Maura Higgins might be constantly topping the Dancing With the Stars season 35 leaderboard — but she’s less concerned about whether any potential suitors have been inspired to slide into her DMs.
“I actually don’t know,” Higgins, 35, exclusively told Us after her performance on Tuesday, October 6, when asked whether she’s received the same influx of messages as costar Ezra Frech. “I don’t think I’ve received any crazy ones, if I’m being honest, no.”
She continued, “I’m focused on dancing. Well, trying to dance.”
Higgins’ effort led her to the top of the leaderboard on Tuesday with her enchanting waltz to Mariah Carey’s “If It’s Over.” (The Love Island UK alum and pro partner Mark Ballas earned a total score of 25 out of 30, receiving the season’s first 9.)
“The 9 [score] means everything to me because, you know, I have to work extra hard. This dancing doesn’t come naturally to me,” Higgins acknowledged of her ballroom progress. “I can be quite stiff [and] I honestly do have such a good partner in Mark. He’s so patient with me, and in the rehearsal room, like, we do put the work in, and I don’t shy away from hard work.”
When she received her scores, Higgins “fell to the floor” in shock.
“I cannot believe it, and I did not expect it one bit,” she quipped. “I mean, it’s crazy, and it’s not me putting myself down, but there’s way better dancers in this competition. I genuinely feel like so many others should have got 9s. That’s wild, I’m so happy, and I have no words for it. … I’m so happy, and all I’m doing [is] my best.”
Going into the competition, Higgins initially struggled with her confidence, but Ballas, 40, has helped by providing “positive self-talk.”
“Any time I’m having self-doubt or being negative about myself, he’s like, ‘No, no, let’s try again,’” she told Us. “It’s like anything, the more you do something, the better you get. We just persevere and persevere, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes. Like, the double turn in tonight’s dance. He was so close to taking that double turn out because we had our rehearsal yesterday and it didn’t go swimmingly great.”
Ballas and Higgins tried their spin again in a rehearsal before Tuesday’s show, pulling off the move cleanly.
“When I did it, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I did it’ in my head,” Higgins gushed. “He was like, ‘Finish the dance,’ but he could probably feel that I got excited over [completing the turn]. I was like, ‘He felt that. Oh, my God! I did it!’”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
