How her boyfriend’s death fueled Maya Jama’s rise to stardom by becoming a host on Love Island

Perhaps it was inevitable that Maya Jama would one day become the spiritual successor to Britain’s biggest television matchmaker, Cilla Black. For the 28-year-old, who begins her reign as presenter of ITV’s Love Island tomorrow, she has the same bubbly personality and vibrant desire to bring a ‘laugh lorry’ out of life that turned the late Liverpudlian into a viewer favorites. throughout the 18 years she spent as Blind Date’s Cupid.

More importantly, Jama backs up that light-hearted likeability with impeccable professionalism and a steely determination to succeed, just as Cilla did.

When news broke that she would be taking over the coveted role previously held by Caroline Flack and Laura Whitmore, she told fans: “It sounds a little wild, but I have everything I’ve ever really wanted in life.”

And that’s due less to the random whims of the universe than to her own personality, which she describes as “fearless, determined and focused on tunnel vision.” Even as a child, she wanted to be on TV and says she was “really ambitious” and “super, super confident” about making that dream come true.

It wouldn’t take a psychologist to suggest that her desire to succeed stems from a desire to escape her difficult early life, with her father spending much of her childhood behind bars for violence-related crimes and her boyfriend ending up dead when he was innocently left behind. caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout when he was just 16 years old.

Rico Gordon was killed when two gangs fought a shootout after a carnival in Bristol. A stray bullet hit the 21-year-old in the head while he was on the phone with Jama. Two men were jailed for his murder, but the star’s friends say she still unfairly blames herself for the death. She had traveled from London to visit her and was asking how to get to her house when she was shot.

“Your whole world changes,” he later said of that moment. ‘You’re a little girl and you realize, ‘Okay, this is adult stuff.’ He was devastated, he was so sad.

Jama’s boyfriend, Rico Gordon, was killed when two gangs fought a shootout after a carnival in Bristol.

The murder is what prompted her to leave Bristol, her friends say, so she moved to London to do something for herself. Leaving her hometown also meant she could escape the toxic influence of her Somali father. Until the age of ten, she Jama visited him in prison, but she separated from him when she was a teenager. She later explained, “I felt like, ‘If you can’t even make the effort to stay out of jail, why am I making the effort to come see you?’ ‘

He has also hinted that he hurt his mother, telling Vogue magazine how the years before he was sent away were tinged with vague memories of seeing his mother’s blood on the kitchen floor and “just knowing something was wrong.” it was good”.

Jama hasn’t spoken to her father since making a documentary about him in 2017 that led to a brief reunion between the couple, but she remains close to her Swedish mother, Sadie, who was just 18 when she gave birth.

In an interview last weekend, Jama reflected on those early experiences, saying, ‘I hate the word ‘strong’ because why do you always have to be strong? But I am resistant.

After moving to London, Jama lived for some time with Rico’s family and even slept in his old room while she went to work, starting out as a broker for the production company Jump Off TV.

He then got his chance in front of the camera, hosting his weekly music video countdown, and quickly rose through the highly competitive world of streaming, becoming the youngest person to host the Mobo Awards, at age 23, landing a job. on Radio 1 after a stint on community station Rinse FM, and will go mainstream with shows including Channel 4’s The Circle; BBC1’s Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer and ITV2’s Celebrity Juice.

Jama and Stormzy met in 2015, when they were both complete strangers. Their relationship blossomed, and the couple had a four-year romance. Pictured: Maya Jama and Stormzy attend the 2017 Elle Style Awards on February 13, 2017

His rise was fueled by his natural, fun-loving on-air charisma, with friends saying he wants to put aside the heartbreak he’s endured for a more carefree and fun life. It might have been those qualities that attracted grime superstar Stormzy. They met in 2015, when they were both complete strangers. She played one of her songs on Rinse FM and he tweeted a thank you.

Their relationship blossomed, and the couple had a four-year romance. She doesn’t like to talk about her relationship now, but she has said, “We were very young when we met, just starting our careers.” She hadn’t even released a single at the time. We were just babies.

Rumors that they got together last year turned out to be misplaced, and she now describes herself as “very, very single.”

Serially monogamous, she recently dated basketball player Ben Simmons, to whom she was rumored to be engaged, but now insists she hasn’t had her eye on anyone.

However, starting tomorrow he will try to choreograph love affairs for other people: the contestants of the ninth series of Love Island.

Money now comes easily to Jama: she flies regularly on a private plane, likes designer clothes, and has bought her own house in London. Pictured: Maya Jama attending the 2022 Fashion Awards, Royal Albert Hall, London, December 5, 2022

The show has been plagued with controversy. In addition to Caroline Flack’s suicide at the age of 40, two contestants have taken their own lives, highlighting the producers’ duty of care towards those participating. Television regulator Ofcom has received thousands of complaints about the way some contestants have been treated, while there have been allegations of “bullying, manipulation and misogyny” on the show.

Jama is an astute choice of host because, like Flack, she is perceived as a woman that female viewers would want as a friend, and male viewers would like to date. Indeed, ITV bosses hope Love Island will be the launching pad for other prime time shows for what they describe as the “perfect choice” of host for it. For her part, Jama says that the Love Island job is her ‘golden ticket’ and she sees it as her mission to make the dating show joyful.

This year’s contestants include a biomedical sciences student, a science and physical education teacher, a financial adviser and a farmer, all trying to win love, or at least the £50,000 prize.

Money now comes easily to Jama: she flies regularly on a private plane, likes designer clothes, and has bought her own house in London.

Jama is an astute choice of host because, like Flack, she is perceived as a woman that female viewers would want as a friend, and male viewers would like to date. Pictured: Maya Jama attends British Vogue’s ‘Forces For Change’ Dinner at the Londoner Hotel on December 4, 2022

Their success, after such rocky starts, comes as no surprise to Kim Baker, Jama Professor of Psychology at Bristol’s Cotham School. She says: ‘She was a very magnetic person, very charismatic. She had presence and a great group of friends, mainly because she was so funny, laughing incessantly. She had great determination to get it right. She had real value. She maybe she looked at her family background and she thought she was going to lead a different life.

She is proof that you can do what you really want if you persevere. She’s living the dream now, and she’s great. When she was here at school, I thought: ‘This girl is going to go far.’ She really had something about her: a very strong personality.

That strong personality is just what you’ll need to keep this year’s Love Islanders in check and propel your incredible career to even greater heights.