Maura Higgins and Pete Wicks wasted no time in getting back together after being torn apart for weeks while the Irish reality star was in the I’m A Celebrity jungle.

Fresh from hopping off a plane at Heathrow Airport, Maura checked into a London hotel… with beau Pete Wick racing to be by her side.

A clearly delighted Maura was pictured beaming in a selfie with her pals, with Pete lurking in the background. The typically straight-faced star looked slightly glum as he posed in the room packed with Maura’s mates.

No doubt Maura and Pete will have plenty of time to catch up now after he was kicked out of Strictly Come Dancing the week before the final.

After being eliminated from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Maura 34-year-old said she was “proud” of Pete’s journey on Strictly and appeared to confirm a romance with him on ITV’s This Morning, when she joked that she would let presenter Alison Hammond be a bridesmaid at their wedding.

Maura said: “You do forget about the cameras, and I do like to keep things private, but let’s be real, I said it. I can’t remember saying it, but I said the words, ‘I miss him’. I do miss him, like I missed all my friends and family.

Maura Higgins shared snaps of her hotel stay with pals – with beau Pete lurking in the background

Maura wasted no time in throwing a party with her friends
“Honestly, he’s been so supportive, honestly. I didn’t know if he was still in Strictly and I’m so proud of him, he’s proud of me, and I can’t wait to see him when I get back.”

The pair have been romantically linked for a while, and Wicks recently denied rumours of a romance between him and his Strictly professional dance partner Jowita Przystal, saying: “We have great chemistry because we’ve become such good friends.”

During her time on I’m A Celebrity, Higgins spoke about “missing” an unnamed man she had been “seeing since July”, remarking “he’s not an a**hole”.

When asked by former Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse if was single, Maura replied: ‘I am but I was seeing someone before I came in but I’m not in a relationship.’ Reverend Richard Coles then asked: ‘Was it exclusive? Or if I’ve put you on the spot, sorry!’, to which Maura replied after a long pause: ‘I dunno’.

The model and influencer also gave away that she and Pete had known each other for a long time and that the long-haired star hadhad pursued her relentlessly.

“Yeah, we’ve known each other since five years, and never once…” she told Oti. “He would always say, “Oh no, like, we are gonna go on a date somewhere.” And I’d be like, “We’re actually not.” And I was deadly serious, “We’re actually not. You’re delusional.”‘

Speaking about her first date with Pete, Maura said he spared no expense in treating her: “We went out for oysters and wine. Yeah, come on. It was super nice.”

Teasing how things are going now she said, “We just dial up 24/7 with each other. We’ve got the very same humour.’

During his time on Strictly Pete showed off his support for Maura by repeatedly asking fans to vote for her. One week he joked: ‘I’ve been George of the Jungle but now it’s time to vote for Maura of the Jungle’.

Up until their respective reality TV show appearances this autumn, Pete and Maura had been tight-lipped about their romance. They had been pictured snogging on various dates but refused to discuss each other publicly until Maura let loose in the jungle.

Pete Wicks denied he’s dating his dance partner Jowita ( 
Image:
@p_wicks01/Instagram)

Maura’s honesty and one-liners went down a storm with I’m A Celeb fans this series, but she narrowly missed out on a place in the final. Danny Jones, Coleen Rooney and Richard Coles instead battled it out for the top prize, with the McFly star being crowned King of the jungle.

After leaving the show, Maura said the hardest thing was being away from her mum. She said: “It was hard being away from mammy. The one thing I really wanted to do was face my fears, and it was one of those shows that I always wanted to do at some point of my life, and I just never knew when would be the right time, and this year was right.

“I’m so glad I’ve done it now, because the campmates and everyone just together, we just had such a family. And I faced my fear of spiders, and I hate every type of bug, but spiders, I don’t know how I did it, I really don’t.

“But I swore to myself before going in there, I will not say ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’, and I’m so glad those words did not come out of my mouth.”

The star, born in Ballymahon, Co Longford, also said there had been no falling-outs in the camp. She continued: “Honestly, I didn’t see grumpiness from anyone if I’m being totally honest.

“Everyone just pulled together as a team, like we really just encouraged one another, it’s very rare to have such a big group of people and for everyone to get on so well. And the little moments that you would have seen, because I haven’t seen it, and I haven’t seen the edit or anything, it’s all just tongue-in-cheek. I think I heard something about Jane with the washing up, she wasn’t even bothered, that woman worked so hard in there.”