins learned in the final moments that Rob Rausch had been playing as a Traitor the entire season, undetected by her or anyone else close to him. She finished the season as runner-up, having helped eliminate the person who would have shared the win with her. Higgins took the reveal with visible humor rather than bitterness, and Rausch later gifted her a roughly $22,000 Hermès Birkin bag as a gesture of apology for the betrayal.
Life Now
Since the season aired, Higgins has signed a six-figure deal with Victoria’s Secret and been widely recognized as one of the best-dressed cast members of the entire season, turning a runner-up finish and a very public betrayal into one of the bigger career moments of her post-Love Island career.