Maya Jama has been officially confirmed as the new host of Love Island.
The presenter is replacing Laura Whitmore, who announced her exit from the ITV2 reality show following its eighth series in August.
Maya – who had been heavily rumoured for the job since her predecessor’s exit – said on Wednesday: “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.”
She will be on hand to welcome the new Islanders to the villa and host the live final – as well as popping up with a few surprise visits – when Love Island returns in January.
Earlier this year, it was confirmed the show would air twice in 2023, with its second winter series coming from a brand new villa in South Africa.
ITV2 controller Paul Mortimer said of Maya’s appointment: “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.”
Laura announced she would be stepping down as the host of Love Island after three series, admitting there were “certain elements” of the show she’d “found very difficult”.
She also said she had “conflicting projects” that would stop her flying back and forth from South Africa to London in order to host both Love Island and the studio-based spin-off Aftersun.
Laura first stepped in to host the first-ever winter Love Island in 2020 amid her predecessor Caroline Flack’s legal issues at that time.
Referring to her late friend, Laura said in a statement about her departure from the show: “I was only planning to fill in for Caroline for a series and it turned into three series. I hope I did you proud Caroline.”
As well as a winter series of Love Island in 2023, the show will also return to Mallorca for its traditional summer series later in the year.
The most recent season of the reality show was won by Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Davide Sanclimenti.