{"id":343323,"date":"2025-08-14T07:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343323\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T07:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:52:19","slug":"maya-jamas-heartbreaking-reason-for-hiding-bristolian-roots-after-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343323\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Jama’s heartbreaking reason for ‘hiding Bristolian roots’ after move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maya Jama revealed that she tried to hide her Bristol accent when she moved to London after she was mocked for it, admitting that it left her with a “really weird confused accent”<\/p>\n

Robin Cottle<\/strong> Assistant Editor Trendswatch<\/p>\n

06:00, 14 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"MayaMaya Jama says she tried to sound like she was from London when she left Bristol (Image: Dave Benett\/Getty Images for Nat)<\/p>\n

Bristol-born celebrity Maya Jama<\/a> tried to hide her Bristolian accent when she moved to London because “people would take the piss”.<\/p>\n

Maya, who turns 31 today (Thursday, August 14), grew up in the city, where she admitted to being the “class clown” during her time at school, which included a stint at the city’s Cotham<\/a> School.<\/p>\n

She eventually moved to London to try and kickstart her career in the showbiz industry, which caused some issues when it come to her accent.<\/p>\n

The Love Island presenter told The Straight Up podcast: “I had a really weird confused accent for awhile because it was still really Bristolian. I was trying to sound London because people would take the piss, so it was all over the place.<\/p>\n

“Now it’s like when I go back to Bristol I’m like: ‘Alright my love,’ and when I’m here (London), I’m like: ‘Hi, anyway.’ So it’s still a bit confused.”<\/p>\n

Maya began her school life in Sweden, as her mother is of Swedish descent, before returning to Bristol and attending Cotham School in the Cotham area of the city.<\/p>\n

Other notable alumni include former professional football Gary Mabbutt.<\/p>\n

\"MayaMaya Jama was born in Bristol (Image: Jed Cullen\/Dave Benett\/Getty Ima)<\/p>\n

Maya has talked extensively about her life growing up in Bristol. In an interview with the Guardian<\/a> earlier this year, she revealed how she was the class clown at her performing arts school.<\/p>\n

She said: “I was the class clown, 100%. I was bottom set for everything. English, science, maths.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t really rebel because I had a good, honest relationship with my mum, whereas my friends that had strict parents were sneaking out and hiding things.”<\/p>\n

Maya started her media career when she began hosting a weekday show for London-based radio station Rinse FM in 2014. In 2018 she joined BBC<\/a> Radio 1<\/a> where she stayed for two years before leaving to pursue TV opportunities.<\/p>\n

Since then she has been a regular pundit on Soccer Aid and took over presenting duties from Laura Whitmore on Love Island<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"MayaMaya Jama (Image: Jed Cullen\/Dave Benett\/Getty Ima)<\/p>\n

Maya also described the heart-breaking events that led her to leave Bristol. Her “first love”, Rico Gordon, was killed in the crossfire between two rival gangs.<\/p>\n

She moved away from Bristol the same day to go and stay with his family.<\/p>\n

Maya told the Guardian: “There was an argument between two people he had nothing to do with. They started shooting at each other and he was down the road on the phone to me, and a bullet hit the floor and hit him.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think you ever really get over something like that. You just learn to deal with it better. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re ever going to wake up if you lose someone you love and go, ‘I\u2019m healed’. It\u2019s more like with time it gets easier to process, easier to speak about, easier to deal with.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maya Jama revealed that she tried to hide her Bristol accent when she moved to London after she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[192,15118,381,748,14486,393,4884,383,10219,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-343323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-bbc-radio-1","10":"tag-bristol","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-cotham","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-love-island","16":"tag-maya-jama","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115026037659827125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}