It’s been a long time since anyone has cared about a Love Island breakup. But when Molly-Mae Hague posted a black screen with paragraphs of white text yesterday, index fingers paused. Eyes focused. Jaws dropped.
Not only was Molly-Mae’s Instagram story enough to warrant a momentary lapse in scrolling — something you couldn’t say of any other Love Island breakup of the past five years — it was enough to prompt people to think, to discuss, to… mourn?
And then, of course, the cheating rumours began. A friend of Hague’s seemed to confirm it via The Sun, saying Molly-Mae is “aware Tommy was unfaithful to her” on several occasions.
They told the paper: “It seems he would play away when he knew people wouldn’t recognise him. Molly-Mae is absolutely heartbroken and says she fully expects that other women are going to come forward and speak to her about him being unfaithful.”
But there have been plenty of Love Island splits as messy as this one, as equally laced with intrigue, that have failed to capture even a shred of our attention, let alone make us feel.
“Molly-Mae and Tommy splitting up is how I imagine it felt when Charles and Diana split up for our parents,” wrote one X user another.
Plus, Molly-Mae and Tommy weren’t even Love Island winners. After a charismatic Amber Gill stole the show in a new couple with Greg O’Shea, the pair were announced as runners up in a shock twist at the season five finale. Then again, One Direction didn’t win The X Factor.
The breakup of Molly-Mae and Tommy is different because it stands for something. Love Island, once a guilty pleasure and national treasure, has been dead and gone for so long now that many of us no longer recognise it anymore. Anecdotally, the most recent series seems to be the one many people have finally decided to skip, which is a shame because it marked the first season with two Black winners — a landmark moment after a whopping eleven seasons.
But season five was the apex of Love Island’s popularity, positioned directly before it tipped over into excess. The unfortunate decision to introduce Winter Love Island in January 2020, just six months after Hague and Fury’s season had ended, meant that the show’s golden era had a very short shelf life.
This oversaturation, combined with the tragic news of Caroline Flack’s death mid-season as well as a mounting mental health crises amid ex-contestants, led to an almost inevitable downfall.
But Love Island makes money. So it has kept on keeping on to this day, albeit without the initial love or warmth that was requisite during its initial popularity
To many, Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury’s relationship symbolised the last time a group of 20-somethings entered the Love Island villa actually looking for love, instead of a brand deal or a boost in Instagram followers.
Even season five was teetering on the edge of influencer-oversaturation, but Hague and Fury’s childlike love for each other (recall the moment Molly-Mae returned from Casa Amor to see Tommy Fury proudly holding her cuddly toy in his grasp) cut through any remaining skepticism.
Now, that skepticism holds strong. Love Island is running awfully low on love, and perhaps the reason we’re all so gutted about Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury’s uncoupling is because we know it’s the final nail in the coffin of our national treasure. Plus, in the era of manufactured love and PR relationships, it’s hard to find people to root for anymore.
Watching two people convincingly fall in love on screen forms a bond, and we’ve not seen that level of authenticity for quite some time. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t care.