After months of talk, teasing and TikTok investigations, Maya Jama and Stormzy have hard-launched their relationship reunion just in time for Christmas – four years after they first broke up. Their relationship gives every Hallmark Christmas movie a run for its money, and we love to see it.
News that Maya Jama, 29, and Stormzy, 30, were back together was confirmed after they were spotted holding hands on a romantic getaway to Greece during the summer. Since then, they have made several public appearances as a couple – most recently at the British Fashion Awards, which Maya hosted.
The couple first started dating in January 2015 when they were in their early 20s, after meeting at a Red Bull Culture Clash event in London in 2014. Maya Jama was a DJ at Rinse FM at the time and Stormzy was slowly becoming a mainstream rapper, but neither of them were household names.
Discussing the start of their relationship in a joint Vogue interview in 2018, Maya said: 'You know, if I'm really honest, I knew I fancied him from the start. But I didn't want anything yet, because, you know, you're trying to do the whole friend situation first, and then I'd do, like, obvious hints that I fancied him and then take it back because I didn't know if he definitely likes me. It was a childish phase. And then one day we just kissed, and that was that!'
Maya and Stormzy were together for four years, before splitting up in August 2019. Shortly after Stormzy became the youngest person to headline Glastonbury, the couple announced that they had broken up with rumours that Stormzy had cheated – which he has publicly denied on several occasions. He did, however, admit to 'making a mistake' and said losing Maya was the 'biggest regret a man can make' during an interview with Louis Theroux last year.
In the four years that they were broken up, both Maya and Stormzy have gone on to achieve enormous success. Maya left her role at Radio 1 and began to focus on TV presenting, landing jobs as the host of Love Island, presenting award shows like the British Fashion Awards and The Brit Awards and becoming the first TV personality to star on the cover of Vogue. While Stormzy – who is also a Vogue cover star – has maintained global success in the music industry and has launched several philanthropic ventures via his #Merky Foundation.
He has also made no secret of wanting Maya back. Whether it be his interview with Louis Theroux, listening to any of his songs (both 'Hide & Seek' and 'Lessons' are about Maya), or watching any of the interviews he gave after they first broke up – it's obvious that he was hoping for a second chance.
Despite Maya moving on in the interim and even becoming engaged to someone else – she and basketball player Ben Simmons dated for eight months and were briefly engaged in 2021 – Stormzy and his two Rottweilers were always waiting for her at home.
When Maya starred on the cover of Vogue earlier this year, shortly before their reunion had been confirmed, she said, 'none of us really knew the level of importance it held to a certain group of people, us being together.' Adding that, 'we were both super ambitious. We were both from similar upbringings and we were both just little grafters that have made something good of ourselves.'
And that they have. Maya and Stormzy's reunion has been celebrated far and wide amongst fans, with one saying 'the earth is healing' and another writing that the photo of them in Greece should be 'hung in the Louvre'. And seeing pictures of them back together, it's hard to disagree.