I'm A Celeb's Barry McGuigan's son opens up on romance with Maura Higgins amid jungle reunion
I'm A Celebrity star Barry McGuigan's son has opened up about his past relationship with Maura Higgins. Barry is currently in the I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! camp alongside Maura after the former Love Island star made her appearance in the jungle as a late arrival alongside Reverend Richard Coles.
Before shooting to fame on Love Island, Maura dated Shane for a year after meeting while she worked as a ring girl and he was commentating on a match. Following in his dad's footsteps, 36 year old Shane is now a boxing coach and owns a gym in South West London where he trains rising stars like Chantelle Cameron, George Groves, Carl Frampton and Lee McGregor.
According to an insider speaking to The Sun: "Maura has brains and beauty, and she quickly caught Shane's eye. They went on a few dates and had fun, but Maura lives in Ireland, Shane is running his successful boxing gym in London, and then she was travelling for work so it wasn't easy to pull off," reports the Express. The source revealed: "There were no hard feelings when it ended. It turned out to be short lived and the spark fizzled out."
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On Good Morning Britain today, Shane opened up about his dad Barry's touching reflections on the loss of his daughter Danika to cancer and speculated how his dad would get along with Maura now that they're both jungle campmates.
Chatting with Richard Arnold, Shane dished on Barry and Maura's first encounter on the show, revealing: "Maura as well she's an Irish girl - she's from a small town in Ireland - so they're both from the sticks. They would have been growing up as kids in a small town so there would be similarities there."
Before jetting off to Australia, Barry shared with Belfast Live: "My sons, who I talk to all the time and ask for advice, I said, 'Should I do this?' They said, 'Yeah, dad. You've got good discipline, you're good with people and invariably you'll be aggravated and irritated and annoyed, but you've got good forbearance. You're good at handling stuff like that.'"
He added, "I'm hoping that I can do reasonably well and make a good account of myself. They also said, 'Don't pick your ears or pick your nose! And try not to use bad language.'"
Speaking to The Sun before heading into the jungle, Maura said: "I reckon I'd get on really well with Barry McGuigan. You know, Irish... I think he's very humorous."
Maura rose to fame on the 2019 series of Love Island, making it to the final with then-boyfriend Curtis Pritchard. They broke up in March 2020, with the reality star writing on Instagram: "Curtis and I have made the decision to separate. We enjoyed a great experience from our time in the villa and want to thank everyone for supporting our relationship."
Maura is currently romantically linked with Pete Wicks.
