STRUTTING into the Love Island villa aged 20, with her blonde hair extensions and filler-enhanced pout, Molly-Mae Hague became an instant Gen Z sweetheart.
She wasn’t particularly entertaining but was hot so boys wanted to date her — and she was nice so girls wanted to befriend her.
Upon exiting the ITV2 reality series with hunky boxer boyfriend Tommy Fury in tow, the influencer from Hertfordshire was soon a social media sensation.
But five years on, as I tuned into her highly anticipated Amazon Prime “docuseries”, a.k.a. reality show, Molly-Mae: Behind It All, I struggled to see what all the fuss was about.
Banal, precious and, to be honest, dull, are the first adjectives that spring to mind as the fake-tan entrepreneur with eight million Instagram followers welcomes cameras into her world for the first time — aside from her popular, but equally mundane, vlogs.
They say youth is wasted on the young, but so is money apparently, as Molly gives us a wardrobe tour of her baggy jeans, tonal suit jackets and prized PJ draw. Snooze, indeed.
Scenes with her toddler Bambi are adorable but insights into her relationship breakdown with Tommy — he drank too much at her sister’s wedding — feel heavily edited and stage-managed.
We see behind-the-scenes footage of her fashion brand Maebe, which sold out 24 minutes after it launched last September.
Unlike her previous fashion venture, where she teamed up with fast-fashion brand PLT, Maebe flogs jeans for nearly £100, hardly affordable for her teen fans.
It still shocks me how invested people are in my life, I don’t really understand why.
Molly-Mae Hague
The homebody avoids booze or partying, even admitting she “doesn’t like having fun” and the most risqué faux pas she commits on the show is eating McDonald’s chicken nuggets behind the wheel of her £200,000 Mercedes G wagon, which might have road safety campaigners twitching.
Having worked as a showbiz reporter for 15 years I’ve written about hell-raising celebs, from the warring Oasis Gallagher brothers to Kate Moss’s infamous Primrose Hill set.
I’ve also partied with Leonardo DiCaprio celebrating his Bafta win, and Snoop Dogg in Paris, and having met these talented, lively characters I can see why youngsters of yesteryear — us millennials — idolised them.
They were raucous, reckless and seemingly carefree. You never knew what might happen next. It was pure escapism for your average teen or twentysomething.
But the average, pragmatic and financially minded twentysomething today would fail to be impressed by the famously daft behaviour of some of these A-list veterans which is why they seem to idolise Molly Mae.
Obsession with bland
She has amassed an estimated £6million and lives in a £4million mansion with footballers as neighbours — all very impressive to ambitious Gen Z types.
Rather than wasting her hard-earned on drink and drugs, she revealed in her docuseries that she buys clothes in triplicate — she has three pairs of the same YSL shoes, for example. This is what youngsters aspire to these days, it seems.
And then we have the confusing situation of her relationship with fiancé Tommy Fury — who she dumped weeks before filming of the show began, sharing her decision with the world via a curt post on her Instagram.
Apart from widespread speculation at the time that he had cheated, viewers are led to believe this decision was based on his boozing.
But we are given little detail about what actually happened.
And recently, this paper splashed footage of Molly and Tommy snogging at a New Year’s Eve bash thrown by England footballer pal Luke Shaw.
Now, her decision to apparently take Tommy back has left many disappointed — suggesting to them that despite her financial independence, she is rewarding bad behaviour.
After such global humiliation, I do wonder if this is the right message to be sending out.
I probably haven’t been honest with anyone because I’ve been holding on to the hope and the idea that, as soulmates, we will always come back together.
Molly-Mae Hague
It’s certainly not something that most millennials would stand for.
Surely, Molly has enough freedom and youth on her side to go out and find someone better suited to her.
In the docuseries, the 25-year-old admits of her and Tommy: “I probably haven’t been honest with anyone because I’ve been holding on to the hope and the idea that, as soulmates, we will always come back together.”
The saga of their on-off relationship certainly promises interesting content for the series’ next episode drop later this year — and those invested in the pair’s relationship will no doubt try to understand Molly’s decision-making. Or be shouting at their TVs.
But even the drama of her love life teeters on the brink of boring when you compare it with some of the most famous celebrity break-ups — Britney and Justin, Brad and Jen, Patsy and Liam and so on.
If she takes him back, the young mum is destined to face years of sleepless nights while he is out with his mates.
The urge to go through his phone to check his messages will verge on irresistible, and questions about whether she has made the right decision will loom.
While her fans will no doubt support her, whatever she does, many of us continue to be baffled by the obsession with her rather bland life.
Molly laments at one point: “It still shocks me how invested people are in my life, I don’t really understand why.”
Same here. Sorry, snowflakes — but to me, Molly Mae is as interesting as her favourite colour. Beige.
