Shaughna Phillips and Maura Higgins weigh in on Molly-Mae Hague controversy
Shaughna Phillips and Maura Higgins have weighed in on the controversy surrounding fellow Love Islander Molly-Mae Hague over her comments about poverty and privilege.
Molly-Mae, who has become a wealthy influencer following her stint on the dating show, was branded "tone deaf" earlier this week after she said on a podcast that anyone can achieve anything if they simply work hard enough.
In the viral clip, taken from her appearance on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett podcast in December, she said that everyone "has the same 24 hours". Many criticised her for failing to acknowledge her privileged upbringing and the boost in popularity she received from Love Island.
Shaughna weighed in on the debate on Twitter on Thursday evening, stating that Molly-Mae, 22, lives in a bubble.
"Molly Mae is young, who's had a lot of success really quickly, and not a lot of 'life'. So I can understand why she holds those views. We all say things when we're younger and look back and think 'well that was stupid' lol (laugh out loud). No shade, I wanna live in her bubble," she wrote.
Maura, who starred alongside Molly-Mae in the 2019 edition of Love Island, came to her defence in the comments, writing, "Surely you know as someone in this industry how lonely and scary it can be when the whole internet is slamming you. Your (sic) entitled to your opinion yes but I'm really surprised you commenting on this at all."
Shaughna replied by insisting she was trying to defend the reality star: "She's young and successful, it's not her fault she has those views. Like I said, no shade, just jel (jealous) lol."
On the podcast, Molly-Mae said, "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. And I'll go to any lengths."
