Maura Higgins Was A Little Too Faithful

Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers from The Traitors Season 4 finale and reunion.

Maura Higgins didn’t expect much when she flew to Scotland to appear on The Traitors Season 4. She never got around to watching the mafia-esque reality show beforehand, and after being cast, she made a point of not catching up. “I never really watch shows before I do them,” she says. “I don’t want to get other people's strategies. I just want to be me and see what happens. If I do well, then it was meant to be. If I don't, then it wasn’t.”

Higgins’ reality TV career started in 2019 when the model entered the Love Island villa as a bombshell. Countless viral moments and a finale later (she came in fourth place), she was a bona fide celebrity in the U.K. “The minute I came out, my whole life just completely changed,” she says. Right away, she moved from her hometown in County Longford, Ireland, to the U.K. Since then, Higgins has constantly found her way back to the spotlight, whether she’s hosting Love Island USA: Aftersun or appearing on the British wilderness survival show, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

Thanks to The Traitors, a new audience is finally getting to know and love Higgins. The 35-year-old has become a fan favorite on the show for her constant quips (delivered in her incomparable Irish accent), glamorous outfits (and impressive collection of hats), and close on-screen friendship with fellow Love Islander Rob Rausch.

When we meet at Wolfe Tone’s, a dark and cozy Irish pub in Manhattan, perfect for hiding from New York City’s late January temperatures, Higgins arrives in full glam and clad in a black lace romper and sky-high heels. “A little overdressed for an Irish pub, aren’t I?” she jokes to the paparazzi waiting outside. It’s her last day in New York City after a trip full of appearances, including ringing the Nasdaq closing bell and dropping by the clubhouse on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. Once she slides into our back booth, she orders a chicken sandwich, fries, and, after some debate, red wine. “It's my last day. Let's do it. Get me drunk,” she says.

I've never been that speechless in all of my 35 years. I was 1,000,000% convinced that I was winning the show.

For Higgins, who has stayed friendly with the cast post-Traitors, seeing them again in NYC has been nothing but fun. “I feel so lucky because I get on with everyone,” she says. Before filming, the only contestant she knew was Rausch, whom she had met just once. But by the end of the filming, she’d cultivated close friendships with some of the Housewives — Candiace Dillard Bassett, Lisa Rinna, and Dorinda Medley — and Dancing With the Stars’ Mark Ballas.

When she first arrived at the Scottish castle last June, Higgins didn’t have a game plan, but she was hoping to be cast as a Traitor. “I begged Alan [Cumming],” she says. “He asked me, ‘What would make you a good Traitor?’ And I said, ‘I'm a really good liar.’ Keep in mind, I'm a terrible liar.”

Her pleas didn’t work (likely, Cumming could tell she was lying), and Higgins became a Faithful instead. While some of her co-stars worked on developing strategy and alliances, Higgins had a less calculated approach to her time on the show. “Every single night I was like, ‘Oh my God, I pray I can wear my outfit tomorrow,’” she says. “Americans, they take the game very seriously, and I don't. If someone comes for me, I give it back, but it's not that deep.”

She owns the fact that her priorities were not always on the game at hand. Recalling the moment when fellow contestant Ron Funches accused her of being a Traitor, because she was so light-footed, Higgins had to hide her smile. “I was thinking, ‘He thinks I’m skinny! Oh my God, tell me again,’” she says. “I was trying to act like I'm angry, but inside, I loved it.”

And yet, Higgins was the only Faithful to make it all the way through the Fire of Truth before losing to Rausch in the very end. Looking back, she credits that feat more to her connection to Rausch than her skills as a player. “I was never turning on Rob. If they ever said his name to me, I would get snappy. To me, he was a Faithful. No one was going to tell me different,” she says. In other words, Rausch had a vested interest in keeping her around.

Higgins had a few moments of clarity where she questioned her blind loyalty to Rausch. “I'm not brain-dead,” she says. “There was a moment when I'm talking to the camera, like ‘How am I still here? I must be close to a Traitor.’ I even said, ‘Oh my God, imagine if it's Rob.’”

Still, she didn’t hold onto those suspicions. Instead, at her last opportunity to vote out fellow players, she voted out Tara Lipinski (Faithful) and Eric Nam (Traitor). As Nam left, he threw more suspicion onto Rausch, imploring Higgins to question her allegiance. Even then, she was loyal to her fellow Love Islander, so when Rausch revealed his Traitor status at the end, she was completely shocked — even questioning if he was joking. “I always have something to say. I've never been that speechless in all of my 35 years,” she says. “I was 1,000,000% convinced that I was winning the show. I said to the camera, ‘Just give me my money. I've won.’ I was that sure.”

Who breaks a pinky promise? You're a psychopath.

Despite the final reveal, throughout their time on the show, the two Love Islanders were always looking out for each other — whether it was Higgins defending Rausch’s faithfulness or Rausch picking her up mid-mission so she did not have to keep running during a challenge. It’s no surprise that viewers started shipping them. “I’ve been enjoying looking at all the stuff online,” she says. “People are making these really cool videos of everything — even me and Rob together in all our little moments. I'm like, ‘Oh my God, it's so cute watching all that back.’”

Higgins says their relationship never turned romantic. “He helped me so much throughout the show, in the missions and everything. But it was always just friendship. Even though in the castle, a lot of the cast were saying, ‘Oh, you guys should get together.’ It was never anything like that.”

Still, they were close — very close — making his reveal all the more shocking (and fun to watch). “He pinky promised me,” she says. “Who breaks a pinky promise? You're a psychopath.”

And yet, Higgins doesn’t seem to be holding on to any hard feelings. “I don’t look at him differently. I'm not a sore loser. I know it's a game, and he smashed it,” she says. “I can't sit here and say anything bad about Rob.” At this point, I feel obligated to point out that she just called him a psychopath. Higgins is quick to joke, “Well, I like psychopaths. I watch a lot of serial killer shows, and I enjoy them.”

Betrayal is the name of the game, but Higgins considers herself a vet when it comes to dealing with traitorous men. “I don't trust men anyway. If I wasn't used to that kind of guy, I reckon I would've been crying, storming out, never speaking to him again,” she says. “But I've already got severe trust issues. I've been cheated on by the majority of my exes — that's the reason I've been celibate for a whole year.”

Rausch might not have cured Higgins’ trust issues, but as we chat, the reunion still looms. Is she planning a Love Island-level confrontation? “I wish I could bring Maura Higgins energy and absolutely annihilate him, but I'm not angry,” she says. Plus, at this point, she’s still hoping he follows through on at least one promise. “He felt bad at the final, and told me he would get me a present at the reunion. I said to him, ‘I will accept nothing less than a Birkin handbag.’ I deserve that. He wouldn’t have won without me.”

At the reunion, which aired Feb. 26, Higgins left bag-less, but her luck might still turn around. Rausch shared his plans for the $220,800 he won: “save it for the future” and “buy Maura a Birkin.”

While she awaits her bag, Higgins’ finale loss may be her gain — payback has served her well in the past. “I was asked to go on Love Island a few years in a row. I finally decided to do it because my boyfriend at the time cheated on me,” she says. “I went on the show for pure and utter revenge. Because I'm just bitter like that.”

This time around, she isn’t sure where vengeance would take her. “I never have a five-year plan or two-year plan. I take life as it comes, and if an opportunity comes, I grab it,” she says. As we talk, she names a few things she’s hoping to see in the future — like Olandria Carthen on The Traitors (“I'd like to see her looks. Body tea, face tea, outfits tea, everything tea. I'm obsessed with that woman.”) and maybe even a role for herself on Dancing With the Stars. “I've never danced in my life. I could be the worst, but I would love to give that my all,” she says.

As we wrap up our meal and start to take photos, Higgins ditches her glass of red to pose with a pint of Guinness (a drink she can’t stand). Her publicist managed to split the G — a drinking challenge where you try to land the beer’s foam line right at the center of the “G” in the Guinness logo, all in your first sip — and Higgins wants to take credit. “Can we pretend it was me? Put it over by my plate. Let’s tell everyone I did that, like a proper Irish girly.” Maybe Higgins could have been a Traitor after all.