Love Island host Maya Jama opens up about horrific fall which left her in a wheelchair-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Love Island’s new host has shared a horrific story (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

Love Island’s Maya Jama has revealed she suffered a horrendous fall when she was 17 which left her in a wheelchair.

The 28-year-old was due to host a hip-hop party in Cyprus before she fell over a kerb the night before, and was hospitalised for two days.

The star spent the rest of her time away in a wheelchair because she couldn’t move her toes.

Today, the TV sensation still struggles to bend her big toe properly after the fall, which left the bottom of her foot ‘hanging off’.

Maya was in Ayia Napa when she was 17 to host Charlie Sloth’s show Fire In the Booth when the incident happened.

Speaking to Pretty Little Thing’s Behind Closed Doors podcast, she said: ‘The day before the actual beach party thing that we were supposed to be hosting, I ended up slipping on a bit of mashed up kerb, and the bottom of my foot was hanging off, so I had to be in hospital for two days and ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of the time.’

The Bristol-born gal is now a global superstar (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)

‘Which isn’t the best,’ added Maya, ‘but, you know, character building’.

The star explained how the ball of her foot was hanging off, but she couldn’t feel it because she’d ripped a nerve.

‘So I was getting carried into the ambulance like “whahey” and loving it, not knowing that I might not be able to bend my f****** toes,’ remembered Maya with a chuckle.

‘I spent my 18th birthday in a wheelchair,’ she added.

Luckily, apart from the star’s big toe, which can no longer ‘tuck’, Maya has made a great recovery to wind up gracing our screens over the past few weeks as Love Island’s new host.

It’s safe to say Maya’s new job is going pretty well so far (Picture: ITV)

So far the presenter’s tenure as Love Island host has been a record-breaking success, as more people tuned in to the spin-off gossip show Aftersun, hosted by Maya, than they did the main event on Sunday night for the first time ever.

When Maya first made her slow-mo walk into the villa on January 16, the response was wild.

She-Hulk star Jameela Jamil even told Maya that she ‘broke the internet. Broke the world,’ on the eve of her first appearance as host on the show – a role she took over from Laura Whitmore.

Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock also commented on Maya’s post thanking viewers for their overwhelming support on her debut episode.

‘Actual vision,’ she wrote, alongside a fire emoji.

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Chicken Shop interviewer Amelia Dimoldenberg wrote: ‘You were amazing, a natural! The main reason I’m watching 😂.

Earlier in the week it was revealed Maya will be leaving one of her biggest presenting gigs on the BBC’s Glow Up, and will be replaced by Leomie Anderson.

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