Maya Jama said her public split from rapper Stormzy was hard because people saw it as “entertainment.”
The presenter and model suddenly broke up with the award-winning Croydon-born singer this summer after four years.
Speaking to ES Magazine, Jama said the break-up, and the attention it gained, “felt very real.”
“I used to read magazines when I was little and see all these Hollywood people break up and they didn’t feel like real people,” she said. “And then when you’re in that position, you’re like, ‘Oh s***, it’s very real’.
“Everybody just sees it as entertainment.”
But Radio 1 presenter Jama, who celebrated her 25th birthday with Stormzy only days before the split, said she was keen to move on.
“These things never last that long,” she continued. “People find something else to talk about.” Jama, who has presented shows for MTV, ITV2 and Channel 4 and modelled for Adidas and Maybelline, appears on this year’s Evening Standard Progress 1000 list.
She said she was making the most of being single and enjoying time with friends after moving out of the couple’s home in south-west London.
She said: “I forgot how much I loved just literally being in a house with loads of my friends, eating, talking, drinking. I was like, ‘I miss this a little bit.’
“I’m having fun. I live on my own now. Solo bitch. I’ve got this little flat that reminds me of a Sex And The City apartment. But without the sex. I feel like the world’s my oyster.”
Jama revealed that she was “scared” of dating, adding: “I haven’t been single in so long, how do you flirt anymore?! I’ve been basically with my friends 24/7.”
Asked if she would use dating apps, she replied: “Can you imagine?”
Jama moved to London from Bristol in her teens to pursue a career in television.
She is close to her Swedish mother, Sadie, who was 18 when she had her, and brought her up as a single parent.
Jama, who is named after American poet Maya Angelou, grew up estranged from her father, who spent most of her young life in prison for violent crimes.
Jama said she now had her sights set on acting, with one particular role taking her fancy.
“[I would like to be] a Bond girl, but a feminist one. Not the typical damsel in distress. It would be like, I’m the bad bitch here. Maybe even a female Bond. Those kind of roles. Powerful.”
Read Jama’s full interview in ES Magazine - free every Thursday and Friday.
- The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better and will be announced on October 3.
