Following the burglary at her home last week where a reported £800k worth was stolen, Molly-Mae Hague has been the recipient of a swathe of victim-blaming online.
The former Love Islander – who shares rented accommodation at a luxury block of flats outside Manchester with her boyfriend Tommy Fury – has previously spoken out about feeling “unsafe” in her home after fans kept showing up at her house.
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Love Island's Molly-Mae Hague responds to rumours she's 'in therapy'
And despite Molly-Mae hiring round the clock security, her worst fears materialised last week when an “experienced gang” broke in while she and Tommy were at an event in London.
Amid messages of comfort, though, a sinister trend for victim blaming has been targeted at Molly and Tommy – most of it linked to the apartment tours she’s given of her home in the past.
The YouTuber is well known for letting her fans in on every detail of her life, including her home interiors – but has never given away her address and back in April claimed she thought a PR company had leaked it after “about a billion people” found out where she lived.
CHECK OUT: Love Island's richest stars
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Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen 2016
Olivia Buckland was a member of the 2016 Love Island cast from day one. She coupled up with Daniel Lukakis, Rykard Jenkins and Adam Maxted before Alex Bowen entered.From day 20 onwards, Olivia stayed coupled up with Alex Bowen. The couple ended as runners up.Before entering the villa, Olivia worked as a sales executive and Alex was a scaffolder and fitness model.Before her rise to fame, Olivia admitted she was so debt-ridden she had to sell her own sofa.
Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen 2016
Since leaving the villa, Alex and Olivia moved in together and they are the proud owners of two French bulldogs. In 2017, the couple got engaged and Olivia featured in an episode of Say Yes To The Dress. In 2018, Alex and Olivia became the first Love Island couple to tie the knot. They made an exclusive deal with OK! magazine and the pair married at Gosfield Hall in a lavish ceremony with hundreds of guests.According to Fabulous magazine the season two couple have made the most money from the show, with their wedding last year landing a £25,000 magazine deal.Olivia has had several fashion deals including her own range of clothing with MissPap, has walked the catwalk during London Fashion Week as well as presented on This Morning.Alex and Olivia have recently launched a clothing brand together called Exempt society. The couple are thought to be worth £4.4 million.
Dani Dyer 2018
Dani Dyer captured the nation's heart on Love Island season four last year and went on to win the series with boyfriend, Jack Fincham.The pair coupled up very early on and (mostly) stayed strong throughout the run. At the end of the 2018 series, the couple were crowned winners and split the £50,000 prize.Before entering the villa, Dani was a barmaid and an aspiring actress. She's appeared in eight films including Age Of Kill and Heckle.Dani is also the daughter of EastEnders legend Danny Dyer.
Dani Dyer 2018
After leaving the show a happy couple, Dani and Jack landed a spin-off series on ITVBe, Life After Love Island. They also went on to collaborate with Cadbury and Lucozade. According to The Sun, the couple were thought to have made at least £150,000 in advertising deals before their split earlier this year.Since splitting, Dani has continued to make money on her own and has launched her own clothing range with In the Style, reportedly worth £750,000.
Jack Fincham 2018
Before his rise to fame after entering the villa, Jack Fincham was a pen salesman from Essex.Jack won the 2018 series alongside girlfriend Dani Dyer and they stayed coupled up with for the entire time run of the show. The couple even remained strong when Jack's ex-girlfriend Ellie Jones entered the Casa Amor villa.
Jack Fincham 2018
Jack and Dani won the show and shared the £50,000 prize, but they split not long after they starred in their spin off series on ITVBe, Life After Love Island. Since then, Jack has collaborated with McDonald's and Protein World and has launched his own line of stationary, Fincham London.As well as numerous TV appearances, Jack is set to boost his profile even further as it has just been announced he will star in the cast of the next series of Celebs Go Dating.
Kem Cetinay 2017
Kem won the 2017 series alongside Amber Davies and has been a pretty regular face on TV since then. Before entering the villa in 2017, Kem worked as a hairdresser in his home county Essex and shared his life (and his tanned six pack) with his growing Instagram followers. Kem and Amber Davies's relationship on the show was enjoyable to watch and romantic, with the couple going through some ups and downs on TV (including Kem's romantic girlfriend proposal and their Casa Amor dramas). The pair went on to win the series and share the £50,000 prize.
Kem Cetinay 2017
According to reports, Kem has earned £1.5 million since leaving the show. Kem has presented on Good Morning Britain and This Morning and even appeared as a contestant on 2018's series of Dancing on Ice. He later returned to the ITV competition in 2019 as a backstage presenter. Kem also appears to have continued to rake it in via Instagram posts and deals with Sainsbury's and BoohooMAN. Not forgetting the ITV2 spin-off series Kem starred in with his fellow Love Islander Chris Hughes - You vs Chris & Kem and Straight Outta Love Island.The Love Island 'bro-mance' even went on to top the charts with their single, Little Bit Leave It.
Amber Davies 2017
Amber is from North Wales and was an aspiring actress and dancer before her rise to fame on the show. She had also worked as an entertainer at London's circus themed club night Cirque Le Soir .
Amber Davies 2017
After winning the show and gaining her share of the £50,000 prize, Amber continued to raise her bank balance by reportedly charging £5,000 an hour for personal appearances.The former Islander then went on to collaborate with the clothing brand, MotelRocks, and signed a deal thought to be worth £500k.Amber now stars in the West End production of 9 to 5: The Musical; fans were able to follow her journey to the stage in a reality show on ITVBe - Amber & Dolly: 9 to 5.
Chris Hughes 2017
Chris worked on his family farm before entering the Love Island villa in 2017. Chris fell in love with Olivia Attwood and the couple finished as runners up to Amber and Kem.
Chris Hughes 2017
Chris is thought to have banked £1.4 million since Love Island.Before their dramatic split, Chris and Olivia starred in their own spin-off show, Chris & Olivia: Crackin' On. The 26 year old had a hit single with best friend Kem, and has had numerous personal and TV appearances. Not forgetting, Chris and Kem's popular TV shows - You vs Chris & Kem and Straight Outta Love Island.More recently, Chris has started dating Little Mix star Jesy Nelson and has been earning money presenting horse-racing coverage on ITV.
Olivia Attwood 2017
Before fame, Olivia lived in Surrey and worked as a motorsport grid girl and model. Olivia was initially paired with Marcel Somerville but she ended up coupled with Chris HughesAfter their somewhat turbulent relationship in series three, Olivia and Chris broke up after leaving as runners up and attempting their relationship in the 'real world'.
Olivia Attwood 2017
Olivia is thought to have raked in £1.2 million since her time in the 2017 villa.It has been reported that Olivia charges £10,000 per public appearance and can be paid £2,000 for a sponsored Instagram post.The former grid-girl has also appeared on E4's Celebs Go Dating and landed a magazine column with New!Liv recently got back together with ex-boyfriend and footballer, Bradley Dack.
Kady McDermott 2016
Kady was the brunette bombshell from Stevenage who strutted into the Love Island villa in series two. The former make-up artist found love on the show with Scott Thomas and the couple finished in third place. However, the turbulent nature of their relationship continued outside of the villa with the couple breaking up and getting back together on more than one occasion.
Kady McDermott 2016
Pocket rocket Kady has reportedly made £1.2 million since her time in the villa in 2016.When they first left the villa, the on/off couple made money by reportedly charging up to £10,000 for personal and night club appearances.After breaking up for good in 2017, Kady has now moved on and earns a living from her make-up range By Kady, which she launched in 2017 and her fitness guide. She is now dating TOWIE star Myles Barnett and the pair featured on the reality show together. Kady, 23, regularly shares sponsored posts on Instagram and has teamed up with Boohoo and I Saw It First. Recently, Kady and Myles purchased a Hertfordshire bungalow and have huge renovation plans.
Jess Shears and Dom Lever 2017
Jessica Shears and Dom Lever met in the 2017 Love Island villa and the duo have gone on to become man and wife.Before the show, Jess was a glamour model and Dom worked as a careers adviser in Manchester.The couple got together on the first day of Love Island series three and stayed together until Jess got dumped by the boys. Lovesick Dom was dumped from Casa Amor just weeks later and the couple reunited.
Jess Shears and Dom Lever 2017
After they returned to England, Dom and Jess's relationship continued to grow and the couple got engaged in September 2017. Since leaving the villa, both Jess and Dom have boosted their bank balances with lots of sponsored posts on Instagram. The couple's first wedding came on Good Morning Britain in a bizarre ceremony on Valentin'e Day 2018 when they were 'married' by Richard Arnold.However, the reality stars had a real wedding in October on the Greek Island of Mykonos and signed an exclusive deal with OK! magazine.In May 2019, the couple announced they are expecting their first child together.
Gabby Allen 2018
Gabby rose to fame in the 2017 series of Love Island and became known for her love story with Blazin Squad's Marcel Somerville. Before entering the villa, Gabby worked as a fitness Instructor. The couple became inseparable and it seemed that their relationship would be one of the longest standing. However, months after leaving the villa, Marcel cheated on Gabby while the couple were holidaying in Mexico and they split.
Gabby Allen 2018
The fitness pro has made a lot of money since leaving the villa and has even launched her own fitness app, which became no.1 in the Apple Store. It has been reported that Gabby also signed a £100k-a-year contract with another fitness app and she recently brought out a book, full of tips on how to achieve a banging bod like hers.Gabby has now found love again and is in a relationship with Rak-su singer, Myles Stephenson.
Megan Barton Hanson 2O18
Entering the 2018 villa midway through series four, Megan instantly stirred things up.On the show, Megan found love with Wes Nelson and the couple stayed together for five months, splitting at the end of January 2019.Since leaving the show, the former glamour model from Essex has opened up about getting £25k worth of cosmetic surgery when she was 19.
Megan Barton Hanson 2O18
Megs has reportedly made £1.1 million since leaving the villa and signed deals with Pretty Little Thing and Avon.Megan is set to appear on the upcoming series of Celebs Go Dating and has admitted to being open to finding love with both men and women.
Amber Gill 2019
Amber was an original islander on series 5 of Love Island. She had a rocky start to the show, coupling up with Michael Griffiths who proceeded to return from his stint in Casa Amor with another girl. Not cool. Amber went on to win the series with Irish rugby player Greg O'Shea. The pair have since split after little over a month outside of the villa.
Amber Gill 2019
Since leaving the villa with half of the £50K prize money, Amber has gone on to sign a £1 million clothing deal with online retailer Miss Pap. According to The Sun, Amber took the least time to become a millionaire after leaving the villa. It was also reported that Amber could charge £10,000 per Instagram post after finishing her stint on the show. Her current net worth is estimated to be £2 million.
Molly-Mae Hague & Tommy Fury 2019
Molly & Tommy only had eyes for each other after meeting in the hideaway hot-tub midway through series five. The pair negotiated Casa Amor and the infamous baby challenge, making their way to the final before missing out on the crown.Not winning the series doesn't appear to have hindered their success - the couple are still together and recently holidayed in the Maldives, we're pretty jel tbh.
Molly-Mae Hague & Tommy Fury 2019
The pair's net worth is now estimated to be £800,000. Soon after leaving the villa, Molly-Mae raked in £500,000 for a sponsorship deal with Pretty Little Thing. Both Tommy and Molly had significant cash before entering the villa, with Tommy's boxing career contributing to his pre-villa £120,000 piggy bank.
Twitter also took umbrage at Molly’s proclivity for “flaunting” her wealth online – regularly sharing expensive designer clothes hauls and stepping out in tens of thousands of pounds worth of jewellery. With Molly and Tommy’s trip to London to promote her Beauty Works Christmas launch well reported, some social media users argued she’d made herself vulnerable.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t feel bad for Molly Mae,” wrote one Twitter user. “Flaunting that amount of wealth is pretty disgusting behaviour, and I can’t feel bad for someone who loses possessions when they already have so much.”
“Not Molly Mae and Tommy Fury always flaunting what they’ve got then getting robbed for 800k worth of stuff,” tweeted another, with one more adding, “The whole Molly Mae situation is her own fault I’m sorry but it is.. did she not learn from the Kim [Kardashian, who was robbed at gunpoint in Paris in 2016] situation?”
WATCH: "What does IMPREGNABLE mean?!" 😂😂 #LoveIsland runner up Molly-Mae Answers the Internet 🖥
But wait – since when has owning wealth made you fair game for burglary? While there’s A LOT to be said for the uneven distribution of wealth between the haves and the have-nots – and influencers are particularly illustrative of this considering they don’t appear to do a lot in comparison to some of the lowest earners in society, like teachers and nurses – parading their flash lifestyle online for a captive audience isn’t a crime. Burglary, in case you missed it, actually is.
Victim blaming is a powerful term that is mainly used in relation to targets of male violence. There’s been a huge conversation in both traditional and social media recently warning of the dangers of blaming victims for their own assaults – and while we certainly shouldn’t be derailing that conversation – it’s worth remembering that individuals are never responsible for the crimes committed against them, in any context. Molly-Mae inviting followers into her home via a YouTube tour isn’t the same as inviting them actually to her address in real life, and it’s certainly not justification for having nearly a million pounds worth of belongings stolen.