Latest / Outspoken the Podcast / The Epic Rebrand
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
- 0:07Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
- 0:11Speaker 1: Sophie Torver and coming up on today's show, Ashy Bynes
- 0:14Speaker 1: relaunches her podcast as her former bestie spills the tea.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Heidi and Spencer Pratt's careers rise from the ashes and
- 0:22Speaker 1: Abby Chatfield's shock name revelation. But first, Matt Sikowsky has
- 0:27Speaker 1: dropped some juicy details about his honeymoon with Tammy Hembrough
- 0:30Speaker 1: in Lapland. After wowing their followers with stunning vision of
- 0:34Speaker 1: the Northern Lights on their TikToks back in December, Matt
- 0:37Speaker 1: took things a step further on his podcast by revealing
- 0:41Speaker 1: what actually happened during their once in a lifetime experience. Kate,
- 0:44Speaker 1: can you tell us more? It was definitely a case
- 0:46Speaker 1: of TMI. So Matt revealed that he and Tammy had
- 0:49Speaker 1: sex under the Northern Lights. So on the first night
- 0:53Speaker 1: of their honeymoon, after traveling for over 24 hours, The
- 0:56Speaker 1: couple got a wake-up call from their tour company at
- 0:58Speaker 1: around 10pm letting them know that the northern lights were visible.
- 1:02Speaker 1: So they quickly got dressed and they followed the lights
- 1:04Speaker 1: around and they stopped to take photos in the middle
- 1:06Speaker 1: of a frozen lake and other scenic spots. And it's
- 1:09Speaker 1: quite funny because Matt said that Tammy started punching the
- 1:11Speaker 1: lake to make sure that it was frozen and it
- 1:13Speaker 1: really freaked him out. Anyway, so the couple ended up
- 1:17Speaker 1: returning back to their hotel in the early hours of
- 1:19Speaker 1: the morning where Matt says they ticked something off their
- 1:22Speaker 1: bucket list. Let's throw to what he said. We came
- 1:25Speaker 1: back to the resort and we went into the spa
- 1:28Speaker 1: at like 2.30am and we literally watched the Northern Lights
- 1:32Speaker 1: dancing above us. Dancing? Yeah, made love under the Northern
- 1:36Speaker 1: Lights in the spa. That's a bucket list one there.
- 1:39Speaker 1: It's just too much. On your honeymoon, give us a break.
- 1:42Speaker 1: So that's a bucket list thing. It's the only making
- 1:44Speaker 1: love part we want to hear about. Yeah, so under
- 1:46Speaker 1: the Northern Lights, that's a... cool thing to do. That's
- 1:50Speaker 1: a pretty good way to consummate the marriage, I'd say.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Yeah, it was cute.
- 1:53Speaker 3: Yeah, it was nice.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I feel like Anna said what we were all thinking,
- 1:58Speaker 1: that it was a bit too much information. I think
- 2:00Speaker 1: Matt thought that it was okay because it was his honeymoon.
- 2:03Speaker 1: And that's what's expected on a honeymoon. I wonder how
- 2:05Speaker 1: Tammy feels about him sharing that personal story. Has it
- 2:08Speaker 1: made the Daily Mail yet? That's what I want to know.
- 2:10Speaker 1: I don't think anyone really listens to his podcast except us. Now,
- 2:13Speaker 1: another thing that surprised me about their honeymoon was just
- 2:15Speaker 1: how little daylight there was in Lapland. So apparently the
- 2:19Speaker 1: sun rose at around 10 a.m. each day and set
- 2:22Speaker 1: by 2 p.m. So by 3 p.m. it was pitch black.
- 2:26Speaker 1: I know we were questioning whether the honeymoon was sponsored.
- 2:29Speaker 1: This doesn't sell Lapland as a location for me, particularly
- 2:32Speaker 1: for a honeymoon. The fact that there's such limited hours
- 2:34Speaker 1: when it's light. Yeah, well, they did pack a lot
- 2:36Speaker 1: into the hours that they did have. So they went
- 2:38Speaker 1: for reindeer and husky rides. They also rode on snowmobiles.
- 2:42Speaker 1: They did horse riding and also went to a Finnish sauna.
- 2:45Speaker 1: It's funny though, because apparently it affected Tammy's body clock
- 2:48Speaker 1: a lot more than Matt. So she would be sound
- 2:50Speaker 1: asleep by 6 p.m. So how they would structure their
- 2:52Speaker 1: day is they would normally wake up at 5 a.m.,
- 2:55Speaker 1: and have a sauna. And then they'd go and put
- 2:56Speaker 1: on a Christmas movie and play Christmas music. They even
- 2:59Speaker 1: had a Christmas tree. So it was very Christmas centric,
- 3:02Speaker 1: this honeymoon. I heard that Tammy's face almost got frostbite. Yes,
- 3:06Speaker 1: it did. So apparently they were, I think it was
- 3:08Speaker 1: on the snowmobiles and Tammy's face was uncovered, but Matt
- 3:11Speaker 1: was actually wearing a full face balaclava. It's like, mate,
- 3:13Speaker 1: you should have lent it to her. I wonder if
- 3:15Speaker 1: Matt was able to adapt to the weather better because
- 3:18Speaker 1: he's from Melbourne and Tammy's from the Gold Coast. Apparently
- 3:20Speaker 1: he wore the wrong socks. He wore bamboo socks when
- 3:22Speaker 1: you have to wear thick woolen socks. So He did
- 3:25Speaker 1: feel it a little bit. I was surprised to hear
- 3:27Speaker 1: that they ate bear and reindeer, particularly when this is
- 3:30Speaker 1: at Christmas time. How could you eat Rudolph? I wasn't
- 3:32Speaker 1: shocked about the reindeer because I've heard that that is
- 3:35Speaker 1: all that is on the menu over there.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Really?
- 3:37Speaker 1: Because what I found particularly unusual was how the bear
- 3:40Speaker 1: was served. So they had it on pizza and it
- 3:42Speaker 1: was bear salami with blue cheese. And Matt even ended
- 3:46Speaker 1: up taking home a can of bear meat. How did
- 3:49Speaker 1: that get through customs? That's what I was thinking. And
- 3:51Speaker 1: he and his stepson, Wolf, tried it on camera. And
- 3:55Speaker 1: there were a lot of Finnish people in the comments saying,
- 3:57Speaker 1: I've never heard of anyone eating bear here, which is,
- 3:59Speaker 1: that seems to happen when people go overseas. Well, people
- 4:01Speaker 1: get shocked when they come to Australia and they hear
- 4:03Speaker 1: that we eat kangaroo. Being vegetarian, I find it hard
- 4:06Speaker 1: to get my head around people eating kangaroo. It seems
- 4:09Speaker 1: clear to me that Matt and Anna now have a
- 4:10Speaker 1: producer involved in their podcast because this new episode seemed
- 4:14Speaker 1: a little bit different to what they normally put out
- 4:17Speaker 1: because it seemed quite obvious that they'd been tasked with
- 4:20Speaker 1: talking about how Christmas can be quite difficult for couples. However,
- 4:25Speaker 1: Matt didn't really want to elaborate on anything to do
- 4:28Speaker 1: with the topic. So Anna was like, oh, you know,
- 4:30Speaker 1: we always see these perfect Christmas and New Year's on Instagram,
- 4:34Speaker 1: but The reality is that a lot of couples fight
- 4:36Speaker 1: over that period. Matt, did you have any fights? And
- 4:38Speaker 1: he's like, no, we didn't. You could tell he had
- 4:40Speaker 1: been instructed by Tammy to be like, don't say anything
- 4:43Speaker 1: about any of our arguments. Yeah, he'd be pretty stupid
- 4:45Speaker 1: to actually divulge any of their arguments. He said, oh,
- 4:47Speaker 1: nothing out of the ordinary. So it sounded like they
- 4:51Speaker 1: had a very quiet Christmas and New Year's. I mean,
- 4:53Speaker 1: he did pop back to Melbourne to visit his family,
- 4:56Speaker 1: I think on Christmas Eve, but then caught a night
- 4:58Speaker 1: flight back so that he could be part of the festivities.
- 5:01Speaker 1: It was a little bit of a last minute decision, though.
- 5:03Speaker 1: He said he was getting FOMO. Yeah. He seemed to
- 5:05Speaker 1: be handing out a bit of parental advice also to
- 5:07Speaker 1: Anna McAvoy because we found out over the weekend that
- 5:10Speaker 1: she is expecting a baby boy. So she did a
- 5:12Speaker 1: gender reveal on her Instagram and they did a segment
- 5:15Speaker 1: on their word of the year, which they said that
- 5:17Speaker 1: they copied from Mamma Mia. It wasn't quite the same.
- 5:20Speaker 1: And basically part of her year is that she wants
- 5:23Speaker 1: to go traveling with a newborn. And Matt was like,
- 5:27Speaker 1: I don't think you're going to be doing much traveling.
- 5:29Speaker 1: It's like you can't even go traveling with kids up
- 5:31Speaker 1: to 10 years of age. It's difficult. I did have
- 5:34Speaker 1: a laugh when I was listening to the podcast in
- 5:35Speaker 1: the car about that because, I mean, you only know
- 5:38Speaker 1: what you know. And I'm not trying to be that
- 5:39Speaker 1: person that's like, oh, just wait. Oh, my God. That
- 5:42Speaker 1: is your word to Amy and I all the time.
- 5:45Speaker 1: And it is annoying as someone who is pregnant. A
- 5:47Speaker 1: TikTok popped up the other day and they're like, the
- 5:49Speaker 1: worst thing you can say to a pregnant woman is
- 5:50Speaker 1: just wait. See, I was talking about that with one
- 5:53Speaker 1: of my friends who's just had a baby as well.
- 5:54Speaker 1: We said we hated it when people did it to us,
- 5:56Speaker 1: but now being on the other side of it, we
- 5:58Speaker 1: can see why. It just comes across as so smug though,
- 6:00Speaker 1: because you need to let people learn on their own
- 6:02Speaker 1: like let them be a bit delusional let anna travel
- 6:05Speaker 1: overseas with her some people do yeah there's been a
- 6:08Speaker 1: few influences or podcasters i know victoria divine took her
- 6:11Speaker 1: baby to europe yeah she had no trouble and michelle
- 6:13Speaker 1: battersby we were talking about last week how she traveled
- 6:15Speaker 1: with her six month old son she got an upgrade
- 6:17Speaker 1: yeah i mean maybe you're doing it wrong.
- 6:20Speaker 4: I cannot believe some of the that has been spun
- 6:23Speaker 4: and the lengths that people will go to to just
- 6:25Speaker 4: act like everything is rainbows and sunshines it's like why.
- 6:31Speaker 1: Ashi Bynes has relaunched her self-improvement podcast two months after
- 6:35Speaker 1: her co-host Kiara Darrow left under controversial circumstances. Ashi is
- 6:41Speaker 1: back with a new podcast co-host who also happens to
- 6:44Speaker 1: be her new bestie. Kiara proved, though, she's not going
- 6:48Speaker 1: to go away quietly, dropping some juicy details about the
- 6:51Speaker 1: friendship breakdown on YouTube. Now, before we get into it,
- 6:54Speaker 1: can you refresh our memory, Sophie, on what went down? Well,
- 6:57Speaker 1: Ashi and Kiara hosted the Grow and Glow podcast together
- 7:00Speaker 1: for around two years before they decided to pull the pin.
- 7:04Speaker 1: And it was clear that something major was going on
- 7:06Speaker 1: behind the scenes because the timing was really off. They
- 7:09Speaker 1: were set to release a new product, but on the
- 7:11Speaker 1: day of the launch, they said that something suddenly came up,
- 7:14Speaker 1: very Marsha Brady, and the product was delayed. The pair
- 7:18Speaker 1: then unfollowed each other on social media and released an
- 7:21Speaker 1: episode announcing Kiara's departure on the show. Now, Kiara claimed
- 7:25Speaker 1: she was leaving to focus on her family, but it
- 7:28Speaker 1: was clear there was more to it after she made
- 7:30Speaker 1: a bunch of not-so-subtle digs at Ashi on social media. Now,
- 7:35Speaker 1: Ashi went out swinging, saying she was shocked by Kiara's behavior,
- 7:38Speaker 1: and Kiara then pulled the ace card, organizing a dinner
- 7:42Speaker 1: date with all of Ashi's ex-best friends. It's been a
- 7:45Speaker 1: lot of fun seeing this all go down on social media.
- 7:48Speaker 1: And in the new year, Ashi rebranded the podcast with
- 7:50Speaker 1: a new co-host. So to add insult to injury, the
- 7:54Speaker 1: show is appearing in the same feed that Grow and
- 7:56Speaker 1: Glow did. And also the social media channels are the same.
- 7:59Speaker 1: They've just been rebranded. So the new podcast is called
- 8:03Speaker 1: She Rises, which seems to be a bit of a
- 8:05Speaker 1: pot shot at Kiara. Now, apparently it took Ashi and
- 8:09Speaker 1: her new co-host days to brainstorm the name. They even
- 8:13Speaker 1: went on to chat GPT to see what they thought. Well,
- 8:16Speaker 1: it's always useful. I feel like everyone does that, even
- 8:18Speaker 1: if they're in marketing now. I mean, while Ashley is
- 8:21Speaker 1: calling it a rebrand, it really is just the same
- 8:23Speaker 1: self-improvement style of content with a new label slapped on it.
- 8:27Speaker 1: So the first episode dropped last week and they're releasing
- 8:30Speaker 1: three episodes a week. So on Fridays, they're doing something
- 8:33Speaker 1: a little bit different. They're calling it Freaky Friday. And
- 8:37Speaker 1: it just seems to be a rip off of Life
- 8:39Speaker 1: Uncut segment where they read out really unfiltered things. To
- 8:42Speaker 1: be fair, every podcast has an element where they copy something.
- 8:46Speaker 1: I mean, from radio shows. I mean, there's so many
- 8:48Speaker 1: podcasts now. It's really hard to be completely original. It's inspiration,
- 8:52Speaker 1: isn't it? Yeah. Whatever I call it in marketing now.
- 8:54Speaker 1: It's clearly a good format. And if Ashley is going
- 8:57Speaker 1: to divulge personal things about her life, I think it
- 8:59Speaker 1: could be a bit of a winner. So who is
- 9:01Speaker 1: the new co-host? Her name is Tiana and funnily enough,
- 9:05Speaker 1: she's not only the co-host, but Ashley's new best friend.
- 9:08Speaker 1: So she's a life coach who has around 29,000 followers
- 9:11Speaker 1: on Instagram. I'm sorry, that has made me not want
- 9:14Speaker 1: to tune in to listen to a life coach. I
- 9:16Speaker 1: can just imagine what the content is going to be like. Well,
- 9:18Speaker 1: that's why I took one for the team and I
- 9:19Speaker 1: listened to the 45 minute episode. I did have it
- 9:21Speaker 1: on fast forward, but the pair actually met at the
- 9:24Speaker 1: gym around six months ago and they immediately clicked, which
- 9:28Speaker 1: Seems quite similar to the story that Ashi and Kiara
- 9:32Speaker 1: used to tell about their friendship. So apparently they really
- 9:35Speaker 1: bonded over the fact that they were both going through
- 9:37Speaker 1: relationship breakdown. So for Ashi, it was with Kiara and
- 9:41Speaker 1: for Tiana, it was with her boyfriend. It was really
- 9:43Speaker 1: clear to me listening to the podcast that Ashi is
- 9:46Speaker 1: very keen to change the image that's out there at
- 9:49Speaker 1: the moment about her being a really bad friend because
- 9:51Speaker 1: there was a lot of talk from Tiana's side of things,
- 9:54Speaker 1: what a great friend Ashley is. And also Ashley kept
- 9:57Speaker 1: dropping that she has had the same group of girlfriends
- 10:00Speaker 1: for 20 years. Yeah, because didn't Ashley put up a
- 10:02Speaker 1: post where she was out socializing with all of her
- 10:04Speaker 1: school friends? And that came after Kiara uploaded the post
- 10:08Speaker 1: where she was out with all of Ashley's ex-best friends.
- 10:11Speaker 1: I can really see why. Because it's not really the
- 10:14Speaker 1: best image to be painted in that you can't keep friendships.
- 10:16Speaker 1: It's a bit of damage control for her. I'm seeing
- 10:19Speaker 1: a few red flags. So the fact that Tiana and
- 10:21Speaker 1: Ashley have only been friends for six months now, I
- 10:23Speaker 1: don't know if I would be diving into a business
- 10:26Speaker 1: with someone I barely know. What is clear though, is
- 10:29Speaker 1: there's probably been a written up arrangement. This is Ashley's
- 10:32Speaker 1: podcast at the end of the day. She's giving Tiana
- 10:34Speaker 1: an opportunity to grow her social media following and to
- 10:37Speaker 1: get her name out there. She knows she has to
- 10:40Speaker 1: play the co-host role. That became very clear in this
- 10:42Speaker 1: first episode because they were discussing what to expect this
- 10:45Speaker 1: coming year from the podcast and the need for the rebrand.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And not only have they increased the number of episodes
- 10:50Speaker 1: that they're releasing a week, but they talked about how
- 10:53Speaker 1: they're planning a national tour and that they're also holding
- 10:56Speaker 1: what they call these intimate events where they're going to invite, say,
- 10:59Speaker 1: 20 people to come to this very unique event that
- 11:03Speaker 1: will never happen again. Like each one of these small
- 11:05Speaker 1: events are going to be so different from each other.
- 11:08Speaker 1: And they're also going to be releasing their own online course.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Of course. And to me, it seemed like they were
- 11:14Speaker 1: getting a lot of inspiration from Georgie Stevenson because she's
- 11:17Speaker 1: got a podcast called Rise and Conquer. So the names
- 11:19Speaker 1: are quite similar and she has a very successful online course.
- 11:22Speaker 1: So I think Ashley's looking at this and thinking this
- 11:25Speaker 1: is a really good money-making scheme. I think it's normal
- 11:27Speaker 1: to take inspiration from other podcasters, particularly Someone like Georgie Stevenson,
- 11:31Speaker 1: who's been very successful by launching all of her courses.
- 11:35Speaker 1: I also think it comes down to the fact that
- 11:37Speaker 1: a new co-host is a life coach and a lot
- 11:39Speaker 1: of life coaches launch courses as well. Just had a
- 11:41Speaker 1: bit of those MLM vibes to me. And it was
- 11:44Speaker 1: quite funny because they kept referencing the uniform that they
- 11:48Speaker 1: now wear on the podcast. So before when it was
- 11:50Speaker 1: Ashi and Kiara, they used to wear like dress up
- 11:53Speaker 1: a bit and wear suit jackets and try and look
- 11:56Speaker 1: a bit corporate. Whereas now they've gone for the tact
- 11:58Speaker 1: of call her daddy and they're wearing branded tracksuits. But
- 12:01Speaker 1: they were kind of talking about it as if it
- 12:03Speaker 1: was this new wacky idea. And I'm like, it's just
- 12:06Speaker 1: what Alex Cooper does. I love that Kiara chose the
- 12:09Speaker 1: week of the podcast rebrand to share her own juicy
- 12:12Speaker 1: Q & A where she answered a lot of follower questions.
- 12:15Speaker 1: And of course, most of them had to do with
- 12:17Speaker 1: the fallout with Ashi. It's funny because a lot of
- 12:20Speaker 1: people have been talking about how she's allegedly been slapped
- 12:22Speaker 1: with a gag order, but it seems like she's a
- 12:25Speaker 1: lot more confident to share what happened. Well, to begin with,
- 12:28Speaker 1: Kiara spoke in code a little bit about how much
- 12:31Speaker 1: better she's feeling now that she doesn't have as much
- 12:33Speaker 1: pressure on her. So she said the pressure made her
- 12:36Speaker 1: have raging anxiety. And when asked what her biggest lesson
- 12:39Speaker 1: of the year was, she said this.
- 12:42Speaker 4: Don't underestimate what people will do. with malicious intent. That's
- 12:47Speaker 4: all I have to say. Don't underestimate. Yeah. And that
- 12:53Speaker 4: if you feel like you can't be yourself around people,
- 12:55Speaker 4: then they're not your people. And yeah, just listen to
- 13:00Speaker 4: your gut.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Like I know I've said that, but far out.
- 13:03Speaker 4: Like I knew my body showed me signs.
- 13:08Speaker 1: The image that Kiara is painting of Ashi is in
- 13:11Speaker 1: complete contrast to what Ashi is trying to paint of herself.
- 13:14Speaker 1: And it's funny because I actually watched Kiara's YouTube Q &
- 13:16Speaker 1: A before listening to the podcast and I just kept
- 13:19Speaker 1: laughing because it seems like Ashi is so keen to
- 13:22Speaker 1: push this image of herself that again, might not be
- 13:25Speaker 1: the person that she is behind the scenes. Then again,
- 13:28Speaker 1: there's two sides to every story as well. Of course,
- 13:30Speaker 1: someone you have a bust up with, you're going to
- 13:32Speaker 1: not paint in a very nice light. I enjoyed how
- 13:34Speaker 1: pointed the answers got as they went along because Kiara
- 13:38Speaker 1: revealed that she felt like she was very much on
- 13:40Speaker 1: a high horse when she was on the Grow and
- 13:42Speaker 1: Glow podcast. But she said this caused her to lose
- 13:45Speaker 1: a lot of her followers. Yeah, I noticed a lot
- 13:47Speaker 1: of people in the YouTube comments said, oh, I've actually
- 13:50Speaker 1: only started refollowing you after you left Ashley Barnes' podcast
- 13:53Speaker 1: and I unfollowed you because you were on it. So
- 13:56Speaker 1: it's quite interesting the detrimental impact that pairing had on Kiara. Yeah, well,
- 14:01Speaker 1: she even labeled her friendship with Ashley as being full on.
- 14:03Speaker 1: And for Kiara, the podcast was meant to be this
- 14:06Speaker 1: fun side project. But she said that Ashley took it
- 14:09Speaker 1: way more seriously. This is what she said.
- 14:12Speaker 4: What really went down? Do you miss the friendship? Well,
- 14:16Speaker 4: I'm just going to answer that second question there. What
- 14:18Speaker 4: really went down? Probably more than you would think. Yeah,
- 14:23Speaker 4: they got very, very nasty at the end. Yeah. I
- 14:29Speaker 4: feel like, you know, obviously we're going through a lot
- 14:32Speaker 4: of stuff with Miller and as soon as I started
- 14:34Speaker 4: to take a step back, I'd quit and I said, like,
- 14:36Speaker 4: I'm done.
- 14:37Speaker 1: Like, I want to focus on my family.
- 14:39Speaker 4: Like, yeah, things just started to hit the fan and...
- 14:42Speaker 4: I decided from that moment onwards, like, I'm not putting
- 14:45Speaker 4: work before my family and I'm not caring what other
- 14:48Speaker 4: people think or who I let down or who I
- 14:49Speaker 4: upset because, like, my kids need me.
- 14:52Speaker 1: My favourite bit of the Q & A was when
- 14:55Speaker 1: Kiara's husband, Kurt, came in. He had just got out
- 14:58Speaker 1: of the shower and he gave it to Ashi's husband, Steve.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Let's throw to what he said.
- 15:03Speaker 4: I hope the kids are well and are you still
- 15:07Speaker 4: friends with Ashi? Absolutely not.
- 15:10Speaker 2: Who's that girl?
- 15:11Speaker 4: I don't know. Yeah, no, not friends with Ashy and
- 15:14Speaker 4: definitely not step friends with Steve either.
- 15:16Speaker 1: Oh, Steve's such a bloke.
- 15:19Speaker 4: If only you guys could read the text messages between
- 15:21Speaker 4: Kurt and him. Oh, there were some pretty ruthless things.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Just ask me, I'll tell it.
- 15:27Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 15:29Speaker 1: Don't you love when the husbands just say it how
- 15:31Speaker 1: it is?
- 15:33Speaker 3: When your house burns down, you have nothing. Your parents'
- 15:36Speaker 3: house burns down and they have nothing. There's only one
- 15:39Speaker 3: thing that could maybe make you feel better. A bag
- 15:42Speaker 3: of bagels. Obviously, I'm in shock and my brain's not functioning.
- 15:47Speaker 3: So I think this is the most unhinged post you've seen.
- 15:53Speaker 1: Over the last week, the world has watched on in
- 15:55Speaker 1: horror as wildfires have ripped through L.A. At the time
- 15:59Speaker 1: of recording, 16 people have lost their lives and more
- 16:02Speaker 1: than 5,000 homes have been destroyed. The wildfires have not discriminated,
- 16:07Speaker 1: decimating the multi-million dollar homes of celebrities including Paris Hilton,
- 16:12Speaker 1: Adam Brody and reality stars Heidi and Spencer Pratt. Now,
- 16:15Speaker 1: one of the biggest pop culture stories to come out
- 16:17Speaker 1: of the fires has been the shock career resurrection of
- 16:20Speaker 1: Heidi and Spencer, who have managed to turn their devastation
- 16:24Speaker 1: into success. Yeah, I can safely say that one thing
- 16:27Speaker 1: I didn't have on my bingo card for this year
- 16:29Speaker 1: was Heidi Montag's 2010 album Superficial, being number one on
- 16:33Speaker 1: the iTunes charts in the US, Canada and Australia. I've
- 16:37Speaker 1: actually had her single Body Language on a Spotify playlist
- 16:40Speaker 1: for years now. So I feel ahead of the time.
- 16:43Speaker 1: It's very nostalgic hearing her old songs. I mean, it
- 16:45Speaker 1: is super techno. Like, I mean, it's barely her voice
- 16:49Speaker 1: at this stage. It's a fucking banger though. Did she
- 16:51Speaker 1: perform at the Victoria's Secret runway show years ago? Yeah,
- 16:55Speaker 1: I think that would have been in 2010. And we'll
- 16:57Speaker 1: explain in more detail how this is charted so highly.
- 17:00Speaker 1: But for those Gen Zers wondering who the hell are
- 17:02Speaker 1: Heidi and Spencer Pratt? Or Spidey. Yeah, Spidey as they're
- 17:06Speaker 1: better known. They are from a hit reality show called
- 17:09Speaker 1: The Hills and this was loved by millennials all around
- 17:12Speaker 1: the world. You were either Team Heidi or Team Lauren.
- 17:14Speaker 1: I was on Team Lauren at the time. There's a
- 17:17Speaker 1: lot of people coming out of the woodwork saying, I
- 17:19Speaker 1: think we watched the show wrong. Yeah, that's because a
- 17:21Speaker 1: lot of people despised Spencer. He was painted as the
- 17:25Speaker 1: villain on The Hills for perceivably breaking up Lauren and
- 17:28Speaker 1: Heidi's friendship. And it's quite clear from some of his
- 17:31Speaker 1: recent TikToks that he still dislikes Lauren or Elsie as
- 17:35Speaker 1: he likes to refer to her. But I think people
- 17:37Speaker 1: are realising that he has a great sense of humour
- 17:40Speaker 1: and he's a bit of a showman. But that's the
- 17:42Speaker 1: confusing thing because Spencer has spoken a lot about how
- 17:45Speaker 1: the Hills was fake and he and Heidi were actually
- 17:47Speaker 1: told to have all these fights and their relationship was
- 17:51Speaker 1: actually really good behind the scenes and it was all
- 17:53Speaker 1: for show. But then he really hates Lauren. Yeah, but
- 17:56Speaker 1: I think that's part of his sense of humour is
- 17:58Speaker 1: And it's amazing that he's been able to go from
- 18:01Speaker 1: being one of the most hated villains on reality TV
- 18:05Speaker 1: to in 2025, being so well loved. Like we are
- 18:08Speaker 1: seeing celebrities getting behind Heidi and Spencer. And this is
- 18:11Speaker 1: because he has been documenting his experience with the Palisades fires.
- 18:15Speaker 1: So Heidi and Spencer were one of the first celebrity
- 18:18Speaker 1: couples to open up about losing their home online. Well,
- 18:22Speaker 1: they were pretty much live streaming when it was happening.
- 18:24Speaker 1: They're were very dramatic pictures that they were sharing across TikTok.
- 18:28Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that they were still there at the
- 18:30Speaker 1: time to film it. It looked like a wall of
- 18:32Speaker 1: fire coming for their house. Well, Spencer actually shared CCTV
- 18:37Speaker 1: vision on TikTok taken from inside his home and it
- 18:40Speaker 1: showed the fire ripping through his two small son's rooms.
- 18:44Speaker 1: And since then, a number of his videos have amassed
- 18:47Speaker 1: millions and millions of views, including this video of Spencer
- 18:51Speaker 1: showing his followers what was left of their home.
- 18:54Speaker 3: Not sure we're going to be able to wash anything
- 18:57Speaker 3: in this setup anymore. Any clothes in there?
- 19:02Speaker 2: No.
- 19:03Speaker 3: Definitely will keep that fountain.
- 19:06Speaker 2: There is a bread maker.
- 19:08Speaker 1: It's exciting. It was really fascinating to see him go
- 19:14Speaker 1: back and see the random objects that had made it somehow.
- 19:18Speaker 1: It was like a rubber snake. I was like, I'm
- 19:19Speaker 1: sure they're thrilled that that lasted.
- 19:21Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 19:21Speaker 1: And like they had their swing, their kids swing sets. Oh,
- 19:24Speaker 1: the hummingbird pot as well.
- 19:25Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 19:26Speaker 1: But, He is known, well, he has a crystal business.
- 19:29Speaker 1: It was called Pratt Daddy Crystals. And he was so
- 19:32Speaker 1: upset because his crystals didn't make it. He had spent
- 19:35Speaker 1: so much money. They had been shattered. They were just everywhere.
- 19:38Speaker 1: I know a lot of people were really invested in
- 19:40Speaker 1: whether the big prints of Heidi and Spencer that would
- 19:43Speaker 1: feature in a lot of their TikToks had made it
- 19:45Speaker 1: and they did not. They didn't manage to get them out.
- 19:46Speaker 1: I mean, they were huge. I can see why. Well,
- 19:48Speaker 1: Heidi said that she only left the house mainly with
- 19:51Speaker 1: clothes for her children and two pairs of jeans. And
- 19:53Speaker 1: she's like, I just didn't even know what to take.
- 19:55Speaker 1: The only clothes that Spencer took with him, a Heidi
- 19:58Speaker 1: Montag merch and also his Taylor Swift merchandise, because he
- 20:02Speaker 1: is a massive Taylor Swift fan. He really got into
- 20:06Speaker 1: Taylor Swift when she dropped her Reputation album and he
- 20:09Speaker 1: was one of the only big celebrities to pump up
- 20:12Speaker 1: her album whilst a lot of them turned their backs
- 20:14Speaker 1: on her. I mean, I think he hates the Kardashians
- 20:16Speaker 1: because he was famously friends with Brodie Jenner on the heels.
- 20:20Speaker 1: And Brodie is the stepbrother of Kim Kardashian and they
- 20:22Speaker 1: had a massive falling out. My favorite TikTok he has
- 20:25Speaker 1: released so far is when he was celebrating hitting a
- 20:29Speaker 1: million followers on TikTok. So It's quite ironic. Since his
- 20:33Speaker 1: house has burnt down, he has gained over 665,000 followers
- 20:38Speaker 1: on TikTok. So he's cracked that milestone that he's wanted
- 20:41Speaker 1: for so long. This is what he said about it.
- 20:45Speaker 2: Cheers.
- 20:46Speaker 3: Thank you to a million followers on TikTok. Who would
- 20:49Speaker 3: have thought all I needed is our house to burn
- 20:51Speaker 3: down to finally hit a million. Can't believe I didn't
- 20:55Speaker 3: think of that sooner.
- 20:58Speaker 1: Now, he entitled that video Dark Humor, and I think
- 21:01Speaker 1: that this is why he's becoming so popular, because everybody
- 21:04Speaker 1: is loving his jokes. And at the time of recording,
- 21:07Speaker 1: that video has been viewed nearly 7 million times. His
- 21:10Speaker 1: TikTok follower count now sits at 1.6 million. It reminds
- 21:15Speaker 1: me a lot of when Liam Payne's girlfriend, Kate Cassidy,
- 21:18Speaker 1: hit that one million mark on TikTok after he died. Yeah,
- 21:22Speaker 1: it is tragic when it's in circumstances like this that
- 21:24Speaker 1: someone's career really takes off. It's something that they've been
- 21:26Speaker 1: wanting for so long, but you don't really want to
- 21:28Speaker 1: celebrate it. Yeah, well, what's been so fascinating is watching
- 21:31Speaker 1: how clever Spencer has been at directing all of this
- 21:35Speaker 1: sudden attention. So in a TikTok live with Perez Hilton,
- 21:38Speaker 1: Heidi and Spencer revealed their insurance company dropped them just
- 21:42Speaker 1: weeks before the fire's Let's have a listen to what
- 21:44Speaker 1: they said.
- 21:46Speaker 2: I want to sue farmers. They knew this was going
- 21:48Speaker 2: to happen. And we paid for nine years with farmers.
- 21:56Speaker 2: So all that money was for nothing. They didn't drop us.
- 21:58Speaker 2: Maybe they don't renew you. After the Malibu fires, they
- 22:02Speaker 2: didn't renew anyone in the Palisades.
- 22:05Speaker 1: Sadly, this has been the case for so many people
- 22:08Speaker 1: caught up in these wildfires. I just cannot believe it. See,
- 22:11Speaker 1: I didn't know that they had been dropped by their insurer.
- 22:14Speaker 1: And suddenly I saw this GoFundMe page pop up because
- 22:17Speaker 1: the couple were sharing it on their own Instagram. And
- 22:20Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that's not going to be a
- 22:22Speaker 1: good look because there's been a lot of conversations around
- 22:26Speaker 1: the fact that there's so much attention into these celebrities'
- 22:29Speaker 1: houses burning down and Should we feel sorry for them
- 22:32Speaker 1: because they're rich? I mean, I totally disagree with that rhetoric.
- 22:35Speaker 1: Of course we should have empathy for people who have
- 22:38Speaker 1: lost their houses. I mean, yes, they have a lot
- 22:40Speaker 1: of money, but a lot of money within those houses. Yeah,
- 22:43Speaker 1: but it's not even just losing their houses. They have
- 22:45Speaker 1: lost photos and memories. Yeah, I saw Paris Hilton talking
- 22:50Speaker 1: about the fact that she no longer has the house
- 22:52Speaker 1: that her son shared his first steps in and all
- 22:54Speaker 1: those sorts of things. And I think we need to
- 22:56Speaker 1: look at this as people and actually look You know,
- 22:59Speaker 1: they're just normal people like us. Yes, they've got money.
- 23:02Speaker 1: But also a lot of these celebrities and just everyday people,
- 23:06Speaker 1: as we touched on, they don't have insurance. So they
- 23:09Speaker 1: are left with absolutely nothing and have to rebuild. Well,
- 23:12Speaker 1: this GoFundMe account, it was actually set up by Heidi
- 23:14Speaker 1: and Spencer's friend, and they put a goal of raising $ 150, 000.
- 23:19Speaker 1: At the time of recording, it has already raised $ 95, 000,
- 23:23Speaker 1: which as you said, Kate, this is massive when you
- 23:26Speaker 1: think about all the rhetoric going on about celebrities and
- 23:29Speaker 1: how entitled they are. And it shows you how clever
- 23:32Speaker 1: they have been at remarketing themselves. Let's have a listen
- 23:36Speaker 1: to Heidi and Spencer fighting back against the criticism in
- 23:39Speaker 1: this interview with Perez Hilton.
- 23:40Speaker 2: So crazy.
- 23:42Speaker 5: Cause when people are like, Oh, you guys are rich
- 23:44Speaker 5: and famous. Like everything we've ever made is in that house.
- 23:48Speaker 5: We're not on a TV show. Our podcast got canceled.
- 23:52Speaker 5: Like we're, we were just already struggling to have like
- 23:55Speaker 5: a income and then to have everything we had in
- 23:59Speaker 5: that house not to mention like our kids like paintings
- 24:03Speaker 5: and drawings and photos.
- 24:04Speaker 1: Of people like their camera banks you know it's just
- 24:09Speaker 1: like it's so sad You.
- 24:11Speaker 2: Know, my favorite thing about this experience, though, the rebranding
- 24:15Speaker 2: for like the last 15 years, all I've seen on
- 24:17Speaker 2: social media is I was a broke, washed up celebrity
- 24:20Speaker 2: or like dealers. Now I'm a rich celebrity that who cares?
- 24:27Speaker 2: So the good news is hopefully my Google changes and
- 24:31Speaker 2: it's like rich celebrity with lots of money.
- 24:33Speaker 1: I agree with what they're saying here. I mean, neither
- 24:37Speaker 1: Heidi or Spencer before this incident were at the peak
- 24:39Speaker 1: of their fame. they made a lot of their fortune
- 24:42Speaker 1: off the back of a reality show that aired in
- 24:44Speaker 1: the 2010s. And since then, they have been desperately trying
- 24:47Speaker 1: to get any attention, whether it's through Heidi's new music
- 24:50Speaker 1: or his Pratt Daddy crystals. I mean, these aren't people
- 24:54Speaker 1: that have a huge amount of money sitting in the bank. Well,
- 24:57Speaker 1: they said that their podcast has been cancelled. And now
- 24:59Speaker 1: the only way they can really make money is through
- 25:02Speaker 1: either TikTok, which they've been doing a lot of live
- 25:04Speaker 1: streams and people have been donating money. And then Spencer
- 25:07Speaker 1: came up with the great idea of Let's get Heidi's
- 25:10Speaker 1: songs back in the charts. If you stream them, we
- 25:13Speaker 1: make money. And this is exactly what has happened. As
- 25:16Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, Heidi's songs have gone number one. Yeah,
- 25:20Speaker 1: even Emrata was backing them. So she posted a TikTok
- 25:23Speaker 1: with Heidi's song playing saying, didn't expect this Heidi Montag
- 25:26Speaker 1: song to be the soundtrack to the 2025 apocalypse. But
- 25:29Speaker 1: you know what? Fuck yeah. Well, some fans were asking Spencer, oh,
- 25:33Speaker 1: should we start watching The Hills? Like, do you get
- 25:35Speaker 1: royalties from that? And he's like, that is the worst
- 25:37Speaker 1: thing that you could do. He even took a swipe
- 25:39Speaker 1: at Lauren Conrad again, saying he doesn't want fans to
- 25:42Speaker 1: give up a single brain cell listening to the narrator.
- 25:45Speaker 1: Do you think this is short-lived attention or do you
- 25:47Speaker 1: think that Heidi and Spencer are going to be able
- 25:49Speaker 1: to leapfrog from this? Well, I think they might be
- 25:51Speaker 1: able to leapfrog because there's currently calls for them to
- 25:54Speaker 1: have their own reality show. So fans are saying they
- 25:56Speaker 1: want to see them rebuilding their lives after the fires.
- 26:00Speaker 1: And Spencer revealed on Sunday that his management has a
- 26:03Speaker 1: meeting with Hulu this week. So he has asked all
- 26:06Speaker 1: of his followers to spam the Hulu social media accounts
- 26:09Speaker 1: calling for them to have their own reality show. I mean,
- 26:12Speaker 1: I would 100% watch this. I would love it. I
- 26:15Speaker 1: really hope that happens. The only bad thing for Heidi
- 26:17Speaker 1: and Spencer though, is the timing of their TikTok rise.
- 26:21Speaker 1: I mean, they've both now got over a million followers,
- 26:24Speaker 1: but TikTok is meant to be being phased out in America.
- 26:27Speaker 1: So they may no longer be able to get lots
- 26:29Speaker 1: of money from their TikTok lives. It will hopefully that
- 26:32Speaker 1: following support them on a different social media platform. I
- 26:36Speaker 1: don't see the point in me keeping my name. I
- 26:38Speaker 1: have no attachment and I've already gotten rid of it.
- 26:45Speaker 1: Abby Chatfield has shocked her followers by revealing her last
- 26:48Speaker 1: name isn't legally Chatfield. So Abby made this confession after
- 26:53Speaker 1: telling her followers that she's begun looking into reserving the
- 26:56Speaker 1: Instagram handle Abby Hyde. after having a few glasses of
- 27:00Speaker 1: Chardonnay at an influencer event. Hyde is, of course, the
- 27:03Speaker 1: last name of her boyfriend, Adam, who is a musician
- 27:06Speaker 1: in Peking Duck. So things seem to be getting very serious.
- 27:09Speaker 1: I've never heard Abby talking about someone in this way. Well,
- 27:12Speaker 1: Abby said that she wasn't planning on telling Adam that
- 27:14Speaker 1: she'd looked into reserving the name. She was only going
- 27:17Speaker 1: to do it on the sly, but then she discovered,
- 27:19Speaker 1: of course, that it was taken. Remember last year, there
- 27:22Speaker 1: was a socialite that got in trouble for doing this.
- 27:25Speaker 1: So she got married and the surname was actually quite unusual,
- 27:28Speaker 1: but someone had it as their Finster account and she
- 27:31Speaker 1: tried to buy it off them. And then they ended
- 27:34Speaker 1: up shaming her publicly on Reddit. Do you think that
- 27:36Speaker 1: some people go and reserve these names purposely? Like they
- 27:40Speaker 1: see that there's these celebrities in these relationships that look
- 27:43Speaker 1: like they're blossoming and they're like, fuck, I could make
- 27:45Speaker 1: some money by reserving this name. I don't know if
- 27:47Speaker 1: in the case of Abby, if someone would have done it,
- 27:49Speaker 1: because if anything, I would have thought that Abby would
- 27:52Speaker 1: want to keep her maiden name. And a lot of
- 27:54Speaker 1: Abby's followers were begging her to keep her maiden name
- 27:57Speaker 1: if she married Adam. And this is when she dropped
- 28:00Speaker 1: the bomb that she no longer went by the name
- 28:03Speaker 1: Chatfield legally and that she had changed it two years
- 28:05Speaker 1: ago to another family name. There were so many people
- 28:08Speaker 1: who were intrigued and saying, please tell us what the
- 28:10Speaker 1: last name is. But she declined. Let's have a listen
- 28:13Speaker 1: to Abby's reasoning for changing her name. I have no
- 28:17Speaker 1: emotional attachment to the name Chatfield or my current surname.
- 28:20Speaker 1: And the thing is, you have to have a man's surname.
- 28:23Speaker 1: If I'm going to have a man's surname. I want
- 28:26Speaker 1: it to be a man that I love and respect
- 28:29Speaker 1: and loves and respects me over a man that left
- 28:31Speaker 1: his family. I think a lot of people were initially
- 28:35Speaker 1: surprised because they thought Abby being such a stout feminist,
- 28:39Speaker 1: she'd want to keep her name. But this actually makes
- 28:41Speaker 1: a lot of sense. Well, why would you want to
- 28:42Speaker 1: keep the name of your dad who you've got no
- 28:44Speaker 1: relationship with? I understand it. I actually liked what she
- 28:47Speaker 1: said in that I would rather take the name of
- 28:49Speaker 1: a man who I love and respect. Have you looked
- 28:52Speaker 1: up Sophie Hancock on Instagram then? There's so many Sophie
- 28:55Speaker 1: Hancocks on there. I decided to keep Sophie Torber as
- 28:58Speaker 1: my handle because I thought, well, for all of my work,
- 29:01Speaker 1: I go by my maiden name. I actually haven't legally
- 29:04Speaker 1: changed my name yet. I kind of want to do
- 29:06Speaker 1: it before my baby's born. See, I have actually legally
- 29:09Speaker 1: changed my last name to Turner, but I couldn't change
- 29:12Speaker 1: my handle even if I wanted to. There are that
- 29:14Speaker 1: many Kate Turners. And I thought one of the advantages
- 29:17Speaker 1: to changing my name would be at the shops when
- 29:19Speaker 1: they go, oh, what's your surname? And I don't have
- 29:20Speaker 1: to spell Torber out. But I've still got it as
- 29:22Speaker 1: my email address and I tried to get a Kate
- 29:25Speaker 1: Turner Gmail. Nothing, not even my middle name, no numbers.
- 29:30Speaker 1: Like it was literally all taken. I've just had a
- 29:31Speaker 1: terrible thought. Do you think people reserve Instagram handles for
- 29:34Speaker 1: their children? Well, I hope not. My son is not
- 29:37Speaker 1: going to get one pretty easily. I think Jack Turner,
- 29:39Speaker 1: there would be a lot. lot of kids called that.
- 29:40Speaker 1: Surely Instagram will be dead by the time people's children
- 29:43Speaker 1: now are older. Well, look at TikTok. I mean, that's
- 29:45Speaker 1: going to be gone in the US soon. Didn't Sarah's
- 29:47Speaker 1: Day reserve one for Fox? Fox Oceans? Probably. That wouldn't
- 29:50Speaker 1: surprise me.
- 29:51Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 29:51Speaker 1: Well, that's all we've got time for today. Thank you
- 29:54Speaker 1: for listening to another episode. If you do want to
- 29:56Speaker 1: hear more content from us, we do have a subscriber
- 29:58Speaker 1: channel called Outspoken Plus. We drop episodes every week on
- 30:02Speaker 1: a Thursday. On Thursday, we are going to be discussing
- 30:05Speaker 1: the viral bride who washed her makeup off. 20 minutes
- 30:09Speaker 1: before her first look with her husband. This sent shivers
- 30:11Speaker 1: down my spine. This is my worst nightmare. I feel
- 30:14Speaker 1: like that's something you would do though, Sophie, because you're
- 30:16Speaker 1: so picky about things. It is something that I would do.
- 30:19Speaker 1: That's why I was literally felt so uncomfortable watching it.
- 30:22Speaker 1: Can you imagine the pressure to make your makeup look
- 30:24Speaker 1: good after... One, having to wash it off. I would
- 30:27Speaker 1: get itchy eyes. Look, let's save this for Thursday. I've
- 30:30Speaker 1: got a lot of thoughts about that. Yeah, well, this
- 30:32Speaker 1: podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Kaurna
- 30:34Speaker 1: people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders
- 30:36Speaker 1: past and present. And if you do like the show,
- 30:38Speaker 1: please leave us a review.