Maura Higgins Reveals Which 'DWTS' Pro She Doesn't Want as Her Partner
Maura Higgins is sharing her dream professional partner as she prepares for Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars.
The Love Island UK and Traitors star spoke about the upcoming season of the reality dance competition in an exclusive interview with UsWeekly.
"The training is meant to be quite grueling," Higgins told the outlet while promoting her collaboration with Wingstop. "That's why I want Mark [Ballas], because maybe he might go easy on me a bit. But then I do probably need to be pushed."
Higgins and Ballas were both contestants on season 4 of The Traitors where they quickly connected and made it all the way to the finale. However, they were betrayed by Love Island USA star Rob Raucsh.
Ballas has not yet confirmed if he will be returning to DWTS after his fifth place finish with SLOMW star Whitney Leavitt on season 34. Higgins shared her next choice for a professional partner after Ballas.
"If it's not Mark, I think I'd want Val [Chmerkovskiy]," she said. "I mean, to be honest, I'm OK to have anyone else. I just don't want Gleb [Savchenko]. That's the main thing for me."
Higgins explained that she doesn't want to be paired with Savchenko after his tumultuous relationship with his season 33 celebrity partner Brooks Nader.
"It's not even being mean. It's just because I get on with Brooks and that's that. I'm on Brooks' side," she said.
Joining Higgins on Season 35 is Summer Housestar Ciara Miller and Jackson Olson of the Savannah Bananas. She also spoke to UsWeekly about season 34's champion Robert Irwin's prediction she could take home the mirrorball trophy.
"I'm happy about it because he's putting it out to the universe," she told Us of Irwin's prediction. "He's basically manifesting my win. Which, yeah, I'll take that. I'm not very confident in myself, but I'll take it. I'm trying to manifest the best for me as well. Even if I could get to just the - I say ‘just the final,' like, getting to the final would be absolutely amazing - but I've never won a show in my life."
She continued, "Came close though with Rob [on The Traitors], but didn't really. I'd love to win. But I don't know. I can only do my best, that's all I can do. I don't want to go in like, ‘I have to win, I have to win,' because that's just going to rip all the fun away. I just want to enjoy it and work as hard as I can. But thanks, Robert. I'll try."
Dancing With the Stars returns on ABC and Disney+ this fall.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 10:24 PM.