Fans around the UK are still reeling after Molly Mae Hague and Tommy Fury announced their separation in bombshell Instagram posts last night.
The couple, both 25, had met on Love Island in 2019 and, although they missed out on the £50,000 prize fund, became the most successful relationship from their series.
Fans watched their relationship blossom as they welcomed a daughter, Bambi, into the world and Tommy finally popped the question to Molly Mae in an idyllic setting last summer. Their seemingly strong bond appeared unbreakable – which is why fans were so flabbergasted by the split.
However, although many people are still in shock at the news, the decline of Tommy Fury and Molly Mae’s relationship may reflect a wider trend within the sporting industry – the curse of dating an athlete.
From boxing, to golf, to football, the wives and girlfriends of sportsmen around the world often go long stretches without seeing their partners as they commit to guelling training schedules abroad.
As the physical distance takes its toll, it is perhaps natural that emotional distance can sometimes follow.
Relationship expert Kate Mansfield explained that, among the gruelling training schedules, foreign travel and attention from adoring fans that athletes receive, people in relationships with sportsmen can find their relationships under increased strain.
She said: ‘Dating a famous sportsman can be an exciting yet challenging experience. Their demanding careers often require intense training schedules, frequent travel for competitions, and an unpredictable lifestyle.
‘This can significantly impact the quality time you have together, making it crucial to find creative ways to connect and bond amidst their busy routine.
The constant attention and admiration that these athletes receive can also lead to temptations and, unfortunately, instances of infidelity.’
She added that Molly Mae and Tommy’s relationship woes are an example of how the ‘pressures of fame’ can impact relationships, leading to ‘misunderstandings and trust issues’.
Kate advised: ‘In navigating a relationship with an athlete, open communication, understanding their commitments, and setting aside dedicated time to nurture your bond are essential.
‘Being aware of the unique challenges that accompany their popularity can help partners create a stronger foundation built on trust and mutual respect.’
Here, FEMAIL takes a look at the relationships that fell victim to the athlete’s curse – and those that managed to survive following turmoil.
Molly Mae Hague and Tommy Fury
Molly Mae Hague and Tommy Fury announced on Wednesday evening that they were separating after a five-year relationship
In a bombshell announcement on their Instagram accounts, Love Island sweethearts Tommy and Molly Mae revealed they had decided to end their five-year relationship on Wednesday evening.
The mother-of-one posted on her Instagram Stories: ‘Never in a million years did I think I’d ever have to write this.
‘After five years of being together I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way.
‘I am extremely upset to announce that mine and Tommy’s relationship has come to an end.
‘I will forever be grateful for the most important thing to me now and always, my beautiful daughter. Without us there would be no her, she will always be my priority.’
The couple met on series five of Love Island in 2019, finishing in second place
Molly-Mae Hague has announced she has split from fiancé Tommy Fury following months of off and on again speculation
She went on to thank fans for their support over the years, before Tommy posted a similar statement on his story.
While no reason has been given for the split as yet, Molly Mae recently opened up about the fact she was ‘struggling’ and was ‘solo parenting’ in a video posted days before the split was announced – because Tommy’s career was taking the front seat.
In a candid video posted on social media the Love Island star claimed she had spent weeks looking after their daughter Bambi on her own while her fiance was absent from the family home working.
She explained Tommy had been predominantly absent from their family home while he was recording his audiobook.
Molly-Mae added: ‘Actually I’ve been solo parenting for like, two weeks now, basically because Tommy’s just been so busy.
‘When he’s home from doing work and stuff, he’s so incredible and so helpful. I can’t say any different, like, he’s such an incredible dad, but I have been this week, like, just really… mum life has been mum lifing.
‘I just feel like, at the minute I’ve been struggling a little bit.’
Meanwhile, rumours that Tommy, a boxer who travels around the world to train and fight, may have cheated on Molly Mae, have surfaced.
A source told The Sun: ‘It seems he would play away when he knew people wouldn’t recognise him.’
Annie Kilner and Kyle Walker, who have been together since their school days, share four children together. However, their marriage has been blighted by his infidelity
Kyle Walker’s dramatic love life has played out for all to see in recent months after he became embroiled in a bitter court battle with Lauryn Goodman, the mother of two of his children, over child maintenance payments.
Although Kyle shares four children with his wife and teenage sweetheart, Annie Kilner, he has fathered the two children with Goodman while still married to Annie.
When Goodman had her first child with Walker, a son named Kairo, in 2020, she publicly named the Manchester City and England star as the father.
His childhood sweetheart Annie, who he’s been with since they were teenagers at school, furiously threw him out of the family home.
Kyle and Annie are battling to save their marriage after his relationship with Goodman which has resulted in two children
A financial application for Kairo ‘painfully and expensively’ went through court over two years. Walker was ordered to buy Goodman a £1.85million home, though within a 60-mile radius of a Sussex town to prevent her being near his family, and to pay £8,000 per month child support.
The footballer also paid over £600,000 picking up both sides’ legal costs, cleared £40,000 of her debts and put over £100,000 in total towards a nanny, furniture and a car.
Walker cut contact with his ex-mistress and moved back in with Annie, with whom he has four sons: Roman, 11, Riaan, seven, and Reign, five, and Rezon, three months.
Goodman (pictured) has taken to Instagram to launch a series of attacks on England star Kyle
Lauryn (pictured) was accused by a judge of using her former lover Kyle like ‘an open cheque book’ with financial demands like £31,000 for an astro turf lawn, a 70,000 Mercedes and another £30,000 car for her nanny
In August 2022, after the court settlement was completed, Goodman saw Walker at his solicitor’s office and, remarkably, contact between the two was resumed.
Then, after travelling to London for groin surgery that October, they met once again and nine months later their second child, a girl, was born.
Within 48 hours of giving birth, Goodman made a ‘financial remedies application’ asking for maintenance, already at £110,000 per year for their son, to be increased to £177,000.
Knowing Walker wanted to keep their daughter’s birth secret, she made demands while ‘hinting that she would go public’.
Then, last Christmas, Goodman revealed to Annie that her daughter was also Walker’s child in a scathing text message.
Annie, who was six months pregnant and home alone, received a message from Goodman which read: ‘Hey it’s Lauryn I just wanted to quickly tell you that Kyle is the father of our daughter.’
Annie immediately evicted Walker from the family home for a second time in their relationship.
Although the pair have managed to repair their relationship since it emerged Walker had fathered a second child with Goodman, it hasn’t been smooth sailing.
During the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany, Annie remained demure and stoic while other WAGs of England players partied and publicly celebrated their partners’ achievements as the Three Lions reached the final of the tournament.
She also charted a private jet to travel to and from Manchester to the matches; often choosing to fly into Germany alone rather than to spend time with other WAGs.
Gisele and Tom Brady
Brady and Bundchen were married for 13 years and had two kids before divorcing in 2022
For many years, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and NFL legend Tom Brady seemed untouchable as a couple.
The pair, who share two children, were married for 13 years after meeting on a blind date in 2006, and for more than a decade, dominated red carpet events with their equally glamorous auras.
However, in a move similar to how Molly Mae and Tommy Fury announced their separation, the couple each posted statements on their Instagram accounts in October 2022 confirming they were getting divorced, leaving fans around the world in shock.
During an interview last year on US TV about her split, the Brazilian model spoke about how she and Tom are ‘co-parenting’ their kids, and she admitted that ‘there’s easier days than others.’
In the same interview, which was conducted by Good Morning America Host Robin Roberts, Gisele likened her divorce to ‘the death of a dream.’
‘It’s heartbreaking to go through that,’ Gisele admitted after taking a few seconds to gather herself.
Gisele Bundchen has finally admitted that she’s open to finding love again following her split from Tom Brady – but stayed silent about her rumored new romance with Joaquim Valente
‘Right now, really my priority is my kids and creating this beautiful sanctuary for my family but then yes, why not,’ she said. She’s seen with Tom and their kids
‘It’s definitely a transition that had to take place. You don’t wish for it but sometimes in life things happen.’
The pair never gave an official reason for their split – however the couple and their children moved several times during the marriage as Brady transferred to football teams across the US.
In 2020, Brady opened up about a ‘rough patch’ the couple had been through in their marriage – in which his career was in the firing line.
Speaking on the Howard Stern Show, he said: ‘A couple of years ago, she didn’t feel like I was doing my part for the family. She felt like I would play football all season and she would take care of the house.
‘Then all of a sudden when the season ended, I’d be like, ‘Great, let me get into all of my other business activities. Let me get into my football training,’ and she’s sitting there going, ‘Well when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school and do that?”
A year later, in 2021, Brady acknowledged the ‘sacrifices’ Gisele had made in her own career in order to support him – including that she had to ‘hold down the house’ while he played football’.
Speaking on his own Let’s Go! podcast, he said: ‘She hasn’t worked as much in the last 10, 12 years just raising our family and kind of committing to being in a life in Boston and then moving to Florida.’
Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods
Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods began dating after meeting at the Open Championship in 2001 during which he repeatedly asked her out
American golfing ace Tiger Woods and Swedish former model Elin Nordegren’s relationship got off to a turbulent start when they met at the 2001 Open Championship after she turned him down several times for their first date because she had a boyfriend in Sweden.
After getting to know the PGA Player of the Year, Nordegren started dating Woods more seriously, before golfer proposed at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa.
The pair married in October 2004 on the 19th hole at the ultra-exclusive Sandy Lane resort in Barbados, with Woods renting the luxury hotel for a week. In total, the wedding is thought to have cost over £2million.
The couple married in a lavish ceremony on the gold course at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados
Hootie and the Blowfish and Kelly Clarkson performed at the wedding reception, and Woods and Nordegren are reported to have had 500 roses delivered to the Caribbean resort.
The couple were later based in Florida, with houses in Isleworth, an upmarket enclave in Orlando, and Jupiter Island, where they built a £41m mansion Woods moved into after their split.
During their six-year marriage the couple had two children together, Samantha and Charlie, with both children learning how to play golf just like their father.
However, Elin and Tiger’s marital bliss came to an abrupt end in 2009 the National Enquirer published an initial report claiming that Woods was having an affair with a nightclub manager, Rachel Uchitel.
This pulled the thread that would eventually unravel into at least a dozen women claiming that Woods had carried out a relationship with him.
Tiger and Elin’s relationship came crashing down after a string of his infidelities were made public – with at least a dozen women claiming they had slept with the golfer
A month later – and after suffering a car crash in the days following the Enquirer’s report – Woods announced that he would be ‘taking an indefinite break from golf’ and later checked into a 45-day therapy programme.
Nordergren, who later told People that the experience was akin to ‘going through hell’, divorced Woods the following August after a number of attempts to repair their marriage.
She is thought to have drawn heavily on the support of her friends and family, and especially her identical twin sister Josefin.
Fourteen years on from their divorce, the couple have finally reached a place where they are able to co-parent amicably.
Writing in his 2017 memoir, Tiger said: ‘My regret will last a lifetime. Still, Elin and I are devoted to our kids, and we have become best friends as we care for them. It’s all about the kids for us.’
Still, despite the perils of dating an athlete, and her marriage crashing down in a very public way, Elin appears not to have been deterred – and is now in a relationship with NFL star Jordan Cameron, with whom she shares two children.
Toni and John Terry
Toni Terry chose to forgive her husband John, the former Chelsea and England star, after he had an affair with her then-best friend
Infidelity among top footballers is hardly an uncommon phenomenon – but it’s not very often that players play away from home with their teammates’ partners.
However, for Toni Terry, the wife of ex-Chelsea footballer John, this scenario worthy of a soap-opera became her reality, after her husband admitted to having an affair with his England teammate Wayne Bridge’s then-girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel.
Vanessa also happened to be Toni’s best friend at the time.
As if Toni’s heartache wasn’t bad enough, reports later surfaced that her husband had arranged for Perroncel to have an abortion after she fell pregnant.
The scandal threatened Terry’s future both on and off the pitch as his conduct was put under the spotlight.
Just weeks after the news of the affair broke, Terry and Bridge met on the pitch as Manchester City played Chelsea – and the nation watched on with baited breath to see how the former friends would greet each other.
Vanessa Perroncel was dating Terry’s England teammate Wayne Bridge when she had an affair with the Chelsea star
The couple tied the knot in June 2007 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, in a ceremony which was said to have cost nearly £1 million
Terry was humiliated as a rightly furious Bridge refused to shake his hand before City dominated the match 4-2.
Meanwhile, the Chelsea player’s marriage appeared to be in tatters after the scandal – but in a stroke of luck, his wife found it in her heart to forgive him.
A source told the Daily Mirror that Toni had given her husband ‘the benefit of the doubt’ after believing his version of events.
‘JT insists it was a silly fling and didn’t mean anything. She’s chosen to believe his version rather than what everyone else is telling her,’ the source added.
‘Frankly, she’s been through all this before but not as bad as this. But if he steps out of line again she will throw him out and make sure he has as little contact with his kids as possible.’
Coleen and Wayne Rooney
Coleen and Wayne Rooney have had their fair share of very public ups and downs over the years thanks to Wayne’s indiscretions and his partying lifestyle
Childhood sweethearts Coleen and Wayne Rooney found their relationship thrust into the limelight before they had even reached 18 years old as Wayne achieved stardom as an Everton and England striker.
Despite remaining together after several decades, the pair have overcome several ups and downs; from a high-profile defamation court case to Wayne’s infidelity.
The couple have been dogged by reports of Wayne’s infidelity during his football career, with him previously apologising for visiting brothels and paying two prostitutes for a threesome.
In 2004 after Wayne, then aged 18, moved to Manchester United, it was discovered that the teenager paid £140 for sex with prostitute Charlotte Glover, 21.
It was also claimed that at a brothel in Liverpool he slept with Gina McCarrick, then 37, and grandmother Patricia Tierney, then 48.
The couple have repaired their relationship following his string of indiscretions, which Coleen addressed for the first time last year
Devastated Coleen stood by her man but didn’t comment publicly on the claims – though later admitted that when the scandal came out she hadn’t yet slept with Wayne herself.
The pair worked through their troubles and wed four years later, though their newlywed bliss was short-lived, as it emerged in 2010 that the footballer had slept with two more prostitutes while Coleen was pregnant with their first son, Kai.
More incidences with other women followed in 2017 and 2019, while in 2021 Wayne hit headlines once again after pictures emerged of the star partying and falling asleep in a hotel room with young women.
For years, Coleen remained silent on the scandals involving her husband – however she finally broke her silence last year ahead of a Disney+ documentary on the WAGatha Christie saga.
Speaking to British Vogue, she admitted her marriage had been a ‘battle’ at times but added she ‘never backed away’ from her husband’s infidelities.
Despite the pressures of dealing with Wayne’s cheating over the years as he lived the partying lifestyle of a famous footballer, Coleen actually revealed that their relationship was put under the greatest strain by the WAGatha Christie trial.