Tommy Fury looked every bit the happy father in a photograph posted on photo-sharing app Snapchat on Wednesday, showing him bottle-feeding his daughter at the £4m Cheshire mansion he shares with fiancée Molly-Mae Hague.
So when just hours later, Love Island’s most successful couple announced their split in separate Instagram posts after five years together, their millions of devoted Gen Z followers were left reeling.
How could this image of domestic bliss crumble in a matter of hours?
In fact, Fury was not at home when he posted the image, taken months ago, as the half-brother of former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury had been kicked out of his house by a furious Molly.
The Mail can reveal the publication of the photo was a desperate attempt by the 25-year-old boxer to win back his fiancée’s affections after she once again confronted him over cheating allegations and his escalating party antics.
Love Island’s most successful couple: Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague in 2019
Molly-Mae was pictured returning home yesterday afternoon following news of her split from Tommy
Tommy looked like a happy father in a photo posted to Snapchat on Wednesday, bottle-feeding his daughter at his £4million Cheshire mansion.
It didn’t work. As the images were uploaded, a “humiliated and devastated” Molly sat at home, finalising her decision to end the relationship.
Friends of the 25-year-old social media star told the Mail: “It was agony for Molly but she had to do it for her own mental health. She knew she had to cut the cord and the only way she could do that was by posting about it on social media.”
Molly took a deep breath as she broke the news to her 8 million Instagram followers. Sitting next to her was her main concern: her 20-month-old blue-eyed daughter, Bambi, whom she shares with the boxer. She was also surrounded by her close-knit family and friends.
“Never in a million years did I think I would have to write this,” she said. “After five years of being together, I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way. I will always be grateful for the most important thing to me now and always, my beautiful daughter… she will always be my priority.”
In his own statement hours later, Fury said he was “heartbroken” and asked fans for privacy. He also thanked Molly for “making me a daddy,” adding that “Bambi is our priority.”
Following the announcement, online sleuths began combing through the couple’s social media footprints, pointing to Tommy’s post as evidence that Molly had made the decision within hours in reaction to it.
But her friends say she didn’t make the rash decision and is determined. No one was more surprised than Tommy himself, who, according to his team, is “devastated and will fight to get them back.”
The couple announced their split in separate Instagram posts after five years together.
Molly-Mae’s Instagram post in which she says she is “extremely upset to announce that my relationship with Tommy has come to an end”
Tommy shared a separate post asking his followers to “respect our privacy as we go through this difficult time.”
For months, Molly had feared that Tommy’s penchant for partying and rumours of infidelity would tear her family apart. Today, the Mail can reveal that earlier this year, Molly retreated to her mother’s home in her hometown of Hertfordshire for a much-needed night away, leaving Bambi in Tommy’s care.
When Molly returned, she was shocked to find everything in disarray. A group of Tommy’s friends were passed out and strewn across the plush sofas, while empty bottles littered the marble countertops. Meanwhile, her precious Bambi had been left in the care of a nanny.
For Molly, who grew up with a lot of freedom as the daughter of two police officers, Tommy’s partying was becoming too much to handle.
The two argued heatedly about the incident, but Molly knows better than anyone the pain of growing up with separated parents: her mother and father split up when she was a teenager.
It was her “biggest fear come true,” the star confesses in her memoir, Becoming Molly-Mae. She revealed that her mother “turned to alcohol to cope with the pain.”
It all seems very different to when Molly met Tommy five years ago in a hot tub in the Love Island villa. She was the sweet, smiling girl next door who tamed Tommy’s bad boy boxer persona.
Molly met Tommy five years ago in a hot tub in the Love Island villa. They now have a combined net worth of around £9million.
Although they came in second place, they now have a combined net worth of around £9 million, with much of that wealth attributed to Molly’s earnings as an influencer. No Love Island couple since has managed to achieve such stardom.
Tommy followed in the footsteps of his half-brother Tyson and amassed a fortune from boxing matches and brand deals, with an estimated net worth of £4m.
On paper they couldn’t have been more different. Tommy comes from a tough background in Manchester’s travelling community and his father, John Fury, was jailed for 11 years after gouging a man’s eye out in a fight.
As one friend told the Mail: “They were the unlikely couple who tried to make it work when everyone doubted them. That’s what makes it so heartbreaking.”
Molly, in particular, had been trying hard to make things work. She had forgiven Tommy when rumours of infidelity surfaced five months after their engagement in July last year, following his trip to the United Arab Emirates to take part in Formula 1.
Videos emerged of the boxer in a packed club with controversial rapper Chris Brown while a mystery brunette lovingly grabbed his chin.
Following their breakup, rumors of the boxer’s infidelity surfaced on social media, followed by cries of support for Molly.
Since the split, Tommy has lost tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. A spokesman for Fury said: “Tommy is horrified by the false allegations of cheating circulating in the media and is consulting his lawyers.”
Yesterday, a pale and forlorn Molly left her home for her second public appearance since the news broke, driving her £200,000 Mercedes. A source close to the family told the Mail: “She has put on a brave face and everyone is telling her she will be a strong single mother.”
Molly told Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast in 2020: “My circle is tiny. I literally have about five people. I hang out with my boyfriend and go to bed. That’s literally my life.”
This week, that circle got even smaller.
