EXCLUSIVE'I knew Molly-Mae was the one straight away. But it was the calm before the storm...' After bombshell Mail interview where TOMMY FURY answered cheating claims, he now reveals truth about start of their love affair

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In an exclusive interview in yesterday’s Daily Mail, boxer Tommy Fury denied claims that his high-profile romance with influencer Molly-Mae Hague had ended because he had cheated on her. 

Today, in the emotionally charged first extract from his memoir, he describes their first meeting in the Love Island hot tub and how the big mouth of his brother Tyson meant it nearly didn’t happen. 

Tommy meets Molly-Mae on Love Island in a hot tub

I knew I had made the right decision to go on Love Island. The villa was stunning, the weather was incredible and I was meeting some great people. I will be happy if I can spend a few days here, I thought. I just wanted to be myself, have fun and clock up a new experience before I got back to my day job as a professional boxer. If

my luck stretched to several weeks, then the job’s a good ’un!

Four days after the start of the show, we were all sitting around the firepit when my Love Island phone bleeped.

‘Got a text!’ I shouted. It read: ‘Tommy, the public have decided you should go on a date with me. I am waiting for you in the hot tub on the hideaway terrace. Get your swimwear on and come and join me, lots of love, Molly-Mae x.’

Everyone jumped around, yelling at the top of their voices. I was ecstatic. The viewers had voted for me to go on a date with the new girl, Molly-Mae Hague. I was so excited to meet her before the others did. I put on the tightest pair of black trunks I could find and some of the guys walked me to the door that led on to the terrace.

Before I went through, I dropped down and did close to 100 press-ups. I kid you not. Veins out, chest like breasts. I was filled with adrenalin, like I was about to get in the boxing ring.

I walked on to the terrace, looked in the corner, saw Molly in the hot tub and thought, Oh my God. Yes. I had never seen anyone who was more my type. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was as if the show’s production team had waved a magic wand just for me. Molly was nervous, as it was her first appearance on the show. She invited me to join her in the hot tub. As I stepped in, I made a joke about falling into the water.

She reached out her arm saying, ‘Come to me’ and we had an awkward kiss hello on the cheek before I scooted to the opposite corner of the tub.

I did the worst flirting ever. Molly said my ‘ocean’ eyes were amazing and I said, ‘Likewise, you are amazing’. It’s one thing being filmed flirting but another when your stomach is doing flips because it turns out you really like the person.

We discovered the first thing we had in common was we were both 20, with May birthdays. And then that we lived in Manchester – Molly had moved there a few months before. I was astounded that she had been right there, and I didn’t know it.

We hit it off instantly and the conversation flowed. Molly told me she was a social media influencer but had worked in a gym before that, so there was yet more connection. I lost the little cool I had left and told her she was my ideal woman. In what was probably a cringey screen moment, I gave her a flower and we toasted each other with a glass of fizz. There was something about that meeting that felt important, but I couldn’t explain it.

I asked her what her first impressions were of me, to which she replied that I was chatty.

She knew I was smitten. I said on camera straight afterwards that she went through my heart, did a 360 spin and then came back through my head. I was intrigued to get to know her more. ‘She’s the one,’ I said to my fellow contestant Michael Griffiths. ‘She’s amazing. I don’t want anyone else.’

And this was after just one 20-minute conversation.

None of it would ever have happened if it hadn’t been for a cancelled boxing match.

It was the summer of 2018 and I was preparing for my first professional fight. It was to be at the Manchester Arena in front of thousands of people, as well as on TNT Box Office pay-per-view and live on BT Sport. This was a big deal and a huge opportunity.

As part of the build-up, I was to be interviewed for TV alongside my friend and mentor Ricky Hatton. A former world champion, he ran the gym in Hyde, near Manchester, where I trained every day with my dad John, my uncle Peter, my older brothers Tyson, Shane and Roman and my cousin Hughie. The idea was to film me hitting the pads while Ricky was interviewed about my progress. He was asked about me coming from a boxing family, and Ricky came back with a hilarious response.

With Molly on the show’s final night

‘He doesn’t look like Hughie,’ said Ricky. ‘He doesn’t look like Tyson. He looks like he has just come off Love Island.’

After the interview, we laughed about it. But the name stuck – even the big, scary boxers at the gym called me ‘Mr Love Island’. A few weeks later, after a training session, I was in the shower. The gym receptionist popped her head around the changing room door and shouted that, if I was in there, could I make it quick. She had ITV on the phone, and they wanted me to call them straight back.

What on earth was this all about? I returned the call and spoke to someone in production who said they had seen the Ricky interview. ‘We think you would be a perfect fit for the next series of Love Island,’ the voice said. I was speechless. They wanted to know if I had watched it and I said I hadn’t, so they told me to catch the highlights and let them know what I thought. I looked it up on YouTube and immediately knew it wasn’t for me. There just seemed to be loads of pretty lads trying to flirt with loads of pretty girls while being constantly filmed, and some of them were even trying to get their leg over on camera. Imagine what my mum and nana would say!

I called them back and said thanks, but no thanks. I was starting my boxing career and had my first professional fight in a few weeks and I needed to focus. I was a boxer, not a reality TV contestant.

‘Let us know if you change your mind,’ they said. Thanks, I thought, but I won’t. To many people, that offer from ITV must have sounded like one you couldn’t refuse. But at 19 years old, I was far from your typical teenager.

I had spent all my time for years in the gym, so I didn’t have the sort of life you would expect for a young lad. I may have gone out with my mates on special occasions, but boxing came first and, if I did go out, I would always be back on the road, out running by 6am the following morning.

Yet I don’t feel that I missed out. My amazing brother Tyson, who has won multiple heavyweight world titles, always says if you want something, you must make sacrifices, and that’s what I did. I am the youngest in a long line of Fury fighting men. I won my first amateur fight at just 15, while I was still at school, and all through my teenage years I never took a day off. Drinking, parties, girlfriends and schoolwork took a back seat. All my attention was on my dream of becoming a champion.

At 21,000 seats, the Manchester Arena then had the biggest indoor capacity in the UK and, as we walked past the ring on the way in, there were strobe lights flashing everywhere. This was it – my chance to begin my professional career. As I warmed up and got a sweat on in my changing room there was a knock on the door and the two-minute call was given, like I was a rock star or an actor.

I got my robe on, put my hood up, looked at myself in the mirror and said a little prayer before joining the rest of my team for a group prayer. My dad led it, as he still does to this day.

My religious beliefs come from my nana, although my whole family talk to God and Jesus in their own ways. I used to go to St Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church round the corner from the house where I grew up in Salford, and was baptised and confirmed there. So my faith has always been a significant part of my life. I pray before every fight and, after every fight, I thank Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I don’t believe any of this would be possible without Him looking over me.

I walked up the ramp to Womack & Womack’s 1988 hit Teardrops. I chose that song for mum because she always used to play it and loved it, so it felt like a little message to her. She rarely came to my fights because she couldn’t bear seeing me hit in the face. I wanted her to know I was thinking of her. That fight was amazing. I won all four rounds. When my arm was raised and I was declared the winner, I felt incredible. It was a dream come true.

In that moment, I thought I could do anything; I was invincible. Aside from having my daughter and being a father and partner, it is the best feeling. Nothing else compares to that moment, when everything you have worked for has paid off. It is probably why so many boxers find it hard to call it a day: to say goodbye to that adrenalin rush is almost impossible. It becomes an addiction.

I won my second fight, in Leicester in March 2019, in just 40 seconds, and my third was scheduled for that summer. But while I was training hard, it was cancelled.

The rest of the year was stretching out without a specific point to aim for and I really needed a break. But I didn’t have any money for a holiday. Love Island suddenly popped back into my head. Perhaps it was fate that the fight was cancelled and this might be an opportunity I shouldn’t miss?

I called ITV, told them what had happened and asked if I was too late to put myself forward. Luckily, they were still keen to have me. Within a few days I was travelling first class by train to London, a place I had never been to on my own, in a carriage I wouldn’t have been able to afford. I went to ITV and met the producers, directors and managers, and everything was signed and sealed.

Before I left for Love Island, I had to keep it quiet, they said. I told my family they must not tell anyone because I would lose my place. Cut to me, in the gym one day, scrolling on my phone to see Tyson doing an ESPN interview.

‘Big shout out to my brother, Tommy!’ said Tyson. ‘He’s going on a TV show called Love Island. He’s a good-looking young kid and I think he’s going to be a hit with the ladies on it. He clearly doesn’t look like me, because I look like an ogre!’ My heart sank. I thought, that’s it. It’s all over. I kissed the thought of a sunshine mini break in Majorca goodbye. The next day ITV called me to say they had seen the interview and not to worry. Maybe it fell into the category of all publicity is good.

When I walked into the villa and on to camera for the first time a few days later it felt like all the girls were looking at me as if they were supposed to recognise me as someone famous.

I thought, if you only knew how much of a nobody I really am.

The days passed and Molly and I grew closer as we found out more about each other. I knew I was beginning to fall in love with her, but I wasn’t sure how much she liked me.

There had been a recoupling, where one contestant chooses another to be their partner, on the night we met, and thankfully she had picked me. She was exactly the type of girl I would have dreamed about – beautiful on the inside as well as the outside, funny and smart. It felt like I was going out with a supermodel.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. I think she was the only one who I argued with in the villa. We had a massive row about our heads being turned by other people and I felt Molly had been keeping her options open. She was upset and said she found it hard to talk about her feelings, but hoped spending more time together would make me trust our relationship. Social media picked up on this.

There were comments about whether Molly was really into me, saying she was only with me because I was popular and she had her eyes on the money. I wasn’t interested in what other people had to say. I am a pretty good judge of character and I was the one in the house with her, so I knew how she felt about me.

We didn’t fake it. We had integrity about ourselves and our relationship. Our fledgling love was being tested all the time and we survived everything the programme and our own insecurities threw at us.

We had such a great connection and brought out the best in each other. I wasn’t sure what I had done to deserve her. Two weeks into the show we had our first kiss, which was eventful because we were in a hall and the camera wasn’t on us. It just felt right to do it, so I kissed her and I didn’t think about whether we were being filmed or not.

I just went for it, much to the frustration of the production team, who wanted to capture the special moment and asked me to do it again. I thought, I am not doing it again just so you can film it, I will do it when it feels right. But I also understood what they wanted so I took an opportunity when we were chatting and leaned in. Everyone saw us and started clapping, and that was it. We were together.

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EXCLUSIVE

Revealed: Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury's cosy nights at her £4m mansion

At one point the producers threw a spanner in the works. In each series they select either the girls or the boys to spend some time in Casa Amor, a different villa where new contestants join them and endeavour to form new relationships. It’s a big old rollercoaster of emotions and Molly and I were about to experience it: she was off to Casa Amor.

I hated being separated from her. It was just a few days, but I knew my feelings for her were way more powerful than I could control.

On the night of the original girls’ return to the villa, I waited to find out if Molly would walk back in on her own or with a new partner. She returned alone and broke down in tears when she saw me standing there, also on my own.

She had thought I was with someone else because her cuddly toy elephant, Elly Belly, wasn’t on the bed. But I was clutching it, and we were waiting for her.

Being apart for that time had made us realise how much we cared about each other. Molly revealed she could be falling in love with me, and I said I had already fallen for her.

We had passed the Love Island test and we still adored each other. On our last date on the show, I walked into an incredible private dining room with Molly on my arm. She looked movie-star fabulous in a floor-length yellow dress.

I hadn’t expected this to happen. I really didn’t think I would come out of the show with a girlfriend. I’d assumed nobody would be interested because I didn’t think I was a great catch. I didn’t party much, I didn’t go out drinking, I trained most of the time and my job was to hit people.

We talked about what was next, her watching me box, me seeing her in her element and the possibility of living together.

Molly called me her Prince Charming and I whirled her around the dance floor. If I could have bottled that night, I would have done.

Coming second in the final to Amber and Greg was better than I had ever hoped for, and while we may not have won the prize money, we had each other and the memories of a perfect summer.

Little did we know, it was the calm before the storm. When we got off the plane at Stansted, it was like we were The Beatles.

The airport was filled with thousands of people, media and news crews. People were trying to reach us, climbing over railings, chanting our names and asking for autographs.

Before Love Island I was a boxer, with an overdraft, living at home in Salford with my family. I thought the show would be a free holiday, a laugh and a way to fill some time that had become available.

Suddenly I had money, offers of work, an unbelievable social media following and a girlfriend. Overnight I had turned into a sort of celebrity – and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

• Adapted from Lightning Can Strike Twice by Tommy Fury (Sphere, £25), published on October 10. © Tommy Fury 2024. To order a copy for £22.50 (offer valid to 19/10/24; UK P&P free on orders over £25) go to www.mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.