Maya Jama’s “whole world” changed when her first love was shot dead.

The presenter recalls how, at the age of 16, she lost her boyfriend, who was shot dead by a bullet which was meant for someone else rather than her boyfriend.

She said: “I got to 16 and I met a boy. He was killed in the summer I was supposed to move to London – and that was my first love. So then your whole world just changes as you’re a little girl and you realise, ‘All right, this is adult stuff going on.’ I was devastated, I was so sad.”

Maya weeped as she discussed how her father was in and out of jail as a kid.

Speaking on Foxy’s Fearless 48 Hours, she added: “I had a situation where my dad was in and out of jail from three. At the time, I didn’t think it bothered me. It was all I knew so that was normal. I don’t like crying about that stuff. I have to laugh or I get emotional. I’m OK now, but obviously I’m sad for my little, younger self that I had to deal with that. I feel happy that I made a good situation out of some bad ones.”

Meanwhile, Maya previously revealed she was happy to laugh off her dad’s absence during her childhood.

She shared: “Anything that seems tragic or could make people feel sorry for me, I make a joke out of. I guess it’s because I’m OK with it. I’ve accepted it and I don’t want you making me feel like you’re sorry for me. If people said, ‘Where’s your dad?’ I’d say, ‘Oh, he’s in jail’ and I’d laugh about it. It wasn’t something I sat at home and cried about.”