Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Troye Sivan & Connor Franta relationship shocker, Alex Cooper seeks sponsors for 30th birthday party + Molly Mae & Tommy Fury split

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Troye Sivan & Connor Franta relationship shocker, Alex Cooper seeks sponsors for 30th birthday party + Molly Mae & Tommy Fury split · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Centennial World I know some of you guys like when I say
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  Centennial world like you like how I say it and now it's made
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  me like self-conscious Every time I say it, I'm like I have
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  to say it the way that everybody likes so that they get that
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  brain itch, you know. ANYWAYS, before we jump into the
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  stories for today, I need to address the elephant in the
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  room, which is that yesterday I said strike to deal instead of
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  struck a deal on the podcast and I have not stopped thinking
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  about it. It's been like over 24 hours.
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  It is rotting my brain like I and not stop thinking about it.
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  So please know I do know the proper grammar.
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  I do know it is struck a deal not striked.
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  But sometimes when you do a daily podcast, you're just going
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  to say the wrong thing, OK Anyways, I am very cottage vibes
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  today. I have like full wet hair from
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  being outside in the sun. It is such a beautiful day.
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  I'm so happy to be home and to be delivering you guys these
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  stories from my cottage bedroom. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys today is that Connor Franta has seemingly
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  confirmed that he was in fact dating Troy Sivan back in the
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  day. So this is some OG YouTube news.
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  Annabelle actually sent this to me like 2 days ago and she was
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  like here's some like my build news you could include in mini
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  scroll if you feel like it. And I just forgot to talk about
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  it yesterday. But when I first opened it I was
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  like wait a minute, Troy Sivan is dating Connor Franta Like I
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  thought it was current and I was like what do you mean mild news?
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  Troy Sivan is dating like an OG back in the day YouTube right
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  now. Anyways, I obviously
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  misinterpreted it. Basically a decade ago there
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  were rumors all over the Internet that Youtubers Troy
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  Sivan and Connor Franta were dating.
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  And I feel like some of you guys might not know if you're Gen.
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  Z or Zelenials that Troy Sivan started as a YouTube which is
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  just like so cool. He's like such a success story
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  out of YouTube. So anyways, people shipped them
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  back then. They were like in the same
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  friend group and there were rumors that they were dating and
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  people called them Tronner. I like that was their couple
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  name. So this week on the Obsessed
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  with Brooke Averick podcast, Connor was talking about how he
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  knew Chapel Rhone back in 2014. He said, quote, I found it as in
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  her music on YouTube with my boyfriend at the time.
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  We found the song. It had like no plays and her
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  voice was unbelievable. So we started tweeting about it
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  like this girl is incredible. We were like, she's the next
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  Adele. So obviously the quote, my
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  boyfriend at the time just kind of like slipped out and fans
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  connected the dots because Chapel when she started blowing
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  up recently, there was like this unearthed tweet that came up
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  where Troy Sivan had tweeted about like, quote UN quote
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  discovering her in 2014. He wrote, I've had a 16 year old
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  girl on repeat for two months and he linked to one of her
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  music videos Die young. Yes, I guess that is
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  confirmation for all of the OG YouTube fans of that kind of
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  group that Troy Sivan and Connor Franta were dating.
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  The next story that I have for you guys is that Internet users
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  are speculating that Alex Cooper is going broke because she
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  allegedly is looking for sponsors for her 30th birthday
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  party. So when stories like this come
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  up, I can never tell if it's just like, a fundamental
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  misunderstanding of how influencing NPR works or if it's
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  more so like schadenfreude. It's just kind of easy to, like,
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  flip the blame and be like, look at how greedy they are.
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  Like, you have this $60 million Spotify deal and, like, you
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  can't even fund your own birthday party.
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  I'm not really sure. So basically, Page Six ran an
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  article talking about Alex's 30th birthday party, which is
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  coming up in a couple of weeks. They reportedly got a hold of a
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  pitch deck that Alex and her team were using to find sponsors
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  for the event. They published a couple of the
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  slides. One of the slides is like the
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  VIP guest list and it includes names like Alex, Earl, Harry,
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  Jowsey, Madeleine, Archie, obviously Tory Burch, Andy
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  Cohen. Random but I kind of love it.
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  Anyways. So this has caused so much
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  uproar online. People are saying that she's
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  going broke. Others are saying that they're
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  like never going to touch a brand if they sponsor a birthday
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  party of an influencer. Like this is just so tone deaf.
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  And like she has enough money, why can't she pay for home
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  birthday party? And I think it comes down to a
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  few things. Alex Cooper is absolutely not
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  going broke. Like absolutely not.
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  This event is like a high visibility event.
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  This is like APR moment for Alex, you know, for herself as a
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  brand, not herself as a person. And so because it's a high
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  visibility event, it makes sense for brands to foot that bill in
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  exchange for sponsorship because there's going to be so many eyes
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  on it. There's going to be so much
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  coverage. And I think one of the first
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  things that you really learn in business as a business owner
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  myself, which I took me too long to learn, but one of the first
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  things you do learn actually, if you're like paying attention, is
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  to never use your own money. I think we see that even when an
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  entrepreneur, let's say, sells out their company, they make
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  millions of dollars and then they go start another one and
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  they raise VC instead of like self funding it.
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  And that's just because it is I, in some people's minds, good
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  business practice to never use your own money.
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  So for this, this is like a business event for her, right?
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  And like people are speculating she's going to sell tickets for
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  fans to attend as well. I am sure that Alex for her 30th
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  is going to have a more intimate celebration with her friends and
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  family that she will be paying for.
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  Or I don't know, maybe they'll split the bill.
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  I'm not sure. But you know what I mean.
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  Like something private. But this is a public event.
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  This is like a brand marketing activation almost for her
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  personal brand and for Call Her Daddy and the Unwell Network.
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  So yeah, it makes sense to have sponsors.
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  I think it's so funny when we get mad at influencers or
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  celebrities. I think it happens much more
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  with influencers for doing like regular, quote, UN quote,
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  business things. But I think maybe because we see
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  them as regular people and maybe a lot of us who consume their
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  content aren't super familiar with that world, it feels really
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  greedy and it feels exploitative.
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  But they're actually not exploiting us at all.
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  Like there's no exploitation they're going on, as far as I
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  can tell, you know, asking for brands to foot the bill for her
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  birthday party. Because it is.
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  I mean, if you think about like an award show, for example, like
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  that's a high visibility event, like the Academy, you know, the
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  Academy Awards, like the, what is it the Academy of motion
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  Pictures or whatever that puts on the Oscars?
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  Like they're not paying for that.
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  Like when you walk on the red carpet, there's all the branding
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  behind them on the media wall. Like, you know, that's like
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  typical, right? But I think that this discourse
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  around Alex is just a symptom of influencer fatigue, the cost of
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  living, like how difficult regular life is for everyday
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  people right now. And just, you know, seeing that
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  Alex is trying to throw her own birthday party and branding it
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  as her birthday party and looking for sponsors, I can see
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  how it might rub people the wrong way.
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  But I think we need to not look at something like that as like
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  her birthday party. We need to look at it as like,
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  you know, just a brand activation, essentially like a
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  marketing activation. And, you know, when she did that
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  tour or whatever with Alex Earl, they went to different places.
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  I'm sure that I was sponsored, you know, so it's just like
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  that, OK. And the last story that I have
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  for you guys, this just happened like a couple of hours ago.
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  Molly Mae has announced that she is splitting from Tommy Fury.
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  In an Instagram story posted today, Molly announced that she
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  has split from her long time partner Tommy Fury.
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  Never in a million years did I think I'd ever have to write
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  this after five years of being together.
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  I never imagined our story would end, especially not this way.
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  Clock that I am extremely upset to announce that mine and
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  Tommy's relationship has come to an end.
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  I will forever be grateful for the most important thing to me
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  now and always, my beautiful daughter.
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  Without us, there would be no her.
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  She will always be my priority. I want to thank you all for the
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  love you have shown us over the last five years.
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  You've all been part of our journey and I feel it's right to
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  share this with you all. We'll say I attempt to navigate
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  the coming days and weeks. Please kindly respect my privacy
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  over this difficult time, back when it feels right.
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  So yeah, this is really shocking and a lot of people have noted
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  that, she said. I never imagined our story would
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  end, especially not this way. Like including that little piece
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  is what has told or like what has made speculation I suppose
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  go absolutely wild that he cheated on her or maybe he just
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  broke up with her out of the blue or something like that.
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  But it definitely does not sound like she wanted it to end or
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  expected it to end anytime soon, which is really sad.
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  Molly and Tommy were together for five years and last year,
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  July of last year, about a year ago, they got engaged after they
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  had their little baby. So yeah, it's really sad.
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  Anyways, guys, that is it for Mini SCROLL today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. I love you guys and I will talk
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  to you on Monday, but there will of course be a deep dive
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  tomorrow. OK, bye.