Could Danny Jones’ kiss with Maura Higgins tarnish McFly’s squeaky clean image? The band have inspired fans by being open about their troubles but this scandal could have broken the trust with their loyal followers

For two decades, McFly have cemented themselves have one of the nation’s biggest boybands, with fans turning out in droves to sing along to their hits.

But following his drunken kiss with Maura Higgins at the BRIT Awards, Danny Jones has cast doubt on the band’s squeaky clean image.

The group have previously been praised for speaking openly about their struggles with addiction and mental health, as well as the in-band tensions that once threatened to tear the band apart.

Danny hit the headlines after being spotted in a compromising clinch with Love Island star Maura, throwing his marriage to wife Georgia Horsley into turmoil.

Much of the band have stayed silent after it was revealed that Danny had shared the kiss, with only Tom breaking returning to social media to share a birthday tribute to his pal.

Sources have also revealed that after being pictured during a tense outing earlier this week, Georgia and Danny are living separately as she remains ‘furious’ by his ‘ultimate betrayal.’

It remains to be seen whether the scandal could have a more permenant impact on the group, with fans now beginning to question their innocent image.

MailOnline takes a look at how each member of McFly had spoken about their personal troubles, as they struggle with the fall-out of Danny’s kiss scandal.

Danny Jones’ drunken kiss with Maura Higgins has cast doubt on the band’s squeaky clean image, after being praised for speaking openly about tensions and personal woes

Danny Jones

Before his kiss scandal with Maura, Danny had openly spoken about his personal battles with anxiety, after his dad Alan walked out on his family when he was just 19 years old.

Danny admitted he used to ‘idolise’ Alan while he was growing up but that all changed when he split from his mum Kathy – just as his band had hit the big time.

The star was 19 years-old when his dad left and Danny has revealed he went to therapy after experiencing anxiety following his father’s sudden decision to leave.

Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast in 2022, he added: ‘On Father’s Day I’m angry that’s getting in the way of me having a good time with my family and my son.

‘I idolised him, and my mum, they’re my first people I looked up to.’

Danny previously admitted he had therapy sessions to cope with anxiety sparked by triggers surrounding his dad abandoning him.

He said: ‘Tom recommended a guy he saw for his bipolar. I went to therapy four times. I saw someone who told me to breathe out a bit.

‘They explained what was actually happening to my body. You don’t understand your own brain.’

He added: ‘It’s a lonely feeling. It’s like having a massive shopping list of worries. If someone reminded me of my dad, that would trigger it.’

Danny made headlines earlier this month when he was spotted kissing Maura Higgins at a BRIT Awards after party

When his parents’ marriage ended, Danny had also shared that he struggled with panic attacks.

He told The Belfast Telegraph in 2013: ‘I haven’t had an attack since 2013, which I’m very thankful about because at times it was so horrible.

‘I experienced claustrophobia, coming out in cold sweats, feeling a band tightening around my chest and worrying I was having a heart attack. 

‘It’s so scary and I’ve felt like I was dying on occasions. You can’t believe your body can do that to you.’

‘I was also plagued with dark thoughts I couldn’t control. It was affecting my whole life – my work, health and sleep. 

‘I was determined to bury it and say goodbye to it. Admitting to having anxiety was the first big step and bit by bit, I put myself back together.’

When McFly first went on hiatus in 2016, Danny also admitted that their gruelling schedule meant that if the group hadn’t taken a break, they would have struggled with burnout.

Alongside performing with McFly, Danny joined his pal Tom as co-coaches on The Voice UK last year, and was also a judge on The Voice Kids from 2017 to 2023.

In 2010 he competed on Popstar to Operastar, and prior to his kiss with Maura, he’d won a whole new army of fans as the winner of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! last year. 

On Wednesday, Danny finally broke his social media silence after his ‘drunken kiss’ with Maura.

In the wake of the scandal, both Maura and Danny have been hit by a wave of criticism, with many furious on behalf of Georgia, Danny’s wife of 10 years and mother of his son. 

Maura and Danny reportedly stayed up until 6am drinking wine after their ‘drunken kiss’ at a BRIT Awards afterparty.

Sources have also revealed that after being pictured during a tense outing earlier this week, Danny and his wife Georgia are living separately (pictured in September 2024)

It was claimed the pair then headed in separate taxis to a Sony party at Nobu Hotel in Marylebone, where they allegedly ‘knocked back wine until 6am’.

An onlooker told The Sun: ‘Danny and Maura seemed to be enjoying their night of partying and had no plans to call it a night.

‘They were knocking back wine at the Nobu from 4am and seemed keen to carry on. They weren’t seen leaving before 6am.’

The publication also claimed that Maura and Danny were seen ‘chatting intimately and laughing’ as they continued the party.

Danny and his wife Georgia, a former Miss World, married in 2014 after meeting in 2009 at a Miss London event and share seven-year old son Cooper together.

Georgia met Danny in 2010 and the pair began dating. Three years later while the couple were on holiday in Cyprus, McFly star Danny popped the question and they tied the knot the following year.

Danny and Georgia’s wedding took place in her hometown of Malton, in Yorkshire, in a ceremony which featured musical performances by McBusted and Ellie Goulding.

The couple welcomed their son Cooper in 2018. And since then, Georgia has openly shared her parenting journey and family life with Danny on her Instagram page, which boasts an impressive 254k followers.

Danny and Georgia went through a difficult period following the birth of their son, something she has previously spoken about on her podcast.

Speaking on her Mums The Word podcast, Georgia said: ‘Before, when Danny joined The Voice Kids, it was straight after I’d had Cooper. I’d given birth five days before and he had to go back to work, so I was left home alone.’

Georgia also made an honest sex confession on her podcast, revealing that she and Danny were celibate for a year after welcoming their son.

‘We can’t have had sex for a year at one stage because after you have your baby you’re healing and after two months into getting pregnant we didn’t have sex,’ she explained.

Danny and Georgia were previously pictured during a tense outing on Tuesday, their first appearance since footage of his kiss with Maura was revealed.

Georgia, with a face like thunder and her left hand firmly in her pocket – refusing to show her wedding ring finger – did not present the image of a united front that Danny might have hoped for.

Sources close to Georgia have told The Mail that her hidden hand was a ‘little act of defiance’ by the vulnerable mother-of-one, who was angry about being asked to parade publicly at her husband’s request – with no little involvement from his publicity machine, which, says my source, staged the photographs in a ‘last-ditch attempt to salvage his reputation’.

It’s also been revealed that Georgia and Danny – who have been married for 14 years – have taken a break and are living separately after his ‘ultimate betrayal’.

A friend of Georgia said: ‘She is furious – not just with her husband’s actions, but with all the chaos this has brought to their lives, particularly for their young son Cooper.

‘All she wants to do is protect her boy from this mess.

‘It has been overwhelming and she needs time to process what has happened. Only then can she begin to talk about the future. They are now on a break and are living apart from each other.’

A source added: ‘She is really struggling to get past the betrayal, but she wants to do what’s best for Cooper.’

Tom Fletcher

Tom Fletcher (pictured with wife Giovanna) has also shared his battles with depression before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder

One band member who has long been open about his mental health troubles is lead singer and guitarist, Tom Fletcher — husband of social media influencer and podcaster, Giovanna Fletcher.

More than a decade a go, in 2012, Tom wrote in the McFly autobiography of his ‘obsession’ with being ‘the fat one in the band’.

‘I wanted to lose weight, but rather than going about it the sensible way, I pretty much stopped eating. I’d go to Starbucks and order a frappuccino and blueberry muffin and that was me for the day,’ he confessed in the book, titled Unsaid Things.

‘Not only would I beat myself up internally if I consumed anything else, I’d be in a foul mood if we were working somewhere there was no Starbucks. It was an obsession – and a deeply unhealthy one.’

Fletcher also told readers of a life-changing mental health diagnosis. 

In 2011, he was referred to the private psychiatric clinic, The Priory, after struggling with feelings of depression for over a year.

However, doctors there diagnosed him with bipolar disorder — a mental health condition involving extreme mood changes, such as dizzying highs and disabling lows.

In a 2020 interview, Fletcher said he’d always been ‘highly emotional’.

‘I’d feel excited one moment, then the polar opposite the next. But, I think everyone just thought that’s who I was.

‘In late 2011, I watched a documentary by Stephen Fry called The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive. He shared his story of bipolar disorder and depression, and it sounded exactly like me. I just cried.’

He admitted being afraid to tell anyone of his emotional difficulties. ‘For a long time, I still didn’t tell anyone about it. I was later diagnosed with bipolar. When I told my friend, Harry, he said: ‘Ahhh, that makes so much sense.’

‘Since then, more and more people have spoken out about their mental health. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.’

Fletcher has previously said that becoming a father to Buzz, 10, Buddy, eight, and Max, six, has hugely benefitted his mental health.

‘Having kids was the best thing that happened to me,’ he said in the 2020 interview.

‘They’ve taught me more about myself than I thought was possible. Parenthood helps you be less selfish, because you don’t care about anything as much as you do them.

‘Since becoming a dad, my mental health has been in the best shape ever. Being a children’s author has been another part of that — I love seeing my kids get lost in a good book.’

When McFly went on hiatus in 2016, Tom also shared his fears that the band wouldn’t be close again.

He told The Sun: ‘I think we pushed it to its limits. It’s the people you love the most who are the ones you can take for granted. It’s easy to not address any issues and it’s definitely been challenging.

‘We’ve been together for 17 years, so it goes through phases and a whole evolution – we grew up together. Now it’s a new phase of our lives, with kids and families.

‘McFly was our baby before that, so it goes from being this one thing that’s the most important thing in our lives, to realising that we all also have separate things.’

Tom also described the band’s bond as being similar to a marriage, noting they needed a break in a bid to salavage the group’s friendship long-term. 

He said: ‘It’s like a marriage and a bit like we had an affair and we didn’t really know how to get through that.’

‘We had some marriage counselling, saw some other people for a while – but ultimately we didn’t get divorced.’

At the start of McFly, Tom’s weight ‘became an issue’ and he ‘basically just drank coffee’. Tom recalled: ‘It was so unhealthy. ‘I would struggle with down periods’ (band pictured in 2005)

He also told Radio 2: ‘There are of course ups and downs its like any relationships there’s four of us and we’re four different people. 

‘Like any career there are ups and downs you have to manage, I don’t think we realised is the thing that got us through eveything is our friendship, because it’s the core of everything.

‘We are so lucky that all just get on, we are genuinely best friends, and you know having so many bands come and go over our 17 years together, I think that’s quite rare, you don’t really get bands who have the same kind of relationship that we have, and that’s the thing we’ve held onto.

‘As much as McFly is our baby, and we’re really precious of it, the one thing that we all now we need to after more than anything is our relationships and friendships with each other, and the band will always be there as long as that remains strong.’

As well as performing guitar and vocals for McFly, Tom has also found success as a children’s author, penning books including The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas and The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch.

In 2021, he also competed on Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Amy Dowden, and joined The Voice UK as a co-coach with Danny last year. 

Dougie Poynter

Bass player Dougie Poynter has also had his fair share of mental health woes – admitting that he once tried to kill himself following problems with drug and alcohol addiction

Bass player Dougie Poynter has also had his fair share of psychiatric battles — and has bravely spoken publicly about them in order to offer support to others facing the same demons.

In 2012, months after he won I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Dougie appeared on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man and admitted to the host that he’d tried to kill himself the previous year, following problems with drug and alcohol addiction.

‘It’s quite therapeutic to go back, quite scary and a bit of an eye opener into how dark it can get if you take your foot off the gas and stop looking after yourself,’ Poynter said.

Drummer Harry Judd then added: ‘Half the time you didn’t know what you were doing – it was us telling you.’

‘Yes, because I was so battered,’ Poynter replied. 

However recovery wasn’t an easy journey for the Essex-born musician. Four years later he developed an addiction to the sedative painkiller Valium, which lasted for two years.

Poynter went to rehab after an intervention from his band mates, and said he thinks he agreed to go into a treatment centre without ‘kicking up a fuss’, although he can’t remember for sure.

In various interviews the star has confessed that the drug left him with ‘huge gaps’ in his memory. 

While he found fame with McFly in 2004, it was Dougie’s 2011 stint on I’m A Celebrity that made him a star in his own right

Speaking about his experience of the addiction on the On The Mend podcast last year, he said: ‘When I couldn’t connect with any kind of sense of self, I didn’t know who the f**k I was anymore which was terrifying, the disconnect from myself, friends, family, I just felt like I was this lone traveller of the world that didn’t know anybody, like a f**king alien. Which was f**king terrifying.’ 

Poynter is now very public about his ongoing recovery, and often shares clips with his 680,000 Instagram followers that see him reviewing booze-free drinks and bars. 

While he found fame with McFly in 2004, it was Dougie’s 2011 stint on I’m A Celebrity that made him a star in his own right.

The musician narrowly took the crown with 55 percent of the vote but capitalised on his newfound fame by releasing a line of children’s novels.

Dougie also launched three clothing companies – Zookie, which has since been sold, and the now defunct Saint Kidd and Polonius.

As well as enjoying success with McFly and McBusted, Dougie also had a brief stint with alt-rock band INK in 2018.

Harry Judd

Drummer Harry Judd said exercise is his therapy, having struggled with anxiety for most of his adult life (pictured after running the 2024 London Marathon)

Days after Dougie was crowned King Of The Jungle, Harry also had reason to celebrate as he won Strictly Come Dancing.

Proving his win was no fluke, Harry went on to lift the Glitterball yet again four years later when he competed on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special.

That same year, Harry married wife Izzy, a professional violinist supposedly worth more than £1million alone.

Last year, Harry’s mother Emma also found herself in the limelight when they teamed up for Celebrity Race Across the World, where they finished in second place.

This summer, the singer enjoyed a brief radio stint when he took over from Ronan Keating hosting Magic Radio’s Breakfast slot alongside Harriet Scott.

Harry has also candidly spoken about his own mental health struggles, and in 2020, his wife, violinist Izzy, 40, told the Daily Mail that he suffers with ‘acute episodes’ of anxiety — symptoms that she experiences too.

The following year he admitted in a campaign for Mental Health Awareness week that he has ‘suffered with anxiety throughout my adult life.’

‘Anxiety can be so isolating and sometimes makes you lose yourself. In those moments, I felt scared to share how I was feeling.

The star, who is a father of three, added: ‘It’s easy to forget that our mental wellbeing is every bit as important as our physical health.

‘If you break a bone, you seek medical help, yet many people are hesitant to ask for support with their mental wellbeing.

‘I completely understand the courage it takes to speak up but reaching out for help was the best thing I ever did.’

Judd’s ‘therapy’ is exercise, according to his wife. ‘He goes to the gym. If I see the signs that his anxiety is coming on, I’ll cook him a nutritious meal, get him to drink plenty of water, encourage him to go for a run.’

For confidential support, call The Samaritans on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org.