Maura Higgins has admitted she was expecting a lot of hate on the outside before she left the Love Island villa.
The Longford woman made a memorable appearance on the show, coining her famous catchphrase "fanny flutters" and for her outspoken approach to sex.
But the 28-year-old revealed to Baz Ashmawy, who is filling in for Dermot and Dave on Today FM, that she was getting herself hyped up for hate from viewers when she left the villa, RSVP Live reports.
Speaking to the presenter, she said: "It's insane, I was expecting a lot of hate because I'm so opinionated and blunt at times."
It wasn't until the night of the final, the night before she got her phone back, that she realised just how successful she had been: "I expected to be out of there in the first three days, so to get to the final, I never expected it."
"It was the night of the final when we were kid of told a bit of gossip. I got told about Amy Schumer sending a video supporting me.
"I could not believe the response."
Maura, who was a Monster grid girl and had quite a modelling career before going into the villa, revealed that getting her phone back was surreal.
She said: "I had 40.4k (followers) before going in.
"I opened up the phone and nearly took a heart attack, my phone kept freezing with all the messages.
"I cannot believe I'm at two million, it's crazy."
The model revealed she found out on May 1 that she was going to be heading into the villa and was on lock down from the May 26 for two weeks and two days before making her bombshell introduction.
She added: "You have no contact, no phone, you're with a chaperone and you don't know who is going in."
Maura was still able to see the drama unfold from day one, as she would watch the show with her chaperone.
