Rugby star Ilona Maher, 28, reveals why she won’t cover up her famous muscles in steamy shoots

Ilona Maher says she won’t cover up the rippling muscles that have made her the world’s most famous rugby star – and has revealed how she had a very frank conversation with her mother when she lost her virginity. 

In a new interview, the 28-year-old, who’s from Vermont but most recently played her rugby for Bristol Bears in the UK, said: ‘I love a tight dress, a tight top, and a heel – it’s who I am.’

Maher has shot to fame for what she does on the pitch but also for her body-positive Instagram posts, in which she frequently shares her love of fashion. 

The athlete, who’s 5ft 10 and weighs 200lbs – of which 170lbs is ‘lean mass’ – ranked higher than Lewis Hamilton and Jude Bellingham on SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable list in 2024. 

In a new interview with Marie Claire UK and Rugby World, Maher said when she appeared on Dancing with the Stars in the US last season, she felt like her famous physique was being concealed – and made it clear she wanted to show off her impressive frame. 

She told the magazine: ‘I felt like I was being slightly covered up; that they thought a bigger girl may want something more modest and I was like, “Nope! If the 100lb girl is naked, I want to be naked. Less fabric!”‘ 

During her latest interview, she also said that the social media following she’s built – 4.9million on Instagram and 3.5million on TikTok – was borne out of not being able to earn a decent salary from her sport.

She now fronts the House of Maher podcast with her two sisters, Adrianna and Olivia and a recent episode saw her reveal how she was frank with her mother the morning after she lost her virginity ‘in her twenties’. 

In a new photoshoot and interview with Rugby World and Marie Claire UK, Ilona Maher, who has more than 8 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, revealed she told stylists on Dancing with the Stars, which she appeared on last year: ‘If the 100lb girl is naked, I want to be naked. Less fabric!’

The US star, who hails from Vermont, has just finished a stint playing in the UK for Bristol Bears; she told Marie Claire that it can be hard being a poster girl for the sport – and that she’s put ‘blood, sweat and tears’ into building her online profile 

She told her siblings her mother, a school nurse who frequently taught sex education to students was initially comfortable with the news before delayed shock set in.

Joking as she recalled her mother’s reaction she laughed: ‘She goes back down to sit at the table with the family friends there and she’s silent, like, just like catatonic. Doesn’t sleep a wink that night!’ 

In her interview with Marie Claire UK, Maher said that being the poster girl for her sport can be exhausting, revealing she feels ‘wrung dry’ and that the sport sometimes piggybacks on the social media success she’s created. 

The sportswoman, who also made Time Magazine’s TIME100 list last year, said: ‘I put my blood, sweat and tears into building this platform for myself and at times I feel used for it, which is never fun.’

The charismatic 28-year-old now has contracts with Adidas and Maybelline but says she would love to be paid just to play her sport rather than having to pursue other avenues – being the ‘funny girl online’ – to earn a decent living.

England’s Red Roses players, who will compete in the Women’s Rugby World Cup this summer, currently earn around £50,000 a year. 

At her opening press conference for Bristol Bears, she told those gathered: ‘For women, our contracts are to play on the field. But that’s also not going to make you have a comfortable living. That’s why we have to do more off the field.’ 

Maher’s impact on the game when she began playing the sport in the UK for the Bristol Bears was significant – in just three months the star has taken England’s Premiership Women’s Rugby to a whole new level, boosting the club’s online profile. 

Maher told the magazine she doesn’t want to be modest about the physique that’s helped her become the biggest name in her sport

Maher has won contracts with Adidas and Maybelline and was deemed more marketable than Jude Bellingham and Lewis Hamilton last year 

The athlete launched a new podcast this month, with her sisters Arianna and Olivia in which she discussed telling their mother she’d lost her virginity

Appearing on Dancing with the Stars in the US last season, with her dance partner Alan Berston

Maher takes photos with fans after making her debut for Bristol Bears; the star has 4.9 million Instagram fans

The 28-year-old played for three months in the West Country as a centre for Bristol Bears 

The US icon is fresh from finishing second on the most recent series of Dancing With The Stars

Marketable: The Olympic medalist is the face of multiple brand and insists she is ‘more than a rugby player’

She has played at two Olympics in sevens, winning a bronze medal with the USA in Paris last summer. 

The star has said in the past that ‘women need to use social media to get themselves out there’.

She told journalists while in Bristol: ‘I went into the Olympics knowing people are made by it – Simone Biles, Michael Phelps. 

‘I knew my personality would be different. I went into Paris knowing I had the chance to make myself and went in with a plan to post loads of videos.

‘It is a vulnerable thing to put yourself online like I do. It is tough. But putting yourself out there is how you get connections with people.’

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