Maura Higgins has scored 21 points on her Dancing With The Stars debut in Los Angeles, tying for top spot on the leaderboard.
The former Love Island star, 35, performed a foxtrot alongside professional partner Mark Ballas, 40, to Alannah Myles's Black Velvet on Wednesday, drawing 6.7 million viewers and leading all female contestants.
Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli each awarded sevens for the gothic routine, marking a major milestone in Higgins's US television relaunch.
The performance comes as newly unearthed photographs obtained by the Daily Mail from her hometown of Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland, lay bare her transformation from a 19-year-old local teenager into a Hollywood personality.
Unearthed photographs from County Longford
The images, taken in 2010 on a digital camera with a hard flash around the St Matthew's estate in Ballymahon, capture Higgins with peroxide-blonde hair, wearing a tiny black dress with a silver satin panel while holding a pint and a cigarette alongside her protective older brother Jamie and his friends.
"All the lads fancied her and she knew it," one local in a Ballymahon vape shop said. "Her brother was protective because she always attracted attention wherever they went, even then, but Maura did not need anybody to fight her battles. She was very funny, very flirty and always got what she wanted. She loved being the little sister among Jamie's friends because she could wind them up and give them cheek."
Locals recalled the St Matthew's estate as a self-contained world where teenagers gathered in living rooms around box televisions with cheap drinks from the off-licence before heading to weekly discos.
One woman whose cousin grew up alongside Higgins claimed she held "the record for the most kissing" among the group. "Maura was at the discos all the time," she said. "She was wild, mad and great fun even then. They would dance, kiss boys and then head off into a field from the estate afterwards."
Set beside the River Inny in County Longford, 12 miles from Athlone, Ballymahon recorded a population of 1,714 at the 2022 census. Higgins used to joke that the town contained only three streets and everyone knew her business. Her mother Sharon still lives in a low, cream-painted bungalow set amid clipped hedges, flowering shrubs and an immaculate lawn.
On Main Street, residents described Skelly's, a family-run pub established in 1850 with open fires, cosy alcoves and hidden nooks, as the heart of Ballymahon and Higgins's favourite haunt.
"Sure, this was her favourite place," one regular said. "She was in here all the time, just all the time. We haven't seen her for years, but we are all rooting for her. She will absolutely smash America."
Another regular added: "She always talked about getting out and seeing more of the world, but she never behaved like she was better than anybody here. That is why Ballymahon is so proud of her."
From hairdresser apprentice to reality star
Higgins is the youngest of four children born to Sharon and Seamus Higgins. She attended Forgney National School and Ballymahon Vocational School before leaving at 16 to train as a hairdresser, sweeping floors, making coffee and doing blow-drys at Occasions hair salon.
Caithriona Egan, who trained her at Occasions, remembered an apprentice with sharp comic timing. "She was a very, very good hairdresser, and so, so funny," she said. "A total character. You always knew there was something about her. She was never going to stay quiet, that one. She never did stay quiet here."
Higgins later moved to Halo Hair Design across the road to fit around promotional modelling after an online call for Monster Energy promotional girls. She left hairdressing to travel with the brand, taking up to nine flights a week, before working as a ring girl, motor-racing grid girl and appearing in Liam Payne and Zedd's 2017 music video for Get Low.
By the time she joined Love Island in 2019, she had accumulated 40,000 Instagram followers and told her mother she expected to return within a week. Instead, she finished fourth with dancer Curtis Pritchard, 30, left with 1.5 million new followers and popularized the phrase "fanny flutters".
Additional throwback pictures capture her transformation, including a 2014 nightclub photograph showing her raven-haired in black lace and berry-red lipstick, a photo-booth image in a white masquerade mask alongside her mother Sharon and sisters Louise and Becki, and a picture in a hot-pink satin mini dress beside relatives Cathal, Katie and Kayla in a local pub.
During Christmas 2024, Higgins brought former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Pete Wicks, 37, to Glasson Lakehouse, a luxury resort on the shores of Lough Ree reached via an avenue of ancient beech trees. The couple stayed in a Lakeview Suite featuring a sitting room, fireplace and balcony, costing around €600 (£514) a night.
"Pete was the loud one," a barman at the hotel recalled. "You always knew when he was in the room. He seemed very proud to be with her, like he couldn't quite believe his luck. He was a bit more showy, and Maura isn't like that."
American television career and hometown reaction
Higgins joined Hollywood celebrities at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills in January, wearing an off-the-shoulder black gown by Marmar Halim with gold-foil sleeves. She has also walked the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway in Miami and became the first contestant from the UK edition to host Love Island USA Aftersun.
Earlier this year, she finished as runner-up on The Traitors US, where she met Mark Ballas. She will also co-host Peacock's upcoming Get Me Out of Here, an American reboot of ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, alongside winner Rob Rausch, 28. In April, she attended the Time 100 Gala in New York.
In Ballymahon, staff at Occasions salon follow her performances the following morning due to the time difference, while her mother Sharon traveled to America to watch her in person. "America's only finding out now what we've known for years: she's a star," one local noted.
"She'll always be Maura from Ballymahon to us," said one local in the town's SuperValu grocery shop. "America can have her for now, but we want her back. She could be on American television one night and sitting in here with her mammy the next, and nobody would bat an eyelid."
Outside Sizzle School of Dance, an elderly resident watched local children practice their routines. "You can see them twirling around in their dresses, dreaming of being on the telly in LA," she said.
