Molly-Mae Hague has revealed she and pal Maura Higgins didn't actually meet for the first time in the Love Island villa back in 2019.
The former reality TV star, 23, has explained how she and the Irish beauty, 31, actually spotted each other on holiday the year before their time together on the ITV2 series - with Molly-Mae returning to the venue of their first encounter during her recent trip to Dubai and revealing all about the first time she laid eyes on Maura.
Molly-Mae's tidbit about the origins of her friendship with the Glow Up presenter comes as she reveals in her memoir how she really feels about boyfriend Tommy Fury's friendship with Maura - following their brief flirty friendship in the Love Island villa.
In her latest YouTube vlog from her time in Dubai, Molly-Mae films an update lounging outside Cove Beach club - a venue she and her boxer boyfriend would go on to get 'kicked out' of.
"Fun fact, this is the beach club in which I first saw Maura before we even knew who each other were," the PrettyLittleThing creative director confesses in her latest video update.
"Then when she came on the show [Love Island] I was like 'I recognise you. I saw you at Cove Beach Club' and she was like: 'Oh my gosh, I saw you too! I recognise you as well'
"And the rest is history really. But that was about four years ago now."
These days Maura and Molly-Mae are firm friends, but there was a time when the pair almost became love rivals.
When Maura first arrived in the Love Island villa as a bombshell in 2019, the model and TV personality had her eye on Molly-Mae's man.
Of course, Tommy only had eyes for Molly-Mae and Maura ended up reaching the final alongside the couple and her partner at the time, Curtis Pritchard.
Writing in her recent memoir, Molly-Mae reflects on the time period when her now-best friend fancied her current boyfriend.
"Of course on Love Island she was interested in Tommy for a bit, but there is no issue there," the bestselling author writes regarding her friendship with Maura.
"After Tommy started getting closer with me, she said to me: 'Look, I'll never go near him again in that way, you know', and ever since then we've been best friends."
She continues to explain how she often visits the former Dancing On Ice contestant in Essex, and adds how she and Tommy are actually really good friends.
"They're like brother and sister - they make fun of each other 24.7," Molly-Mae adds, before revealing she often gets a lot of questions about how she can be comfortable with their friendship.
"When you have a friend like Maura you have that complete trust," she states, putting an end to a comments about the situation.
*Becoming Molly-Mae by Molly-Mae Hague is out now.
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