Molly-Mae Hague: Love Island star apologises to people who ‘misunderstood’ remarks about wealth
Molly-Mae Hague has issued an apology following a backlash to comments she made about wealth inequality and poverty.
Businesswoman Hague, a former contestant on ITV2 series Love Island, made the remarks on a YouTube series titled The Diary of a CEO.
In the clip, which was filmed in December but shared on Twitter in January, Hague said: “I just think you’re given one life and it’s down to you what you do with it. You can literally go in any direction.”
Hague continued: “When I’ve spoken in the past I’ve been slammed a little bit, with people saying, ‘It’s easy for you to say that, you’ve not grown up in poverty, you’ve not grown up with major money struggles. So for you to sit there and say we all have the same 24 hours in a day is not correct.’ And I’m like, but technically what I’m saying is correct – we do.
“So I understand we all have different backgrounds and we’re raised in different ways and have different financial situations, but if you want something enough you can achieve it and it just depends to what lengths you want to go to get to where you want to be in the future.”
Hague was widely criticised for her “tone deaf” comments in the wake of the viral video.
On Monday (10 January), Hague shared a statement on Instagram, writing: “When I say or post anything online, it is never with malice or ill intent. I completely appreciate that things can affect different people in different ways however I just want to stress that I would never intend to hurt or upset anyone by anything that I say or do.
She continued: “I apologise to the people that have been affected negatively or misunderstood the meaning of what I said in the podcast, the intentions of the podcast were only ever to tell my story and inspire from my own experience.”
In the wake of the controversy, which led to her Wikipedia page being vandalised, Hague’s representative defended the star’s remarks.
Following the viral video, Hague’s friend and fellow former Love Island contestant Maura Higgins called out another one of the ITV2 show’s star for commenting on the backlash Hague was receiving.
Hague announced her appointment as the creative director of fast fashion brand Pretty Little Thing in 2021.
