Why Tommy Fury doesn’t regret a single thing from not winning Love Island to criticism after puppy died
WHEN Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague were beaten in the 2019 Love Island final, it was perhaps the biggest shock in the show’s history. After all, winners Amber Gill and Greg O’Shea had only been together for approximately five minutes (and promptly split up a couple of weeks later).
Fifteen months on, while they might not have scooped the £50,000 prize money, Tommy, 21 says he knows who truly won.
“The egg is on their faces, the ones that said we couldn’t last,” he says. “We won in our own right and it shows a year and a half later.”
The loved-up pair are the only couple from that series who are still together – and the two of them are raking it in, thanks to fashion collabs with the likes of Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo Man.
Between them they have 8million Instagram followers, can command around £10,000 for every sponsored post and live happily together in a luxury apartment in Manchester, where their walk-in wardrobe is the size of most people’s living rooms.
But not everything has been a bed of roses. Just last month Molly-Mae, 21, announced that she’d had a cancerous mole removed, while in June they found themselves at the centre of a media storm after Tommy bought a designer Pomeranian pup, named Mr Chai, from sellers in Russia for Molly-Mae’s birthday – only for the dog to die a week later.
Critics accused the pair of mistreating the puppy and of using it as an accessory for Instagram, but if Tommy was affected by it all, he’s not letting on today. Instead, he sticks to the vague platitudes we all remember from Love Island.
“It hurts now and again,” he says of the comments about Mr Chai’s death, “but that’s life, isn’t it?”
As boxer Tommy geared up for his first fight of the year, we sat down to talk about his relationship with Molly-Mae, the designer dog controversy and why he doesn’t care about what other people think.
Tommy, how has life been for you since Love Island?
Life has been good. Love Island was a good platform to help give myself a following for boxing. I always said that when I got out of there I was going back to the ring, and that’s what I’ve done. I’m just doing the same thing but on a higher scale. I’ve travelled the world and been to beautiful places. It’s sick really. And life only changes as much as you want it to. The only difference is sleeping in a different bed, and a few more places to eat.
Were you a bit gutted you and Molly-Mae didn’t win?
It is what it is. Everybody doubted us and said we were fake. The whole time we laughed and said: “We’ll show them,” and we did because we’re still together and getting stronger. We don’t need an announcement saying that we are the winners. We found love.
Why do you think you’ve lasted as a couple?
We have similar interests and we don’t get on each other’s nerves. As soon as we met each other, we were sharing a bed and being around each other every day. If you were going to get on anyone’s nerves, you would have found out in there. Coming out in the real world, with her doing her thing and me doing mine, it was just a perfect match.
Do negative comments online affect you?
I’m fine. Nothing could ever hurt or get to me. My mind doesn’t work like that and I am fortunate to be that way inclined, whereas Molly feels it a little more, all girls do. It’s my job to be there for her. As the saying goes: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words could never hurt me”. It couldn’t get any truer.
You received a lot of criticism after your puppy died in June. Do you regret anything?
I don’t regret a single thing. What’s meant to be is meant to be. All we have done since leaving the show is do everything with good intentions. No matter what you do in life, people are always going to have an opinion. You could be a martyr and someone will still have a bad opinion of you and that’s just the way the world is.
Do you feel like you were unfairly treated?
I don’t know because dealing with people’s opinions and being discriminated against in public is part and parcel of being in the limelight. As far as I’m concerned, if you like me, you like me. If you don’t, then don’t. You can easily unfollow.
Molly just revealed she had a cancerous mole removed. How is she doing?
I can’t really say. That is Molly’s stuff to address. I want everyone to know that she is OK and everything is going to be OK, and I am going to be by her side every step of the way.
How did you react to the tragic news about Caroline Flack?
It was a massive shock because Caroline was a lovely woman. She had everything going for her. Obviously me and Molly spent two months with the girl. After the final we were out the back drinking red wine, joking and laughing. Then six months later, I was in the gym when I heard the news and I thought it was a joke, because there were no signs of that ever happening. That’s what the scary part was. We just have to raise awareness and be a bit more careful in how we use social media, like people saying bad things to me and Molly.
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See Tommy reveal more about life with Molly-Mae in our exclusive video at Fabulousmag.co.uk now.
Have you continued to receive support from the producers?
The support system you get when leaving the show is really good. I can’t say one bad thing about them – they check up on you and ask how you are feeling. If you are feeling down, you have a number to ring and someone is on the line.
Do you talk to the other Islanders much?
I try to keep in contact with a few of the boys. The only time we get to sit and talk to each other is at events. We’re all busy, we work.
Are you and Molly-Mae hoping to start a family?
Yeah, in the future I definitely want kids and marriage. We are young at 21, so I want to do a bit more travelling and get these titles won and then think about having some children.
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Do you think some people have the wrong impression of you both?
I am sure there are still a lot of people who misconceive our whole life. As far as we are concerned we are happy and so are our families, so that’s all that matters, really. Who cares what anyone else thinks? We live our life for us and not anyone else.
- Tommy is an ambassador for online bank Lanistar.
- Grooming: Sara Bowden
- Styling: Kate Barbour
- Tommy wears: shirt, Sa1nt; jeans, Topman