Maya Jama Quits Love Island UK After Nine Seasons — ‘It’s Time to Throw Myself Into Something New’

Maya Jama is walking away from the villa. The presenter confirmed on Sunday that she’s stepping down as host of Love Island UK after nine seasons, bringing the curtain down on one of the most talked-about hosting runs in British reality TV — and leaving fans, and ITV, with a very big pair of shoes to fill.

Jama, 32, broke the news herself on Instagram, posting a montage of highlights from her three years fronting the show alongside a long, emotional goodbye. And honestly? It didn’t read like a carefully managed press release. It read like someone who genuinely loved the job and is genuinely ready for whatever comes next.

“What an incredible era and what an unforgettable time I’ve had, it’s been far too much fun to put into words or a video,” she wrote, “but as all good things must come to an end, it’s my time to step down as the host of my beloved Love Island.”

That one line alone was enough to send Love Island fans into a tailspin. But Jama wasn’t done. She thanked the people who campaigned for her to get the job in the first place, the viewers who tuned in season after season, and the production team she watched work themselves to the bone behind the scenes.

“Firstly, I want to thank all of the people who rooted so hard for me to host the show in the first place. I wouldn’t change a thing,” she wrote. “To the fans of the show, thank you for every supportive message and every single time you’ve tuned in during my time as host, I’m forever grateful to you all. The show really does belong to the people who watch it and embrace it year after year.”

And then, the line that probably explains everything: “I started hosting the show aged 28 and during the 9 incredible series met the most wonderful humans along the way. I’ve loved every slow-mo walk, fire pit and live show. I’ll forever be grateful for the experience. But I’ve always believed that to truly grow, you have to take a leap every now and then, and now is my time to throw myself into something new.”

Three years, nine series, one very hard act to follow

Nine series. Three years. That’s not a hosting gig, that’s a marathon with outfit changes.

Jama walked into the villa in January 2023, season nine, taking over from Laura Whitmore. She was 28. Already famous, sure, but this was different — Love Island in Britain isn’t just telly, it’s the thing everyone at work, in the group chat, down the pub is talking about all summer. Every dress she wore got dissected. Every live show, every entrance, every raised eyebrow — all of it, in real time, by millions of people with opinions.

And she didn’t just cope with that. She owned it.

Season nine through season 13, she was there every summer. Then there was the spin-off work on top: Love Island Games in 2023, chucking Islanders from different countries together in Fiji for the first season, and Love Island: All Stars from 2024, dragging back the old favourites for another go — three seasons of that, too.

Three shows, nine series, and all the while she was building a whole career outside the villa as well. It’s a lot. Honestly, it’s a wonder she lasted this long without burning out.

From Bristol to the biggest show on British TV

Here’s the thing, though — Jama didn’t come out of nowhere. She’s from Bristol, started out on MTV (that True Love or True Lies? era, which feels like a lifetime ago now), then landed at BBC Radio 1 doing weekend shows. Millions of people knew her voice before they ever saw her walk into a villa.

Then came Glow Up, then co-hosting Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer. Bit by bit, she built up this reputation as someone who could do live TV and not flinch. Funny when the moment needed funny. Serious when it didn’t. You can’t teach that, really — either you’ve got it or you haven’t, and she has.

So by the time ITV knocked, it wasn’t a gamble at all. Fans had been saying her name for ages. And she knew it — that line in her goodbye about the people who “rooted so hard” for her to get the job wasn’t just being polite. There was a proper groundswell behind her. People wanted someone who actually got the show, someone who’d grown up watching it just like they had.

What followed was three years of slow-mo walks, fire pit showdowns, live finales and the kind of fashion moments that turned her villa wardrobe into its own weekly news cycle. Her entrances became events in themselves. Her interviews with dumped Islanders — the ones where she somehow managed to be both warm and properly direct — became a signature of the show.

The Traitors twist nobody saw coming

If 2026 proved anything, it’s that Jama isn’t the kind of presenter who sits still. While she was still hosting Love Island, she signed up for the BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors — and not as a host, but as a contestant. A traitor, to be precise.

It was a gamble. Going on a reality show as a player, after years of being the person in control of one, is a completely different kind of exposure. But Jama leaned into it, surviving all the way to the final before being banished from the castle after fellow traitor King Kenny held the deciding vote on her fate.

The Celebrity Traitors run changed how people saw her, too. Up to then she was the polished one, the host, the person with the answers. Suddenly there she was, lying through her teeth in a castle in Scotland, sweating it out like everyone else. And weirdly, it suited her — she was genuinely good at it, good enough that her run became one of the big talking points of the whole series.

She’s also been expanding into acting, with a recurring role in season two of Netflix’s The Gentleman, and she remains on the panel of The Masked Singer UK. Put it all together and the picture is clear: this is someone with options, and someone who’s been quietly building a career that doesn’t depend on any single show.

What happens to Love Island now?

That’s the question everyone is asking, and right now nobody has an answer. ITV has thanked Jama for her work, calling her a “fantastic and much loved host” and wishing her every continued success, but the broadcaster has not yet named a successor. A replacement is expected to be announced in the next couple of months, and you can bet the speculation will be relentless until then.

The timing matters. Love Island: All Stars is set to return for a fourth season in 2027, and the main summer series will need a host too. Whoever takes over will be stepping into one of the most scrutinised jobs in British television — and doing it in the shadow of a host who, by most accounts, nailed it.

Look at who held this job before her and you see why it matters so much. Caroline Flack was the original host — she basically invented the role, from 2015 until her death in 2020. Laura Whitmore did two series and then walked away. Jama took over a show that was still finding its feet after all that loss and change, and she steadied it. That’s no small thing. It’s a big part of why this feels like the end of an era, not just a casting change.

Meanwhile the wider Love Island machine just keeps going. Love Island Australia, with Sophie Monk hosting, is on air right now, and Love Island USA and Love Island Games are both coming back in 2027 with Ariana Madix in charge. The franchise will be fine — it’s bigger than any one host. But the UK version, the original, the one that started the whole thing? That’s about to look very different.

Why now — and what comes next

Jama hasn’t said what the “something new” is, and that’s probably deliberate. She closed her statement with a promise to keep cheering the show on from the sidelines — “While my own Love Island journey has come to an end, I wish the show and the team all the success in the world, I’ll be cheering you lot on from the sidelines forever” — but she gave no hints about her next move.

That’s the smart play. A presenter of her standing doesn’t need to announce the next thing the same day she leaves the last one. The Traitors stint, the acting work, the panel shows — they all suggest someone who’s already thinking several moves ahead, testing out different sides of herself in public before committing to the next big thing.

There will be plenty of theories in the meantime. A new presenting gig, a bigger acting role, a project of her own — the rumour mill will do what it always does. And Jama, who has spent three years being the calm centre of the loudest show on television, will let it spin.

What we do know is this: when she walked into that villa in January 2023, a lot of people wondered whether she could fill the role. Three years and nine series later, the question is who on earth fills hers. That’s a legacy, whether she calls it one or not.

For now, the villa doors are closed, the slow-mo walks are over, and one of British TV’s most recognisable hosts is off to throw herself into something new. Whatever it is, a lot of people will be watching.

Source: Just Jared