The Love Island Rich List 2023 reveals surprise star earning the most – and it’s NOT Molly-Mae Hague
IT'S the Love Island final tomorrow – and while they may not all find true love, the biggest stars can go on to make a fortune from collabs, #ads and investments.
Which former Islanders have hit the jackpot?
Here are the top 15 biggest earners.
1. Tommy Fury, 24 - £8m
It’s been a double-jackpot year for Tommy.
In February, one month after becoming a dad, he banked at least £3.7m from winning his long-awaited boxing match in Saudi Arabia against YouTuber and pro-boxer Jake Paul.
The light-heavyweight is predicted to earn another £10m by 2025 through more big-name boxing matches, clothing endorsements and even suggestions of a movie career.
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Life’s been the stuff of Hollywood dreams for Tommy since he fell for Molly-Mae Hague during Love Island 2019.
The couple moved in together within a month of leaving the villa and the newly engaged couple share a £4.5m six-bedroom home in footballers’ favourite Cheshire.
Set in 5,000 sqft of gardens, the newly refurbished pad has a nursery for their baby daughter Bambi, which is reportedly worth £10,000, complete with a £460 cloud chandelier and £5,000 modern acrylic crib.
With a six-figure gig as an ambassador for Marks & Spencer Food, here’s hoping Tommy is spending at least some time in the kitchen – his ropey cooking skills in the villa would suggest he needs it!
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He’s definitely more of a natural in the world of fashion and fitness.
Although the style-setter’s one-year, six-figure deal with Boohoo Man is finished, he pulls in fees of at least £10k an Insta post to promote brands, including Fabletics Men, Young LA, L’Oréal Paris and Les Mills, to his 5.1m followers.
More lucrative are his longer-term ambassadorships.
Working with Swole AF Supplements netted Tommy in the region of £100k, then he pocketed five figures for starring in Diesel’s Only The Brave aftershave ads.
And TV is calling, too. In May, Tommy joined the Loose Men line-up, alongside returning host Vernon Kay, and there are rumours that a Netflix documentary is in the pipeline.
Plus, the news of his engagement to Molly-Mae will bring more lucrative deals roling in.
Tommy, your earnings are knock-out!
2. Molly-Mae Hague, 24 - £7.9m
In June, six months after welcoming daughter Bambi, her first child with fiance and No.1 on our Rich List, Tommy Fury, Molly-Mae stepped away from her seven-figure salary as creative director of Pretty Little Thing.
She has stayed with the fashion firm as a brand ambassador, though, which still nets a not-too-shabby six figures annually.
But it’s with her own brands that the bride-to-be is really raking it in. Her hugely successful fake-tan business, Filter By Molly-Mae, is one of her four limited companies, including MMH Group Holdings, which this year reported £1.26m in the bank.
Molly-Mae’s fan base – 7.5m on Instagram and 3.2m on TikTok – means she can rake in £30k per post and has accumulated around £500k since last summer, working with brands like Cosmetips, Elemis and Gym Shark.
Then there’s Molly’s ambassadorship with luxury hair giant Beauty Works, through which she sells her range of products and styling tools as part of a £1m-a-year deal. Interiors are a relatively recent new income stream.
Her @MollyMaison Insta account showcases the luxury Cheshire abode that she and Tommy splashed out on in April 2022 for £3.5m, which has since gone up in value by £1m.
They count the likes of footballers Marcus Rashford and Jordan Pickford as neighbours.
But it’s her status as a young mum-fluencer that will generate big bucks, with predictions of a babywear collection, a new spin-off TV show, podcasts, countless sponsored posts and deals, as well as a deal worth around six figures with iCandy pushchairs.
Plus, with a wedding to plan, which will generate millions more in deals over the next 12 months, this mama’s doing good!
3. Olivia Bowen, 29 - £7.8m
Love Island introduced Olivia to The One – she met hubby Alex (No.7 in our Rich List) in series two.
But she’s also made a fortune as one half of the show’s original golden couple.
The mum of one has swelled her wealth by more than £2m this year, largely through tons of brand deals.
She charges £5,400 per #ad post, thanks to a dedicated army of 3m Instagram followers, so has earned herself £500k, often tapping into her new role as a parenting influencer, after the birth of 13-month-old son Abel in June 2022.
As well as working with brands including Skin Republic, Avon, Coast and Primark, Olivia has scored £50k as a celebrity ambassador for Perky Pear boob tape.
In recent months, Olivia and Alex have made huge investments in their palatial five-bedroom Essex home, including adding an enormous extension, which increased its value by a cool £2m, taking it up to £4.2m, and attracted brand opportunities galore via their interiors-focused Instagram account @TheBowenHome (one of their six Insta feeds).
They bagged a five-figure deal with Glade UK, plus other endorsements for the likes of Amazon Freeview and Roku.
The power couple also earn £50k per year from two rental properties, including a three-bedroom semi-detached in Wolverhampton.
Oh, for a moment in the money-worry-free life of Mrs Bowen…
4. Megan Barton-Hanson, 29 - £6.7M
Sex-positive influencer Megan’s body is her business and it’s earning her over £1.5m a year.
A stripper and webcam model before joining Love Island in 2018, Megan charges her Only Fans subscribers £18.61 a month, and since last July, she’s totted up almost £12k in extra “tips”.
After Only Fans deducts its 20% cut of earnings, she takes home around £90k a month.
Last year, Megan’s MBH Productions Ltd reported £424,275 in cash and a tax payment of £266,007, equating to total annual earnings of around £1.5m.
The income includes Megan’s annual £250k fee as a Lelo sex-toy ambassador, and profits from her podcast You Come First.
She bagged another six figures from Wolf & Whistle lingerie, plus earns up to £5,000 a time for personal appearances.
She has collaborated with brands including Lovehoney and Shein, charging them at least £4k per sponsored social media post.
Megan’s now in talks about having her own TV show, while plans are afoot for work in America.
Perhaps her decision to put her £1m five-bedroom home in Southend, Essex, on the market hints at her doing her very own “Megxit”.
Global domination for 2024? Make it happen, Meg!
5. Dani Dyer, 26 - £5.8m
Four years after winning Love Island, Dani’s star status – and bank balance – continues to grow.
Accounts for her company, I Want It, I Got It, report a cash reserve of £346k. And after a three-year partnership with In The Style, which banked her £750k each year, plus 20% royalty fees, Dani’s on board with Matalan in a deal thought to be worth £500k.
She also brought home six figures this year as an ambassador for My Babiie, selling her signature Cherish range of baby products.
Dani, who has 3.7m Instagram followers, plus another half a million on TikTok, has endorsed just nine further brands, including Champneys for a reported £4,100 a post – totalling around £369k.
Recent TV deals have made her up to £100k richer.
As well as starring in this summer’s BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef, Dani and her EastEnders actor dad Danny recorded a four-part entertainment travel show, Absolutely Dyer: Danny And Dani Do Italy, for Channel 4, plus her own documentary, Is This Anxiety?.
Since moving in with her £80k-a-week West Ham United footballer boyfriend Jarrod Bowen, 26 – dad to their three-month-old twins Summer and Star – she’s rented out her five-bedroom £750k Essex pad for £3,150 a month.
She shoots, she scores…
6. Kem Cetinay, 27 - £4.8m
Since being crowned winner of the 2017 series with former flame Amber Davies (No.8 on our Rich List) and splitting the £50k cash prize, Kem has released a music single with pal and fellow Islander Chris Hughes.
He’s also appeared on Dancing On Ice, presented on This Morning, plus been a contestant on The Weakest Link, Celebrity Hunted and Celebrity MasterChef.
He co-presented the podcast Love Island: The Morning After with Arielle Free from 2018 until earlier this year.
Kem has been DJing for Capital UK, and was recently seen hosting for the radio giant on location at Wimbledon.
Although he’s no longer connected to the posh Essex British-Mediterranean fusion restaurant and bar he opened in July 2021,
Kem is absolutely raking it in from a rolling partnership with Primark Man, which earns him close to £500k annually.
It’s Kem’s fourth year in bed with the retailer, which has seen him launch his own grooming range, Kem Cuts, for £1m.
Now his sell-out fashion collections, released every season, are sold in 22 countries across the globe.
As for property, his £1.5m home in Brentwood, Essex, has seen an estimated £100k price hike over the past 12 months.
7. Alex Bowen, 31 - £4m
In his old job as a scaffolder, Alex’s top salary would have been £40k – a mere 1% of his current £4m wealth.
After meeting Olivia Buckland in series two, Alex secured a TV show, modelled for Boohoo Man and Hype, charged £5k for personal appearances, and worked for MTV as its Love Island correspondent.
Last year, he took home £15k by releasing an edit with fashion label Threadbare.
Alex has also pocketed £150k since last summer from DJ gigs.
His fitness app and coaching business bag around £100k, and he gets £75k a year from paid-for posts, including ones for Mazda and Primark.
JOINT 8. Amber Davies, 26 - £3.2m
When Amber left the villa on the arm of Kem Cetinay, she’d turned down a part in a West End production of Hairspray to chance finding love in the spotlight.
Now a leading theatre actress, her estimated £1.5m job in 9 To 5 The Musical preceded a 13-month stint as Marty McFly’s mum Lorraine in Back To The Future: The Musical, and she’s set to play the lead in Pretty Woman: The Musical in the West End later this year.
Amber signed a £500k deal with Motel Rocks, earned £50k from collabs with Boux Avenue, and was paid six figures for modelling Bluebella underwear.
She has since found love with Ben Joyce, her Marty-McFly-playing co-star.
JOINT 8. Maura Higgins, 32 - £3.2m
When it comes to riches, former hairdresser Maura is a snip above many other ex-Islanders.
Before appearing in the fifth series in 2019, she worked as a ring girl for pro boxers and was in the video for Liam Payne’s hit song, Get Low.
Now it’s Maura who’s the star, and after appearing in reality shows such as Dancing On Ice, Cooking With The Stars and This Morning, she’s set on cracking America – she’s currently the social ambassador for Love Island USA.
In May, Maura jetted to Los Angeles with her agent for meetings with US studios including NBC Universal, home of TV giants E! Entertainment, the creator of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and The Real Housewives franchises.
On the books of modelling agency Elite Model Management, Maura’s very mindful about building the right image.
In the past year, her Instagram has had only five endorsements – Mermade Hair, Youth To The People, Mars The Label, Cosmetips and Ann Summers, who she continues to work with as part of a £150k-a-year deal.
She’s rumoured to charge up to £30k a post – a sneeze short of the average UK annual salary for a few minutes’ work.
10. Millie Court, 25 - £2.9m
Former ASOS buyers’ assistant Millie is proof that career dreams really do come true.
Her stint in the villa in 2021 resulted in an eye-watering £1.4m gig as the global face of ASOS, launching with a Style Edit, then her own ASOS Design collection and three Puma campaigns.
Millie sticks to a £50k-minimum fee for brand deals requiring multiple posts, so since last summer she’s banked at least £200k from working with Tequila Rose, OPI Nails, Virgin Voyages and Google UK.
Six-figure sums have also come from partnering with online beauty royalty Revolution and hair giant Beauty Works.
Millie, from Essex, is now busy developing her own brand, into which she will likely be investing some of the £330,999 net assets from her company, Sagittarius Style.
Although finer details are top-secret, she’s previously hinted that the product she’s developing “will make a lot of sense”.
Of course, there’s another reason why we’re glued to Ms Court – to see how her recently revived romance with her Love Island ex Liam Reardon, 23, develops, following a nine-month break.
Could she be hitting the love jackpot after all?
11. Amber Gill, 25 - £2.7m
Series five winner Amber published her debut novel Until I Met You with Mills & Boon last year, earning her thousands of pounds.
Meanwhile, three years after signing a £1m year-long contract with Miss Pap, endorsement deals are still flooding in.
Within the last year, Amber has aligned with CeraVe, Matrix, Ren and Elemis.
She also banked up to £40k for competing in last September’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Amber’s company ARG Promotions Limited shows assets over £200k and climbing.
And, of course, we should expect more Mills & Boon books in the pipeline.
12. Wes Nelson, 25 - £2.1m
In the villa, Wes’ singing was never aired due to music licensing rules, but now there’s no hiding the former nuclear systems design engineer’s talent.
After a stint on The X Factor: Celebrity, he signed with Universal Music and became a platinum-selling artist with his debut single See Nobody.
He has since gone on to surpass 1 billion global streams. TV projects reflect Wes’ other interests, and Dancing On Ice, The X Factor, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and The Games boosted his worth by almost £200k.
Now living in London, Wes has wisely invested in property, boasting multiple mortgage-free houses.
13. Chris Hughes, 30 - £2.05m
In the four years following his Love Island stint, former model Chris has built a wealth of around £1.4m by working with brands including McDonald’s and Topman, which pay double figures for his social-media-stamp of approval.
Despite splitting from pro-golfer Annabel Dimmock last year, keen sportsman Chris has gone on to carve out a successful career in presenting, covering cricket for the BBC and racing for ITV – gigs that earned him six figures.
Paid-for posts advertising brands, such as Lucozade and House of Cavani, have this year made him around £100k richer, plus he’s set his sights on America after hiring a US agent and spending time with Doug Ellin, the Emmy-award-winning creator of HBO’s Entourage.
His company, Chris Hughes Associates Ltd, reported net assets of £918k for the year ending 2021, and last August Chris registered two new companies, Sunningdale 74 Limited and CWH Holdings Ltd.
A holding company deals specifically with assets, investments, and management, so it’s likely that Chris’ wealth is actually more than what’s currently listed publicly.
There’s no doubt that Chris is jockeying into position as one of Love Island’s wealthiest front-runners.
14. Olivia Attwood-Dack, 32 - £2m
She became a millionaire within two years of appearing on Love Island in 2017.
Olivia’s £200k fee for Celebs Go Dating in 2018 was a just reward for being TV gold.
Then, after joining TOWIE, she landed an eight-episode ITV reality series deal for Olivia Meets Her Match, with now-husband, Blackburn Rovers footballer Bradley Dack, 29.
The first series earned her around £350k, then she banked another six figures for series two, and the latest series, Olivia Marries Her Match – due to air in August – reportedly netted her £200K for just two episodes.
Last year, Olivia became the first Love Islander to appear on I’m A Celeb! and took home £125k for just 24 hours work, after having to leave the series due to ill health.
A plastic surgery series for ITV is netting her a further five-figure sum. Meanwhile, Olivia just launched her own designer-inspired collection with Abbott Lyon jewellery, worth £150K.
Apparently, she’s so investment-savvy, she does it on Bradley’s behalf, too. How’s that for a reality cheque?
15. Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, 28 £1.8m
While the sun may have set on Ekin-Su’s 11-month relationship with fellow 2022 series beau Davide Sanclimenti, 28, her future is bright, thanks to a stream of business ventures and lucrative partnerships.
First up came a reported £1m contract with fashion label Oh Polly, before Ekin-Su collaborated on limited-edition styling tools and hair-enhancing products with Beauty Works worth around £150k.
Soon after, she joined forces with BPerfect Cosmetics for a cool £500k, earning her comparisons to US cosmetics queen Kylie Jenner.
Brands including Kurt Geiger and Nutella pay the British-Turkish star around £10k for every affiliated social media post.
A telly travel show with then-boyfriend Davide, called Homecomings, also proved a nice little earner – though obviously there won’t be a second series.
The biggest coup of the year though has to be when Ekin-Su scooped the highest-ever fee for a Love Islander starring on Dancing On Ice – a cool six-figure sum.
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Ekin-Su is currently focusing on her acting career and is set to announce a huge book deal next, which is expected to rake in no less than £75,000. Davide who?
- Additional photography: Shutterstock Editorial