Love Island U.K. host Maya Jama and rapper Stormzy have called it quits.
Jama, 29, announced the news via her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, July 17, admitting that the on-off couple had spent the last year trying to make their relationship work.
Jama and Stormzy — real name Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. — first dated from 2014 to 2019 before splitting up. They rekindled their romance last summer.
“We’ve been laughing whilst drafting this because we never, ever, in a million years thought we’d be the couple announcing a breakup, but for the sake of clarity and, more importantly, to allow us the space and grace that’s needed for us both to be able to navigate this next bit of our lives with peace, we thought it might be best to,” Jama and Stormzy shared in the joint statement.
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The British stars continued, “We’ve spent this past year trying our best to make it work; however, we recently decided to call it quits.”
Jama and Stormzy, 30, wrote that they’ve “spent five years growing together and then five years growing separately, so this final attempt required a whole lot of figuring out, relearning, and unlearning,” but, ultimately, “We tried, and it didn’t work, and that’s okay.”
The Love Island host and the “Vossi Bop” rapper said they remain close friends and “still care and respect each other.”
“Announcing this feels so dramatic, but we’re doing it so that it kind of takes away the drama and avoids speculation and rumors,” they added. “We’re kindly asking for the grace to let both of us keep it moving and not be bothered about it (we highly doubt this’ll work, but we’re still kindly asking anyway).”
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“Love you guys and thank you for all the love you’ve showered us with, it’s been beautiful,” they concluded, signing off the statement as Mike and MJ.
Jama took over as host of Love Island U.K. in January 2023, replacing Laura Whitmore. She also hosted last year’s Love Island Games on Peacock.
