The truth about Maura Higgins and the OTHER famous man she had her eye on following McFly Danny Jones kiss, insiders reveal to KATIE HIND

The 2022 Brit Awards had started innocuously enough for TV presenter Roman Kemp.

But then, in a box at the event at London’s O2 Arena, he was introduced to reality star Maura Higgins over free-flowing drinks – and little did he know what would come next.

Irish beauty Maura went on to follow Roman, a co-presenter of the BBC’s flagship teatime programme The One Show, to a bash in London’s Soho, where she once again attempted to snare him in conversation.

There was, my sources insist, no more to their brief encounter than that.

Yet some days later, Roman was furious when he found himself the subject of a red-top newspaper article that claimed he had been flirting with Maura ‘all night’.

The story, published in The Sun, even alleged the pair had ‘hooked up’ after meeting, as unnamed ‘sources’ remarked on their chemistry.

‘Maura and Roman were flirting and all over each other,’ claimed one breathless observer. ‘They were dancing together and laughing a lot. They seemed to be glued to each other’s sides all night. Maura’s been unlucky in love lately, but hanging out with Roman seemed to put a smile back on her face.’

It certainly got people talking. But was it true – and who leaked the story in the first place?

These questions perhaps gained new resonance this week after fresh reports emerged that Maura, now 34, was again seen cosying up to a male celebrity at the Brit Awards.

Indeed, the annual event seems to be something of a fertile hunting ground for Maura where she can find herself a celebrity man. Just ask Danny Jones, the wholesome McFly singer who has been happily married to wife Georgia Horsley for more than a decade.

A video taken during the early hours of last Sunday morning at a Brits afterparty at members’ club 180 House in central London showed Danny and Maura – who appeared together on ITV reality show I’m A Celeb last year – sharing a clandestine kiss. The footage went viral on social media, sending shockwaves through the showbiz industry and stunning Danny’s millions of loyal fans.

Minutes later, Maura and Danny arrived together for another afterparty at luxury Japanese restaurant Nobu.

The clip is likely to have prompted sharp questions from Danny’s wife Georgia, too, coming as it did just three months after he won the nation’s hearts on I’m A Celeb, being crowned king of the jungle.

But those familiar with Maura, who catapulted to fame when she starred on Love Island in 2019, may be less than surprised that she made an apparent bid to hook up with a male celebrity.  I’m told, she has long been desperate to settle down with a ‘big name star’. Some have even gone so far as to call her ‘Honeytrap Higgins’.

This week, friends of Roman – son of Spandau Ballet singer Martin Kemp and Shirlie Holliman, who was one half of Pepsi and Shirlie in the 1980s – told me he was ‘furious’ when he read the story about him and Maura back in 2022 ‘because it was simply not true’.

In fact, back then Roman was in the early stages of a romance with stunning blonde Carmen Gaggero, whom he is due to marry this summer. And I can reveal that Roman was even more angry to learn that Maura’s former agent was suspected of briefing the Press about her allegedly flirtatious night with him, in a bid to get Maura extra column inches.

After the Sun story, Roman’s representatives were quick to shoot down any talk of a prospective romance, issuing a terse statement insisting that there had been absolutely no flirting between them.

Those close to Roman were also infuriated that he had been drawn into the sordid PR exercise at all, insisting that he and Maura had barely interacted.

‘Roman was furious,’ one friend of his told me. ‘He felt used by Maura and her team to escalate her fame while he was merely being polite to her when they met. It all felt very contrived to him, but I guess that’s what reality stars feel they need to do to stay relevant.’

This week, following Maura’s widely reported clinch with McFly’s Danny, friends of Roman were scathing about Maura.

One tells me: ‘She’s got form for using the Brits like a dating app – there’s nothing she wants more than a celebrity man to help boost her profile. It would be great for business – she knows a big-name boyfriend would double her star power.’

And it must be said that Maura has found some success in getting her name in the Press after being seen in public with various famous men.

For starters, there’s her recent romance with former Strictly star Pete Wicks, which attracted endless column inches while she was in the Celebrity jungle last year. There was even feverish speculation that Pete might fly out to Brisbane to meet her when she left the show – however, they split up last month.

After Maura broke up with her childhood sweetheart James Finnegan in 2017, she joined Love Island, where she met her first famous boyfriend, Curtis Pritchard, younger brother of ex-Strictly star AJ Pritchard.

While she was in the Spanish villa, prior to her romance with Curtis, Maura made an attempt to bag the villa’s undisputed star, boxer Tommy Fury, who had paired up with Molly Mae Hague. (Tommy and Molly are now back together after a brief break, and have a daughter Bambi together.)

Maura and Curtis split up after just eight months, both claiming that there were no hard feelings.

She then embarked on a series of further high-profile flings, starting with Strictly hunk Giovanni Pernice in 2021 – a romance that lasted just four months. They even moved in together – but broke up that October.

Next up was stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton from 2023 to 2024. He apparently tried to keep their relationship private but they were seen together on a beach in the Maldives and separated in March last year.

The string of famous boyfriends has certainly helped raise Maura’s own profile: she has made a fortune since finding fame, driving a luxury Porsche and earlier this year moving into a £1.5million home in Essex. In 2021 she was able to buy her mother, Sharon, who she affectionately calls ‘Mammy’, a Mercedes Benz costing up to £60,000.

Straight after her appearance on Love Island, Maura bagged £500,000 from both fashion brand Boohoo and racy lingerie retailer Ann Summers, and then earned a further £150,000 from her appearance on Dancing On Ice in 2020.

As one friend of Roman’s tells me: ‘She is one of the most successful reality stars and she has made a fortune by not having to do very much.

‘So why not leave the men who are attached alone?’