Opinion: Molly-Mae Insists On Breaking Away From Her Title as a "Love Island Star", But Isn't That What She Really Is?

Molly-Mae Hague has admitted countless times that she doesn’t want to be known as a Love Island Star and wants to be remembered for all of her other successes. But are those actually that valuable?

In 2019, the 22-year-old joined the ITV2 dating show, where she met her now ex-boyfriend Tommy Fury. She was a huge personality during the show, and they came runner-up in the finale—and since, she has adopted a big platform for herself. With 8.3 million subscribers on Instagram and almost 2 million on YouTube, she’s done well for herself. But with reviews coming out about the recent launch of her clothing brand, and all the stick about her break-up with Fury…is she the influencer we all want to be following?

On August 14th of this year, Hague and Fury announced their breakup after five years together. They had a daughter, Bambi, during these years and even got engaged in July 2023. So yes, this was quite a shock to the public – especially as hours before the announcement, Fury posted an innocent Instagram story of him and his now ex-fiancé. But the internet will always be the internet, and so naturally, everybody began speculating about cheating rumours and so on.

A little over a month later, Hague released an online fashion label called Maebe, which she admitted was three years in the making. But the online scrutiny was brutal. Countless articles were written, and lots of questions were asked. Shouldn't creator collections be treated like merchandise, as opposed to the start of a fashion business? The collection itself is nothing unique. Tops are retailed at £50 and blazers even at £140 – but to me, the same pieces can be found in Zara or H&M…for much less! Yes, the garments are aesthetic, but they don’t necessarily reinvent the wheel. The steep price should be reflected in the quality of the clothes, but Hague herself has been private about the production of her line. The only thing we know is that it was created in Turkey and China.

As I mentioned, she has been trying to break away from the Love Island stereotype, and she’s gone on to social media many times to reinforce this. “I have spent a lot of time since I came out of the show removing myself from that stereotype, and by doing that, I just don’t speak about it a lot.” She said on Instagram.

She refuses to acknowledge how Love Island gave her the following she has. Just to highlight, she had 75,000 followers in June 2019 and 2.6 million in August of the same year.

Even her attempt at doing a serious podcast with Steven Bartlett in 2021 was a total disaster. During the episode, she made a controversial remark about wealth, which went viral. She said, “We all have the same 24 hours in a day”, and the comment IS quite tone-deaf and classist. It paints her as if she’s better than everyone else and as if she’s worked so hard for what she has when, in reality, she was a normal girl at first and then got lucky by going on a popular dating show. After this, fans ripped her comments apart, with videos of Hague struggling to handle a 12-hour shift at the PrettyLittleThing warehouse. So much for “I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am now.”

Now, most recently, Molly was given the privilege to go on British Vogue for an interview and to film for YouTube.

And I’m not trying to undermine her here as she has made a good name for herself in general, but in the interview with Sirin Kale, she even went as far as calling herself “quite controversial” and even comparing her breakup with Fury “Princess Diana and Charles level.” According to research conducted by Online.Casino, Hague and Fury were deemed to be ‘officially the most popular reality TV couple’ based on certain criteria such as combined Instagram followers and Google searches. Yet aren’t most of her followers young teenage girls around the ages of 17-24? If I asked my mother, who’s 43, who Molly Mae was, she would have no clue! But Princess Diana and Charles? Definitely. I think it’s very egotistical to compare yourself to somebody on that level, at 25, and after having only been with him for 5 years.

Hague is set to be the lead of a Prime Video documentary, due to drop next year. Will it be a flop or a huge success? I’m not too sure if she has much left to talk about after she milked the breakup or her fashion label, which doesn’t seem to be as luxurious as was described.

Maybe the documentary will just be shots of her £3.8 million Cheshire mansion – I’m sure someone will care.

Although she attends fashion shows and events and does photoshoots…she’s just a carbon copy of any other influencer in LA. The difference is that she’s British and a recently single mum.

How many other women can you find that fit those criteria?