Molly-Mae Hague hits back over ‘tone deaf’ poverty comments

A UK influencer has faced a fierce backlash after making a surprising claim about the reasons for her Instagram success.

A UK influencer has been forced to defend herself after making “tone deaf” comments about her success.

Molly-Mae Hague, 22, is one of the UK’s most popular influencers — she rose to fame after appearing on the 2019 season of Love Island and has 6.2 million followers on Instagram.

Last year she was appointed Pretty Little Thing’s creative director, with her deal with the fast fashion brand said to pay her a salary of $946,405.

In December, she spoke about her success on the Diary of a CEO podcast, with comments she made about poverty and how “everyone has the same 24 hours” making headlines this week after they were widely circulated on social media.

Molly-Mae Hague is one of the UK’s most successful influencers. Picture: Instagram/Molly Mae Hague

‘If you want something enough, then you can achieve it’

“You’re given one life and it’s down to you what you do with it,” Ms Hague said, according to Sky News.

“When I’ve spoken about that in the past, I have 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 that we all have the same 24 hours in a day, it’s not correct.’”

Ms Hague acknowledged that while “we all have different backgrounds and we’re all raised in different ways and we do have different financial situation” she believes that “if you want something enough, you can achieve it”.

“It just depends to what lengths you want to go to get where you want to be in the future,” she said.

“And I’ll go to any lengths. I’ve worked my absolute a*** off to get where I am now.”

Molly’s comments have been savaged by people online. Picture: Instagram/Molly Mae Hague

‘Tone deaf’: Fans savage Molly’s success claim

On Twitter people have slammed Ms Hague’s comments, likening it to telling homeless people to “just buy a house”.

If you’re homeless just buy a house ❤️ pic.twitter.com/nRBVLBx8a9

— 🚩 (@tsrbys) January 5, 2022

I want Molly Mae to prove how posting on Instagram for a living is hard work, babe u try teaching 70+ year olds how to use self checkouts at M&S

— Taylor James (@taylorr_jamess) January 6, 2022

I respect Molly Mae for making the most of her opportunity & grabbing it with both hands, but I DESPAIR at the quote about everyone having the same time in a day as Beyoncé.The reality is that social inequality means there’ll never be an even playing field pic.twitter.com/U8hN2wJSAw

— Jess Davies (@_JessicaDavies) January 6, 2022

i like molly mae but a lot of the things she said in that podcast were so tone deaf

— geli (@skinnylilbih) January 6, 2022

No one:

Molly mae: pic.twitter.com/OIOtJ7QGv4

— T💫 (@livelaughcryxo) January 6, 2022

Ms Hague’s Wikipedia entry was even briefly edited to change her name to Molly-Mae Thatcher, in reference to conservative UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The entry said she was famous for “having worked harder than anyone less successful than her”.

Someone’s changed her name on Wikipedia to Molly mae thatcher hahahahah pic.twitter.com/cq3vC1HxeO

— Olivia Lavelle♏️ (@olivialavelle1) January 7, 2022

A spokesperson said her quotes were simply about her own experience. Picture: Instagram/Molly Mae Hague

‘These are absolutely not Molly’s words’

In response to the controversy Ms Hague has claimed her words were taken out of context and she is now having fake quotes attributed to her.

“If you listen to the full conversation and interview Molly was asked about how the nature of her potential grows and how she believes in herself,” a spokesperson for the influencer told The Sun.

“This part of the interview was discussing time efficiency relating to success. Molly refers to a quote which says, ‘We all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce.’ She was discussing her own experience and how she can resonate with this specific quote.”

The spokesperson claimed that Ms Hague’s comments that if you “want something enough you can work hard to achieve it” was about “her own life” and “personal circumstances”.

“Molly is not commenting on anyone else’s life or personal situation she can only speak of her own experience,” they said.

Her spokesperson now claimed Ms Hague was having quotes attributed to her which she had never said.

“Social media users have shared a short snippet from this interview with words such as ‘if you are homeless buy a house’ and ‘if you are poor be poor’ these are absolutely not Molly’s words, these are not Molly’s thoughts and this isn’t at all the meaning or thought behind that conversation,” they said.

Originally published as Molly-Mae Hague hits back over ‘tone deaf’ poverty comments