Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague has said that she is "utterly heartbroken and shocked" after her new puppy Mr Chai died just six days after she took ownership of him.
The Pomeranian dog was a gift to Molly-Mae from her boyfriend Tommy Fury to celebrate her 21st birthday last week - although the couple received backlash online after it emerged that Mr Chai had been imported from Russia.
An Instagram account for the puppy amassed more than 150,000 followers in just a few days but taking to her own account today, Molly-Mae revealed tragic news of his sudden death.
"Tommy and I are utterly heartbroken and shocked to even be writing this. Our beautiful new puppy Mr Chai was taken ill in the last few days and tragically has passed away," she wrote. "Chai became our whole world in the short time we had him and we couldn't have take any better care of him. We loved him so much and he brought us so much happiness than we can describe.
"We are really hoping that we can get some clearer answers in the coming days whilst we wait for details and more information from the veterinary experts.
"Myself and Tommy are completely in shock and truly devastated. In a world currently full of tragedy and loss, we understand there are far greater issues than this, we just need to share this information in order to start the process of trying to accept and over come this awful situation.
"We are asking for some time and respect so that we can come to terms with this immense sadness and loss of our beautiful puppy."
Tommy and Molly-Mae got together on last summer's series of the ITV2 reality show.
