Tommy Fury looked every inch the contented father in a picture posted to photo-sharing app Snapchat on Wednesday, bottle-feeding his daughter in the £4m Cheshire mansion he shares with his fiancee, Molly-Mae Hague.
So when, just hours later, Love Island’s most successful couple announced their break-up in separate posts on Instagram after five years together, their millions of devoted Gen Z followers were left reeling.
How could this picture of domestic bliss have shattered in mere hours?
In reality, however, Fury was not at home when he posted the image, which was taken months ago. For the half-brother of former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury had been thrown out of his house by a furious Molly.
The Mail can reveal that posting the photo was a last-ditch attempt by the 25-year-old boxer to win back his fiancee’s affections after she had confronted him once again over cheating allegations and his escalating party antics.
Love Island’s most successful couple Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague in 2019
Molly-Mae pictured returning home yesterday afternoon following news of her break-up with Tommy
Tommy looked every inch the contented father in a picture posted to Snapchat on Wednesday, bottle-feeding his daughter in his £4million Cheshire mansion
It didn’t work. As he uploaded the images, a ‘humiliated and devastated’ Molly was sitting in their home, finalising her decision to end their relationship.
Friends of the 25-year-old social media star told the Mail: ‘It was agonising for Molly, but she had to do it for her own sanity. She knew she had to cut the cord and the only way to 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 consideration: her blue-eyed, 20-month old daughter, Bambi, who 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’d ever have to write this,’ she declared. ‘After five years of being together I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way. I will forever 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 dad’, adding too that ‘Bambi is our priority’.
Following the announcement, online sleuths started examining the couple’s social media footprints, pointing to Tommy’s post as evidence that Molly had made the decision within a matter of hours as a reaction to it.
But friends say her decision was not made in haste and that she is resolute. No one was as shocked as Tommy himself – who his team insists is ‘gutted and will fight to get them back’.
The couple announced their break-up in separate posts on Instagram after five years together
Molly-Mae’s Instagram post in which she says she is ‘extremely upset to announce that mine and Tommy’s relationship has come to an end’
Tommy shared a separate post in which he asks his followers to ‘respect our privacy as we navigate through this difficult time’
For months Molly had worried that Tommy’s love of partying and the rumours of cheating would destroy their family. Today, the Mail can reveal that earlier this year Molly retreated to her mother’s in their hometown in Hertfordshire for a much-needed night away, leaving Bambi to be looked after by Tommy.
When Molly returned, she was shocked to find it in disarray. Passed out and strewn across their plush sofas was a group of Tommy’s male friends while scattered across the marble countertops were empty bottles. Meanwhile, her precious Bambi had been left in the care of a nanny.
For Molly, who grew up on a tight leash as the daughter of two police officers, Tommy’s partying was proving too much to handle.
Both rowed fiercely about the incident, but Molly knows better than anyone about the pain of growing up with separated parents – her mother and father split when she was a teenager.
It was her ‘greatest fear come true’, the star confesses in her memoir, Becoming Molly-Mae. She revealed her mother ‘turned to alcohol to cope with the pain’.
It all seems worlds away from when Molly met Tommy five years ago in a hot tub in the Love Island villa. She was the sweet, smiley 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
Though they were runners-up, they now have a combined net-worth of around £9 million, with much of the wealth attributed to Molly’s influencer earnings. No Love Island couple since has managed to reach such stardom.
Tommy followed in his half-brother Tyson’s footsteps to make a fortune from boxing matches and brand deals with an estimated networth of £4 million.
On paper they could not have been more different. Tommy hails 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 brawl.
As a 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 very hard to make things work. She had forgiven Tommy when cheating rumours surfaced five months after their engagement in July last year, following his trip to the United Arab Emirates for the Formula 1.
Videos emerged of the boxer in a packed out club with controversial rapper Chris Brown as a mystery brunette affectionately grabbed his chin.
Following their break-up, rumours of the boxer’s infidelity appeared on social media – followed by rallying cries of support for Molly.
Since the split, Tommy has lost tens of thousands of Instagram followers. A spokesman for Mr Fury said: ‘Tommy is horrified by the false allegations of cheating being circulated by the media and he’s consulting his lawyers.’
Yesterday, a pale and forlorn Molly emerged from their house in her second public appearance since the news broke, driving her £200,000 Mercedes. An insider told the Mail: ‘She’s put on a brave face and everyone is telling her she will be a strong single mum.’
Molly told Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast in 2020: ‘My circle is minuscule. I have literally about five people. I spend time with my boyfriend and I go to bed. That is literally my life.’
This week, that circle became even smaller.