The Honesty Box - Q&A with Maldini

Maldini

29
Housing Associate from Basingstoke

Contains adult themes.

Where’s home for you?
I've lived in Zimbabwe. I've lived in England. I've lived in Scotland, America and Spain. I used to be a semi-pro footballer and I've travelled all over the world playing football.

Is family really important to you?
Family to me is the most important thing. I think that's the one thing that I value more than anything. Because that's my support system and vice versa. If my family need me for anything as well, they know they can always come to me. Family for me is number one.

Would your family’s opinion be important for dating?
It matters 100%. But I make the final decision. So if they don't like the person, they're gonna have to start getting used to it... Actually, that's a tricky one. I think I make the final decision, but if the if my family doesn't like the person, it's probably going to influence me for sure.

Tell me about your football career?
With football I've played in England, but ultimately where I kind of excelled was when I went to America. I got a scholarship in the States. While I was out there, I was living in Chicago. I got scouted by a team that now play in La Liga, which is the highest division in in Spain, and they asked me to go over for some trials. So I ended up moving from America to Madrid. I was out there on trial, and then, I had to come back to England because my brother passed away very suddenly with pneumonia. It was a big, massive shock because literally the day before he had been speaking to me. He had been asking me how training was going. So I never got to finish the trials and I’ve stayed in England since.

That all must have been so tough. How did you feel about leaving football?
I feel it was the right decision to make. It was a difficult decision to make obviously to give up football and come back to England. But it'd been quite a long time since I'd been around my family and I was getting a little bit homesick anyway. My brother had two little boys and they also play football, so now they didn't have my brother to help them with the training or to just look after them. I just thought instead of me pursuing my dream and trying to go down the football route, it made more sense for me to help my little nephews, because they're younger and they look up to me. So I stopped with the football.

Your nephews must be so important to you now.
Oh, my nephews, they're everything to me. I adore them. I think they’re the best thing ever. I treat them as if they were my own kids. This has always been the case since they were growing up. It makes it a little bit easier that I'm not their dad, so I don't have to be as strict with them. We can have a bit more of a play around. But now I've been a little bit firmer just because he's not there anymore.

How long have you been single?
I've only ever had one serious relationship. Over six, seven years ago now. Reason being, I was out of the country, I knew I wasn't going to stay in America. I knew I wasn't going to stay in Spain. So being able to settle down, I just thought it wasn't possible. In that relationship, everything was amazing. Then one lads holiday kind of changed everything.

How did the lads holiday change things?
I was helping my buddy out because there was a girl that he liked, but this girl was interested in me. I ended up having a threesome with her because I was trying to help my buddy out. My girlfriend had my passwords for my social media and one of my friends messaged me to ask what happened on the holiday. I messaged him back saying that I ended up having a threesome. My girlfriend must have read all the messages. I got back to England and when I went to see her, she just said “Threesome?!”. The trust within the relationship kind of broke down from there. We stayed together, but there were a lot of trust issues now, so it just didn't make sense for the relationship to carry on. We ended up breaking up. I took that quite hard. I think it took me roughly three months to actually get over it.

Describe your ideal partner.
My dream girl would be someone strikingly beautiful, exotic, someone that goes to the gym and is family orientated. I’d like to meet someone who is high maintenance as well, because I'm a little bit high maintenance myself. I'll be going for manicures, pedicures, facials, getting my eyebrows done, you name it. I’m a bit bougie. I don't like people who are argumentative. If a girl likes drama and chaos, I'm probably going to try and avoid that. And body wise… Well, someone who's got a big ass!

Why are you looking for a relationship now?
I'm ready for a relationship now. My sister's just got married and at the wedding everybody started asking the question, “When is it your turn?”, “When are we going to meet the missus?”. I may need to try and find them just to keep the family quiet. My friends are moving out, starting families, buying houses with their girlfriends. And then there's just me there, single. I miss all the stuff that you have in a relationship. Being able to have someone you can lean on and do cute stuff with. Go shopping and watch movies with. Someone you can speak to that's not just the boys.

What would you say are your turn ons and turn offs?
My biggest turn on for a girl would be a nice smile as well as beautiful eyes and beautiful teeth. Biggest turn off would be someone that snores. You also need to have nice hands and feet. If you don't have good hands and feet, you might be the cutest girl ever, but I'm probably going to walk away.

What first impression do you think you make?
First impression I make is I'm confident, easy-going, very funny, good looking. I'm a solid ten, I would say.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yeah, I do. When I meet a girl for the first time, I know within 0.1 seconds that I'd want to get with them.

Is being honest key to a strong relationship?
I believe honesty is extremely important in a relationship. If you're dishonest, it's always going to get found out.

Do you think you should be 100% honest in a relationship?
I think you should be 80% honest in a relationship.

How can people tell if you're lying?
I start smiling. I start laughing as well. I can’t keep a straight face. I’m not a good liar.

Do you think you can beat The Honesty Box?
I might give it a go. I'm not sure if I'll be able to win. My cousin asked me to do some sessions with him so we can practice the lying. I refused because I was too busy, but now I'm here, I'm thinking I should have taken up those lessons. I believe in miracles, though. I might be able to get away with it.

Are you a spiritual person?
I believe in God, and I do pray as well. I make sure I try to go to church at least once a month. For me, religion is important. It's what helps keep me grounded. Having faith also helps me within life to an extent. I'm one of those people that believes everything happens for a reason, no matter what it is.

Would it be important to meet someone who is also religious?
It's not necessarily important that my partner has faith or religion, just as long as they don't disrespect mine. It would be nice to meet somebody who was also quite religious.

What are you hoping to get from this experiment?
Hopefully to find the love of my life. That would be that would be really nice. And then if I win, that's a bonus. That's 100 grand in my pocket.

Would you say trust is important to you?
Trust is one thing that's very important to me, because I've already felt what it's like not to have trust within a relationship. Things just go downhill from there.

In a film of your life who would play you and your love interest?
Tyrese Gibson, because apparently I look like him. Or Jamie from Top Boy – Michael Ward. That's what I get all the time. My love interest would be Megan Fox. I think it's the eyes.

What’s the best experience you’ve ever blagged your way into?
It was backstage at a festival. Me and my friends, we all lied that I was this big, big, famous footballer and the security guard believed us. I started showing him pictures of when I was in Spain and America. I said, “Well, can you go and get the backstage passes then?” I said it with confidence. Then he went off, got the passes, took some pictures with me and we got in backstage. It was surreal. I've got the videos on my phone of us on the stage and mixing it up with the performers. We even got invited to an after party by one of the artists, so that was a crazy experience.

How do you usually meet women?
I usually meet girls on nights out, so I don't really tend to do much dating. My schedule is always so busy, I don't actually have the time or the energy to constantly be texting or messaging people.

What’s your approach when you meet someone on a night out?
I'd say my approach is selling dreams. For example, telling the girl, “You are unbelievable. The best-looking girl ever. Me and you are going to have kids. We're going to get married.” I could be a better liar than I think!

Meet all of the Truetopians in The Honesty Box Press Pack.
The Honesty Box starts Monday 28 April at 9pm on E4.

ENDS