Molly-Mae Hague has reflected on her 'negative start to the year' in her first Q&A since sparking a class row with her divisive podcast appearance.
While she didn't mention the backlash directly, the Love Island star, 22, said she "lost herself" and that she was "really, really upset" by what she went through.
Molly, who scored one of the top jobs at PrettyLittleThing after finding fame on the ITV dating show, was branded a 'Thatcherite' for her comments on poverty.
In an interview with Steven Bartlett, the host of Diary of an CEO, Molly-Mae said: "we all have the same 24 hours in a day", which sparked a debate on privilege.
The businesswoman, who hails from Hitchin in Hertfordshire took to her YouTube channel to catch up with fans.
One viewer asked Molly: "Has 2022 got off to a good start?"
Molly replied: "The reality is things don't always go the way you planned, and the start of the year definitely had different plans for me than I'd hoped, which is fine.
"But I definitely think that now things are started to get back on track. I definitely feel a lot more like myself."
She added: "The start of the year, it just was a bit of a jumble, a lot was going on and I definitely lost myself in the first few weeks and felt really disheartened that I had quite a negative start to the year.
"A very negative start to the year. I was really, really upset."
But Molly, who was branded "tone deaf" after the interview, has put the incident behind her and moved on.
She said: "I'm quite good at starting a new chapter, pushing things behind me and moving on.
"In this life if I dwelled on every bad thing that was said about me, or every negative comment that I receive, or everything that doesn't go the way I plan it to, I would probably never get out of bed!"
The damning podcast was released in December 2021 but didn't spark fury until a few weeks later in January 2022 when it was shared on Twitter.
The main part of the interview that really got under people's skin was where she said: “You’re given one life and it’s down to you what you do with it. You can literally go in any direction.
"When I’ve spoken about that in the past I have been slammed a little bit, with people saying 'it’s easy for you to say that because you’ve not grown up in poverty, so for you to sit there and say we all have the same 24 hours in a day is not correct.'
"But, technically, what I’m saying is correct. We do.
"So 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.
"I’ve worked my absolute a**e off to get where I am now."
Many took to social media to share their fury over her comments.
One tweeted: “She literally just went on a TV dating show and got brand deals, I’m not sure she 'worked here a**e off'".
"So funny that people have gassed her up so much that she feels comfortable to be able to say this," another remarked. "She’s always been well off and for her to say this is so tone deaf."
Another said: "Ngl I like Molly Mae but if you’ve never been in poverty you’ll never know how hard getting out of poverty is, it’s an endless cycle.
"Yes life is what you make of it but it also helps when you don’t need to stress about what you or your family are having for dinner."
