Love Island and The Traitors alum Maura Higgins has identified the one Dancing with the Stars pro she doesn't want to be paired with for Season 35 later this year.
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RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)
Mark, however, told the magazine in May that he's "not sure" whether he'll be back for Dancing with the Stars' upcoming season.
"If it's not Mark, I think I'd want [Val Chmerkovskiy]. Yeah," Maura shared.
The Season 5 Love Island UK star admitted there is only one pro dancer she'd be unhappy to compete alongside this fall.
"To be honest, I'm okay to have anyone else -- I just don't want [Gleb Savchenko]. That's the main thing for me, you know?" Maura confessed.
Maura said she wasn't trying to be "mean" by excluding Gleb from the list of pros she'd like to work with.
"It's just because I get on with [Brooks Nader], and that's that. I'm on Brooks' side. I'm a loyalist, okay?!" she said with a laugh.
While Brooks and Gleb were competing on Dancing with the Stars' 33rd season in 2024, reports swirled that they were hooking up and had a hot and heavy connection.
Brooks and Gleb, however, called it quits shortly after they were eliminated from the show during an October 2024 episode.
But Gleb and the supermodel proceeded to have an on-again, off-again romance, and Gleb confirmed his relationship with Brooks was back on in December 2024.
News then broke in April 2025 that Brooks and Gleb were over and done with, and that Brooks was the one who had "ended things" with the pro dancer.
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After Gleb and Brooks' breakup made headlines, Gleb admitted to Us that he was "surprised to learn" his relationship with Brooks was over by reading a news article.
Brooks' sister Grace Ann Nader then claimed via TikTok in April 2025 that "there is hard evidence" to prove Gleb had cheated on Brooks.
Brooks seemed to confirm the cheating speculation when she took to TikTok later that month with a fiery message.
In the video, the model lip-synced, "If you go away for a few days and he's not f-cking strong enough in his own mind to keep his d-ck in his f-cking pants, well then he can f-ck off anyway."
Gleb clapped back in August 2025 by lip-syncing the following in a TikTok video: "I don't know where you got your information from, I don't know who your source is, but I will be the first one to tell you that is incorrect."
He captioned his upload at the time, "Your 'source' needs a refund... because that story? 100% fake."
While Maura is probably hoping to avoid such drama during her own stint on Dancing with the Stars, she said she is expecting the competition to be "quite grueling."
"That's why I want Mark, because maybe he might go easy on me a bit. But then I do probably need to be pushed," Maura said.
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Dancing with the Stars' Season 34 winner, Robert Irwin, recently expressed support for Maura, saying he believes she could win the show.
"He's putting it out to the universe," Maura proudly told Us.
"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."
Maura said her goal is to make it the finals, even if she doesn't take home the mirrorball trophy.
"Getting to the final would be absolutely amazing -- but I've never won a show in my life," Maura lamented.
Maura, however, came close when she finished as the runner-up on The Traitors' fourth season behind Rob Rausch.
RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)
"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," Maura explained.
"I just want to enjoy it and work as hard as I can. But thanks, Robert. I'll try."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
