Why Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury’s split has rocked Gen Z

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Every generation has their couple. Famous pairings who, for whatever reason, come to define an era through their style, body language and, as is so often the case, the rumoured infidelities? We idolise them. Overanalyse them. And project our own relationship ambitions and anxieties onto them. For baby boomers, it was Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. For Gen X: Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Millennials had Posh and Becks. And as for Gen Z, well, it’s Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury. Or at least it was until this week.
On Wednesday the young couple, who came second in ITV2’s Love Island in 2019, announced that they were splitting up. “Never in a million years did I think I’d ever have to write this,” Hague wrote in a statement shared with her eight million Instagram followers. “After five years of being together I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way.”
The 25-year-old, who shares a one-year-old daughter with the professional boxer Fury, continued: “I am extremely upset to announce that mine and Tommy’s relationship has come to an end. I will forever be grateful for the most important thing to me now and always, my beautiful daughter. Without us there would be no her, she will always be my priority.”
Hague went on to thank the couple’s fans for their support and alluded to taking a break from social media to deal with the split, concluding: “I’ll be back when it feels right.” Fury shared a shorter statement of his own, writing that he was “heartbroken” to share the news and reiterating that their daughter, Bambi, is their priority.
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To the uninitiated, this might seem like just another reality-TV-star-turned-influencer break-up. It isn’t. I know this for a few reasons. The first is that when I found out, mid-Insta scroll in the back of a taxi outside Liverpool, I gasped so loudly the driver asked me what was wrong. The second is that after I told him, he explained that he’d already heard about the break-up on the radio. And the third is that when I rang my 82-year-old grandmother this morning, she asked me why someone called “Milly Moo” was all over the news.
It’s hard to know why we care quite so much. Possibly it was because Hague and Fury were chief operators of the digital world — they laid almost all of their lives out online — and yet their love story seemed real. We watched as they travelled the world together, with Hague vlogging as they hopped from the Maldives to LA, and proceeded to build their dream home together in Cheshire after a major burglary in 2021. I’m 30 and I should know better, but I’m as invested as anyone.
A quick recap, because Hague and Fury were not like other Love Island couples — and not just because their relationship lasted longer than a few months. Ever since leaving the show, the duo have ascended the ranks of the zeitgeist, going from Z-list reality stars to celebrities featured on British Vogue’s social media. Hague’s online profile earned her a multimillion deal with the fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing — she stepped down in 2023 after almost two years — while Fury’s profile grew alongside the rest of his family, all of whom were the subject of At Home with the Furys, Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall series focusing on his older brother, the former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
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They overcame controversy, most of which was levelled at Hague after she was labelled tone deaf for saying on a podcast that “Beyoncé has the same 24 hours in the day that we do”. Still, people backed them, which I suspect has more to do with Hague than Fury.
It’s Hague, really, who women are fascinated by. Is she a “Girl Boss” to use Gen Z parlance — one-time creative director of a behemoth fast fashion brand — or a vulnerable everywoman who posted videos about dissolving her cosmetic filler?
She seems to straddle multiple facets of modern femininity. Given her domestic life (a baby at 23 and a self-proclaimed desire for a “humongous family”) and a smiley Instagram feed, some regard her as a British trad wife in the making. To others, she’s an aspirational figure, the daughter of two police officers from the small town of Hitchin who rose to fame and fortune. Someone who has been open about the difficulties of being a woman in the spotlight: she has been criticised for everything from her mothering style to her postpartum body. Consequently, it’s hard to know where to place her, which is exactly what makes her so compelling.
And how people watched. “You saw every tiff, fight and declaration of love. Theirs was a puppy love story of two twentysomethings who, despite those who said they were just staying together for clout, seemed to genuinely want to start a family,” says a Gen Z friend.
Sleuths have been trawling through old social media posts, searching for clues as to why they broke up. “I’ve lost five hours of my life reading stories,” one friend tells me. “It’s all anyone can talk about in the office,” another adds. “I just assumed they’d be together for life.”
“[Hague’s sister] was saying on a vlog last week there was ‘stuff’ going on,” says another pal with faux authority on the matter. Another informs me that whispers of a split have been percolating since the start of the year. “My housemate’s theory is that they stayed together until the lucrative deal with PrettyLittleThing went through,” she adds.
So far, much of the blame seems to have been laid on Fury, whose comments sections on Instagram have been spammed by Hague fans levelling accusations at him. Some have pointed to emotional vlogs posted by Hague shortly after giving birth to Bambi, in which the influencer admitted to “struggling” with solo parenting while Fury was travelling for his boxing career.
Maybe the Hague-Fury love story struck a nerve because it felt so familiar and oddly plausible despite the Instagram filters. And the reason we’re all so crushed is that now that those hopes have been suddenly dashed. For them and also possibly for us.
“I didn’t realise I cared that much,” adds my Gen Z friend. “I feel like I’ve grown up with them in a way, as I am a similar age to them and got into a serious relationship at the same time.”
On Thursday, unfounded claims circulated that Fury cheated on Hague with another woman, Lissie Rhodes, went so viral on TikTok that Rhodes responded in a statement, writing: “Tommy Fury is not my baby’s dad.” Even the comedian Katherine Ryan weighed in, writing in an Instagram Story, “12 hours of being livid with Tommy Fury”. According to Coveragely, a social media analytics firm, Fury has already lost more than 20,000 followers on the platform since the break-up was announced. Meanwhile, Hague’s followers seem to have grown, with the break-up earning her legions of new fans (like me), eager to support her in her new role as a single mother — and see what she does next.