Love Island's hottest bikini babes ever – Megan Barton-Hanson to Maura Higgins

As we all gear up for the return of Love Island, Daily Star couldn’t resist taking readers on a walk down memory lane.

We are celebrating some of the sexiest ever blast from the past contestants from ITV’s hottest dating show.

The programme kicked off in 2015 and has quickly become one of the most watched reality programmes of all time.

In 2019, viewing figures hit an all time high with a whopping 5.9million people tuning in for the launch episode.

After the dating contest was forced off air last year – due to Covid-19 restrictions – there has been much anticipation that this one could be the best series yet.

As this years stars are unveiled, Daily Star has taken a look at what some of the former bombshells and what they’re busy getting up to now.

From Zara McDermott, Maura Higgins and Sophie Piper, we’ve uncovered them all.

Zara McDermott

Zara demanded attention as she entered the house on the fourth series of the ITV dating show in 2018.

During her time in the villa, the TV starlet struck up a romance with the hunky Adam Collard.

After leaving the villa, the pair continued their romance for a further eight months before announcing they’d called it day.

The 24-year-old has certainly remained in the spotlight ever since and has been incredibly busy.

She has featured on Celebrity X Factor, along with Made In Chelsea, has released her own BBC Three documentary about suffering at the hand of revenge porn, launched a fitness account and unveiled a solo singing career last year.

It seems the bombshell did eventually find love as she’s now dating reality star Sam Thompson.

Sophie Piper

Sophie Piper caused quite a storm as she headed to South African for the first ever Winter Love Island.

There had been much excitement about her arrival given she had a famous sibling – Saturday’s songstress Rochelle Humes.

The stunning TV star managed to catch the eye of Connor Durman on the show but their romance in the villa came to a swift end when other members voted for Coffee Bean Salesman to leave the Island.

When Sophie’s time came to exit the programme, she and Connor decided to ignite their romance.

Like many other couples, Sophie and Connor’s relationship felt the toll when the world was plunged into lockdown.

After six months together they reportedly drifted further apart until the love reached an end.

Amber Gill

Amber stunned with her natural looks and dynamite curves.

The starlet won over the hearts of the nation after she was brutally dumped on the show by Michael Griffiths – who returned from Casa Amor with Joanna Chimonides on his arm.

Fans were praying for Amber to find love and then in swooped Irish rugby hunk Greg O’Shea sweeping her off of her feet.

Viewers fell in love with the pair and although they’d only been coupled for a short while they went on to split the £50,000 prize fund together.

Their romance didn’t last long and five weeks later Greg sent Amber a text putting an end to it all.

Earlier this year, Amber revealed to Digital Spy that she was no longer single and that she was “really, really happy” but failed to give away the identity of her new love interest which sparked much speculation.

Megan Barton-Hanson

Megan Barton-Hanson wasn’t messing around when she stormed into the Spanish villa stealing Laura Anderson’s man Wes Nelson.

The former stripper and her beau quickly became boyfriend and girlfriend on the show, however their love didn’t last long after their exit.

Wes entered Dancing on Ice and was paired with professional figure skater Vanessa Bauer.

Megan and Vanessa ended up in an online spat after the Love Island star accused the pro of having a “tactical breakup” with her own boyfriend.

During Wes’ time on the ITV dance show, he and Megan confirmed that they were parting ways.

The star has gone on to have many successes as an online influencer and has become an advocate for discussing sex on her platform as she strikes to make it less of a taboo subject.

Maura Higgins

Maura Higgins won over fans with her “fanny flutter” comments during her time on the love finding programme.

She managed to steal the heart of Strictly star Curtis Pritchard and the pair continued to date after they’d left the show.

However much like Megan Barton-Hanson and Wes Nelson, Curtis and Maura’s romance also didn’t stand the test of time and the pair announced they were parting ways when the former ring girl appeared on Dancing on Ice.

Since then, Maura went on to date her best friend Chris Taylor – who also appeared on the reality show with her and Curtis.

Last month, Maura and Chris released joint statements confirming they were no longer an item.

Her statement read: “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.

“While 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 of the love and support.”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk