Love Island couple Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury have uploaded a teary video to social media following the death of their puppy Mr Chai earlier this week.
The Pomeranian - a gift from Tommy to celebrate his girlfriend's 21st birthday - died suddenly just six days after coming into their care from a breeder who imported him from Russia.
The couple have been subjected to an online backlash after the details of Mr Chai's acquisition became public knowledge but hit back at their critics in a new YouTube video.
"People that are saying we bought him for Instagram likes, please stop saying that," said a visibly-upset Molly-Mae. "Our lives are on social media, my full-time job is to show you guys what I'm doing. If I didn't have Instagram, he wouldn't be on Instagram.
"We're not asking for any kind of sympathy. What's happened is awful. I'm asking you to understand that the dog travelling from Russia is not the reason he died.
"For the first two days he was absolutely fine. From two days in, we started to pick up on a few things so we took him to the vet. I could tell something wasn't right. The vet rang up and said Chai had a seizure and he died."
Molly-Mae added that Tommy "literally threw up everywhere" when he heard the news.
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