No one’s immune to the comforting idea of love that never ends
August 14, 2024 7:00 pm(Updated 7:01 pm)
Following the news this afternoon that the nation’s sweethearts Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury are breaking up after five years together, the country is bereft – arguably, beyond all proportion. X, where their names are already trending, is inconsolable. Instagram is sobbing. But why?
Certainly, the digital wailing and gnashing of teeth seems outsized, given that all that’s been announced is a separation – heartbreak, but the kind that happens every day. Yet, as our reaction makes plain, influencers like Hague and Fury represent more than the sum of their parts. Having watched them get together on Love Island back in 2019, then looking on as they moved in together, had a baby and got engaged, their fans feel invested in their love story.
That’s no accident. The way that influencers use social media, offering pseudo-glimpses into their lives that slot into a newsfeed between snapshots of people we actually know, is calibrated to make us feel involved. We’ve seen the couple’s Sunday afternoons, Molly-Mae’s pregnancy, their elaborate holidays. And now, I suppose, it is only fitting that we see the relationship end, and inevitable that their followers would feel something about it.
But celebrities like Hague and Fury straddle a fascinating double-bind. On the one hand, we think we know them; that they’re just like us. On the other, despite knowing Instagram is just a highlights reel, we imagine that famous people live a sort of charmed life.
The resulting crossed wires mean that influencers represent something remote and aspirational as well as proximate and familiar; to fans they’re each a grown-up version of a fairytale character, as well as a best friend.
But while fairytales end with the prince and princess getting married, real life certainly doesn’t. We might like to think we’ve outgrown bedtime stories, but no one’s immune to the easy, comforting idea of love that never ends – as adults, we swap Disney princesses for social media starlets, but the narrative beats are the same.
It’s what makes celebrity weddings such big business. We invest in them with all the guileless happiness of kids, the glamour of the occasion blotting out the inevitable flaws in its central relationship. Who wants to read a tabloid spread about the post-nuptial comedown, the humdrum days after the honeymoon, anyway?
Love is scary because it contains the possibility of pain should it end. It’s no wonder that we seek out stories that avoid that agony – even though, of course, they are nigh-on non-existent.
What’s more, celebrities’ relationships are no less complicated than anyone else’s – in fact, there’s every reason to think fame would make the daily business of coupledom harder.
Beautiful people don’t necessarily have beautiful lives, money doesn’t make you happy, and no amount of online followers can insulate you from the loneliness of an unhappy relationship. Heartbreak, I’m afraid, is universal. That’s what makes this break-up hit so hard.
The idea of a couple living happily ever after is preposterous whether they’re animated Disney characters or glossy Instagram influencers. So what comes after happily-ever-after?
In the real world, it’s only the beginning of the story. Perhaps Molly-Mae and Tommy can take comfort in the knowledge that they’ve both got plenty of chapters to come.