Maura Higgins Reacts to Rob Rausch’s ‘Traitors’ Betrayal: 'I Took It on the Chin' (Exclusive)
Just days after she was betrayed in front of millions on The Traitors Season 4 finale, Maura Higgins is remarkably unfazed. While fans may still reeling from the $220,800 win pulled off by Rob Rausch, the Love Island alum, 35, is already planning her next move.
Despite entering the game with zero prior knowledge of the show, Maura navigated the castle with her social connections and of course, close bond with her fellow Love Islander and Traitor Angel Rob.
Below, Maura breaks down the behind-the-scenes reality of filming in the Scottish Highlands, her tactical lie to Eric Nam that nearly changed the course of the endgame, and why she has no regrets about taking her runner-up finish on the chin.
Scroll down to read the full interview with Maura.
Men's Journal: How are you feeling today?
Maura Higgins: I'm feeling good. It's so weird as well, because obviously I went through all those emotions at that time. And keeping in mind, it's what, like eight, nine months since we filmed that show, and I was just talking to someone this morning saying, "You know what's crazy, I went through that on TV, went through all those emotions and then flew straight to Fiji and sat on Aftersun as if nothing happened to me."
Men's Journal: I didn't think about that, but you're right. Wow. The cast had been announced at that point, so people knew you were on the cast. What was their reaction out there?
Maura Higgins: Everyone was just asking me, "Oh, how did you do? Like, what happened?" And obviously I can't say anything. I just kept saying, "You'll have to wait and see. It's going to be a good one." But, like, I couldn't talk to anyone about it. The only person I could talk to was my mummy, because I knew she wasn't going to tell anyone. But yeah, like, to be honest, I got over it really quickly. I was, you know, I didn't cry, I didn't get sad. I was just like, "You know what? He played the game very, very well, and fair play to him." Yeah, I took it on the chin.
Men's Journal: Maura, you handled it so well.
Maura Higgins: Yeah. And very unlike me, I know a lot of people were like, "We wanted the Maura from Love Island." And like, I'm very like—I even put something on my story about it—but it's a very different show. Like in Love Island, you're there to make connections and couple up, but in Traitors, it's like you're picked as either a traitor or a faithful, and you play that role. So I knew going in there, this is just the game, and it's not that deep.
Men's Journal: What was the most surprising thing that you learned from watching the show back?
Maura Higgins: I don't think there was anything that surprised me. No. I actually really enjoyed watching it because I had never watched the show, but that's what I heard. Yeah, I really enjoyed watching it. It was a fun watch. Obviously, the last episode was like—I was literally watching like that. I was like, "Oh my god, that is crazy."
Men's Journal: It was a good one. Did anyone ever talk about why Rob wasn't murdered considering multiple people knew he had the dagger and you would think Traitors wouldn't want that in the game?
Maura Higgins: I don't think it did come up. Yeah, he's so good. I think it was only the people that was in that moment where he won the dagger that knew about the dagger.
Men's Journal: I know you said you went into the show not knowing anything. How did you not watch the show? How did you pack for it?
Maura Higgins: I had a stylist, and I just looked up on Google, like, "What is the type of fashion that people wear in the Scottish castle?" And, yeah, I enjoyed the fashion side of it a lot, because I just love fashion. I love trying new things. We went with a lot of hats and suits and gloves and, oh, I just lived for it. But yeah, the only thing I knew about the show was someone selected us traitors. The rest were faithfuls. The faithfuls' jobs are to find out who the traitors are. And obviously I knew there was, like, murders and stuff like that, but I didn't really understand a whole lot about it. I was kind of learning every day as I went along. But then again, I don't know. I'm just not a very serious person, like, I was just in there. I was having fun, like, meeting friends and having a laugh.
Men's Journal: Do you think it would have been different had you watched anything? Are you happy you didn't watch it, or you wish you did?
Maura Higgins: I reckon it probably would have been different. But I just don't want to overthink it when I'm doing. I'm like, I never watched any show that I had done, so I didn't want to change that now. I just wanted to do what I always did, go in there, be me, and see what happens.
Men's Journal: And it got you to the end. It worked. I do want to ask you about your style a bit more since it was a big topic this season. How did you even get sleep considering everyone has to do their own glam?
Maura Higgins: Some nights, I'd be getting into bed looking at the clock going, "Oh my god, I have to be up in three hours to start glam." But, you know, I'm committed. I'm committed to the glam, and I think as well, I'm very fast at doing my own makeup, probably because of Love Island. We're doing glam every single day. We don't get a lot of time, like I can do a full face of makeup in 30 minutes, so I am quite speedy. And then I made the decision of taking in wigs, because my own natural hair is very, very curly, and obviously the weather in Scotland is very unpredictable, misty rain and all of that, my hair gets very, very frizzy, and I knew that, "Oh my God, if I don't have the time to fix my hair after the missions, I'm going to be left with an issue." So the best thing I did was take the wigs.
Men's Journal: Is fashion something you want to explore more now?
Maura Higgins: Yeah, I'm doing a lot at the moment. I went to New York Fashion Week. I've just come from Milan Fashion Week and having really, really exciting conversations with designers at the moment, which I'd love to tell you about, but it's like stuff that I have on my vision board that I never genuinely thought was possible, and I'm just so excited for it all because I just I love it. I've loved fashion since I was a young girl, and I love to play around with it. I hate to do the same thing twice. So yeah, a bit of a muse in that sense.
Men's Journal: Amazing. Going back to the game, did you ever think about what if they picked you to be a Traitor? How would you have handled that?
Maura Higgins: Oh, my God, I just wish I was a Traitor. Really! Yes, I would have had so much fun, but then I don't—it's hard because I don't know how I would have done as a traitor. Like, I know that I had the trust of the whole castle, so, like, that's a plus, but I wouldn't have thought that I was ever a good liar, like my mum always says that to me, "You're the worst liar. You can't lie." My face says everything, like my facial expressions are a lot, but I don't know, like now that I had the whole trust of the castle then maybe. And then there was the scene where I lied to Eric [Nam], even you were good, yes, even me watching, I was like, "Oh my God."
Men's Journal: Would you ever do the show again if they called you?
Maura Higgins: They actually said to me one of the days, "Oh, so Traitors All-Stars." And I just looked and went, "No." I mean, if they really wanted to convince me, they can convince me with fashion.