It was yet another iconic TV moment that had millions of viewers in stitches and Springbrook National Park in Queensland was ringing to the unmistakable roar of a Longford accent, surrounded by cockroaches and mealworms, Maura Higgins roared the word 'Boat' at her celebrity campmate Jane Moore.
Pausing only to utter bloodcurdling screams as a cockroach or two got over-familiar, Maura tried spelling the word but her accent still got in the way until she let an almighty roar.
'It's A,' she cried. 'A for a**hole!'
It has been one of the stand-out moments of this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! which has shed new light on the Longford lass, who first made her fortune on Love Island.
But far from the luscious and impeccably-groomed goddess we're so used to seeing, the 34-year-old has got down and dirty with her fellow celebrities, proving that as well as glamour, this girl has pure grit.
Since she landed as a late arrival in the celebrity jungle alongside the Reverend Richard Coles, Maura has reminded us why we fell in love with her in the first place.
One of the most successful contestants to come out of Love Island, it was Maura's honesty, no-nonsense attitude and hilarious wisecracks that won the hearts of television viewers everywhere.
When she hit Love Island in 2019, Maura wasn't afraid to speak her mind and her use of the phrase 'fanny flutters' became modern-day parlance.
She was not afraid to talk about her sexuality, nor was she afraid to call out bad behaviour and her down-to-earth nature saw her win the show eventually, with former Dancing With The Stars professional Curtis Pritchard. Her popularity immediately thrust her into the spotlight and earlier this week she told her fellow campmates that it was a shock.
'Coming back into Heathrow Airport it was mayhem,' Maura said of her return from island life. 'The security had to drag us onto a bus because there were swamps of people,' She added: 'I didn't know what to expect.'
She also revealed to her fellow campmates that she had been in two minds as to whether or not to go on Love Island. In between applying and being accepted onto the show, she met a guy and she felt the relationship was going well.
She was considering turning the show down, until she checked his phone and found evidence of cheating, telling her campmates that not only did she board the plane, leaving her fella for dust, but she also exacted revenge by cleaning the toilet with his toothbrush.
It was a move that worked well for the Longford lass. Since then, Maura has gone on to represent hundreds of brands across the UK and Ireland. She signed with Elite Model Management and has pushed herself forward, even presenting a Love Island spin-off show in Australia.
With her latest trip Down Under, Maura has shown another dimension to her character. Scrubbing off her normal make-up and calling herself Casper after the friendly ghost because of the paleness of her skin without false tan, she embraced the jungle experience more than she - or we - ever thought she would.
She arrived with the Reverend Richard Coles and the pair had to share a double bed, to Maura's hilarity. Though she has a tendency to swear, any curse words on the show have promptly been followed by a 'Sorry, Father', as she addresses the pop star turned Anglican priest.
She dubbed her 34th birthday in the camp the worst ever as she and her fellow campmates were thrust on a bus to be bombarded by insects - mealworms, cockroaches, green ants and the dreaded spiders that Maura was so afraid of.
But, despite the screams and terror, Maura refused to back down or give up during the countless horrible trials she faced during the course of her jungle stay. She proved herself to have the mettle that was required to feed her fellow campmates and admitted that when she got evicted, she was ready to leave.
She was hoping that a man she spoke of in camp might be there to meet her, not realising that The Only Way Is Essex star Pete Wicks is still in Strictly, defying the odds to remain in the competition.
It may not be known to Maura either that there were rumours he was getting close with his dance partner Jowita Przystal and that he was having difficulty choosing between the dancer and his jungle belle who he has been dating.
Maura wanted the romance to remain a secret but unfortunately for her, that particular horse had already bolted.
She did talk about her mystery man though, revealing that he had pestered her for a date since they met five years before and eventually, she gave in, going for oysters and wine with the long-haired lothario.
But Maura complained that all of her relationships since leaving Love Island have made headlines, including a romance with dancer Giovanni Pernice.
'I get it in a sense because I know I was on a dating show, but it was five years ago,' she said.
Insisting that she had not been romancing as many men as the tabloids have made out, she said she had been engaged for nine years and had only dated a few people since.
'I've not even been with that many men,' she said. 'I was in a nine-year relationship and after that I've had a couple of small little relationships.'
When it came to Pete, she said they were both still single, though they were dating.
'People can date and not be in a relationship and take things slow,' she said.
When asked if they were exclusive, Maura said she didn't know but she was hopeful that Pete might be on the other end of the bridge when she left, not realising he was still tripping the light fantastic.
While in camp, Maura admitted that she had never been in love but that this time her romance possibly felt different, admitting that she missed Pete while she was there.
Maura and Oti Mabuse also discussed their treatment as women in the public eye, with Maura saying that she gets called either fat or underweight and sending a message out to the public that there is a lot more to a woman than what she looks like.
'A lot of people look at people in the public eye and think that they can just throw bullets and try and put them down,' she said. 'They really forget that we are just human as well. There is so much more to women than how they look and the size they are. I just never understand.'
Her empathy endeared her to viewers and it was expected that she would do well, possibly even making the final. However, Irish fans of the show - including Maura's mum Sharon - have raised the issue again that though we can watch here in our thousands, we're still unable to vote for our favourites, meaning that both Maura and Barry McGuigan were evicted on Thursday night, which many felt was way before their time.
It's no matter, though, as it is expected that as well as netting her fee for appearing on the show, our funny and fearless Longford lass will be inundated with even more deals as brands offer her opportunities.
It is rumoured that there is as much as €1.8 million worth of deals on the table for Maura now that she has exited the Outback post.
She has been a long-time collaborator with Bellamianta tan and earlier this year landed her first cover of an American magazine.
Maura is the sole UK ambassador for American luxury athleisure and lifestyle Alo, as well as the face of Oh Polly, co-creating her own designs with the fashion label for Coachella.
She has also partnered with various beauty brands such as Estee Lauder and Maybelline as well as modelling for the American mogul Makeup by Mario.
She will likely expand on her television presenting career too and despite what British viewers might think, Maura is certainly Ireland's Queen of the Jungle.
But there's one deal that probably won't be on the table and that's a record deal. In the Jungle Arms, Barry McGuigan surprised his campmates by revealing he could hold a tune as well as packing a punch.
But Maura chose a Celine Dion ballad as her karaoke track and proved that there is one thing that she can't do and that's sing. She took a terrible teasing from her campmates about having a voice that could cut corn but with her stunning looks and hilarious personality, it's only fair that Maura Higgins is bad at something.
The big-hearted model would love it if her fellow late arrival Richard Coles was to win the top prize and she reckons a new Maura Higgins has come out of the jungle experience.
'One thing I said I would not say was, "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!" and I didn't say it,' she said in her exit interview. 'I have such a phobia of spiders so I did not think I would do the trial with the spiders. So I still don't know how I got in,' she says, of that famous 'boat' incident.
'I didn't think I would have embraced it as much as I have. I knew it was going to be tough going into it but it was a lot tougher but I loved every single second of it,' she said.
'I'm much stronger than I ever thought I was.'
