What We Learnt from ‘Molly-Mae: Behind it All’
What We Learnt from ‘Molly-Mae: Behind it All’"
By Evie Allen-Jones
Britain’s favourite reality TV star and influencer Molly-Mae Hague pulled back the curtain to her life in a new Amazon Prime Documentary, Molly-Mae: Behind It All. Tucked up in sofas, eyes glued to the screen, thousands settled in to watch her: signature ombre nails, bleach blonde hair and Harry Potter obsession, Molly-Mae.
At just twenty-five years old, she has reached fame beyond most people’s comprehension. She is the embodiment of the quintessential British young woman, her relatability and authenticity bringing her masses of online success, nobody can deny, she’s a household name.
From her beginnings as a social media influencer, filming content in her childhood bedroom, to her breakout stint on Love Island, she has always combined her natural charisma with a keen business mind. In her own words, “One thing I can do is take a good instagram picture.”
Molly was a standout Love Islander, who has broken out of the mould that many are slotted into after the show. She has been dubbed the ‘Queen of Love Island’ and is commercially the most successful of the bunch. She was featured on Season 5, the most watched season in Love Island history (so far), with viewers reaching up 6 million throughout the series. Not only successful in her business ventures, she also found love on the show with boxer Tommy Fury, whom she shares her child Bambi Fury.
Probably no news to you ( or the rest of the entire country), the pair have since split…
She was accused of having a ‘game plan’ going into Love Island, which she goes on to discuss in the documentary, but game plan or not, Molly-Mae seems to have cracked the code for success. After coming 2nd in 2019, Molly signed a deal with Pretty Little Thing, a fast fashion brand wildly successful in the UK. Once exiting the villa, she was offered deals up to £2 million, but set her sights on a Pretty Little Thing deal worth a whopping £500,000. Over the next few years, she designed collaborations with PLT, created her own fake tan brand Filter by Molly Mae, now worth just under £300,000, and created her own hair care line with Beauty Works. In 2021 she was named the Creative Director of Pretty Little Thing, leading her to design her own range and host a fashion show at London Fashion Week.
She is now the owner and director of Maebe, the fashion brand that has been described as selling ‘elevated basics.’ The launch of this brand is focused on heavily in the documentary and opens the lid on the trials and tribulations of creating an online brand.
As the documentary begins, viewers are told that its original focus was to follow Molly and Tommy Fury as they prepared for their wedding. However, as their relationship began to unravel, the documentary shifted. It pivoted towards Molly, chronicling the following months as she navigated the fall out of her relationship and launch of her brand Maebe, all in the public eye.
The documentary will be six-episodes in total, with the first three now available on Amazon Prime. They cover Molly’s breakup with Tommy, her brand launch and life as a single mum. Many people tuned in, desperate for gossip filled episodes detailing her shock split, however, an explanation was delivered very coyly.
Molly, her sister Zoe and mum Debbie, all touch on the separation in the documentary. They explain that Tommy’s dependance on alcohol was partially the reason for the breakdown of their relationship, which is incredibly triggering for Molly, who explains that her mother also had a toxic relationship with alcohol in the past. Tommy also opened up about his troubles in a podcast episode with Men’s Health, opening up about his struggles with alcohol after having an injury last year that put a set back on his boxing career. The ex-couple have debunked cheating rumours that spread like wild-fire back in August after the split was announced, but are people believing them? I’m not so sure.
The documentary leaves space for Molly and her family to be candid about topics Molly has never discussed before, allowing viewers to get a newer perspective of her. Much of the documentary focuses on the mundane aspects of Molly’s day to day life; she is shown picking up a Mcdonalds at a drive-in and showing off her pyjama draws. Viewers on social media have been quick to point out how ‘dull’ and ‘boring’ the documentary can come across. It can be difficult to draw the line between reliability and authenticity v.s. basic and boring. Molly is loved by fans because she is like them and maybe that isn’t always super exciting?
A huge chunk of the documentary focuses on Molly’s brand launch for Maebe. She explains how she has been working on the brand for three years and has poured herself into this passion project, though, unfortunately for her, the process wasn’t completely smooth sailing, which the doc explores.
Molly had a pop-up shop in London to celebrate the launch back in September, which was filmed. It shows Molly candidly getting very overwhelmed and anxious at this huge launch for her career and feeling the pressure of the 8 million followers she has watching her every move. This segment of the documentary reminds viewers how young Molly still is, 25 under the watchful eye of millions, I know that a lot of us would feel the exact same in her position.
As well as the pop-up, Molly also shows the online launch of her brand, with products selling out in under half an hour, though once again, Molly and her team faced a few obstacles. Once orders of Maebe started being received and reviewed, hundreds of Tiktoks were made, all calling out the absurd prices and the utterly shocking state of the quality. Low quality and unravelling fabric, Molly and her team realised that there had been an issue with the manufacturing: her most popular product, The Ultimate Blazer, had been sold with unapproved fabric. With a price tag of £140, this did not bode well with buyers.
Molly’s heartbreak at the mistake is shown in the documentary, with her brand launch not going to plan and losing the trust of her fans, she looks well and truly gutted. At this point in the doc, despite her obvious sadness, I disagreed with how the documentary’s production had angled the online upset; it was spun to make it out like buyers were ‘piling’ on Molly and bullying her online, but in reality, this was purely feedback on an issue that should never had made it to buyers. Others felt this way, flooding to Tiktok to speak out.
Whilst I disagreed with how Molly and her team handled this issue, nobody can deny that whatever Molly does, bad feedback or online hate will follow, this was only reinforced in the documentary. She is in a constant back and forth on whether to comment on issues in the public eye, as either way she will get push back.
I felt, watching this documentary, that Molly-Mae is just a young woman trying to get through her life by pleasing as many people as she can. Whilst I wasn’t reduced to the tears that many others were whilst watching the documentary, I can still sympathise with Molly, she is under a torrent of pressure that, clear from the documentary, is coming from many different avenues: her break-up, motherhood, her career and her brand.
Fan or not, nobody can deny Molly’s influence in the UK and whilst others may not enjoy watching the ins and outs of her somewhat mundane life, I certainly do! I cannot wait for the next few episodes!
