Archive September 11, 2025

Former Love Islander Molly-Mae Hague has received backlash after taking home the National Television Award for best authored documentary this year, despite her doubts

Molly-Mae Hague’s fans have jumped to her defence after some have criticised the former Love Islander for winning the award for best authored documentary at the National Television Awards.

The reality TV star was up against tough competition, including Strictly’s Amy Dowden, who was nominated for a documentary about her battle with cancer, Freddie Flintoff’s documentary following his near-fatal crash on Top Gear, and a film on Rob Burrow’s journey with motor neurone disease.

Some felt Molly-Mae’s documentary – which focused on building her brand, raising her daughter and her relationship with Tommy Fury – was underserving of the win. Taking to social media, some called the win an “absolute joke”, a “slap in the face” and emblematic of “everything wrong with this country”.

But her fans also jumped online to defend her, highlighting that she had no influence over the result. “It’s not her fault,” one wrote online.

Another continued to point out that she won “because we, as the public, voted” and another praised Molly-Mae for the way she handled the win.

“The poor girl can’t win lately,” they wrote. “ITV should have separated the categories, but the public voted and she won because of that.

“I thought she handled it with such grace, even dedicating her award to Rob and his family, which was really admirable.”

During her speech, Molly-Mae said Rob’s story was “far more inspirational” than her’s, and that just to be nominated was “an honour”.

“Just to be nominated for this award was such an honour,” she shared. “I think as you guys saw, we were up against some seriously inspirational people in this category.

“To Lindsay, Rob Burrow’s wife and his children, his story was far more inspirational than mine could ever be. It was just incredible and touched me in more ways than I can explain. This one’s for you Rob, and to the other inspirational people in this category.”

Vernon Kay, who has two daughters with Strictly Come Dancing’s Tess Daly, didn’t hold back on his views during a live exchange with his BBC Radio 2 co-star Jeremy Vine

Vernon Kay told his BBC Radio 2 co-star Jeremy Vine not to get him “angry”, as the pair discussed a recent report about children doing chores. Jeremy brought attention to the study from ParentKind, which found that less than half of UK children help with housework at home.

After presenting the statistics, Jeremy pondered whether “the whole point of childhood is that you don’t do them,” before asking Vernon: “Isn’t that true?”.

In response, the husband of Strictly Come Dancing’s Tess Daly light-heartedly replied: “Don’t make me angry Jeremy. You won’t like me when I’m angry.”

Not stopping there, Jeremy went on to say: “It’s a horrible world out there, do you need to throw in, ‘Tidy your bedroom?'”

Expressing his views, Vernon passionately replied: “Yeah! How do you learn?”.

“How do you learn responsibility for yourself? You can’t learn responsibility for yourself until the age of 16.”

Provoking further debate, Jeremy made things personal by asking Vernon: “But what if one day your children said to you, ‘I had a great childhood, except I kept being asked to wash up?'”

Vernon responded: “Doesn’t bother me! That means mummy and daddy have taught you hard work.

“It starts at the sink, washing up, get involved, stacking up the dishwasher if that’s your equivalent these days, siding the table, you know, that kind of stuff. Going down the pit, that was the old school equivalent, some of our parents were working at 16.”

Jeremy proceeded to enquire whether Vernon would permit his daughters to take up chimney sweeping, to which he said no, due to their lack of skills for such work.

Chuckling, he continued: “I would love for you to meet my eldest Phoebe and get her to explain to you Jeremy Vine why she’s not going up the chimney.”

He proceeded to declare: “Chores are good for you, they really are!

“I mean, we all hated doing chores but in hindsight they’re good for you, I did all of that.”

Amused by his enthusiastic stance on the matter, Jeremy carried on: “It’s always the last story that gets you, isn’t it.”

“It really is, well it’s you that gets me, I love it,” Vernon responded, laughing.

The presenter has two daughters Phoebe, 20, and Amber, 16, with his wife of 22 years, Tess Daly.

Previously speaking about their parenting approach, he revealed that he and Tess “alternate the roles” of “good cop, bad cop”.

He told The Mirror: “We’ve not pushed them in a certain direction to continue their education or whatever. It’s totally up to them.

The Princess of Wales has travelled to Suffolk to visit a silk mill, celebrating the British textiles industry, which comes as Prince Harry rounds off his trip to the UK

The Princess of Wales has stepped out for a series of visits with a special family connection – just as Prince Harry prepares to leave the UK.

Kate, who made a surprise appearance alongside the Prince of Wales on the third anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Monday, is taking a tour of the Sudbury Silk Mills in Suffolk before later stopping by at Marina Mill in Cuxton, Kent.

The outing comes as Kate’s estranged brother-in-law rounds off his latest trip to the UK with a visit to the Diana Award – just hours after he had a long-awaited reunion with his father the King at Clarence House last night.

READ MORE: King Charles suffers major blow ahead of historic Donald Trump state visitREAD MORE: Prince Harry’s telling response when quizzed about King as hopes of reconciliation grow

Kensington Palace said the princess’s visit would “celebrate the unique skill, creativity and craftsmanship of British textile manufacturers” and the “joy found in working in the creative industries”.

It said Kate has “long been passionate about the importance of the British textiles industry and its role as part of the UK’s cultural and creative voice”. Kate’s paternal ancestors were the owners of the woollen manufacturer and merchant William Lupton & Co, which was based in Leeds.

At Sudbury Silk Mills, a family-run jacquard weaving mill, she will see the looms, before heading to Marina Mill, also a family business, which specialises in hand-designing and screen-printing furnishing fabrics.

Kate will get the chance to take part in screen-printing a design on fabric by pushing coloured dyes through an engraved silk-screen using a squeegee.

The outings for Kate come as she is expected to play a huge role when US President Donald Trump comes to the UK next week for his unprecedented second state visit.

William and Kate have been tasked with the initial royal meeting of Mr and Mrs Trump on the morning of September 17 in the grounds of the Windsor estate, when they will accompany them to meet the King and Queen for an open-air greeting.

The Trumps, the King, Camilla, William and Kate will then take part in a carriage procession through the estate to the castle.

Kate will also carry out a joint engagement with the First Lady the next day when they head to Frogmore Gardens to meet Chief Scout Dwayne Fields and members of the Scouts’ Squirrels programme as they learn about nature to achieve their Go Wild badge.

Mr Trump appeared taken with heir to the throne William after they met in Paris in December, declaring that the prince was “very handsome” and adding “some people look better in person”.

It is likely, but not confirmed, that both the prince, along with the princess, who announced at the start of the year that she was in remission from cancer, will attend the opulent state banquet for Mr Trump on Wednesday evening in the castle’s St George’s Hall.