Maura Higgins and Chris Taylor have officially called it quits.
The couple went public with their relationship in November, after their close friendship blossomed into a romance.
Want to know how Maura and Chris came to be? Check out our complete timeline of their relationship history below…
2019
Maura and Chris were both late arrivals to the Love Island villa in 2019, but they quickly became two of our favourite Islanders of all time.
While Chris didn’t find love in the villa, Maura met her ex-boyfriend Curtis Pritchard on the hit dating show – with the pair coming in fourth place.
Maura and Chris struck up a close friendship in the villa, but Maura admitted she didn’t fancy Chris “at all” at the time.
She told the MailOnline: “Obviously there was a lot of press about us for so long but we were genuinely just friends, nothing had ever happened – we hadn’t even kissed. I started going on dates again and everything.”
“Chris and I never believed it would progress into something more than just a friendship. But now looking at it, friendship is a good foundation to a relationship and it just seems to work.”
“I honestly never thought Chris was into me at all. I even asked him: ‘Did you fancy me in Love Island or what’s the story?’ He said he did, but when he asked me I told him, ‘no I didn’t fancy you at all!’”
2020
In March 2020, Maura announced her split from Curtis Pritchard, writing on her Instagram Stories: “Curtis and I have made the decision to separate.”
“We enjoyed a great experience from our time in the villa and want to thank everyone for supporting our relationship. There is no easy way to get through a breakup and no bad feelings on either side.”
”We tried to make it work but it wasn’t to be. I wish Curtis nothing but the best for the future,” she added.
In April that year, Maura shut down rumours she was dating Chris, after they began sharing hilarious TikTok videos together.
In August, the Longford native once again denied their was any romance between her and Chris in an Instagram Q&A.
“No we’re not dating… we are the best of friends. We just get on really really well. We got on well in the villa but not a lot of that was [shown],” she explained.
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Speaking to Vicky Pattison on her The Secret To podcast, Chris also shut down the rumours.
When Vicky said she believed they would make the “best couple”, Chris responded: “Yeah, potentially.”
“We’ve never really thought about it like that, we’re just super close mates. We care about each other, we look out for each other, we basically bully each other.”
“I don’t think we ever say anything nice to each other’s faces, but that’s our banter. She’s Irish and it’s the Irish banter and that’s my kind of banter. If you were around us together you’d think, ‘These two f**king hate each other!’ [But] we don’t…”
“We like each other and the thing is, it’s never been something that’s crossed our minds and it wouldn’t happen for the fact that we don’t want to ruin our friendship.”
He added: “We don’t see each other that way. We’re platonic, as they say, platonic friends.”
In November, the pair fueled the romance rumours by taking part in a ‘kiss challenge’ on social media.
Chris uploaded a video of him and Maura almost kissing, captioned: “Kiss your best friend challenge @maurahiggins . Cheers Tiktok…bloody fantastic idea 
probs shouldn’t have lunged in fairness.”
“If anyone’s confused about why I took my top off…go watch Crazy, Stupid Love immediately #kissyourbestfriendchallenge,” he added.
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Just one week later, the couple FINALLY confirmed their romance, sharing loved-up snaps to Instagram as they celebrated Maura’s 30th birthday.
Chris captioned the post: “Turns out I fell in love with my best mate ♥️”
Maura simply wrote: “He’s mine
”
2021
In January, Maura shared her plans to marry Chris, and opened up about her plans to start a family.
Speaking to The Sun On Sunday, she said: “We’re very much in love and we use the L-word a lot. I look into the future and see myself with a family.”
“I want to be married before I have a baby, so Chris better hurry up and give me that engagement ring, because I’m not getting any younger.”
Gushing over her relationship, the reality star said: “We were friends for ages before it ever turned into a relationship. We know each other very well, we never argue, we have such a laugh. It’s really good.”
“He’s the male version of me. We’re always goofing around and giggling. We take the Mickey out of each other all the time, it’s a lot of fun, and that’s so important in a relationship.”
In February, the couple celebrated their first Valentine’s Day together, with Chris surprising his beau with a romantic dinner.
However, their romance was not meant to be, with the couple announcing their split earlier today.
In a statement shared on her Instagram Stories, Maura wrote: “It breaks my heart to even type this. But I wanted to let everyone know that myself and Chris have made the joint decision to end our relationship.”
“There is no wrong doing on either side… We still love, care and respect each other deeply. From the minute we met each other we’ve been very close friends and that will never change.”
“There is no regret. Life is about taking chances. We wanted to make this work but we have realised we work better being friends.”
“Whilst I appreciate people may speculate or create false stories, this is the truth. I wish Chris nothing but the best and I will always be one of his biggest supporters.”
“Thank you for all the love and support,” she added.
Chris wrote: “Hey guys. After some very heartfelt conversations over the past few days, myself and Maura are very sad to announce that we have decided to part ways.”
“We are both still on very good terms and this was a mutual decision where nobody had done anything wrong. We will remain friends, as we have been since day 1 and I will always be in Maura’s corner and have her back.”
“We are both going through a very tough time with this atm, so please take any speculation with a metric tonne of salt, cos this is the only truth (and as always, trolls can kindly f*** off).”
“Thank you for all the love and support you’ve given us, it’s truly been appreciated.”
