Maya Jama reveals boozy plans for ‘ladies of leisure’ girls’ trip to South Africa for Love Island All Stars
MAYA Jama intends to work and play hard during her time in South Africa covering Love Island All Stars.
The host has made Cape Town her home-away-from-home while she films for the ITV2 series this month and has big plans for her downtime – exploring the region’s many vineyards.
Chatting to The Sun at the villa, Maya said: “There’s so much nice stuff to do in South Africa, and I’ve got my team that I work with all the time. They’re staying with me.
“It’s not going to be all night parties – I’m being sensible.
“But I’m definitely not on a booze ban – not with all these lovely vineyards, I want to be able to enjoy a nice wine.
“I’ve got some of my girls with me and I think we’re just gonna do wholesome things.
“We’ve got Pilates booked. We’re gonna go to some markets, we’re being very like ladies of leisure in the off time.
“It’s basically a girls trip and a Love Island season at the same time.”
The Sun revealed last week that Maya would be setting up camp onsite instead of flying in and out to maximise her time on screen.
Instead of exit interviews happening on Aftersun, she will instead conduct them immediately, outside the villa.
Maya said: “I’m doing interviews as soon as they leave, so I’m staying out here the whole time rather than flying back to London to film Aftersun.
“With this new exit interview format, I feel like you’ll get the raw emotion. I’m really excited about that actually, because then it’s like straight away, as soon as they’re out, there’s no time for them to think on the plane.
“We just go straight into the questions.”
There’s a personal change Maya has made too, with the experience of now having presented two series of Love Island plus Love Island Games for Peacock.
She said: “I’ve stepped away a bit [from Twitter] – I don’t like that to take away from the actual experience of it.
“You know, sometimes you can be having the best day ever, then you see what someone thinks and you’re like, ‘Oh.’
“So to avoid that, I won’t look until maybe halfway through the series, then I’ll have a little glance at the hashtag.
“Especially with Aftersun, it’s good to know the overall opinions and stuff. But at the beginning stages I just tend not to. I’ll just have somebody else monitor social so I can just be clear-headed.”
Former host Laura Whitmore confessed she struggled with the social media comments during her time on the show.
But Maya’s gone down a storm with viewers, with a poll of Sun Readers consistently naming her one of the best things about the dating show.
Her outfits are particularly rated.
Maya commented: “I don’t wanna make any promises, but we have good looks.
“I’ve got a really good stylist, Ria, and we did a fitting a few days ago.
“It just depends on the vibe of the day, what happens in the show. Like if it’s a really dramatic episode, maybe I’ll wear a black number, you know, kind of flow.
“I haven’t had any dress malfunctions as of yet because it’s all tied up at the back, you won’t be able to see anything.”
Love Island All Stars sees a raft of former Island legends return to the show where they first found fame for a second shot at finding The One.
Cast include Georgia Harrison, Liberty Poole, Chris Taylor and Toby Aromolaran.
The series begins on Monday night at 9pm on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX.