Molly-Mae Hague has spoken out to defend her controversial comments made on a recent podcast appearance after she was branded a ‘Thatcherite’ and criticised on social media for being “tone-deaf”.
The ex-Love Island star and influencer – who has millions of followers on social media – has come under fire in recent days after comments she made about privilege, poverty, and hard work during an appearance on ‘The Diary of a CEO’ podcast, which is hosted by businessman and entrepreneur, Steven Bartlett, who is most-known for being the co-founder of Manchester-based company Social Chain, and for being the newest Dragon on BBC’s Dragon’s Den.
Hague – who was most-recently appointed the Creative Director of Manchester-based fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing at just 22-years-old, and is reportedly paid £500,000 a year for her role – emphasised on the podcast that “we all have the same 24-hours”.
“You’re given one life, and it’s down to you what you do with it,” she said.
“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.’
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“And I’m like, but technically what I’m saying is correct.
“We do. So I understand that we all have different backgrounds and we’re all raised in different ways and we do have different financial situations, but I do think 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.
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“And I’ll go to any lengths. I’ve worked my absolute a*** off to get where I am now.”
Molly-Mae Hague has spoken out to defend controversial comments made on a recent podcast appearance / Credit: Instagram (@mollymae)
Hague’s comments have since generated much critique and conversation on social media.
While many people simply appeared to label her “tone-deaf” and brand her views as “gross”, other social media users took one step further and turned to calling a “Thatcherite” following, with one notably even calling her “Thatcher with a fake tan”.
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Away from social media, users of Wikipedia edited Hague’s entry to name her “Molly-Mae Thatcher”, changing part of her entry to say she is best known “for having worked harder than anyone less successful than her”.
Now, official representatives of Hague have exclusively revealed in a statement to The Metro today the star acknowledges “everyone is from different backgrounds”, but that her comments were about “time efficiency relating to success’ as well as ‘hard work and determination in her own life”.
The excerpt from statement read: “Molly did a podcast interview in December about her own rise to success. 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 – this part of the interview was discussing time efficiency relating to success.
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“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.
“Her opinion on if you want something enough you can work hard to achieve it is how she keeps determined with her own work to achieve more in her own life. Molly is not commenting on anyone else’s life or personal situation she can only speak of her own experience.
“She acknowledges that everyone is raised in different ways and from different backgrounds but her comments here are in reference to timing, hard work and determination in her own life.”
The statement continues: “If you listen to this interview you can see the whole conversation was about her own personal circumstances, how she has grown up and this small clip in the conversation was talking about a quote that inspires her.
“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.
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“These are not Molly’s thoughts, and this isn’t at all the meaning or thought behind that conversation.”
Podcast host Steven Bartlett has also this morning released a statement regarding the matter.
Taking to Twitter to share his thoughts, Bartlett said: “Molly-Mae did an interview on my podcast, yesterday a soundbite from that interview went viral, she trended No.1 on Twitter, every newspaper covered it and MP’s weighed in.
“I’ve had male guests say what she said. No one cared. But when Molly says it, she’s crucified? Crazy.
“I’ve become very aware of the double standard that successful women face.
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“If I Interview a man, he can brag about money, take full credit for his success and talk about his cars? If I interview a successful women, she’s got to tip toe around her success and watch her words?”
New Man United signing Andrey Santos reveals what Cole Palmer told him before transfer
Danny Jones
Manchester United new-boy Andrey Santos has revealed what local lad and former teammate Cole Palmer told him before he joined the club earlier this week – one of two midfielder signings they’ve already made this summer.
He and his fellow new arrival may not have been the transfer supporters were expecting, but with a cosign from ‘Cold’ Palmer, it’s fair to say fans can hope for big things.
The young Brazilian CDM, who arrives from Chelsea on a fee worth a reported £48 million, is purported to be a player with great potential.
With the ‘Seleção’ supposedly believing he could one day be a Casemiro successor, it seems only fitting that he replaces the footballing veteran in the middle of the park for Man United; and it looks as though the 22-year-old has been vouched for by a boyhood MUFC fan in Palmer, too.
🗣️ Andrey Santos on Manchester:
"Cole [Palmer] sent me a message because he was born here, he knows here, he said all the best for your career and a lot of things… So I'm so excited to be here in Manchester!"
As shared in his first media duties at the Carrington training complex, the ex-Strasbourg player and one-time Nottingham Forest loanee said that the Wythenshawe-born winger and attacking midfielder wished him nothing but the best on his move, noting his knowledge and lasting love for his hometown.
Palmer, himself still only 24, may have played for Manchester City, but he’s been a Red since he was a kid and confessed that he initially never wanted to leave the region.
Having also commented on Santos’ announcement post – simply writing, “What a player! Good luck bro” – leading plenty of people on social media to start speculating over whether the England international could also be convinced to make the move (back) up North.
The prospect seems to be fairly thin at spurious at present, but stranger things have happened.
It’s worth noting that Palmer struggled to be quite as his very best for Chelsea last season, not only missing out on game time due to injury problems but also struggling to lock down a guaranteed spot in the starting XI despite his obvious talent, especially given the extremely large and ‘bloated’ squad.
Not unlike Santos, you could say – though Palmer has obviously hit much bigger heights in the blue already in his career.
On the other hand, when asked about transfer rumours and the most recent round of links to his beloved Red Devils in a Guardian interview earlier this year, the Manc footballer admitted that while Manchester is still his home, he’s grown to enjoy life in the capital and can usually just “laugh it off”.
However, with the west London club looking at yet another overhaul under a new manager, you never know who could be deemed surplus to requirements, a good bargaining chip in the transfer market, or simply not as big a part of Xabi Alonso’s plans.
Meanwhile, United and the INEOS board have brought in the likes of Youri Tielemans elsewhere in the middle of the park, along with back-up goalkeeper Kyle Darlow so far in this window.
As for the Vasco de Gama youth graduate, you can hear more from Andrey Santos in his first full interview as a Manchester United player below.
Thomas Tuchel quote from early interview as England manager comes back to haunt him
Danny Jones
A quote from one of Thomas Tuchel’s first interviews as England boss looks to have come back to haunt him online after his squad limped out of the 2026 World Cup following their semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Ironic seems to be the word being thrown around the most…
The Three Lions fell at the penultimate hurdle against the genius of Lionel Messi and their old foes in ‘La Albiceleste’, despite grabbing the opening goal and looking the more dangerous on the counter-attack for large parts of the match.
Conversely, many have been quick to criticise Tuchel for his tactics and decision to go more defensive after taking the lead, not only sitting back but taking off some more advanced players who could have provided. Cue what some have called a “damning” clip rearing its head on social media…
👀🏴 Thomas Tuchel on England's Euro 2024 campaign: "They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it"
While it might still be a valid point in relation to why previous manager Gareth Southgate’s couldn’t cross the finish line not only at the last Euros but in Euro 2020 as well (the latter of which we also scored first in), it now feels rather hypocritical to many given how lots of fans believe he tried to see out the tie.
There’s plenty of fair comments about England’s style and gameplan(s)/lack thereof – even at times this past few weeks – but they nevertheless managed to make it yet another semi-final.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that this is the third time they’ve reached this point in the knockout stages across the previous quartet of major competitions, just for a little worthwhile perspective on how far the national team setup has come over the best part of the last decade.
And that’s not including a quarter-final finish in the 2019 Nations League, either.
Of course, we also made it through to the last four at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the team bowed out to a ruthless France side by arguably playing too open, but they still showed attacking intent and tried to win the game back then.
It’s that distinction in approach, it would seem, that has left the vast majority of supporters, pundits and English people who were watching on last night so frustrated, as much like his remarks above back in March 2025, it looked as though the idea was to sit back and hang on to their slim advantage.
As evidenced by the comment and numerous reposts, countless people couldn’t agree more with reporter Tim Vickery’s analysis of what went wrong, or rather what changed, which then led to letting Argentina gain the ascendancy and our downfall.
To put it into numbers, between the 67th and 92nd minute, the players had little more than 7% possession, with only a few touches in the opposition box; in fact, Harry Kane didn’t manage to receive the ball even once inside the penalty area.
Now THAT, we would agree, can be seen as ‘damning’ statistics and stuff to hear, especially when the German coach has already claimed that England have been guilty of being too scared to lose in big fixtures in the past. Here’s what he had to say this time around:
Do you agree with his post-match thoughts?
Credit where credit is due, he didn’t mince his words when it came to accountability and certainly hasn’t shied away from being brutally honest through this tournament.
You only have to look at his words after a narrow victory in the quarters against Norway – which star man Jude Bellingham took umbrage with last week – to know he takes responsibility and his own standards very seriously.
Who knows whether the issues came from the technical area, or the players themselves simply struggled to keep their confidence to stick to the task; all we know is we’re gutted not only with the result but by the manner in which we lost. What did you make of the
It might not come as any real consolation, but in case you missed the news, Lionel Scaloni’s side do look like they are due to be punished for a provocative, politically-charged statement after full-time.
Emily Sergeant -
7th January 2022 
