I’m a Celebrity… viewers are expecting something of an awkward encounter between Maura Higgins and her new campmate.
The latest season of the ITV series is well underway with late arrivals Higgins and Reverend Richard Coles entering the jungle on Thursday’s episode (21 November), which led to the best one-liner of the series yet.
The Love Island star, 33, and priest, 62, are joining existing campmates including Coleen Rooney, GK Barry, Tulisa Contostavlos, Alan Halsall, and Oti Mabuse.
For now, Higgins and Coles have been kept mostly separate from the other stars, who are staying in the main camp. The latecomers have been assigned luxury accommodation in the misleadingly named “Jungle Junkyard”.
Viewers, though, are preparing for what could be an awkward encounter between Higgins and one of her fellow campmates after recalling a surprising connection between the two stars.
Higgins was romantically involved with Barry McGuigan’s son, Shane, before she appeared on Love Island in 2019.
Shane, 36, has followed in the footsteps of his dad and works as boxing coach in south west London, where he owns a gym. He has trained a number of up-and-coming boxers including Lee McGregor and Chantelle Cameron.
Higgins and Shane first met in 2018 at a David Haye vs Tony Bellew rematch at which the reality TV star was working as a ring girl and Shane was commentating for a radio show.
It’s not known how long the pair dated, but reports claim that they were a couple for about a year before calling it quits.
They reportedly found it difficult to continue the relationship long-distance given that Higgins was living in Ireland at the time and Shane was in London.
Whether Higgins ever met Barry during their relationship isn’t known, though the pair are bound to address the situation when they finally meet on I’m a Celebrity…
Shane is now engaged to singer-songwriter Taylor West. The pair share two sons, Finley and Calean, who were born in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
In an earlier episode of I’m a Celeb, McGuigan opened up about the grief he experienced after the death of his daughter.
Asked whether he goes to church, the featherweight boxing legend said: “I used to go to church a lot but after my daughter… you know, not so much.”
“She had leukaemia, when I was making The Boxer with Daniel Day-Lewis, three weeks from the end I had to leave because she’d been diagnosed with leukaemia,” he recalled in tears.
“They thought she wasn’t going to get better but she fought back and she won it. She had two years of chemo.”
McGuigan’s only daughter Danika died in July 2019, aged 33. She recovered from leukaemia after being diagnosed at the age of 11, but she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019, and died within a month.
Hours after the moment aired on TV, Shane posted on Instagram to thank the campmates for “supporting” his father. “We appreciate it immensely,” he said.
New episodes of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! air on ITV1 and ITVX every night at 9pm.
