After Molly-Mae Hague’s shock Instagram announcement that her five-year relationship with Tommy Fury was over amid rumours of his infidelity, her eight million fans were so distraught that some said they were ‘actually sobbing’ over the death of the fairytale.

After all, they had followed all the ups and downs of the couple dubbed the ‘Charles and Diana of the Instagram generation’ ever since they first locked lips on the reality TV show Love Island in 2019.

Molly-Mae was spotted for the first time since the split last week

Which is an understandable request from any woman who has suffered the breakdown of what they believed would be a lifelong relationship. In similar circumstances, most of us curl up in a ball and cry over a bottle of wine with our girlfriends, which is why – from the outset – many of us women have been on Team Molly.

Amid widespread rumours that Tommy had been a serial cheater, her heartbroken fans have certainly rallied round. In their eyes, the die is cast: Molly was the victim, Tommy the guilty party.

But I have a niggling doubt. Aren’t calls for privacy a bit rich from a young woman who has invaded her own privacy for profit from the moment she had sex on camera with bad boy Tommy in the Love Island villa?

She added in her message: ‘I’ll be back when it feels right.’

Given she’s suffering heartache, I imagined we wouldn’t see or hear from Molly for ages. I was convinced she would retreat from the limelight and spend time at home with her 19-month-old daughter Bambi.

Hours before the couple announced their break-up, Tommy posted a picture to his Snapchat account of him feeding Bambi, an image the Mail later revealed had been taken months ago

Well, it turned out to be only a matter of hours before she was out and about again, snapped driving her £200,000 Mercedes to a quiet lunch at McDonald’s with friends. Her hair was scraped back in a ponytail, she wasn’t wearing a shred of make-up and she was looking very forlorn.

A couple of days later, she braved the outside world once again to drive to the local pub for lunch with her mother and friends.

As Molly of all people is well aware, at times such as these, she doesn’t need to post on Instagram to maintain her visibility. The mere act of leaving the house ensures that she will be photographed and her picture plastered all over the newspapers and social media – which is exactly what happened.

When you’re the 10th most popular influencer in the UK – which is what she is, according to one poll – you certainly know how to set the agenda. And that’s just what she did with those public appearances.

Tommy hasn’t taken all this lying down, of course. He vehemently denies the allegations of infidelity and is even threatening to sue over them.

He is also trying to win public sympathy. Shortly after Molly uploaded her announcement of their break-up on Instagram, he went on social media to share his utter bewilderment over the end of their relationship and his determination to care for ‘our child’.

Of course Tommy, worth an estimated £3million, has five million social media followers of his own to think about and needed to capitalise on the split. Hours before the couple announced their break-up, he had posted a picture to his Snapchat account of him feeding Bambi, an image that the Mail later revealed had been taken months ago.

Sources close to the apparently devoted dad say he was blindsided by the shock announcement and has vowed to win Molly back. Tommy was snapped this week walking in the park, tenderly holding Bambi in his muscular arms as he took her for an ice cream alongside his security guard.

The former couple with their 19-month-old daughter Bambi at a wedding this year

Wearing a tight T-shirt showing off his undeniably magnificent pecs, the boxer looked down in the dumps.

Sources say there had been cracks in the relationship for some time, yet on Instagram they maintained the story of the romance with an endless array of loved-up posts.

Alas, Tommy was spotted kissing a Danish girl on one of his many trips away for boxing training – and that was the last straw for Molly who had long suspected he was cheating on her.

In her 2022 autobiography, Molly wrote that her greatest fear was that their love affair would end, just as her parents’ had.

And earlier this year, she revealed on a vlog that she was struggling with endometriosis, a condition that causes pelvic pain.

‘My sex life became non-existent,’ she said. ‘It was just not a part of our relationship’, adding that she and Tommy ‘hadn’t been intimate for almost a year’ following the birth of her daughter.

The couple were dubbed the ‘Charles and Diana of the Instagram generation’ ever since they first locked lips on the reality TV show Love Island in 2019

M

In another video, she revealed that, when she was pregnant, her sex drive ‘went through the roof’ but Tommy’s didn’t. She said he found it ‘quite uncomfortable the thought that Bambi was in there… it was a bit weird.’

Which sounds like rather too much information for Molly to share. When she revealed to millions that they had no sex life, I did feel a shred of sympathy for Tommy. What man wants the world to hear that he has become as celibate as a Trappist monk. It was humiliating.

The trouble is that to attract and retain those millions of followers who make you so much money – £6million and counting in Molly’s case – you need to keep revealing more and more.

Was their relationship on the rocks for some time, with cash being the glue that held them together? Were they, Heaven forbid, faking it all for their followers?

All I can say for certain is that the Molly and Tommy show is not over. For the sake of their 13million online fans it will run and run. She portraying herself as the betrayed single mum, he as the remorseful, flawed but devoted dad fighting back desperately to save their little family.

And Tommy will certainly have to make some revisions to his forthcoming memoir Lightning Can Strike Twice. His publishers are reported to be in crisis talks after his split as it includes chapters on his romance with Molly-Mae.

We’ve already had Molly And Tommy, The Love Story, now we have Molly And Tommy, The Break-up Heartbreak. So will we get The Reconciliation, with many more instalments to come?

They will both earn millions more – while no doubt simultaneously pleading with us to respect their privacy.