We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson - Who Is The Real Maura Higgins?

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Traitors Star Maura Higgins opens up about her early life, growing up in a small Irish town, and her journey to fame on Love Island. For the first time, Maura reveals the untold story behind her rise to stardom, the challenges she faced, and the relationships that shaped her. (00:00) Intro (00:46) Maura Takes Paul Through Her Experience of Childhood (04:51) Maura’s Experience of Her Parents’ Divorce (08:44) Maura’s Strict School Education (14:39) How Maura’s Upbringing Shaped Her Relationships as an Adult (16:59) What Maura Did Immediately After Leaving School (18:40) Maura’s First Experiences of Modelling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Welcome to We're Talking. Today we're sitting down with Mora Higgins,

a name many first came to know from the Love Island Villa, and more recently through her appearance on the traitors in America. But behind the confidence, the one-liners and the public persona is a woman who has rarely let anyone in. In this episode, Mora opens the door for the first time, sharing the childhood that shaped her, the relationships that left their mark, and the journey from a small Irish town to a life in the spotlight.

This week, we're talking Mora Higgins. Everyone else tries to tell your story. Yeah. Yeah. And I'd never like to tell my story. But why? Why do you think you don't like to tell your story?

I feel like being vulnerable, you're just opening up to get hurt. That's the way I feel. That's why I never open up. Okay. Because then people control things at you and say what they want and... Whereas if you mask it and people don't know, they can't really do anything about it.

It's from my research and where I've done a lot of research on you. Oh, God, I'm starting to sweat. I've done a lot of research. Just to let you know, some of that might not be true. Okay. So that's the beauty of this. Okay. But what I have noticed is that you have not done a full-length interview ever.

Mm-mm. But you're here. So I love to start. Feeling uncomfortable. But you're smiling, you're smiling. Yeah, but you see. I see it, I see it. Yeah.

Why now? I really like putting myself out of my comfort zone. And I've always said I'd never do this. But I just feel like, how can you grow if you don't, you know? Yes. So I'm hoping this will be good for me. Okay. Because I am a very closed book.

I can see. that. I could see that you're guarded. So let's walk together. Okay. All right, let's walk together. Let's start our walk in Ireland. Ireland. Ireland. And what I'd love to know is I want to start with the relationship that you had with your mother early. Okay. Tell me about mom. I've always been very, very close with Mammy, very close relationship. But, It's a hard one because when I look back at my childhood, I don't think I was a very happy kid. I was the middle child.

When I asked Mammy, what was I like when I was really young? She says, I barely spoke. I was very, I was the quietest child. I never really spoke a lot. I just sat there smiling, which is quite strange because now I'm the complete ups. Yes. And she always brings that up.

I can't understand. I can't understand why I was like that. But I don't necessarily felt, I don't think I felt happy like when I really dive back to when I was young. Yeah. I mean, that's an honest reflection, you know, of your childhood. What do you think it was about childhood that made you feel unhappy?

I've always tried to think about this. And I don't know. Okay. I really don't know. Who could you go to to feel safe with? I don't know. Okay. That could be where it is.

That could be where it is. I remember when I was very, very young and I never ever told anyone this. I used to have these crazy voices in my head, but I can't pinpoint what the voices were. It was like, it was like my own voice, but it was in my head constantly. And I remember like so many times I'd be like this going, my God, what is that? But I never spoke about it because I told, God, everyone's going to think I'm crazy. What's interesting is that also lets me believe that you truly had, you felt like you had no one.

Because if you didn't feel comfortable talking about it, Mel, that meant that you didn't feel comfortable in the environment. How do you think your relationship with your father impacted the environment early on in your environment? early on in your life? My dad worked a lot, which obviously, you know, I can't hate him for that. Like he's putting food on the table. Yes.

So he wasn't really around. And then, I mean, I'm jumping on a bit, but when the divorce happened, it just, yeah, got worse. Yeah, worse. So when that divorce happened, I mean, that's a traumatic experience for anyone. How do you think that impacted you?

in the family. It was a very nasty breakup and a lot went on, like things that I would never want to talk about because I would never want to like, I don't know, I wouldn't want to be saying things about my mum or dad. But now I don't have a relationship with my dad. When the breakup happened,

my mum was trying to keep a roof over four kids and herself and, you know, we were all in school. It was very, very hard. And I remember seeing my mum struggle a lot. She had a nervous breakdown. She collapsed in the kitchen in front of all of us. And only for my older sister, you know, she was a lot older at the time. And she knew to, like, put her on her side and called the ambulance.

And I don't know why I remember this, but I remember Mammy has a rare blood type. And my older sister, Newt, say that to the paramedics. And I just remember thinking she's dead. Like, and I just, I did not move. I did not help my mom. I was young. I sat crying, like screaming crying. I didn't know what was going on.

So, yeah, it was, that was a lot. You said you no longer have a relationship with your father. Mm-hmm. Is that the reason? Was it that time period? No, it was. it was actually later. It was after I did Love Island.

Okay. It's kind of a weird... We haven't spoken a few years now. But my dad spoke to me not very nice. And I'm not just saying like, you know, a bit of an argument. It was horrendous

where I physically cut and breed after the phone call. And I thought to myself, like, a partner talk to me like that. I wouldn't let my friends talk to me like that. I'm not going to let my dad talk to me like that. But also, I think if I dig deep,

I don't think I've, I'm jumping a bit now. I don't think I've ever like forgiven my dad for not being there for me when my best friend passed away. Okay, okay. And he wasn't there for me. So it sounds like your father,

not only lets you down in that moment, which we'll definitely get to, but also, you watched your mother struggle. You said you watched her struggle. And I know he did as well. I know he did. But he just did things that just not.

Yeah. Not what a father should do. Mm-hmm. Okay. But you were in a, as I see it, a very interesting school. Oh. And I say interesting, but I don't know. How do you define?

It is crazy. Yeah, how do you explain it? And I think that's a lot of why I was so unhappy as a kid because I remember I used to come home from that school and I used to think, I just used to cry my eyes out thinking, I have to go back there tomorrow. And you know what it's like with parents? Like every kid comes home from school going,

their teacher is mean and blah, blah, blah. But he was awful. Yes. He was awful. So describe the school? The school was basically. Basically, from the outside, it looked like a shed and it was split into two. So on this side, that's where you start off when you're young, young.

And the teacher was a really nice woman, really, really nice. You go into the next classroom and then you're on to third class, four class, fifth class and sixth class. So you're there for four years. Okay. In one class. In one classroom. One half of a shed. One half of a shed

So in my class The whole way from third class The sixth class There was me and two boys Three of you Yeah Yeah And we're being taught the same thing

As the sixth class Which how does that make sense But also we didn't learn a lot We learned maths We learned Irish Which we don't speak We did learn a bit of history Which was irrelevant

Also we were learning an Irish, but we weren't learning the translation of the Irish. So that was quite, you know, that's really going to benefit me as well. Yes. And yeah, we never got taught English. So I went into secondary school, not knowing what a noun was, not knowing what a verb was. I was so clueless. Master Kelly said, we don't need to learn English because we speak it. That was his view on it. This is an interesting setup. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What was discipline like in the school? We weren't allowed to speak at a normal tone. That might be the reason why I'm very loud.

We had to scream. And sometimes it would be that hard. You would scream a lot where your veins be coming through your neck. And he would walk straight by you and he would go, I can't hear you. And he would say it so calmly and then we'd have to go louder and louder and louder. Discipline. You would not be allowed to sit like. that for starters.

Oh, I can't sit like this. No, no, no. Really? You are not allowed, like, your feet had to be fully flat. Okay. Your back had to be completely straight. Okay. Your table had to be so far away.

And your book, whatever you're writing on, cannot be any way crooked. It had to be center straight and you had to write like this. And God forbid, you get comfortable and you do this. You're getting knuckled into the back. Really? Yeah. He would knuckle into the back. and he would just say sit up straight.

Wow. Yeah. And that was three years. Tird. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds.

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Four years. Of hell. We never got outside to play. Yeah, that wasn't a thing. When I listened to my friends in the UK and they're like, oh, like, they name all these games that they used to do in school. And I'm like, oh, my God, I bet that was so fun. I'm like, no, I didn't have that.

We weren't allowed. So you would go to school, you'd be in that environment, you'd go home, and then what was the environment like at home? Well, he would give you that much homework that you couldn't do anything else. He would give you 25-8-4 pages to learn off by heart. And the next morning it was the same routine. We all had to say our prayers in Irish face on a wall. And then it was everyone had to basically say their homework. So you're facing a wall

and you start on page one and you have to I don't even think a robot will be able to do what he expected from us. Wait, hold on for saying Murray, you're saying that you'd have to recite

your homework looking at a wall. And if you even hesitate on one word, he'll just go, sit down in that manner and then it'd be 100 lines so you have to write out

100 times, I shall learn my homework from now on. I shall learn my homework from now on. And all we did was lines most of the time rather than learn.

and that was the reason we never had to we never had time to go outside because we all all everyone had lines right because we never learned our homework because it was impossible yeah when you when you reflect back now as an adult and you look at that without a without question that's toxic do you feel like that was an abusive environment he had a bamboo stick yeah and he would stand at the bottom of the classroom he he was in full control all the time Like even when you were eating lunch, you know, a normal, well, I mean, it's far from a normal scutler, but surely you can have a conversation with your friend. No. You're not allowed to speak. You're not allowed to speak. No. And so the bamboo stick was used. Yeah, he wouldn't like be it, but he would poke, you know. Sure. Sure. Yeah. So you've gone through four years of this. I'm curious, on the weekends, what was your weekend like? I mean, where was? I'm staying outside in a tree house and with my dolls and pretending to be a mom and bacon cakes with wet sand. Okay.

Okay. Pretend to be a mom. Yeah. Weirdly. Okay. I used to have incense sticks and I used to light them and be like this. I don't know why. It's so weird.

So you're a mom's... Pushing my little pram around. Yeah. It's weird. Oh my gosh. Now, when you look at all that, how does all of that... How does all of that, including the small, because it's a small town? Everyone knows everyone.

You can see the top from the bottom. Of the town? Mm-hmm. Really? Mm-hmm. How does that, do you think, inform you in your relationships as you get older? I don't know. You don't know?

Like, it probably does. Yes. But, I mean, I'd love to know. Okay. I've never seen a therapist because I hate. opening up, especially to strangers, that makes me very uncomfortable. Like, I'll open up to my mom. But I'm sure there is a lot of stuff from my past that comes in to my present. Yes. Yeah. Yes. We're going to unpack this. We're in this zone here. At what point do you start dating?

My first boyfriend, I was 17. You were 17? Mm-hmm. Okay. I, I, moved out of home we moved in together and I was with him for nine years right so you moved out of home did you also you dropped out of school at that time didn't you I dropped out of school when I was 16 yeah small town so

it must be from the small town yeah and we went to the same secondary school and it was so weird when I look back because I'm like I moved out when I was 17 with my first boyfriend but in a small town like that that's not odd.

It's really normal. Like, I definitely wouldn't do that now. But yeah, I was with him nine years. Nine years. Typically in a smaller town, you'd see marriage happen fairly quickly. So what I understand is that you were engaged but never got married. We got engaged when I knew I would have never married him. We got engaged maybe a year before I separate from him.

Okay. So it shouldn't have happened, but it just did. And I think, I don't know, for some reason in our heads, we think, this will fix everything. It's not going to fix anything. What is a ring on your finger going to do? It's, I don't know why we think like this, but yeah, it definitely didn't fix anything. But yeah, I just fell out with love.

Okay. That is literally, and I remember I was speaking to Mammy a lot about it before. I did it for quite a long time. And I was just like, I don't know how to do this. I don't want to break his hair. But I knew I had to. At this time, though, you are now a hairdresser. Yes.

Okay. But you're already, but I think that you've already started traveling outside of Ireland. Yeah, so I obviously left school when I was 16. I went straight into hairdressing, got all my qualifications. It was something I always wanted to do. And I knew I didn't need to finish school to do that. And Mammy was very supportive as always. And she was like, look, if this is what you want, go for it.

So, yeah, I went to this train in college. And then started off in salons, like apprenticeships. And I think you're on like a 50-year-old week. Okay. And, you know, you're sweeping the floor and you're making the coffee. And I loved it. I loved it. Looking back, like, I loved it at the beginning.

Ended up hitting it. But yeah, and then, you know, you start off then doing the odd blow dry and people's hair and then you're like, oh my God, I'm really getting a feel for this and you're getting your practice. And I just really wanted to be fully qualified. I wanted my own clientele. I was so excited about it. And, you know, we always want more, don't we?

As humans. Yes, we do. We always want more. And it's just greed. But yeah, I did it. And I was a bit like, God, like I'm getting a bit bored now. And I remember there was, I don't know, was it an Instagram message or something and it was about monster energy. And they were looking for a girl to do one of the Irish jobs up in Belfast or something or Duny Gaul or somewhere like that.

And I was actually, oh my God, imagine being a monster girl. That would be so cool. You'd get to travel around the world. And I was a bit like, I'm not going to do it. I'll just be disheartened. Like, I'm not even going to reply because they're probably just not. have me. My best friend at the time, Andrew, he pushed me into doing it. And he was like, just reply, you'd never know. And I was like, I think it's like an audition process and like whatever.

So anyways, I finally did it. And that day was like a trial. And I loved it. I loved everything about it. It was so fun. And then they sent me an email, I think like a few days after. And they were like, we'd love you to join the team. Wow. But obviously I'm still in a salon at the time. Yes. So I had to kind of work boat because I didn't want to lose the salon in case there wasn't enough.

Because obviously the monster jobs, it's very, summertime is very busy. Wintertime, you're without a paycheck kind of thing. Okay. So I didn't really want to lose that. And then as I got busier with Monster, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to do this. I'm just going to, I'm going to quit the hairdress on and just risk it. But at this time, and what's great is that at the time your best friend pushes you to do this, you have a boyfriend also at this time. So what was he thinking? Was he excited about you doing this? No. No. No. He, um, he didn't, he wasn't supportive. He, I think he kind of seen me as just stay in that town open my own salon someday. But that's not what I wanted.

my dad wanted the same my dad wanted me to open up a salon and you know have my own business in the hometown but it's not what i wanted that's your dream that's not my dream like i want to do more like i want to travel the world like i'm young why not so yeah i don't think he the ex-boyfriend definitely didn't he didn't he wasn't he wasn't keen on it he didn't but it's it's interesting that you still had the you know, you had the grit to say, even though my boyfriend doesn't want me to do this, even though my father doesn't want me

to do this, I'm still going to do it. That's something that not a lot of people have. You know, so you have that and so you're doing it. So it sounds like you loved it. I loved it. Love working for a monster. Yeah, I can see you let it. You're like, oh my gosh. I loved it. I met so many amazing people and I traveled

a world. I was in places like Indonesia, Africa. Like, even started doing some jobs out in America for them. Like, it was, some weeks I was taking nine flights a week. Wow. It was phenomenal. It was scary at the beginning. Obviously, taking my first flight by myself.

And I'm just this little girl from the middle of Ireland, rural, just surrounded by cows and sheep. But I did it, and I was so proud I did it. And if I was turned back time, I would have never changed that. And if you want to hear the full, unfiltered stories from today's guest, you can check the out on the We Need to Talk page. Drop a like, leave a comment, and hit subscribe. See you next week. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil.

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