Maya Jama reveals how she survived as a ‘broke’ teenager in London while trying to build her TV career
NEW Love Island host Maya Jama says she was so skint when she moved to London she lived on £1 chicken dinners.
Maya, 28, told of the sacrifices she made for a career as she touched down in Cape Town ahead of the ITV2 show’s winter series.
She said she did not have enough money to get to work after moving from Bristol to the capital aged 16 — but was happy as she was following her dream.
Maya, who now has an estimated net worth of £1.5million, recalled: “I was broke, pretending I’d lost my Oyster card every day so I could get to work. Hustling my little way around London, having £1 chicken-shop meals every day.
“But I was happy. I was working and I was living in London, I felt like I was getting somewhere. I’d just work as much as I could.”
She worked part-time at high street clothes shop Urban Outfitters and was a runner for production firm Jump Off TV.
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They eventually offered her a role as a presenter, and she has not looked back.
Maya, whose dad Hussein was in and out of prison for much of her childhood, said: “I was fearless. I think it’s the background I come from.”
She now takes over the Love Island gig from Laura Whitmore, 37, who quit as host last August.
And she has at least one thing in common with the contestants she will be welcoming into the villa in South Africa.
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Asked about her relationship status, Maya said: “I’m really, really single right now.”
She and her basketball star fiance Ben Simmons, 26, called off their engagement last year after dating for 12 months.
Maya, who dated rapper Stormzy, 29, for four years before they split in 2019, said she would have considered going on Love Island when younger.
She told The Sunday Times’ Style magazine: “At 24, no. At 18, I probably would’ve gone on it.
“I would’ve been like, ‘Hi, I’m Maya from Bristol and I’m here for a f***g laugh’.”
- Love Island is on ITV2 and ITVX from next Monday.