'Love Island': Maya Jama confirmed to replace Laura Whitmore as host

Love Island has confirmed that Maya Jama will replace Laura Whitmore as the new host of the ITV2 dating show hit.

Glow Up and Walk The Line presenter Jama, 28, had been rumoured to be lined up as Whitmore's successor after she announced she was quitting the show.

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Now, it has been confirmed that she will front the series when it returns for its winter version in early 2023, as well as the main summer show that will also be back next year.

Jama said: “I’ve always been such a massive Love Island fan and I’m so excited to be hosting one of the nation’s favourite shows! I can’t wait to get into the villa to meet all of the islanders.”

The winter series of Love Island will air from South Africa, while the summer series will return to Mallorca.

Director of reality programming and acquisitions and controller of ITV2, ItvBe and CITV Paul Mortimer said: “Finding a new host to follow the wonderful Laura Whitmore was never going to be easy. In Maya Jama though, we have another high profile fan of the show who’ll be a great addition to the Love Island family.

"Cool, charming and charismatic, I speak for us all when I say Maya will also bring a unique presenting style to the show, as did Laura and, of course, the very much missed Caroline Flack. We’re very pleased to have her on board.”

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Flack hosted the show from 2015 to 2019, with Whitmore taking over for the 2020 winter series shortly before Flack's death.

Whitmore has said since quitting the show that she found the treatment of some of its contestants difficult.

She told The Sunday Times: "When they were in the villa, sometimes I wanted to ask if they were okay and couldn’t. But I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

The presenter, whose husband Iain Stirling narrates Love Island, added: “It is hard. Your face is the front of the show but I am one tiny person and have no producing role so I couldn’t say if I didn’t think something was okay.

"If your child is watching, maybe you should watch it with them and have a conversation. A friend watched with her daughter and told her that it is not okay to say certain things.

"I question things a lot, even if I don’t do it publicly – people would rather I didn’t. It’s difficult doing that when you work on the show. I can do better things from not being on it.”

Record-breaking viewing figures saw Love Island become the most-watched series ever on ITV Hub last series, with more than 269 million streams this summer, attracting the biggest 16-34s audience on any channel this year.

Watch: Former Love Island stars praise Laura Whitmore after she quits