Beauty pageants and footballer exes: Inside Molly-Mae’s life before Love Island

Molly-Mae is the most successful Islander of all time. She’s mega rich, the blueprint of how to be an influencer, and has a baby with fiancé Tommy Fury, who she met on the 2019 series of the show. But, what was Molly-Mae Hague’s life before Love Island like? A lot different, surprisingly.

There were some similarities in Molly-Mae Hague’s life before Love Island, and what it’s like now. Mainly is that she was already an influencer back then too – just on a much smaller scale. Before finding fame on the show, she had just hit 100k followers, and that’s how the producers scouted her for the cast. She’s got 7.6million Instagram followers now, just for some context.

But what was different and how has her life completely changed? Here’s a rundown.

Molly-Mae worked as a lifeguard before Love Island

When she was first rumoured to be part of the Love Island 2019 cast, Molly-Mae was 19 and working as an influencer, signed to Muse agency.

She worked as a lifeguard part-time in Manchester for three years, alongside her sister Zoe. Other part time jobs when she was growing up included working at Boots, and training as a spin instructor at a gym. Aged 18, she gave up these jobs to pursue a career as an influencer.

Molly-Mae took part in a series of beauty pageants as a teenager, winning the titles of Miss Teen Hertfordshire and World Teen Supermodel UK during her time competing. She was named World Teen Supermodel UK at 16-years-old.

She had a footballer ex, and knew some Islanders before the show

When Molly-Mae was an Islander, it was revealed she is the ex-girlfriend of Leicester City footballer, James Maddison. In 2019, it was reported they had split up earlier that year, and she was “ready to move on” in the villa. Ahead of her time on the show, she said dating footballers was “superficial” and said they met when he slid into her Instagram DMs.

It was also reported Molly was friends with ex-Islanders Rosie Williams and Kendall Rae Knight, who “gave her some insight” about being on the show.

Molly-Mae was rejected for Love Island a year before she went into the vila

In her book, Molly-Mae admitted she was initially rejected for Love Island in the year before she did actually appear on the show. She went on to credit her later appearance on the show to manifestation, but did say she wasn’t exactly impressed at being a bombshell, and not in the original lineup.

She said she thought she could “ruin her reputation” going on the show, as her Instagram was already picking up, so it was a big decision to accept when producers finally did reach out in 2019. She said: “A lot of people were saying to me, ‘you don’t really need it. You can do this without it.’ I listened to all that… and decided that I’d do it anyway!”

Now, Molly-Mae is a millionaire and has a baby

Life has completely changed for Molly-Mae since her before Love Island days. As soon as she left the villa she was being hounded by brands, and even turned down a £2million deal to be the face of one brand, simply because she didn’t like its clothes. Fair.

After the villa she had a huge £500k deal with PrettyLittleThing, launched her own tanning brand called Filter, and has the highest Instagram following of all Islanders ever – which according to PilotFishMedia means she can charge an eye watering £65,000 per Instagram post. Yes, really. Considering she previously said when she was 16 brands paid her £25, that’s not too bad.

All together, she now has four companies registered in her name, that have been valued as being worth £2million. As well as this, Molly-Mae has made millions from her influencing and brand work, as well as being Creative Director for PrettyLittleThing. She’s worth £6million, btw.

Oh, and she and Tommy are engaged and have a little girl called Bambi! My heart!

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Related stories recommended by this writer:

• From pre-Love Island to having a baby: The wild transformation Molly Mae’s had over the years

• Inside Molly-Mae’s Depop shop where she’s selling designer clothes for 90 per cent off

• Before and after: The Islanders who have been ditching their fillers