Turns out Molly Mae and Maura knew each other long before Love Island

They actually crossed paths a year before the show.

Molly Mae Hague has revealed that she knew her fellow contestant Maura Higgins before they met on Love Island. The 23-year-old opened up about the first time she really met Maura in a new vlog on YouTube. Speaking from a club in Dubai, she said: "Fun fact, this is the beach club in which I first saw Maura before we even knew who each other were. "Then when she came on the show, 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." Both women appeared on the dating show in 2019, coming in as bombshells at different times. Molly Mae had initially coupled up with Tommy Fury, but it wasn't too long before Maura stirred things up by making a move on the boxer. However, Tommy wasn't swayed and remained loyal to Molly Mae. The pair have been together since. Molly Mae and Maura have also remained close friends since. In her recent memoir, titled Becoming Molly Mae, Molly Mae shared just how close the friendship is, despite the Longford native once having eyes for Tommy. "When you have a friend like Maura you have that complete trust," she said. "Of course on Love Island she was interested in Tommy for a bit, but there is no issue there. "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 added that Maura and Tommy are now "like brother and sister - they make fun of each other 24/7".