Latest / Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel / Sydney Leathers: 10 Years After Anthony Weiner Scandal Rocked NYC's Mayoral Election

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Sydney Leathers: 10 Years After Anthony Weiner Scandal Rocked NYC's Mayoral Election · Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

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  Speaker 1: real conversations in a new language today. Thank you so
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: much for joining us on Misunderstood. I'm your host, Rachel Yucatel.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: This week marks the 10 year anniversary when my next
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: guest became a household name for taking down Anthony Weiner
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: as he was knee deep in his campaign for mayor
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of New York City. He had already gone through a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: scandal a year before, and that was somewhat behind him
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: where he felt like he could run for office again
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  Speaker 1: and do well. But little did he know, Sidney Leathers
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was going to come up and ruin that for him.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So welcome, Sidney. I can't wait to talk to you
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  Speaker 1: all about this. How are you today?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm good. How are you?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to talk about where you were
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: at in life and who Sidney Leathers was before you
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: even knew of Anthony Weiner. Talk to me about you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so at the time I started speaking with him,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: I was only 22 years old. So very young, naive, impressionable,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: all of that stuff. I had had a really, really traumatic,
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: terrible childhood. I had just started to go to therapy
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  Speaker 4: for that. I'd been diagnosed with PTSD. It was like
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: really trying to work on my stuff, but I was
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: just at the very beginning of trying to address that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: So I just was.
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  Speaker 4: Not in a great place in my life, for sure.
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  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 4: Um, so we start talking when I'm 22, it carries
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: on for a while. He starts running for mayor. I
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: turned 23. Uh, when I was 23, I was outed. Um,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: I had initially spoken to someone anonymously about everything. And
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: after I spoke anonymously, someone at Buzzfeed outed me, um,
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  Speaker 4: using my full legal.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Name, photos, everything.
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  Speaker 4: Um, so that is obviously something that really like upends
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  Speaker 4: your life.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: At the time, I was working in law firms. I
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: thought that I would go to law school. I actually
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: had just enrolled in a paralegal program and that was
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: like all paid for. My books were bought, everything.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And then I got outed the month before I was
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: supposed to start that.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So you had a really conservative job. But what about
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: back in 2011, like when Anthony Weiner first came into
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the news for his first scandal? Like what were you doing?
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Who were you back then?
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: Back then I was, I feel like a much more
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: serious person and very interested in politics. And like, that's
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: obviously how I knew who he was. I was very
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: passionate about that. Very pretty dorky at that time of
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: my life. I feel like I just like watched MSNBC
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: all day and was like very invested in what was
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: going on politically in the country.
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  Speaker 2: What were you different from? Go ahead. I'm just going
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to say very different for most people my age at
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: that time.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: What was your thought on politics in general? Like, where
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: did you lean?
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  Speaker 4: I definitely was very left leaning. I'm from Illinois, a
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: democratic state. And, you know, Obama was my senator, I
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: got to vote for him my first two elections was
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: very excited about that. Yeah, so I was very, you know,
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: invested in the political world. And that's what why I
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: was interested in this person in.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: The first place. Right.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So what did you think about Anthony Weiner's scandal the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: first time it came around. So people that may be
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: listening that don't know about it, Anthony Weiner was in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: politics at the time. I think he was just in Congress.
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  Speaker 1: Is that, do you remember? Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And he, but he was known as like a scrappy
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: guy who didn't take shit from anybody. I mean, he
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: really made a name for himself back then. And let's see,
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  Speaker 1: he was part of the democratic party. He consistently carried
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the district with 60% of the vote. I mean, he
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: was kind of a big deal at the time. And
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: then it came out that he had, taken a photo
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of himself with his, you know, private parts and his
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: underwear or whatever, and had sent that to somebody, right?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Was that the first scandal that came out?
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Well, he actually, he tweeted it accidentally. I think he
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: meant to DM somebody and he actually tweeted it. And
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  Speaker 4: then he lied and said he was like being framed
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: by like, I think he tried to say like Andrew
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Breitbart framed him or something. And I was an idiot.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: I actually thought this person was framed. So I believed him.
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  Speaker 4: And that's actually how we began talking when it came
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  Speaker 4: out that he was lying. I DM'd him and I
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  Speaker 4: was like, you're a piece.
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  Speaker 2: Of shit, basically.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. And did he respond?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, surprisingly. I think it was like a few months later.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, he did reply to that. Also, to backtrack
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: a little, at the time, I thought a lot of
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: what you were saying was true about like, oh, he's
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: this like scrappy do-gooder. In reality, he was just somebody
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  Speaker 4: who was a blowhard and he was loud for attention,
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  Speaker 4: but he wasn't really passing any meaningful legislation. He wasn't
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  Speaker 4: really a good member of Congress.
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  Speaker 1: That's interesting.
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  Speaker 2: He was just Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: He was just somebody who was loud trying to make
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  Speaker 4: a name for himself and who was like an attention whore,
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  Speaker 4: but he wasn't really someone.
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  Speaker 2: Who was good at his job. Wow.
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  Speaker 4: Which is something I know now is somebody who is
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  Speaker 4: older and more mature and knows more.
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  Speaker 2: About these things.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 2: But at the time, I did not realize this.
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  Speaker 1: Right, right, right. Okay, so you had been talking to
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  Speaker 1: him from... Were you talking to him from 2011 to 2013?
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  Speaker 1: What was your relationship with him?
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  Speaker 4: I think it was more like maybe end of 2011.
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  Speaker 4: It's hard to remember now. It's been so long. But yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: something around that.
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  Speaker 1: And what were your conversations like? How did it get
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  Speaker 1: into an intimate, you know, turn? How did it turn
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  Speaker 1: that way?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think he just saw that I was
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: like an attractive, much younger woman.
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  Speaker 2: So he was interested.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: So tell me about your kind of conversations that took place.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: How often were you speaking a day?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, it's hard to say now. It's been a
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: million years. But we spoke a lot. And he definitely would, like,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: dangle carrots to keep me interested. He would, like, say
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: he was going to get me a job or an
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  Speaker 4: apartment or, you know, things that wealthy older men will
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  Speaker 4: say to keep me interested.
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  Speaker 3: The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going
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  Speaker 3: for it?
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  Speaker 5: This exclusive place that Dad has connections with. They have
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: more cars for more dealerships than, like, anywhere else.
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  Speaker 3: You have to put me in touch. What's it called?
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  Speaker 5: It's Dunediel.
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  Speaker 4: Where?
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  Speaker 5: Dunediel. There's an accent on the E.
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  Speaker 3: Do you mean.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, I got it on Dunediel Cars.
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  Speaker 2: Lift? Please.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: You going past Kimmage? Oh, Kimmage!
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 5: Dunediel Cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Younger woman interested. Right.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: And I'm not gonna lie, that definitely played into me
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  Speaker 4: being in the situation as long as I was, you know.
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  Speaker 1: So he was making you false promises. And then you
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  Speaker 1: guys were having some amount of phone sex, right?
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Or? Yeah, yes. And sexting. And yeah, all of that.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so this lasted for at least a year?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
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  Speaker 1: So at this point then in 2013, he decides he's
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  Speaker 1: going to run for mayor. Does he tell you this
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  Speaker 1: or you had to read about it?
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: He did tell me this, which I thought was weird.
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  Speaker 4: But the moment that I remember that really like struck
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  Speaker 4: me was he did this People Magazine article. And he's
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: like on the cover of People Magazine with his wife.
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  Speaker 4: And it's all this stuff about how he's like a
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: changed man. And he would never behave in the ways
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: that he did previously. And it was all bullshit. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: it was super hypocritical. And I really don't. like hypocrites
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: and it really just rubbed me the wrong way.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, I don't know.
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  Speaker 4: That was like a turning point for me. He actually
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: sent me the article and I think he thought I
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: would like, think it was funny. But really I was like, wow,
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  Speaker 4: this guy really is a piece of shit.
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  Speaker 1: Did you guys ever speak about his relationship with his wife?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Never once.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, he never mentioned her. I never did either.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: It was just like, yeah, never something we addressed.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And did he talk about his kid? He has one kid,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we never talked about anything other.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: We talked about his work, but we never talked about
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: his personal life on that level, like family.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: No, never.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: I kind of assumed maybe they had some sort of
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: arrangement because she stayed with him after the previous sexting stuff,
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: but I never asked. Right, right.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you basically outed him during his campaign and
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: it really floored the campaign. They did not know how
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to come up with a cohesive response to it. And
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: it really, you know, at that time, I think he
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was doing really well in the polls.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: He was number one in the polls.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think you outing him, you know, it
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: just derailed it because they were like, oh, my God,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: not again. Another scandal, another way he's lying to us.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: So tell me the story about how you outed him.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: So I gave information anonymously to a gossip blog because
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: I did not want to be attached to this story
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: in any way. I've seen how the media treats young women,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: especially young sexual women, anybody in a scandalous situation.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: So I definitely wanted no part of that.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: But hold on. Before you tell me that part of it,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: what made you say, okay, I'm going to out him now.
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  Speaker 1: I want to tell somebody this story. Because You could
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: have just had a conversation with him and been like,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: how could you run for mayor? You're a total liar.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: You're still cheating on your wife. Everything you say is
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: not true. You're a hypocrite. But then there's a whole
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: other level of outing somebody publicly and basically derailing their career.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: What made you say, I have to let people know
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: about this?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I didn't derail his career. He derailed his career.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: That's a very good point. I shouldn't say it like that.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. But what made you say, I need
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to let people know?
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Um, just that people magazine article. That was the turning
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: point when he sent that to me and thought it
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: was funny that he was like pulling one over on
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: people and knowing he was number one in the polls.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: And I mean, mayor of New York city is a
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: pretty serious job, you know, to feel like this person
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: was a liar and a fraud and, you know, thought
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: it was funny that he was, you know, lying to
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: potential constituents. Um, And repeating this previous awful behavior, I
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: don't know. I just couldn't keep that to myself. I
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: actually felt like it was important to share. And again,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I thought, why would I want to be attached to
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: this story? I've never wanted to be famous or really infamous.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: It's more of the correct term, I feel like, in
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: this case. So yeah, I gave everything anonymously to this
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: gossip blog and thought like, I did it.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: It's out there. Like nothing will ever come from this
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: past this point for me.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: So was that the dirty? Was that when you reached
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: out to Nick Ritchie?
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: And how did you get a hold of him? What
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: did he think? I mean, he needs now I know
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: something about Rick because I mean, Nick, because I've been
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: in his, you know, in his columns before. He may
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: write about really scandalous stuff that some people, you know,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: think is on over the edge. But at the same time,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: he checks his sources. So how did you get him
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to believe you?
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Well, we were Facebook friends already. And I had like,
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: you know, known of him and his site a little bit.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: And I thought, potentially, this was someone I could trust
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: to keep me anonymous.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Like, why would he care? I'm not a public figure.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: So I felt like, well, why would he care to
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: include me in the story? So I sent him screenshots
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: of everything. And it's like Wiener's personal Facebook account. It's
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: like very easy to verify.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: So, you know, I sent him my proof, whatever. We
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: spoke about it. I was very much like, you know,
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I do not want to be associated with this. This
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: will like fuck up my life, my career, my future, everything.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I just didn't even it sounds naive. But again,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: I'm 23 at this point. You know, I didn't even
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: think there would be any reason for me to not
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: be anonymous.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Like, again, I'm not a public figure. Why would anyone care?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I'm no one. And I don't want to be anyone.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: And then BuzzFeed ended up outing me.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So I saw that. How did they figure out it
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was you?
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: I actually just found this out recently, Wiener's campaign. They
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: had me outed. I think they thought, well, we'll punish her.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: We'll put her legal name out there and she will
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: be shunned from society. And most women in scandals do
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: go hide away and they do shut up. Monica Lewinsky
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: went and hid away for what, like 20 years? I
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: actually think they thought that that's what I would do.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: I would be so... ashamed and I would be shunned
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: from society and I would just go away and never
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: be heard from again. And that would be my punishment,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: I think is what they thought.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: But that didn't work out that way.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: That's such an interesting point, though, because I think that
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: when you are outed, it takes away all your credibility, right?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So then people go at you and say, is this
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a credible source? Could we believe her? We don't believe
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: her because of this and the other thing. So do
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you think they tried to destroy your credibility there to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: make it seem natural?
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: for it?
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: This exclusive place that Dada's connections with. They have more
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: You have to put me in touch. What's it called?
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: It's Dunaidial.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Where?
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: Dunaidial. There's an accent on the E.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Do you mean.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: Yes, I got it on Dundale Cars.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Lift, please.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: You going past Kimmage?
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: Oh, Kimmage.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: No.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: Dundale Cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Of course, yeah.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Totally, totally.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: Um, but really it backfired on them because I lost
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: my job over the situation. Um, I, I don't come
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: from a family where I can be like, Hey dad,
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: I need you to help me with six months of rent.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: Like I was on my own at this point, I
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: was taking care of myself entirely. Um, so for my situation,
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: I was like, well, shit, I am in a really
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: bad spot. I now don't have a job because of this.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: So when tabloid offers were coming in, stuff that I
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: wouldn't have wanted to do previously, it was like, well,
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: I need to make some money now. So I'm going
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: to have to talk about this, even if I don't
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: want to. So it definitely backfired on them. Yeah, I'm
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: sure they thought that I would go hide in shame,
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: but I couldn't afford to do that.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: That's such an interesting.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I had to take... I had to take the shameless route.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: So I totally think that that's interesting that people don't
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: realize that at some point your life changes so much
• 15:29
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  Speaker 1: the number one meal kit for eating well. I saw
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  Speaker 1: that you did a lot of stuff. You were on
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Howard Stern, right? How was that, by the way?
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: It was great. Yeah, he's lovely.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: You were in talks with different porn studios. you did
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: swimsuit shoots, you did stripping gigs, you did modeling for
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: leather clothes. And you actually did a labiaplasty where you
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: tried to sell your labia for money. Is that true?
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would do anything at that point to just
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: like make a few bucks off tabloid shit, like whatever.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And was it helping? Was it, were you able to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: pay your rent?
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally. Yeah.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I kind of took every opportunity at that point.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: And it's interesting because I knew at that time that
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: that was like skewing people's view of me. It's very
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: easy for someone to see you doing tabloid stuff for
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: them to be like, oh, you wanted to be famous.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Like clearly you orchestrated this somehow, you know, you're just
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: like a fame whore. But the reality of the situation
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: was I just had to like Do what I needed
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: to do to survive, basically. And I had to like
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: kind of not care about people's opinions and just like
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: lean into being shameless, I guess. Yeah.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: So had you ever done a sex tape before this
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: time or a sex video at all?
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: No, never.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: for it?
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: This exclusive place that Dad has connections with. They have
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: You have to put me in touch. What's it called?
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: It's Dune ADL.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Where?
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: Dune ADL? There's an accent on the E.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Do you mean?
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: Yes, I got it on Done Deal Cars.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Lyft?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Please.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: You going past Kimmage? Oh, Kimmage.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: No.
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: Done Deal Cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And it's interesting.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: So I got outed kind of into two parts. I
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: got outed first by BuzzFeed just for the scandal. And
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: then everyone started like digging into my past at that point.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: And it came out I had been on a sugar
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: daddy site, which was true. Somebody, I think, sold a
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: screenshot of my profile on a sugar daddy site. So
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: when that came out, there were headlines that were like,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: Sydney Leathers is a prostitute.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I love how they love to change that verbiage to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: make it seem illegal or whatever. But go ahead.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: And so, yeah, that was definitely, I think, part of
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: why porn studios became interested in me. They were like, oh,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: the sex work angle like we can play into this.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: And it's funny, I definitely said no several times to
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: porn offers. Like it took me a minute to be
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: able to be comfortable with that idea. And then not
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: that there's anything wrong with it. It's just not a
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: path I saw myself taking. You know, it's a pretty
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: big leap to go from, I think I'm going to
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: be a lawyer to, I guess I'm going to do
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: porn now. I just didn't really see that in my future.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it took me a minute to be able
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: to like warm up to the idea and Um, but honestly,
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: I'm glad that I did it. I think it was
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: a good opportunity for me. It helped me pay my bills. Um,
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: I did end up going back to college about a
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: year after my scandal.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Um, and you were able to pay for college.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: And I actually, it was very, very nice.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: I did have a relative, a cousin of mine who, um,
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: is like almost like a mom to me.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: We're very, very close.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: She helped me with college, basically paid my tuition and books.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: I paid all my living expenses. And because of my situation,
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: I was able to like work as little as possible.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: You know, I would fly to Vegas, shoot porn on
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: the weekends, go home and be a normal college student.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: So I lived kind of a weird double life.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So you ended up doing
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: more than one. You did a number of different porn videos.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: How many do you think in total?
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure. Not a ton. Maybe between 15 and 20.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Not a ton.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: To me, I wanted to do as little porn as
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: possible to get by. So I was just shooting enough
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: to pay my living expenses while I was in school.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: But I didn't really care about making a name for
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: myself in porn. I wasn't like, I'm going to shoot
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: as much as I can.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I was like, I'm actually going to shoot as little
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: as possible. Yeah.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So not to be rude, you do have a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: porn name already as a birth name. So did you
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: have to change your name for the videos?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: It's really funny.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: So everyone assumes Sydney Leathers is a fake name because
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: it sounds like a fake name. It is very porno.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: But no, that's my legal name. That is really my name.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: No one ever believes that. But that was kind of
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: a difficult part of the scandal, though, because Because my
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: legal name is in the press, all the porn studio
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: offers are like contingent on me using that legal name.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: I couldn't come up with a stage name like most
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: people in porn would. So that's something that, you know,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: kind of makes you feel vulnerable. You know, it's like
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: that that is my legal name.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, now I'm in the unique situation of I
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: really would like to change my last name.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: I keep joking with my boyfriend like I didn't care
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: about marriage before. And now I'm like, well, we have
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: to get married so I can have your last name. Right.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. So talk to me about the porn
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: parody Wiener and Me. I think Vivid put it out.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my first movie was with Vivid.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: OK, so what was it like doing your very first movie?
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Definitely different than I thought it would be. I had
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: a good time. Yeah, it wasn't a bad experience. I'm
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: pretty like shy and introverted. So I was like, Oh
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: my god, am I even going to be able to
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: do this? Like, But I think actually having like a
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: small history in sex work with the sugar daddy stuff
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: kind of weirdly prepared me for this. I kind of
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: knew how to put on the game face, like get
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: through something, even if I'm a little shy. So yeah,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: it wasn't as bad as I thought. It ended up
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: being fine. The people I shot with were lovely.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: It was a good experience. Yeah.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So explain like the details of it. Like, did they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: introduce you to the guy ahead of time? Did they
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: then say, okay, you're going to move here, move there.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: This is what I want you to do with your body. Like,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: How did that all work?
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: They like gave me a few different guys as options
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: and I got to choose who I worked with, which
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: was nice. And I selected somebody who looked a lot
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: like a previous like.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Fuck buddy of mine.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: And in my mind, I was like, okay, well this
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: will be easier because he like looks like someone I'm
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: familiar with. I thought I would have like a little
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: more comfortability because of that. And we met on set
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: the day of and yeah, Yeah, I don't know. You
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: just go and you get your hair and makeup done
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: and you feel all pretty.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And did you do it all in one take or
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: they had to cut a couple times?
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: It was a long day because you do like non-sex
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: stuff for like hours before you get to the actual
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: like sex stuff. But yeah, it was like a whole
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: day of shooting. It was a long day.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's so interesting. So you were talking about
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: your family for a second. What did they think about
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: you and the scandal? What did your friends think of you?
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: It's interesting.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: So I would say I pretty much lost all of
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: my friends. I lived in a conservative area. And everyone
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: very quickly was just like, everyone was just very much like,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: you know, Oh, haha, look at this dumb slut. Like,
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I definitely lost all of my friends at that point,
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: which was a harsh reality check. But on the flip side,
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: my family situation was better. I would say everyone I'm
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: close to in my family didn't care. The only people
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: who had anything to say were people I wasn't close
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: with in my family, so it was irrelevant to me.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: But all the people that I loved and I'm close
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: with and actually care about their opinions, they know who
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: I am and they love me and accept me. And yeah, so...
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: So that was nice. At least I had an easier
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: time on that front for sure. And the plus side
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: too is that like all of my best friends I
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: have now and even my boyfriend, like these are people
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: I probably wouldn't have met had my situation not happened.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: So it's like difficult to admit that good came out
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: of this like horror.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: for it?
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: This exclusive place that Dad has connections with. They have
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: more cars for more dealerships than, like, anywhere else.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: You have to put me in touch. What's it called?
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: It's Dunediel.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Where?
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Dunediel.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: There's an accent on the E.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Do you mean.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: Yes, I got it on Dunediel Cars.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Lift?
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Please.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: You going past Kimmage?
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: Oh, Kimmage.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: No.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Dunediel Cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: Sometimes I almost feel like I'm like betraying myself to
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: admit that. But a lot of good did come out
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: of it. And yeah, I have like wonderful people in
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: my life now who would never abandon me over any
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: tabloid stuff.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love that. So talk to me about your
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: mental health at the time. I mean, I know as
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: someone who's been through a scandal as well, and as
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: someone who knows what it's like when everyone is making
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: an opinion about you, it's being posted, people are talking
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: about you. You are the one that kind of is
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: alone at night and has to live with your thoughts.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And that becomes really, really difficult. How are you doing
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: emotionally at the time?
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: At the time, it was very difficult. I would say
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: like the first couple of months were like extremely rough.
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, I had moments where I actually felt suicidal,
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: especially like after immediately after being outed. I felt very hopeless.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: And I was, you know, I felt like my future
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: was kind of stolen from me. And I was like, oh,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: my God, am I ever going to be able to
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: get any kind of job? Like, I kind of couldn't
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: imagine that. how my life was going to get any
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: better from that point. It was definitely like a very
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: dark time. And it's interesting because if you like watch
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: any media stuff of me at the time, I seem
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: like I'm fine. I seem like I'm somebody who like
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: has a good sense of humor about things and I
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: can like put on a brave face and I'm very
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: good at like laughing at dark stuff. And yeah, I
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: seem like I'm fine and happy and all of that.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: But like you were just saying, when you're alone at night,
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: like it's definitely different, you know?
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, it was a really rough time. At the time,
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: I think I mentioned earlier, you know, I had just
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: started trying to address some of my childhood stuff. And
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: I'd been very overmedicated by the person I was seeing
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: trying to address my PTSD stuff. And I think being
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: overmedicated during the time of my whole scandal was really
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: It definitely made things worse. The medication I was on,
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: I feel like was making me more like emotional and
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: like kind of erratic and just like overall more unstable,
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: I felt like.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: So maybe like five.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: Months after my scandal, I ended up going to rehab
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: and getting off of that medication. And then when I
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: got off the medication, I found like legitimate trauma therapy
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: that I had never had before. Like I really needed
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: like PTSD specific therapy, not just talk therapy. And I
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: started doing that. And honestly, that like changed my life.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: That was the best move I've ever made. It made
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: me a much more like stable, functional, happy person, like
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: changed my life in ways that I didn't think would
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: even be possible. So yeah, I really like credit that
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: and going back to school as like the things that
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: kept me like normal and grounded after this like super
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: traumatizing experience. Right.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: So have you ever had the opportunity to speak with
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Anthony Weiner since?
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Well, there was another like round of scandals, basically, where
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: a 15 year old came to me and said that
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: they had been sexting with him. So I did not
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: speak with him about this.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: But this was.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: something I had to deal with. And basically the FBI
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: ended up getting involved. He went to prison for a
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: year because it was all true. He's on the sex
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: offender registry now. And in a weird way, like it
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: was hard because it brought up some of my own
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: like childhood trauma stuff. It was like very triggering for me.
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: So it like gave me a whole new set of
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: stuff I had to work through, but in a weird way,
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: it also gave me some closure to the situation and
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: kind of made me realize like, I was not entirely
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: the villain in this situation. And this is an older
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: man that takes advantage of young women and sometimes minors.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: And I also found out that there had been like
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: a 17 year old before me that the media like
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: barely spoke about. And yeah, it just seemed like, you know,
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: people really made a lot of excuses for this guy's behavior.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: And when a man does something and has a sex scandal,
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: People tend to say things like, oh, he's a sex
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: addict and like make these excuses for him that these
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: excuses are not made for the women. You know, the
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: women are vilified and like made into a laughingstock and
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: the men are kind of like given a pass.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: I felt like it was kind of like a full
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: circle thing and kind of, yeah, gave me some closure
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: to everything, I think.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: It's interesting you say that. He went to rehab. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: think he went to the Meadows and checked himself in
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: for sex addiction, right?
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, which even that is like, kind of a sketchy thing.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: Like most people say sex addiction isn't even a real thing.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: I think it's just like an excuse that powerful men
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: use to Yeah.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: To excuse their bad behavior.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: So what do you think his bad behavior was from?
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, do you think he was in a bad marriage?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think he was looking for attention? Do you
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: think he had a sex addiction? Obviously, it sounds like
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you don't. But like, what do you think was going
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: on with him?
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: I think maybe there's some sort of like compulsion for sure.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: But I don't know if it's like a sex addiction,
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: you know? Yeah, I can't diagnose him. I don't know
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: what his problem is. But I do think he's a
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: terrible person.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: You do. Okay, so that was my next question.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I think anyone.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Anyone that takes advantage of someone that they know is
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: 15 years old is an awful person.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Like to me, that's like irredeemable.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: So you don't feel like you owe him an apology
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. Do you think he
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: owes you an apology?
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, of course, like if it's true and I
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: know it's true, he had me outed because the person
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: who told me was one of the reporters involved in
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: the story.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: So like, yeah, sure.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: But I don't really expect that or actually, to be honest,
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: I don't even want that. I would never want to
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: be in contact with this person again. And it's been
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: so long and I feel like I'm in such a
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: good place in my life now that, yeah, it's kind
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: of like let the past be the past.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: If you ran into him, though, how would you feel
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: about that? What would you do?
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I would literally turn and walk the other direction.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: OK, what are you doing now? So at what point
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: did the job offer stop for the the porn or the,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: you know, the tabloid interviews? At what point did you
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: have to figure out how to make money again on
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: your own?
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I could have kept doing porn, but
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: it just didn't feel like something that felt like a
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: career for me. I, to be honest, I was bored.
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: I felt burnout. I'd been shooting porn, but I also
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: would work at all the porn conventions throughout the year.
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: And as I mentioned before, I'm very introverted. And it's
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: just not for me.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I just felt like that's not my personality.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: I am a homebody.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: So now I have been at a company for a
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: little over two years. I do marketing and social media
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: for them. It's a company where I get to give
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: back to sex workers. I book sex workers for a
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: lot of photo shoots for us. So I'm still like
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: within that community, but I have like a more corporate role.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: And it's something I've been super happy doing and like
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: very successful with and like definitely see myself at this
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: company for a very long time.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it's nice. I work for.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: Somebody who can look at my situation and see that
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: I am resilient and like He respects that I have
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: like a sense of humor about my stuff. It's not
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: something where I have a job where I'm like, Oh,
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: my God, are they going to find out? You know,
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: am I going to get fired for my like sketchy past?
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: So you can embrace your past in the role that
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you have now, but you don't have to live your
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: past and do sketchy things to make money.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, totally. So I'm super happy and in like
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: a very good place in life. Good.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: So what do you think about all these different scandals
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that have happened since you and the women that get
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: involved and what would your, well, first of all, just
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: answer that.
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: I feel like it's interesting because I was already an
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: empathetic person prior to my own scandal. And I think, uh,
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: even more so now, and especially when I see women
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: being dragged in the media, like, uh, it like tugs
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: at my heartstrings, you know, that's something I'm very sensitive to. And, um,
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: you know, when you know what that feels like, it's
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: easy to feel like, oh, man, like, I've even been
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: in situations where somebody has been being attacked in the media,
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: and I've, you know, sent them a message like, hey,
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: I know this sucks. I'm here if you need someone
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: to talk to, like, hope that's not weird. You know, like,
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: I've tried to, like, kind of lend myself to people
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: in similar situations at times.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: And do they respond?
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I had one girl specifically, Bell Knox, we kind
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: of became friends. She was somebody who like got outed
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: for doing porn while she was in college and her
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: stuff blew up in the media. And we were pals
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: for a minute. Yeah, I've definitely tried to be nice
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: to people who were in similar spots.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So what I think is interesting about your
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: situation is that Forever, your name is entwined in the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Anthony Weiner scandal. But what's interesting about that, and obviously
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: you had history with him and you feel intimately entwined
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: with him a little bit as well. But what's interesting
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: about it is you've never actually met him, right?
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Like, and it's so funny too. I feel like
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: people get their scandals confused. Like some people think I'm
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: like from the Elliot Spitzer scandal or that I was
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: like an escort at the time. And like, I have
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: slept with him and I'm like, this was just like
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: a phone sex situation and like a sexting situation.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: There was no actual sex happening. So that's kind of funny.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: But honestly, like, Yeah.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I do a lot of like cat rescue stuff.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: And I just like focus on like the stuff that
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: makes me feel good. And when I think of like
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: who I am as a person, my first thought isn't like, oh,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: the girl from the scandal, you know, I think about
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: like all the good things that I do and like
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: the people that love me and like, I don't know,
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: like none of that registers to me anymore, which is great.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Yes. And I know that takes a long time to
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: get to that place. So I really admire that you're there. Um,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Would you trade everything to go back to who you
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: were before 2013?
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Actually, no.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: And if you told me that like right in the
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: midst of it, I would not believe that I would
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: ever have that answer. But I'm a much happier person now.
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: And I really credit the PTSD therapy I did. I'm
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: in a super good place. And I think healing from
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: some of the childhood trauma stuff really made a huge
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: difference for me as a person. And yeah, I just
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: feel much more stable and happy and solid and Yeah,
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: and I also I think the cat rescue stuff I've
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: done has been like weirdly healing. And I think I
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: kind of found myself through like, you know, volunteer stuff
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: I've done and Yeah, I don't know. I feel very
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: good about my life now in a way that I
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: was not sure was possible when all of my stuff
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: first came out.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you for that.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: So where could people find you if they want to
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: reach out to you? And like if somebody is going
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: through a specific circumstance and they feel like you've been
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: through what they were through and they want some advice,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: where can people reach you?
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, on Instagram or Twitter, either one.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: And what's your Instagram?
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Sydney Lane XL.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: And I am verified on there. So it's easy. to
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: find me.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Perfect. And you read your DMS and your comments.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I wish you the best. I
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: think it's really important to bring the person behind the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: headlines to the forefront and let people know who they are,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: because I think that it's so much more, um, It's
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: so much more interesting to hear it from you. And
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: also it gives people a different perspective because so many
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: times there are people in a sex scandal and they
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: just sort of blame the woman. And I think it's
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: very easy now to understand your perspective of why it happened,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: why you were there. And even though you were in
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: a situation where you were adding to it by doing
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the sexting, it wasn't sort of what you deserved after
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the fact. So I really appreciate you being here. Thank
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: you so much for listening to Misunderstood. I'm your host,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Rachel Yucatel. Please be sure to subscribe to the show
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and give us a five-star rating and review. You can
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: support the show by joining our Patreon at patreon.com slash
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: misunderstood with Rachel Yucatel. Do you have ideas for the
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: show or want to reach out? Email us at infomisunderstoodpodcast
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: at gmail.com. That's spelled M-I-S-S understood. Thank you so much,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you next time.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: for it?
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: This exclusive place that Dad has connections with. They have
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: You have to put me in touch. What's it called?
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: It's Dunaidial.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: Where?
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: Dunaidial. There's an accent on the E.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Do you mean.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: Yes, I got it on Dundale Cars.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: Lift? Please. Are you going past Kimmage?
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, Kimmage.
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: No.
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: Dundale Cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else.