Molly-Mae Hague sparks huge backlash with ‘tone deaf’ comments on her wealth and success

Molly-Mae Hague has been criticised for a viral video in which she claimed ‘anyone’ can become as wealthy and successful as she has.

The twenty-two-year-old rose to fame after appearing on ITV’s reality dating show Love Island in 2019, and is now the creative director at fast-fashion brand Pretty Little Thing. She also boasts over 6m followers on Instagram, where she has gained a number of lucrative brand deals.

However, the influencer has come under fire this week after a YouTube interview surfaced showing her crediting this success solely to her ‘hard work’ and telling fans they can achieve anything if they simply work hard enough for it.

Molly-Mae, who works for a company accused of paying staff just £3.50 an hour, had appeared on an episode of the popular YouTube series The Diary of a CEO, back in December.

@mollymae / Instagram

Around half an hour into the interview, she discussed her work ethic and motivation, saying: “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.

“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 twenty-four 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.”

She then added: “And I’ll go to any length. I’ve worked my absolute a*se off to get where I am now.”

Social media users were quick to take issue with Molly-Mae’s comments after the clip started circulating again today, with many pointing out her blatant privilege and how out of touch she is with her millions of working class followers.

One person pondered: “Do you think the children of billionaires, attending private school & living in crime-free gated communities have the same odds at ‘making it’ as children who don’t?”

Another pointed out: “She literally just went on a TV dating show and got brand deals, I’m not sure she ‘worked her a*se off’”, while a third expressed how her ‘lack of self-awareness is crazy’.