Love Island star Maura Higgins laid down some lessons in love on the Late Late Show Valentine's special on Friday night, giving out advice on the pressing issues of dental hygiene and why men need to make more of an effort on the first date.
The Longford woman - resplendent in a pink trouser suit - joined "hormone whisperer" Ryan Tubridy in a studio rammed with lovestruck singletons and dispensed her own hard-won wisdom in matters of the heart to audience members.
Solid life advice from @MauraHiggins here lads 😂#LateLate pic.twitter.com/Tgme1BSxQH
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) February 10, 2023
After Ryan threw the subject of love open to the audience, Ailbhe from Tipperary told Maura that her "ick" was bad teeth and bad breath and recalled how she had to pull back from a kiss on one particular date.
"You cannot settle for that!" Maura said, "brush your teeth, brush your teeth!"
She also had some red flags on first dates. "I’d say if someone is rude to a waiter, that’s a red flag. I had this before - a guy was rude to a child in front of me and I was like I can never go there again. That’s vile."
Holly from Sligo recalled how one potential boyfriend told her that he wanted to take her somewhere fancy for dinner but treating her to a McDonald’s drive-thru - and then had his debit card turned down when he went to pay.
"I'm shocked!" replied aghast agony aunt Maura and then, looking directly into the camera, she addressed the menfolk of Ireland.
"To all the men in Ireland, if you’re going to take a girl out on a first date, the girl has gone to all the effort - outfit, fake tan, hair, make-up, high heels . . . please, sort yourself out and take to a nice place. And brush your teeth!"
However, Maura is currently very single herself. "I couldn’t be more single if I tried," she said. "You never know, I could find a man in the audience tonight but that’s another thing about being in the public eye - I’m on holidays with a group of friends and you mingle on holidays and there was a group of guys next to us at our table and they joined us.
"There’s a photo of one of them kissing me on the cheek and I don’t know where this photo came from because I don’t have it on my phone. I think one of his friends took it and he probably leaked the photo and I’m not going to lie; I did give him some abuse on Instagram. There is just no need for that."
In terms of what she’s looking for in a fella, she said, "Personality. I need someone to make me laugh. I quite like a guy who’s intimidating. A lot of guys bow down to me and I get the ick. They have to put me in my place, but they have to respect me. Mammy always brings this up, `why do you want to be intimidated/’ and I say, `I don’t know, it’s just ooooooh!’"
Maura had a lot to say about her mammy, Sharon, admitting that she tells her pretty much everything about her love life. "I talk to mammy about everything and when I say everything, I mean everything. She hears every single detail. She wants to know the details. I want advice and she does give good advice but sometimes I just do my own thing."
Speaking about how she has dealt with fame since emerging as the breakout contestant on Love Island four years ago, she said, "I’m doing very well. I’ve adjusted. It was very scary when I first came out of the villa, and I moved countries as well, so it was a lot and I think I did struggle a bit.
"I remember the first week, interviews, tv, radio, photoshoots . . . it was all go, go, go. And I remember paparazzi chasing my car and banging on the window and it was quite scary. I’m not going to lie, it was tough.
"I didn’t know what to expect. I genuinely thought I was going to go into that show and last a week. I actually don’t know why it went well. I think you just have to be yourself."
Earlier in the night, audience members took part in some speed dating hosted by comedian Justine Stafford and went pretty bonkers for noughties pop band Five, who performed their hit Move On Up.
Watch the Late Late Show Valentine’s special on the RTÉ Player.
