A social media institution, Molly-Mae Hague has certainly made her mark on the fashion and media world since starting a YouTube channel as a teenager and appearing on Love Island. And, of course, beginning one of the most high-profile, talked-about relationships of her generation – with fellow contestant and professional boxer Tommy Fury.
The couple shocked the world with their split, and Molly is speaking out on the break up in detail for the first time in her documentary Molly-Mae: Behind It All. The doc also looks at her experiences of motherhood and co-parenting with Tommy, the influence of sisterhood in her life and the trials and tribulations she's had with launching her brand Maebe.
Here, we break down the biggest moments from Molly-Mae's much-awaited documentary…
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Molly-Mae re-examines her first date with Tommy and his proposal in real-time – and the results are emotional
The documentary sees her watch back her Love Island series, and personal footage of her relationship with Tommy – it's painful for us to observe her as she recounts her own experiences that were attached to such a public partnership. “I don't really believe in love at first sight, but I really fancied him,” she recalls of their first “date” in the villa hot tub.
We also see her watch footage from when Tommy proposed to her (she'd only watched the edited version previously) and admit that there were “tricky” problems between them even then, and that they'd argued that day.
Her engagement to Tommy and their relationship overshadowed the launch of her business
Molly opened up about her heartbreak and frustration that Tommy wasn't around to see the launch of her fashion brand Maebe due to their break up. She adds that if they had been together for the launch, focus would've been on her hard work instead of their relationship.
“The most likes and comments are about the engagement,” she says of her social media posts about Maebe's launch. The public nature of her relationship must mean, in turn, that her other individual efforts may not get the same attention or notoriety, no matter how hard she might work on them.
Molly-Mae struggled with motherhood initially – and worried that her life wasn't her own anymore
She's been vocal about her initial worries when she became a mother, going from being a “free bird” to feeling like “my life wasn't my life anymore” and that she may have ruined her chances of working. But, as she has settled into parenting, she describes loving it more and more as Bambi grows.
Molly adds that co-parenting with Tommy is going well, but it's not what she imagined for herself and her family.
Tommy's drinking was a problem for her after experiencing a similar dynamic between her parents growing up
The star opens up about the destructive way that Tommy's relationship with alcohol affected their relationship. She is insistent that he doesn't have a problem, but that alcohol caused problems for them as a couple and how that caused responsibility issues for him.
Her and her mum Deborah go on to recall multiple instances where his drinking caused problems, including when she begged him not to drink at her sister's wedding. “Alcohol has been so detrimental and destructive,” Deborah says.
Molly adds that she never wanted to be with someone who drank, after seeing her mum struggling with a similar dynamic while separating from her dad when Molly was a teenager. “I never wanted Bambi to come from a broken home like I did,” she explains.
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Tommy's rocky relationship with her sister Zoe became a problem
While they've fought like most sisters do, Molly and her sister Zoe are really close. She's shared everything about her troubles with Tommy, which has led to tensions.
“Mine and Tommy’s relationship was very very turbulent. We definitely butted heads a fair few times about him going out and obviously me being protective of Molly," Zoe said in the documentary. “He was great with Bambi, but he wasn't at the time being a great partner.”
Her ideal wedding vision may shock you
After reflecting on the spectacle that was her engagement, Molly says that her ideal wedding now would be a vicar coming to her house, with Harry Potter on in the background, snacks on the table, “and the vicar just marries us while we're on the sofa in our pyjamas”.
She adds: “That would be great… Get a bath, early night!”
She is a perfectionist when it comes to her own self image…
“The one thing I can do is take a good Instagram picture,” Molly says in the second episode. She goes on to say she'd be embarrassed to disclose how many pictures she takes to get the right Insta pic. There were 211,000 photos on the camera roll of a phone she's had less than a year.
Even when she takes selfies with fans, she often takes them herself to get the right angle. We even see her revisit her childhood bedroom, where she started her YouTube channel – Molly is frank about the angles she created here as well to make it look like she “lived in a bigger house”.
…But also struggles with people pleasing
The unfortunate result of the perfectionism around Molly's image online is that she feels obligated to people please at business events. We see at a Maebe event that she's uncomfortable doing selfies with all fans, but she knows that's a large part of her brand and what they've showed up for. You can see the strain this people pleasing causes, when she wants to prioritise talking about her business.
Molly-Mae does hope that she and Tommy will get back together
As we watch the influencer grapple with motherhood and the ups and downs of running a business, the heartbreak under the surface is always visible. She admits throughout that she didn't break up with Tommy because she didn't love him, but because she didn't feel like she had another choice.
The next batch of episodes, due out in the Spring, are set to tackle the rumours of Molly-Mae and Tommy sharing a kiss on New Year's Eve and whether there may be hope for the couple yet.
Molly Mae: Behind It All is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video.
