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Sophie Cachia’s ‘Staged’ Proposal · Outspoken the Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:06
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
0:10
Speaker 1: Sophie Torber. I'm Kate Torber. And I'm Amy Torber. And
0:13
Speaker 1: coming up on today's show, Indy Clinton's husband is embroiled
0:17
Speaker 1: in a legal battle with his employer. Hannah Orville's pregnancy
0:21
Speaker 1: news sparks controversy. Sophie Keisha is accused of staging engagement photos.
0:27
Speaker 1: And Jules Neal hits out at the Brisbane Lions. But first,
0:31
Speaker 1: Verouk Salt has announced the gender of her twin babies
0:35
Speaker 1: in an unorthodox way. In a TikTok video that has
0:38
Speaker 1: clocked up over 2 million views, the controversial influencer revealed
0:42
Speaker 1: the gender of her unborn babies using Slurpees. Look, I've
0:46
Speaker 1: got to put it out there. I really like this
0:48
Speaker 1: idea because it's not only inexpensive, but it's also very effective.
0:53
Speaker 1: So Veruca ended up going down to 7-Eleven and purchased
0:56
Speaker 1: the two Slurpees there. This was not a brand deal,
0:59
Speaker 1: by the way. She purchased them herself. Look, that's a
1:02
Speaker 1: missed opportunity there. I think this would have been a
1:04
Speaker 1: great brand deal. It just seems very on brand for her.
1:06
Speaker 1: I couldn't really imagine her doing the very aesthetic cake
1:10
Speaker 1: cutting or organizing the balloon. I like that it's different. Now,
1:14
Speaker 1: for those who haven't seen the video, both Slurpees were blue,
1:16
Speaker 1: which means she's having two baby boys. She also confirmed
1:20
Speaker 1: they are fraternal twins, so they won't be identical. They
1:23
Speaker 1: actually formed from two separate eggs. The news came as
1:26
Speaker 1: a bit of a shock to Veruca. Let's take a
1:28
Speaker 1: listen to what she said.
1:30
Speaker 2: Yes, there's two boys in there. I'll be honest, I'm
1:34
Speaker 2: a little bit in denial about it because I was
1:36
Speaker 2: fully convinced that it was a boy and a girl.
1:38
Speaker 2: Like I was like 100% certain. I was like, I
1:41
Speaker 2: don't even need a gender reveal because I know.
1:44
Speaker 1: I know there's a boy and.
1:45
Speaker 3: A girl in there.
1:46
Speaker 2: No, there's two fucking big fat boys in there, so.
1:51
Speaker 1: I really felt for Veruca because it turns out she's
1:53
Speaker 1: only got one boy's name that she actually likes. So
1:55
Speaker 1: she joked that the other boy may get a girl's
1:57
Speaker 1: name and she'll just leave it at that. I mean,
2:00
Speaker 1: it would be very difficult to come up with a
2:02
Speaker 1: third boy's name. I mean, it would be very difficult
2:05
Speaker 1: for her because this is a second and third boy's
2:07
Speaker 1: name that she's having to come up with. Our mum
2:09
Speaker 1: and dad had this issue, but on drugs, because they
2:12
Speaker 1: didn't find out our genders until we were born. So
2:15
Speaker 1: they literally had to come to the hospital and With
2:17
Speaker 1: six names, or really 12 names, because that included middle
2:21
Speaker 1: names as well. That is a lot of names. We've
2:23
Speaker 1: actually got our mum appearing on a special Mother's Day
2:26
Speaker 1: episode of our other podcast, The Mums Group, on Wednesday.
2:30
Speaker 1: She actually goes more into detail about that. For any
2:32
Speaker 1: of our listeners who are interested, just a shameless plug there. Now,
2:35
Speaker 1: in other news, Veruca has confirmed that she will be
2:38
Speaker 1: returning to Australia, but currently can't as she can't go
2:42
Speaker 1: two hours without throwing up. That would be absolutely horrible.
2:46
Speaker 1: I bet she just wants to get home, go back
2:48
Speaker 1: to her old house and just get settled in for
2:51
Speaker 1: this pregnancy. So for those of you who don't know,
2:54
Speaker 1: Maddie won the AFLW Best and Fairest Player.
2:58
Speaker 3: For the W Award medal back in 2020.
3:02
Speaker 1: PJ entrepreneur Sophie Keisha and Essendon footballer Maddie Prespakas are
3:07
Speaker 1: officially engaged after almost two years together. The midfielder surprised
3:11
Speaker 1: the influencer during a family photo shoot. Now, Sophie, I
3:15
Speaker 1: think we all saw this coming. Yeah, I mean, early
3:17
Speaker 1: on in their relationship, Sophie dropped hints that this relationship
3:21
Speaker 1: was endgame. She called Maddie the one during an interview,
3:25
Speaker 1: and she also recently changed her daughter Esme's name to
3:28
Speaker 1: include Maddie's last name. Now, the couple made the announcement
3:32
Speaker 1: on Instagram with Maddie writing yes from day one with
3:36
Speaker 1: a red love heart emoji. She then posted a series
3:40
Speaker 1: of professionally taken photos showing her down on one knee
3:44
Speaker 1: as Sophie gasped in surprise and then fell to the floor. Now,
3:48
Speaker 1: for those who haven't seen the photos, it looks like
3:51
Speaker 1: the photographer was super close, almost as if these photos
3:54
Speaker 1: were staged, like Sophie knew it was coming. Yeah, we
3:58
Speaker 1: actually shared the photos on our Instagram and a lot
4:00
Speaker 1: of our listeners were confused by the setup. One person wrote,
4:03
Speaker 1: fuck me, the photographer must have been camouflaged to have
4:05
Speaker 1: captured such a natural moment and not have been noticed.
4:08
Speaker 1: Another said, photo shoots like this are so staged, laugh
4:11
Speaker 1: out loud. while someone else said she knew, which were
4:15
Speaker 1: the exact thoughts I had when I saw it. I
4:17
Speaker 1: was like, how the hell is this photo so close up,
4:20
Speaker 1: yet the reactions are so over the top in surprise? Yeah,
4:24
Speaker 1: because sometimes you'll see the engagement photos and you can
4:26
Speaker 1: tell that the photographer has used a really long lens.
4:30
Speaker 1: The photos look really, like the person looks really genuinely
4:33
Speaker 1: shocked in them. They're not so posed. They're almost like
4:37
Speaker 1: pap photos. Well, I want to say genuine pap photos,
4:39
Speaker 1: not the stage daily male pap photos. Where this was
4:41
Speaker 1: like one of them. Where this is one that would
4:43
Speaker 1: end up on like some stock photography website of engaged
4:47
Speaker 1: or proposal. I mean, they were beautiful photos, but yeah,
4:50
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, how so if you're not seeing
4:52
Speaker 1: the photographer that's standing right in front of it? But
4:54
Speaker 1: she cleared up the confusion explaining that the engagement took
4:58
Speaker 1: place during a family photo shoot. So she shared a
5:01
Speaker 1: behind the scenes video of the shoot and wrote, she
5:04
Speaker 1: beat me at my own game. I had organized a
5:06
Speaker 1: family photo shoot as I wanted beautiful family photos hanging
5:10
Speaker 1: in our new home. once Ezzie was now a bit older.
5:13
Speaker 1: I had organized everything from the outfits to my hair, makeup,
5:17
Speaker 1: the reference shots for what I wanted to the photographer
5:20
Speaker 1: and videographer. Everything or so I thought. My madsy girl
5:25
Speaker 1: had planned the best part yet and the kids were
5:27
Speaker 1: all in on it for months. I've been in love
5:29
Speaker 1: with you for so long now and I can't wait
5:31
Speaker 1: to be your wife. Can I ask, why did she
5:34
Speaker 1: have a videographer at a family photo shoot if they
5:37
Speaker 1: wanted portraits on the wall? Like, I don't know. It
5:38
Speaker 1: just seems a little bit sus to me. It's almost
5:42
Speaker 1: like Sophie put the crumbs down and said, Maddie, run
5:44
Speaker 1: with this. Well, Maddie famously is a decade younger than
5:48
Speaker 1: than Sophie. So yeah, maybe there was a bit of
5:50
Speaker 1: coaching going on. I actually, I noticed because Maddie tagged
5:53
Speaker 1: the videographer and photographer in the photos and the videographer
5:57
Speaker 1: is actually one of her football teammates. So Maybe it
6:00
Speaker 1: was actually Maddie who was like, she heard the family
6:02
Speaker 1: photo shoot was happening. She's like, hey, why don't we
6:05
Speaker 1: capture video as well? Saw this as the perfect opportunity
6:08
Speaker 1: to get a video of her actually proposing. Were Sophie's
6:11
Speaker 1: fingernails done? That is always an indication of if someone
6:14
Speaker 1: knows they're getting proposed to. They were. Yeah, but to
6:17
Speaker 1: be fair, if you're having a family photo shoot done,
6:19
Speaker 1: you probably make sure your nails were up to scratch too. Yeah.
6:23
Speaker 1: Now we have to talk about the ring. It was
6:24
Speaker 1: a very large rectangular solitaire diamond with diamonds around the band.
6:29
Speaker 1: It was made by Top Image Jewelry, who recently won
6:33
Speaker 1: Jeweler of the Year at the ABIA Wedding Awards. And
6:37
Speaker 1: following Sophie and Maddie's announcement, the jeweler reposted some of
6:41
Speaker 1: the photos and wrote, congratulations to these beautiful ladies on
6:44
Speaker 1: their recent engagement. It was an absolute honor creating your
6:47
Speaker 1: dream ring. We wish you two eternal love and happiness. Now,
6:52
Speaker 1: underneath this photo, Sophie wrote, this little sneaky one nailed it.
6:56
Speaker 1: It's stunning. Thank you. A lot of the time when
6:59
Speaker 1: influencers get engaged, I always go and look at the
7:02
Speaker 1: jeweler's website because I hope that maybe they've got a
7:05
Speaker 1: picture of the ring up or it's a similar ring
7:08
Speaker 1: so you can sort of gauge the price of it.
7:10
Speaker 1: But what I found interesting when I looked at this
7:12
Speaker 1: jeweler's page is they have a client's page where they
7:15
Speaker 1: list all of the people who in the public eye
7:18
Speaker 1: whose engagement rings that they've made. And they were very
7:21
Speaker 1: AFL centric. So they've made Toby and Chloe Pink's engagement ring.
7:26
Speaker 1: They made one for Matthew Kruiser and also Gary Ablett Jr.
7:30
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering, is this some sort of partnership? Do
7:33
Speaker 1: they seek out sports stars? Did Maddie seek this out?
7:38
Speaker 1: Because the jeweler was tagged in the post, which is
7:40
Speaker 1: usually a giveaway that there's some sort of partnership in place.
7:43
Speaker 1: I doubt the jeweler would give them the ring for free.
7:46
Speaker 1: potentially they could have got some sort of discount for
7:49
Speaker 1: giving them a bit of a plug. I mean, it
7:51
Speaker 1: was a massive ring. I mean, I'm not good at
7:53
Speaker 1: predicting carrots, but it's enormous. I mean, is it a
7:56
Speaker 1: lab diamond though? I mean, we've spoken about how we're
7:58
Speaker 1: seeing this trend of people rocking really big rocks, no
8:02
Speaker 1: pun intended. And- I mean, Maddie knows that her ring
8:05
Speaker 1: is going to be compared to the ring that Sophie
8:08
Speaker 1: was proposed to by Maddie Garrick. So you'd want it
8:11
Speaker 1: to be big. And I mean, there's nothing wrong with
8:13
Speaker 1: lab diamonds. Also, I mean, they are more ethical than
8:16
Speaker 1: your natural diamonds as well. Sophie has mentioned before that
8:19
Speaker 1: Maddie's a really good saver. But if that ring is
8:22
Speaker 1: a real diamond, that would literally be worth hundreds of
8:25
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars. I just want to know how the
8:27
Speaker 1: ring compares to the one that Maddie Garrick got Sophie Keisha.
8:30
Speaker 1: So they were engaged back in 2022. It was actually
8:35
Speaker 1: Sophie that popped the question to Maddie though. And the
8:38
Speaker 1: ring that she gave Maddie was highly publicised. It was
8:41
Speaker 1: this gorgeous ring and it had three stones to represent
8:45
Speaker 1: Sophie and her two children. But I never really saw
8:48
Speaker 1: what Sophie's ring looked like that Maddie ended up getting her. Well,
8:52
Speaker 1: I got the vibe that after the engagement, Sophie then
8:55
Speaker 1: went and picked her own ring from Maddie. I don't
8:58
Speaker 1: know so much if it was a surprise from Maddie
9:01
Speaker 1: the first. Controversially, Sophie actually listed Maddie's engagement ring for
9:05
Speaker 1: sale on Instagram. So she announced on her Instagram story,
9:09
Speaker 1: after doing a clean out and finding this in my drawer,
9:12
Speaker 1: I'll now be selling genuine interest only as it's XE,
9:15
Speaker 1: although we'll be selling heavily discounted. And I remember we
9:19
Speaker 1: discussed at the time whether it was a bit taboo
9:21
Speaker 1: to buy an engagement ring when the couple have broken up. Like,
9:23
Speaker 1: do you really want that bad juju on your relationship? No,
9:26
Speaker 1: that ring is cursed. You don't want to know that.
9:29
Speaker 1: And like, I mean, I suppose the thing is you
9:31
Speaker 1: don't really discuss with your partner if they're buying a
9:33
Speaker 1: secondhand engagement ring. If my partner had, I'd prefer not
9:37
Speaker 1: to know that detail. I'd prefer not to have had
9:39
Speaker 1: a second life. That being said, this ring was stunning.
9:43
Speaker 1: Like if you got it for a good enough price,
9:45
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone would be happy with an engagement
9:47
Speaker 1: ring that was a product of a breakup. Like I
9:49
Speaker 1: think you can only re-gift a ring like that if
9:52
Speaker 1: it's for another occasion. It can't be for a proposal.
9:55
Speaker 1: Unless it's Princess Diana's ring in the case of Kate
9:58
Speaker 1: and Will. That is the exception. Actually, I heard Shameless
10:01
Speaker 1: were discussing the engagement ring, which Harry Styles picked out
10:04
Speaker 1: for Zoe Kravitz. And they put a photo of this
10:06
Speaker 1: ring side by side with the one Channing Tatum also
10:09
Speaker 1: proposed with. And they said you could almost not pick
10:13
Speaker 1: any differences between the ring. The only slight difference was
10:16
Speaker 1: Harry's was a bit bigger than Which you have to,
10:19
Speaker 1: if you're proposing to someone who's already been engaged, you
10:23
Speaker 1: have to make sure it's a bigger diamond. I mean,
10:25
Speaker 1: it's obvious that Zoe likes that style of ring and
10:28
Speaker 1: she has spoken to both Channing and Harry about it.
10:31
Speaker 1: It's interesting though, because think about it. If you got
10:33
Speaker 1: engaged multiple times, it's not like your taste in jewellery
10:37
Speaker 1: suddenly changes. I think you'd be happy that the diamond
10:39
Speaker 1: just got bigger, wouldn't you? We're 20 minutes out. Indy
10:44
Speaker 1: Clinton's husband, Ben Azar, is embroiled in a legal.
10:48
Speaker 3: Battle with his employer.
10:49
Speaker 1: Court documents reveal Ben is reportedly suing global real estate
10:54
Speaker 1: firm Savills over alleged unfair dismissal Kate, can you tell
11:13
Speaker 1: us more? Well, Ben has worked at Savills for over
11:16
Speaker 1: 22 years, and he was working as the company's national
11:19
Speaker 1: head of cross-border investment when he was dismissed. In court
11:23
Speaker 1: documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph, the father of three
11:26
Speaker 1: alleges that the real estate agency breached workplace protections in
11:30
Speaker 1: dismissing him. It's believed that Ben is arguing unfair dismissal
11:34
Speaker 1: under general protections provisions, so this isn't your standard unfair
11:39
Speaker 1: dismissal case. What this means is Ben is alleging he
11:42
Speaker 1: was dismissed for a reason that the law actually prohibits,
11:46
Speaker 1: which is known as adverse action. Neither Ben or Savills
11:49
Speaker 1: have publicly commented on the matter. Now, Amy, you sued
11:53
Speaker 1: your employer, Channel 7, for the same thing. So you
11:55
Speaker 1: know a lot about it.
11:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I obviously can't go into the Channel 7
11:59
Speaker 1: case for numerous reasons, but I do know a lot
12:02
Speaker 1: about adverse action. And to put it simply, It's, for example,
12:06
Speaker 1: if you make a complaint against someone at your work
12:08
Speaker 1: and suddenly you find yourself fired, that is a case
12:11
Speaker 1: of adverse action. And that's why I'm really interested to
12:13
Speaker 1: see how this case plays out in court, because while
12:17
Speaker 1: the exact details of Ben's claims are yet to be
12:20
Speaker 1: examined in court, this revelation comes off the back of
12:23
Speaker 1: years of alleged tension between Ben and his employer. Over
12:28
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, Indy Clinton has been pretty
12:30
Speaker 1: vocal about the fact that her husband has been allegedly
12:33
Speaker 1: having issues at work because of her public profile. She
12:37
Speaker 1: even revealed that she blocked some of Ben's colleagues on
12:40
Speaker 1: social media after he copped flack at work after appearing
12:43
Speaker 1: on her podcast. When we interviewed her back in 2024
12:46
Speaker 1: for our Christmas special, she went in depth about this situation.
12:50
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen.
12:51
Speaker 3: The thing with Ben is he works... in real estate,
12:56
Speaker 3: in a very male-dominated industry where having their wife or
13:00
Speaker 3: someone significant other on social media and putting their life
13:04
Speaker 3: out there is so foreign to these fucking old men
13:07
Speaker 3: and they just want to talk and talk and talk.
13:09
Speaker 3: And I say fucking old men because I'm so annoyed. He's, like,
13:13
Speaker 3: had to... I mean, you want a supportive husband. I've
13:16
Speaker 3: been doing this for 11 years. He knew what he
13:18
Speaker 3: was getting himself into. But, like, the judgment that goes on,
13:21
Speaker 3: it's like... workplace bullying. Like he, he only found out
13:25
Speaker 3: just a few days ago, like this huge cotton on
13:28
Speaker 3: campaign we did as a family for Christmas, just got
13:31
Speaker 3: sent around a WhatsApp group and like this guy slagging him.
13:36
Speaker 3: And I'm just like, why do you do this? I'm just,
13:39
Speaker 3: you know, he's damned if he do and damned if
13:42
Speaker 3: you don't, he's supporting his wife and his family. He's
13:45
Speaker 3: doing this on a side, we're making a living and
13:47
Speaker 3: you still want to drag him.
13:49
Speaker 1: I remember doing this interview and being quite taken aback
13:53
Speaker 1: when Indy said all of this, because I've never really
13:57
Speaker 1: thought about what it would be like as the husband
14:00
Speaker 1: or wife of an influencer when you're having to go
14:02
Speaker 1: into a traditional nine to five and people are seeing
14:05
Speaker 1: your life play out all over social media. I mean,
14:09
Speaker 1: I would have assumed that a workplace would congratulate someone
14:12
Speaker 1: for being featured in like a cotton on campaign. Oh,
14:15
Speaker 1: that's really cool. I just think it's a case of
14:17
Speaker 1: a lot of the people Ben works with are older
14:19
Speaker 1: men who don't understand social media. So they would have
14:22
Speaker 1: been paying the shit out of him. They wouldn't understand
14:25
Speaker 1: how lucrative this actually is. On a smaller scale, my
14:28
Speaker 1: husband also works in a corporate job. And a couple
14:31
Speaker 1: of times, some of his colleagues have mentioned that they
14:34
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast. I know he always feels a
14:36
Speaker 1: little bit awkward because he's like, what have you said
14:38
Speaker 1: about me on there? And I mean, this would be
14:40
Speaker 1: the next level because Indy shares so much about her life.
14:43
Speaker 1: I mean, her vlogs are always chaotic. She doesn't hold back.
14:47
Speaker 1: So it would be really tough for Ben to have
14:49
Speaker 1: all of that just out there for everyone to see.
14:51
Speaker 1: It was quite sweet though, because in that interview, Indie
14:54
Speaker 1: was saying how she really wanted to call out Ben's
14:56
Speaker 1: colleagues publicly to make it stop because she just didn't
14:59
Speaker 1: know how else to make it stop. And she said,
15:02
Speaker 1: otherwise it isn't going to blow over, which I found
15:05
Speaker 1: interesting foreshadowing considering what's happened. But Ben told her, please
15:09
Speaker 1: do not say anything because it's going to add fuel
15:12
Speaker 1: to the fire. I'm going to throw it to you, Amy,
15:14
Speaker 1: because you are the expert in adverse action. So if
15:17
Speaker 1: Ben was dismissed over backlash that's tied to Indy's public profile,
15:23
Speaker 1: would that be considered adverse action under the law?
15:26
Speaker 3: Yes.
15:26
Speaker 1: And that is where this case gets even more interesting.
15:29
Speaker 1: It is all about proving why he was fired. So
15:33
Speaker 1: if he can point to a protected reason, like being
15:35
Speaker 1: treated differently because of Indy, or exercising his rights at work,
15:40
Speaker 1: the pressure then flips on the company and they have
15:42
Speaker 1: to prove that this wasn't actually the reason. So if
15:45
Speaker 1: there are cracks in the company's story, like a lack
15:48
Speaker 1: of warnings or a sudden shift after years in the job,
15:52
Speaker 1: that can be really important. I mean, we're talking about
15:55
Speaker 1: someone who was with the company for over 20 years.
15:57
Speaker 1: So you would expect a pretty clear paper trail if
16:00
Speaker 1: there were legitimate issues and reasons to get rid of Ben.
16:05
Speaker 1: It's going to be very interesting to see how this
16:07
Speaker 1: all plays out Now, this case was filed on the
16:10
Speaker 1: 27th of March. And around that time, Indy confirmed on
16:13
Speaker 1: the Saving Grace podcast that Ben wasn't working at the
16:16
Speaker 1: moment and was a stay-at-home dad. Since then, Ben's been
16:19
Speaker 1: appearing a lot more in Indy's content. You can tell
16:22
Speaker 1: he's much more comfortable being in front of the camera. Now,
16:25
Speaker 1: he no longer works with his former employer. And on
16:27
Speaker 1: a recent video with Ben, a follower commented, did Big
16:30
Speaker 1: Ed lose his job? Big Ed is, of course, Ben's nickname.
16:34
Speaker 1: To which Indy responded, I can't comment on this yet.
16:37
Speaker 1: But when I can, you bet I will be. There
16:39
Speaker 1: is so much I have been sitting on. It's interesting
16:41
Speaker 1: because late last year, Indy hinted that there would be
16:44
Speaker 1: court action over her botched nose job. So they could
16:49
Speaker 1: be keeping the lawyers very busy. My go-to slick back
16:54
Speaker 1: lately is actually all about hair growth and scalp care,
16:56
Speaker 1: thanks to Growth Bomb. Jules Neal has hit out at
17:00
Speaker 1: the Brisbane Lions over a social media clip they created
17:03
Speaker 1: of her daughter, Piper. The clip poked fun at the
17:06
Speaker 1: four-year-old who was visibly upset when joining her father, Lockie,
17:09
Speaker 1: on the field for his 300th game celebrations. So if
17:13
Speaker 1: it was clear the club's media team were trying to
17:14
Speaker 1: create a viral moment. It definitely seems to be the case.
17:18
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not entirely surprising because in the past
17:21
Speaker 1: three to five years, AFL clubs have completely changed their
17:25
Speaker 1: approach to socials. I mean, you now have dedicated teams
17:28
Speaker 1: of content producers working for AFL clubs and who are
17:31
Speaker 1: really focused on entertaining followers rather than just communicating updates
17:36
Speaker 1: like they used to. I mean, before you just get
17:38
Speaker 1: injury updates and match highlights, but now the clubs are
17:41
Speaker 1: leaning into really fun behind the scenes content. We see
17:45
Speaker 1: AFL players pulling pranks on teammates or they produce day
17:48
Speaker 1: in the life content or they're jumping on TikTok trends.
17:52
Speaker 1: It's something that we haven't actually seen before. I previously
17:55
Speaker 1: worked as the comms manager for the Adelaide Thunderbirds and
17:58
Speaker 1: also the media and comms manager for the 36ers. And
18:00
Speaker 1: that was nearly eight years ago. And we were definitely
18:03
Speaker 1: tapping into that type of content at the time, but
18:05
Speaker 1: I'm really jealous to see how big these social media
18:09
Speaker 1: teams have gotten because when I was doing it, I
18:12
Speaker 1: was having to balance a social media strategy along with
18:15
Speaker 1: media and comms and marketing. Whereas As you said, now
18:18
Speaker 1: they have these massive teams and they would have big
18:22
Speaker 1: targets to achieve. I mean, growth would be such a
18:24
Speaker 1: driving factor between keeping your job at these clubs. I mean,
18:28
Speaker 1: TikTok is the platform the clubs are going the hardest
18:31
Speaker 1: on at the moment with the AFL and its clubs
18:34
Speaker 1: collectively generating more than 800 million views a season. It's
18:38
Speaker 1: absolutely massive. I mean, this has really trickled down from
18:41
Speaker 1: the NBA. They were leading the pack in terms of
18:44
Speaker 1: social media and the way they did things. They've really
18:47
Speaker 1: revolutionized the space. I mean, it's clear that there is
18:49
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on these marketing managers and content
18:52
Speaker 1: producers to get that viral moments. Clubs are even competing
18:57
Speaker 1: in an AFL TikTok ladder. The Hawthorne Footy Club is
19:00
Speaker 1: absolutely dominating in this space with over 150 million views
19:04
Speaker 1: in a season. It was funny because when I was
19:06
Speaker 1: working at the 36ers, the upper management had really unrealistic
19:10
Speaker 1: expectations about how quickly you could grow the audience. And
19:13
Speaker 1: when I left, they ended up recruiting this player from
19:16
Speaker 1: the Philippines who had this cult following. And overnight, the
19:20
Speaker 1: 36ers following just grew exponentially. Like it was insane. They
19:25
Speaker 1: would have hit all their targets. But those followers were
19:28
Speaker 1: only interested in this one player and it was every
19:31
Speaker 1: time they posted an update, it would be littered with
19:34
Speaker 1: comments about, oh, where's this so-and-so and blah, blah, blah.
19:36
Speaker 1: And then he only lasted a season. So their engagement
19:39
Speaker 1: would have actually been dramatically reduced negatively impacted by that
19:44
Speaker 1: sudden spike. At the same time, they would have been
19:46
Speaker 1: able to go to sponsors and say, hey, look, we
19:48
Speaker 1: have X amount of followers. sign up with us. In
19:51
Speaker 1: terms of the Neil video, the Brisbane Lions really missed
19:54
Speaker 1: the mark with it. It was a very uncomfortable watch.
19:57
Speaker 1: So they shared this video to their 278,000 Instagram followers
20:02
Speaker 1: where they seem to make fun of Piper for getting
20:04
Speaker 1: upset during her dad's 300th game celebration. So So in
20:08
Speaker 1: the clip, it showed the four-year-old interviewing her dad in
20:11
Speaker 1: the lead up to the game. So she had a
20:13
Speaker 1: microphone in his face and Lockie ended up throwing her
20:16
Speaker 1: a question asking if she was excited to run out
20:19
Speaker 1: onto the field with him the following day. And she
20:21
Speaker 1: looked really shy. She shook her head and said no.
20:24
Speaker 1: And Lockie then gave her a big hug. The video
20:27
Speaker 1: then flashed a footage of Lockie carrying Piper out onto
20:30
Speaker 1: the field. as his team formed a guard of honor. Now,
20:33
Speaker 1: anyone who watched this game live would know that Piper
20:37
Speaker 1: was crying her eyes out. She had hands covering her face.
20:40
Speaker 1: She looked so overwhelmed. And Lockie was trying to comfort her,
20:44
Speaker 1: but he ended up having to pass her over to
20:47
Speaker 1: a staff member. Now, the Brisbane Lions ended up captioning
20:51
Speaker 1: this video, Our Shy Queen. I'm assuming that the marketing
20:54
Speaker 1: team were thinking, oh, this is a fantastic idea. Let's
20:57
Speaker 1: humanize Lockie after this whole cheating scandal. by wheeling out
21:01
Speaker 1: his daughter and getting some really cute shots of them together.
21:04
Speaker 1: But this has completely backfired. Oh, I mean, all it's
21:07
Speaker 1: done is make you think, God, what's this poor little
21:09
Speaker 1: girl been going through the last couple of months while
21:12
Speaker 1: her family have been front page of the newspaper over
21:14
Speaker 1: all these cheating allegations? Yeah, I was really surprised that
21:17
Speaker 1: the club would even try and highlight this moment because
21:20
Speaker 1: as you said, Kate, it just seemed to draw even
21:22
Speaker 1: more attention to their high profile split. I mean, when
21:26
Speaker 1: I saw her getting so upset on the field, I
21:27
Speaker 1: was thinking, God, how tough must things be behind closed doors?
21:30
Speaker 1: Because it made it look like she was really upset
21:33
Speaker 1: to be there without her mum. And then it highlighted
21:36
Speaker 1: the fact that, wow, if this was a year ago,
21:39
Speaker 1: Jules would be there with their other son. They'd be
21:41
Speaker 1: celebrating the fact that it was Lockie's 300th game. But,
21:44
Speaker 1: you know, the only person there is the daughter who's
21:46
Speaker 1: visibly upset. And also handballing her over to the staff
21:49
Speaker 1: member wasn't a great look either. Yeah, you hit the
21:52
Speaker 1: nail on the head, Sophie. It just drew so much
21:53
Speaker 1: attention to the fact that that Jules was not there.
21:57
Speaker 1: She should have been there as the mother. I mean,
21:58
Speaker 1: how scary would it be if you're a four-year-old and
22:01
Speaker 1: you see your dad on field, there's all these people
22:03
Speaker 1: screaming for the, you know, supporting them and then being
22:07
Speaker 1: handed off to some staff member? I mean, she was crying.
22:11
Speaker 1: She actually looked pretty happy to be handed over to
22:13
Speaker 1: the female staff member. She was like, do you want
22:15
Speaker 1: to come with me? And she's like, yes. I mean,
22:17
Speaker 1: the thing is as well, logistically, this would have been
22:19
Speaker 1: tough because Jules and the kids moved back to Perth
22:22
Speaker 1: following this marriage breakdown. So Poor Jules, she would have
22:25
Speaker 1: had to organize a flight, presumably gone over there with
22:28
Speaker 1: her as well. Well, it's clear that Jules Neal was
22:31
Speaker 1: not amused by this clip. She wrote underneath the post,
22:34
Speaker 1: she's not shy, she's scared, and it's not funny. Now, Jules'
22:38
Speaker 1: comments sparked debate amongst fans. One agreed with her saying,
22:42
Speaker 1: Piper looked absolutely terrified, adding, the poor little darling, when
22:46
Speaker 1: ego takes over, the child suffers. I hope she's okay.
22:50
Speaker 1: Another said, it's literally posted on social media, digital footprint,
22:54
Speaker 1: The poor child doesn't deserve to be posted again. Now,
22:57
Speaker 1: one fan disagreed, responding to Jules, relax, she won't even
23:01
Speaker 1: remember it, lol. Now, another Lions fan sympathized with Lockie
23:05
Speaker 1: and Piper and wrote, baby girl with a love heart,
23:08
Speaker 1: it's a lot. So pleased she was with her dad
23:10
Speaker 1: for such an important milestone. Family is everything. I mean,
23:14
Speaker 1: that's an ironic comment. Now, following Jules' comment and the
23:17
Speaker 1: subsequent backlash, the clip was removed from the Brisbane Lions
23:21
Speaker 1: social media channels. I think this was a smart move
23:25
Speaker 1: by the club. I mean, it was really their only option,
23:27
Speaker 1: I think. It wouldn't be a good look to go
23:29
Speaker 1: against a mother's wishes. Well, a smart move after an
23:32
Speaker 1: incredibly dumb one, labelling her as a shy girl and
23:35
Speaker 1: even putting that clip up in the first place. I mean,
23:37
Speaker 1: they were probably getting a lot of engagement on the clip,
23:40
Speaker 1: but not the sort of engagement they were after. Yeah,
23:43
Speaker 1: not all engagement is good engagement. I wonder how it
23:46
Speaker 1: works with approval in the instance now that Jules and
23:49
Speaker 1: Lockie have broken up. Like, was it enough for Lockie
23:51
Speaker 1: to say, yeah, that's cool. that Piper can be in
23:54
Speaker 1: this clip for the club? Or does Jules have to
23:57
Speaker 1: now sign off? Because that means you're putting your daughter
23:59
Speaker 1: out amongst a lot of people and you can't control
24:02
Speaker 1: the commentary on it. If it's not posted by you,
24:04
Speaker 1: you can't moderate the comments or you can't take the
24:06
Speaker 1: clip down when you want. Well, the Brisbane Lions have
24:09
Speaker 1: also been under fire this week for another club scandal.
24:12
Speaker 1: So someone leaked a photo of a team whiteboard And
24:16
Speaker 1: it was listing all of the Essendon players' strengths and weaknesses.
24:19
Speaker 1: So Brisbane were coming up against Essendon this week. And
24:22
Speaker 1: apparently this is something they do each week. They go
24:25
Speaker 1: through all of the players and they'll write down, as
24:27
Speaker 1: I said, one strength and one weakness. Now this photo
24:30
Speaker 1: went viral on social media because Essendon player Justin Pryor,
24:35
Speaker 1: his only strength was listed as his girlfriend Bronte. Now
24:40
Speaker 1: Jackson used to play for the Brisbane Lions and The
24:43
Speaker 1: club have come out and said, oh, it was just
24:44
Speaker 1: a bit of fun. It's because everyone loves his girlfriend.
24:46
Speaker 1: But people are saying this is just so sexist to
24:49
Speaker 1: even include her in this type of conversation. Do they
24:52
Speaker 1: list the strengths and weaknesses basically to give the players
24:56
Speaker 1: ammunition to go after them for certain things so they
24:58
Speaker 1: can sort of get under their skin and be like, oh,
25:01
Speaker 1: your missus is hotter than you. Is that sort of
25:03
Speaker 1: what it's about? Well, that's the thing. Apparently this player
25:06
Speaker 1: was always told that he's batting out of his league
25:08
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend, Bronte. So- I mean, that could be
25:12
Speaker 1: one of the reasons. I mean, there were other things like, oh,
25:15
Speaker 1: he's weak as, he's really low on self-esteem at the moment.
25:19
Speaker 1: So it's pretty awful. Well, I think the self-esteem one's
25:22
Speaker 1: worse than the girlfriend. I feel like the girlfriend's just
25:24
Speaker 1: a bit of a bandit. Well, the reason people are
25:26
Speaker 1: going so nuts about this on social media is because
25:28
Speaker 1: the other week the AFL put up this clip of
25:31
Speaker 1: all these different players and they were asking them how
25:33
Speaker 1: often they change their bedsheets. And they're all like, oh,
25:36
Speaker 1: my missus does it once a week. Oh, yeah, the
25:38
Speaker 1: wife does that. And everyone's like, how fucking sexist is this?
25:42
Speaker 2: We are officially seven weeks today.
25:46
Speaker 1: Hannah Orville has revealed she's pregnant with her first child.
25:50
Speaker 1: The Aussie influencer and her NFL player boyfriend announced the
25:53
Speaker 1: news in an Instagram post that has gone viral. Despite
25:57
Speaker 1: raking in the likes, one important influencer's endorsement was missing,
26:02
Speaker 1: which has led to speculation that Kate, before we get
26:04
Speaker 1: into the drama, I want to know more about Hannah's
26:06
Speaker 1: boyfriend because she does seem very smitten. Oh, she is
26:09
Speaker 1: head over heels for this guy. So his name is
26:12
Speaker 1: Patrick Murtag and they've been together for nearly two years.
26:16
Speaker 1: So they met in Queensland while Patrick was playing AFL
26:19
Speaker 1: for the Gold Coast Suns. However, they made the move
26:22
Speaker 1: to the US when he was signed to the Jacksonville
26:25
Speaker 1: Jaguars at the end of 2024 through the NFL's International
26:29
Speaker 1: Pathway Program. Why does that team name sound fake? Like
26:33
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville Jaguars. Look, it sounds like it's some kind
26:37
Speaker 1: of Disney movie, like the team from a Disney movie. Yeah,
26:41
Speaker 1: I don't think it's one of the top tier teams.
26:42
Speaker 1: Like I've never heard of them before. Definitely not the Chiefs. Yeah, well,
26:46
Speaker 1: he didn't actually last long at the Jaguars because his
26:49
Speaker 1: contract was waived in August 2025 after he got injured.
26:52
Speaker 1: He's recently signed to the Denver Broncos practice squad, which
26:56
Speaker 1: again sounds like a rugby league team to me. And
26:59
Speaker 1: what I love is Hannah is very loud and proud
27:01
Speaker 1: about Patrick. So when he was first signed to the Jaguars,
27:03
Speaker 1: she posted a photo in his football jersey and captioned it,
27:07
Speaker 1: nothing officially will ever beat the feeling of trying on
27:09
Speaker 1: my boyfriend's first jersey. Proud as punch for real, never
27:13
Speaker 1: taking it off. I think it's nice that she's so
27:15
Speaker 1: proud of him. I mean, she's made the move over
27:17
Speaker 1: to the US for his career. It's obviously incredibly important
27:21
Speaker 1: to her that he does well. She's clearly got a
27:23
Speaker 1: type though, because Patrick isn't the first athlete she's dated.
27:26
Speaker 1: So in 2021, she made headlines when she called out
27:29
Speaker 1: her ex Melbourne footballer, Cameron Zaha. So she announced her
27:33
Speaker 1: breakup to her followers writing, for all the girls messaging
27:36
Speaker 1: me overnight with photos, et cetera, myself and Cam split
27:40
Speaker 1: up just a couple of days ago. Thanks for all
27:42
Speaker 1: your support and letting me know just in case, etc.
27:45
Speaker 1: It's nice to see that he's moved on so nice
27:47
Speaker 1: and quick. I love that. I love that we've suddenly
27:50
Speaker 1: become an AFL podcast all of a sudden. Well, it
27:54
Speaker 1: may surprise listeners to learn that originally we all studied
27:57
Speaker 1: journalism to become sports journalists. My thesis was actually about
28:01
Speaker 1: the AFL. So, you know, full circle moment here. How
28:04
Speaker 1: are we not mentioning the fact that the Crows won
28:06
Speaker 1: by a point in the showdown over the weekend? Come on,
28:09
Speaker 1: we need to get back to Hannah. So I think
28:11
Speaker 1: the reason that this pregnancy announcement went so viral because
28:15
Speaker 1: it's almost hit a million views is because we've seen
28:17
Speaker 1: her heartbreak play out online. And now she's with this
28:21
Speaker 1: nice guy who treats her well. They're having a baby together.
28:24
Speaker 1: She looks really happy. I think the other reason is
28:27
Speaker 1: it was something we haven't seen before. So for those
28:29
Speaker 1: who haven't seen it, Hannah and Patrick were filmed from
28:31
Speaker 1: behind as they walked hand in hand onto a golf course,
28:35
Speaker 1: carrying golf clubs on their backs. They then stopped and
28:39
Speaker 1: Patrick passed Hannah a golf ball and she passed him
28:42
Speaker 1: back a mini kids golf set, which they then held together.
28:46
Speaker 1: Hannah then turned around and showed off her beautiful baby
28:48
Speaker 1: bump and they kissed. Now, it actually ended up confusing
28:52
Speaker 1: quite a lot of people because people were like, hang on,
28:53
Speaker 1: I thought he played NFL. Is he actually a golf player?
28:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:56
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously he's a sporty guy, but NFL would
28:59
Speaker 1: have made a bit more sense. Hannah and Patrick ended
29:01
Speaker 1: up captioning the reel, the best news in the world.
29:03
Speaker 1: We're so excited to share our little blessing. Now, the
29:06
Speaker 1: couple are due in November and they found out the gender,
29:09
Speaker 1: but are yet to reveal it publicly. And Hannah explained
29:12
Speaker 1: that they had been actively trying to fall pregnant and
29:15
Speaker 1: sadly experienced a miscarriage during their journey, which she said
29:18
Speaker 1: she would really like to talk about in the future.
29:20
Speaker 1: It was pretty cute because Hannah shared that she was
29:23
Speaker 1: alone with her dog Bibbo when she found out she
29:25
Speaker 1: was pregnant. So she explained that she had done two
29:28
Speaker 1: negative tests in a row. So she was feeling pretty disheartened,
29:31
Speaker 1: but there was one test left in the box. So
29:33
Speaker 1: she did it anyway. And to her absolute surprise, that
29:36
Speaker 1: test was positive. Similar to Ruka Salt, she's confirmed that
29:39
Speaker 1: they were be having the baby in Australia. So she
29:42
Speaker 1: will be heading home soon. I think what makes the
29:45
Speaker 1: timing of this news a little bit sad is that
29:48
Speaker 1: eagle-eyed followers have noticed that Hannah has unfollowed her sister-in-law,
29:52
Speaker 1: Chloe Zepp. It comes amid rumours that Chloe has broken
29:55
Speaker 1: up with Mitch Orville, who is, of course, Hannah's brother.
29:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
29:58
Speaker 1: And people have noticed that Chloe hasn't liked the post
30:01
Speaker 1: or commented on it. So it's just strengthened those breakup
30:04
Speaker 1: rumors and also points in the direction that this is
30:07
Speaker 1: getting nasty. I mean, these women have been in each
30:09
Speaker 1: other's lives for 10 years. You would think if things
30:13
Speaker 1: were amicable, she would have just liked the post and
30:15
Speaker 1: not unfollowed her. Yeah. I mean, particularly when they have
30:18
Speaker 1: two young kids, obviously their aunties and uncles are going
30:21
Speaker 1: to be in their lives forever. It just makes it
30:23
Speaker 1: seem like she's done with the Orvilles completely and something
30:26
Speaker 1: huge has gone on behind the scenes. I mean, I
30:29
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think that if I separated from my husband
30:32
Speaker 1: that I'd go and unfollow all of his family. You're
30:34
Speaker 1: still going to be in each other's lives when you
30:36
Speaker 1: have a child. Well, that's where we're going to leave
30:38
Speaker 1: things today. But if you want to hear more from us,
30:40
Speaker 1: we drop a bonus episode of Outspoken every Thursday for
30:44
Speaker 1: Outspoken Plus subscribers. All the details to sign up are
30:47
Speaker 1: in our show notes. We also have a second podcast
30:50
Speaker 1: called The Mums Group. If you want to take a
30:52
Speaker 1: listen to that, that drops on a Wednesday. This podcast
30:55
Speaker 1: was recorded on the traditional land of the Kaurna people
30:57
Speaker 1: of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders past
31:00
Speaker 1: and present.