Latest / Outspoken the Podcast / Freelee the Banana Girl Deep Dive Episode 1: The OG 'Wellness Warrior'

Transcript

Freelee the Banana Girl Deep Dive Episode 1: The OG 'Wellness Warrior' · Outspoken the Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We want to issue a trigger warning as we will
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: be discussing themes around eating disorders and domestic violence.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Hi, everyone. My name's Freely, and today I'm going to
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: show you how much fruit I eat in a day.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Freely the Banana Girl was the face of the online
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: vegan movement in Australia. The OG wellness warrior captured mainstream
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: attention when she claimed she ate 51 bananas.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: 51 bananas today.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: This is finished.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie, I'm really full.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: What started out as a mission to spread awareness about
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: veganism quickly became a toxic crusade for online power and clout.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Rather than fighting for the rights of animals, Freely fought
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: with other vegans and influencers. And instead of progressing the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: vegan movement, she instead progressed her own personal agenda. These days,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Freely is somewhat of an internet urban legend of the 2010s.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Internet whispers say she's still living off the grid in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a jungle. Despite her influence being at full power over
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: a decade ago, her rule to afford diet is still
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: being blamed for fueling followers' eating disorders. We are journalists
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Sophie and Kate Torber and we are fascinated by the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: world of influencers and the psychology of cancel culture. In
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: this series, we will delve into Freely's biggest scandals, her
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: fall from grace and the danger of influence. When you
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: say the name Freely the Banana Girl, it really elicits
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a particular response from people our age, Sophie. She has
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: become an internet urban legend from the 2010s. And there
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: are a lot of TikTok circulating at the moment where
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: people are reflecting on that time and saying that she
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: triggered their eating disorders with the content that she was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: putting out there because it was sort of around the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: guise of being healthy because all she was consuming was fruit,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: but in very large and weird quantities.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: And she was extremely powerful.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So she had over 790,000 YouTube subscribers and 425,000 followers
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: between her two Instagram accounts. during the early days of influencing.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: That was a massive amount. Yeah, that was massive at
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the time. She is Australian as well, which might surprise
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: some people.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: An Adelaide girl, actually.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So it was a crazy time for Adelaide because you
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: had Freely the Banana Girl and also Kayla Adsenas both
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: living in South Australia. Yeah. And Freely isn't her real name.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Her name is Leanne Ratcliffe. And I mean, it doesn't
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: quite have the same ring to it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: It's not as catchy.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and she called herself Freely the Banana Girl because
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it's a combination of her first name Leanne, so Le,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and the word freedom, and of course, her fruit of choice,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: which was bananas. So Freely started her YouTube channel back
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: in 2007 as a place to spread awareness about veganism
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and also to record her progress. I didn't even know
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: YouTube was a thing in 2007. I'm reflecting that is
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the year after we graduated from high school. And it's
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: quite ironic because before becoming a YouTuber, Freely worked in
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: a range of hospitality jobs, including working at McDonald's.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Is that why she turned vegan?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe her experience at McDonald's. Maybe. Now her diet was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: at the center of everything she shared. And this was
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: at a time when veganism was taking off and causing
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of debate online and She followed what she
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: called a frugivorous diet, which is a zoological term for
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: species who thrive on a diet consisting of fruit. Now,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a more accurate term to describe her diet is fruitarian.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Whenever I hear the word fruitarian, I always think of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the movie Notting Hill. Was it Alice that was from
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Vicar of Dibley? Her character was a fruitarian. Yeah. And
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: what got Freely a lot of attention in the mainstream
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: media was that she claimed that she ate 51 bananas
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in a day. headline was absolutely everywhere. It's how I
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: learned of her.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: And I was like, what the hell? Cause I actually
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: hate bananas. So the thought of eating 51 is just
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: not pleasant.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: It's also a lot of calories to consume on bananas
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: because most bananas have about a hundred calories. So it
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was definitely to create a lot of shock and attention
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: her way. And she derived most of her daily food
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: intake from this style of eating that she named mono meals,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: where she would eat a single fruit or vegetable a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but in bulk. So normally she would eat perhaps 20
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: bananas in a day, or she'd stick to pineapple and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: have two pineapples in a day or six mangoes in
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: a day. Wouldn't you get sick of the same thing
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: all day long? So on this diet, she ended up
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: losing 40 pounds and that became a major promotional tool
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that she used to say, I lost so much weight
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and you should eat like me. Now we can't talk
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: about Freely without discussing her boyfriend and fellow vegan activist,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Harley Johnston. So just like Freely, Harley had a vegan alias.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So he went by the name Durian Rider, which came
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: from his love of the fruit, durian, and also his
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: passion for cycling. The only thing I really know about
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: durians is that they're very popular in Malaysia. And when
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: we would holiday there as children, there would be these
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: big gold signs up all over the hotel saying, don't
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: bring them in because when you open them up, apparently
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: they stink. Yeah, that always put me off from trying one.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: So I actually don't know what they taste like. I'm
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: assuming they're good. I think they're very sweet. I think
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they actually taste really nice apart from the smell. So
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Freely and Harley actually met online in 2007 on a
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: raw vegan food forum and they instantly hit it off
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: bonding over veganism and their love of training.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: That's quite rare because I feel like.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: There was still a bit of internet danger back in 2007.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Like if you said that you met someone online online,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you would think that they were some crazed murderer or predator,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like you wouldn't be meeting up with them.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: So it was a pretty novel thing back in 2007.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: So Harley took Freely under his wing and he got
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: her into a strict high carb, zero stimulant diet so
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: she could take part in a 40 plus day bike
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: ride across Australia with him in 2008. And they were
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: definitely the internet power couple of the 2010s. Nothing like
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the couple goals we've come to see on Instagram though. Instead,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: their power came from backing each other's controversial views. So
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: for example, they were both very passionate about stopping the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: human race from reproducing. In fact, some of the content
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: they shared centered around trying to convince men to get vasectomies.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Now in 2009, Freely launched her own forum called 30
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Bananas a Day, and she built a very engaged community.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Forums were just massive back then. And it did seem
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: like there was almost a niche forum for everyone. In
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: this case, it was about raw food, veganism, gardening, and exercise.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: A lot of celebrities were also creating fan forums and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: then charging their fans to join it. I remember there
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: was a Rob Mills forum that we may have paid
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: money to join.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Did we pay for that? I think we did.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I think you had to pay a membership fee because
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: it would be a gimmick that they would then come
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: on to the forum and chat to everyone.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: See, we ever paid. Our mom and dad would not
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: have allowed us to do that. We did pay.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I think we put our birthday pocket money or something
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: to it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Oh God, that is so sad. Moving on swiftly.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I think the anonymous nature of forums like this made
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it the perfect place for people to be able to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: connect without judgment.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: And it's funny.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Because I remember you'd have more clout on forums based
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: on your avatar or signature or how many posts you'd make.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: It was also a very dangerous place as well because
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the anonymous nature of people meant that they.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Would share their deepest darkest thoughts.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Which in this case when you're bonding over something extreme
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: as eating 50 bananas a day or really restricting your
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: calories this sort of place just bred eating disorders now
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: when it came to freely's diet it wasn't just about
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: getting people to eat vegan she really wanted people to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: follow exactly what she was eating And in a bid
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to get people to follow her vegan diet, she created
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: diet e-books promising this lure of weight loss with her
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: as a bit of a hook because she had lost.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: So much weight.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: And the most well-known of her e-books was called The
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Raw Till 4 Diet. And this phrase just sends a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: shiver down my spine. I remember at the time a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: lot of our friends doing it and it was seen
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: as doing something that you were being quite You're being
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: obviously restrictive, but it was seen as being very vigilant.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I'm doing this before I have a special event on.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: The name is quite ingenious because you don't really need
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to know that much about it other than the fact
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that you can't eat cooked foods until four o'clock. So
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: your options are pretty limited. You're eating raw fruit or
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: vegetables until 4 p.m.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: And I mean, that's just not good for you.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it did specify in the book that after 4 p.m.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you could indulge in Freely's cooked mono meals.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: And one extreme example of one of these mono meals
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: was eight pounds of cooked potatoes for dinner. Now, this
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: is where things got quite confusing because despite Freely promoting
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: her eBooks under the guise of weight loss, a lot
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: of people actually started coming out and saying that the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: diet made them gain weight. And it forced Freely to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: defend the diet saying it wasn't about instant results and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: could take up to two years to get results. She
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: also explained that she initially gained 20 kilos on the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: diet and it took her a while to lose the weight.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: What an interesting diet plan because you never hear people going, oh,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it actually takes two years. Like it used to be
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: back in the day, you'll get to this in like
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: 30 days. Well, you think about Kayla Etzinas' ebook, which
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: was around at a similar time and it was called
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: The Bikini Body Guide and it was about instant results.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: It was an eight, I think an eight week.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Program and it was basically get fit for summer so
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you can go out in a bikini. But this is saying, okay,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: it takes you two years. You're probably going to put
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: on a bit of weight in the interim period. To me,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense as to why people were
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: putting on weight, though, because even when you crunch the numbers,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: if you were eating an extreme of anything, particularly like fruit,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: which has a lot of natural sugars in it, course
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you're going to put on a lot of weight.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And her example of eating eight kilograms worth of potatoes,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: like you're not really going to be dropping kilos. Well,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it's all about eating in abundance, isn't it? Because it's,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I ate 51 bananas. Like that's still 5,100 calories in
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a day. But that's how she hooked people in because
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I thought, okay, well, I can lose weight and look
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: really good, but actually eat a lot of food.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Now the raw till four diet.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Was slammed for being incredibly restrictive, unbalanced and nutritionally deficient.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: And experts warned it could lead to disordered eating.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Now, many people have come out and said that Freely's content,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: as you said at the start of this episode, fueled
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: their eating disorders and had a really negative impact on
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: their health. And I think the saddest thing is that
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: many of Freely's followers were very well-meaning and interested in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: veganism for animal rights and ethical reasons. And many of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: them were really vulnerable and they were searching for a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: way to become healthy and lose weight. And it's really
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: hard to look back at that time because she really
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: did promote such a toxic and disordered way of eating
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: that harms so many people. I think veganism really became
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: coded for going on a diet. There were so many
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: YouTubers who would say, oh, I'm testing out a vegan
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: diet for a couple of weeks so I can try
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and lose weight. It didn't necessarily have anything to do
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: with them wanting to help animals or an ethical approach
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to it. And a lot of people who actually had
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: eating disorders prior to discovering veganism used it as a cover.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: So there are a lot of people that.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Ended up having orthorexia from adopting the vegan diet. Well,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: because it automatically cuts out butter, milk, cream, so many
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: food groups. And instead of saying, I'm doing this because
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I want to get skinny, you're saying, no, I want
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to do this for all the ethical reasons. Don't question
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: me about it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Well, it's pretty interesting because Freely hit her peak fame
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: between 2014 and 2016. And that's when she began calling
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: out non-vegan YouTubers.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: So The concept wasn't new.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: At the time, the vegan YouTube community was absolutely riddled
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: with drama and other big vegan YouTubers were finding a
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: lot of notoriety by attacking non-vegan creators for their diet.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: So for instance, in 2014, a vegan YouTube bodybuilder known
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: as Vegan Gainz viciously attacked another YouTube bodybuilder called Furious
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Pete over his non-vegan diet. So vegan gains went as
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: far to say that Furious Pete's testicular cancer diagnosis was
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: caused by eating non-vegan. There was also another big fight
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: between Durian Ryder and another vegan influencer called The D-Man
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: about the number of avocados he was eating each day. God,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: you have to have a stupid YouTube handle or nickname
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: in order to be a vegan influencer. These just sound ridiculous.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: On another local front, popular vegan YouTuber, Asina O'Neill, she
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: infamously quit social media in 2015 after she became a
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: target for takedown videos from smaller vegan content creators. Now,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a video Freely created in 2014, Slamming Jenna Marbles, drastically
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: changed the game for Freely. So, For those not familiar
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: with Jenna Marbles, she is an American YouTuber who at
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the peak of her fame had over 20 million subscribers.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Now she announced her indefinite hiatus from YouTube in 2020
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: after followers dug up old racist.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Content from her channel.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Anyway, before all that, in a bid to gain attention,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Freely uploaded a video to YouTube called Why Has Jenna
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Marbles Gained Weight? And in the video that has now
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: been viewed over 3.4 million times, Freely claimed that Jenna
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: had gained weight since stopping eating a vegan diet. Let's
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: throw to a snippet of what she said.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: But move on a couple of years or a year
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: or so and Jenna is really starting to put on weight.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: Okay, she's not fat by.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Any means, but she is definitely gaining weight.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: So the people out there say, oh, you're fat shaming Freely,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: you're fat shaming blah, blah, blah.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: No, get over it.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Clearly just making an observation she is gaining weight. So
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: why is she?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Because she has gone off her vegan, her predominantly vegan plan.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: And she's smashing in the junk food. She makes videos
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: about it where she basically makes fun of herself smashing
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: in junk food. And, you know, in an attempt to
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: kind of relate to most of the population who smashes
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: in the junk food.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: During the almost eight minute video, Freely threw to clips
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of Jenna eating junk food, as well as showing clips
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of how Jenna's body had changed.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: She then had this advice for her.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Okay, so that's the beauty of a plant foods lifestyle.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: You can smash in the calories every single meal. You
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: can eat abundantly. You can eat your heart, your brain,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: your belly's content every single time and only get beneficial results.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: You get slimmer and slimmer and slimmer the.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: More calories you eat over time of plant foods, which is,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, high-carb plant foods, let's get that right, not
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: high-fat vegan foods. So you have to make sure you're
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: eating high-carb vegan foods. So, Jenna, this is a message
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: to you, girl. Come back over to the good side.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: You know this works. You know the vegan lifestyle works.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: You said it yourself.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: At the end of the video, Freely claimed that she
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: had created the video because she cared about Jenna. so
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: much that she asked her followers to contact Jenna and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: share the.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Video with her. I'm sorry, if you cared about Jenna,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: you would have.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: A quiet word to her about it in a sensitive
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and tactful way. This was far from sensitive and tactful.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I just can't even imagine someone creating a video like
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: this in 2025 and thinking it's appropriate one to point
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: out that someone has gained weight and to think that
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you have control over their diet and what they have
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to eat. It just shows how far we've actually come
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: because when I was listening to this, I was like,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe that this was put out and not slammed. Disturbingly,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Freely's plan seemed to work because Jenna ended up commenting
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: on Freely's Facebook page saying, I just watched your video
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and I wanted to thank you for always supporting me
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: through my vegan journey. It's been years on and off
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for me and I really appreciate you holding me personally accountable.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It actually helps me and I never find what you
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: do offensive.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Or a lot of other people do.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I think you're wonderful and it's so admirable how passionate
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: you are about veganism. You have a wonderful message in
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: heart and I hope people can see that. I know
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of people whose lives you've changed, so many
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: people's lives. I have made it to a point to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: really make myself ethically driven because of you and other
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: vegan YouTubers and I feel much more confident that this
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: is something I can have my whole life. Thank you
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: for your relentless effort to make veganism visible and approachable
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and not an extreme way of living. but a loving
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and caring, maintainable lifestyle. I mean, I would call eating
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: 51 bananas not very maintainable and quite extreme. She finished
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: by saying, you're wonderful and I'm sending all positive fruit
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: vibes your way.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Fucking hell.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: It is crazy to think that Jenna Marbles actually thanked
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Freely for calling her out and fat shaming her.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: And it's interesting the use of the term ethically driven.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: The fact that Freely would say, oh, I'm only fat
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: shaming people because, you know, ethically they shouldn't be eating meat.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Like it's actually insane.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Off the back of the Jenna Marbles call out video,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Freely started to change up her YouTube channel and move
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: more in that direction. She ramped up the call out
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: videos of non-vegan YouTubers and no one was safe. And
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: at the time she did wield a lot of power
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and an interesting part of Freely's strategy was actually weaponizing
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: her followers. So after taking aim at an influencer, She
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: would then issue a call out to.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Her followers to essentially attack the person.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: However, she packaged it up a lot nicer, so freely
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: called her followers her fruit bats, and she asked them
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to go spread their fruit seeds, aka troll her latest target.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: And they did this in the form of leaving banana
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: emojis in the comment section of the latest Target's YouTube videos.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: That is just wild to me.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I know that the internet isn't a perfect place in 2024,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: but my God, it was a disgusting.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Place to be in the 2010s.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it actually reminds me when Kim Kardashian sent her
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: fans to go troll Taylor Swift and leave snake emojis.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's where she got the idea from the bananas. Yeah. Now,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Freely Next set her sights on YouTuber Casey Ho of Blogilates. Now,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: in late 2014, she was accused of bullying the popular influencer.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: And Frehley claimed in a YouTube video that Casey wasn't
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: eating enough and alleged that she promoted eating disorders, which
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: is a bit rich. Now, the video ended up getting
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: removed from YouTube after Casey reported the video for copyright.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: And this started an all-out war. So Frehley claimed that
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Casey was using corporate lawyers to take her down and
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: She went on to allege that she had received legal
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: documents from Casey. However, when she was asked to provide receipts,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: all she could show was the copyright emails that she
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: received from YouTube. Now, Casey denied the claims that she
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was trying to sue Freely and ended up detracting the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: copyright claim against the videos. Now, in early 2015, Freely
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: met her match with fellow Adelaidean and fitness guru Kayla Acena.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: So Freely At the time, Kayla was big competition for Freely.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So her bikini body guide was all the rage as
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you spoke about earlier. So literally everyone I know was
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: doing it. I think it was more popular in my
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: friendship group than Freely's diet. Oh, definitely. I think that
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Freely's diet was very extreme and she really tapped into
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a niche group of people.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: So just as Freely had done with other big influencers,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: she took aim at Kayla's fitness program in a YouTube video.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: So Freely claimed that Kayla's guide starved people. and that
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: her then-boyfriend and business partner, Toby Pierce, used steroids. Freely's then-boyfriend,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Durian Ryder, also got in on the action, making similar claims. Yeah,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and Kayla was very quick to hit back, labelling the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: pair's actions as wrong and illegal in a Facebook post,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and she went on to file an injunction with the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court to have the videos removed from YouTube, labelling
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the comments as defamatory. Now, unperturbed, Freely and Durian Ryder
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: responded with, of course, a follow-up video stating that they
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: were just sharing their nutritional opinion and should not be
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: sued for speaking up. I remember at the time that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: this story was massive, particularly in Adelaide. I was working
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: at Channel 7 at the time. It was leading news.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It was front page news as well. Now, this case
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: was heard in the Supreme Court of South Australia in
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: March 2015, and Freely and Durian Ryder turned the event
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: into a complete circus. So, More than 100 of their
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: fans lined up outside the Supreme Court, chanting the duo's catchphrase,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: carb the fuck up. Now, only 15 of those fans
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: were actually allowed inside the court, while the rest were
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: told to wait outside. And several fans shouted, good luck
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Harley and Freely as they entered into the building.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Kayla did not attend court, however.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Her partner at the time Toby Pierce was in attendance
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: while Kayla wasn't there though she let her sentiments be
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: known so in court documents obtained by the media she
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: and Toby labeled Freely and Durian Ryder as foul-mouthed parasites
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: who are claiming victim status and trying to encourage cyber
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: vigilante action against them. She is an absolute class act.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And Kayla and her team would have been aware that
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: if she had turned up to the court and they
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had got vision and photographs of her, it would have
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: been pumped up even more to be portrayed as this
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: cat fight between these two popular fitness influencers.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Also just being dragged down onto their level.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I wouldn't really feel comfortable physically appearing at this
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: court case when there's hundreds of Freely's fans there. Who
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: were chanting and being aggressive.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Now, Kayla and Toby were represented by QC Andrew Harris
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: while Freely was being defended by lawyer Greg Griffin. Durian Ryder,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, represented himself. And with so much
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: mayhem going on outside the court, Kayla and Toby's lawyer
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: urged the judge to explain the rules of the court
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to the public gallery because he was concerned that Freely's
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: supporters would film the proceedings and upload them to YouTube. Now,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the main issue addressed during the hearing was the status
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of the offending YouTube videos. So Kayla's injunction had ordered
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Freely and Durian Ryder to remove the videos, but that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: had only partially occurred.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: While Freely had.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Removed the video from her YouTube channel, Durian Ryder had
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: set his video to private. Now, he claimed that he
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: had done so in case he needed the video or
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the comments posted on them as evidence.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And he went on to say in court, I was
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: just sharing my honest opinion in the name of public
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: interest on YouTube.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Kayla and Toby's lawyer hit back saying, we
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: can agree to disagree whether this is a matter of
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: free speech or rather a cynical attempt at ambush marketing.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Our principal goal is to have the material taken off
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the internet. After hearing the evidence, the judge said that
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the matter should proceed immediately to trial. However, Kayla and
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Toby's lawyer asked for a seven-day adjournment to pursue negotiations. Now,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Kayla and Toby's lawyer said that there was a prospect
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of amicable resolution between Kayla, Toby and Freely. Meaning I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: don't think he thought Durian Ryder was going to settle.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: It's very clear that Kayla and her team wanted to
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: avoid a trial because this would have turned into an
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: even bigger media circus. I mean, Freely and Durian were
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: already showing them by having hundreds of their fans appear
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: in court. It's also a very costly exercise for something
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: like this.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: To go to trial.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Also their rogue comments, because if they're trying to defend
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: what they said, the fact that they said that Toby
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Pierce used steroids, which is completely defamatory, like you probably
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: don't want them spurning out.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: More lies about you in a public forum.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing, like things get very nasty when
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: they go to trial and sometimes there's no winners out
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of it. Yeah. Well, outside the court freely told reporters
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that she couldn't discuss the case based on legal advice
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: while jury and writer said he wanted the matter to
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: proceed to trial because you can see that they're attention
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: seekers out of this. their whole goal has been to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: call out bigger creators just so that they can gain
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: more and more followers. So Durian Ryder said, we were
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: just talking about eating disorders on YouTube. We were just
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: sharing our views openly based on public interest. I would
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: like to go to trial and get as much exposure
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: as possible on eating disorders and Instagram diets. The key
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: word being exposure, I think for himself. Yeah, well, that weekend,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Freely told her followers in a YouTube video, I'm not stressed.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I know good will prevail. Now, a week later, Kayla
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and Toby's lawyers told the South Australian Supreme Court that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the parties had successfully reached a deal. Under the terms
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of the agreement, Freely and Durian Ryder were barred from
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: making disparaging statements about Kayla and Toby in social, print
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: or electronic media. It was decided that the matter would
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: conclude without financial penalty or the payment of court costs,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: which is quite interesting. A pretty good deal, I think,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: for Freely and Durian. Now, while Freely's lawyer was in
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: agreement with Kayla and Toby's lawyer, it was clear Durian
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Ryder wasn't happy about the decision. When he was asked
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: by the judge if he consented to the settlement, he replied, mm-hmm.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: The judge also made formal orders that the settlement be
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: carried out He also listed the matter for a final
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: hearing in May to ensure the settlement had been complied
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: by all the parties.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Obviously, he wasn't really that trusting of Durian Ryder.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, it kind of makes sense for Kayla and
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Toby not to necessarily ask for any money from them
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: because I think that that could have been negatively portrayed
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in the media, that they were out to destroy a
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: fellow fitness influencer when they just wanted them to shut
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the fuck up and stop talking about them. So Durian
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Ryder told reporters outside of court that he was not
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: too clear on what the settlement entailed other than basically
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: keep your opinion to yourself. While Kayla chose not to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: attend court again, Toby Pierce was there and he told reporters,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I'm glad some smart decisions were made and we've been
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: able to come to an amicable agreement between the parties.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Freely also fronted the media outside court and said, recalling
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: every detail of it, the settlement, is a little difficult,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: but I understand it and I will follow it. This
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: really demonstrated that Kayla and Toby were a force not
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to be reckoned with. They're extremely professional in shutting this down.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: It does show what money and power can do and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: also having the right brains behind it. Definitely. Now, despite
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the court hearing, Freely didn't stop her pursuit of other YouTubers.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: This one really surprises me because in October 2015, she
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: called out UK YouTube royalty Zoella. So in a video entitled,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Is Zoella a Hypocrite? Nala Pug vs Pig, Freely questioned
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: how Zoella can love her pug Nala so much, but
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: then eat other animals which are equally as smart and beautiful. Now,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Freely decided to demonstrate this by juxtapositioning vision of Zoella
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: playing with her black pug to vision of her eating bacon,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: eggs and.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Sausages for breakfast. It's a stretch really.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Now, Zoella didn't respond, but it did come out that
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: she had blocked.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Freely, which I think was a good decision.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I actually really liked that from her because she didn't
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: weigh into the drama.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: She didn't give Freely what she wanted. She simply just
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: blocked her.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Because that is what freely and adrian rider have wanted
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: out of this whole thing is attention yeah they want
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the larger creator to come back at them so that
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: then their fans become aware of who they are yeah
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: it didn't stop there in may 2016 freely also took
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: aim at us youtuber tana mojo and she criticized a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: video tana made entitled how i stay skinny which is
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: just wild to me i cannot see a creator getting
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: away We're creating.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: A video about how they say skinny.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: No.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: We're giving tips and tricks. It's just under the guise
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: of other things now. It's like, what I eat in
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: a day.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: That's just nothing. Now, Freely basically said that Tana Mojo
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: was full of crap and Tana ended up doing a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: big call out video in response to Freely.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: So Freely got what she wanted.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Freely, of course, then hit back, seemingly debunking what Tana
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: had said. And the hashtag TanaLies started trending on the internet. Now,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: this came at a time where Tana really cared about
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: her image and it just was a back and forth
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: of insults between the pair. I find it so ironic
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: that Freely made a name for herself by calling out
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: other YouTubers when her own behavior was so questionable and problematic.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she was constantly.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Causing controversy and also making very outlandish and dangerous claims.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: One of those had to do with her amenorrhea. So
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: she continued to bush medical misinformation when she stated that amenorrhea,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: which is the absence of your period, was a sign
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of health. So she shared that she had amenorrhea for
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: nine months and she explained that it meant her body
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: was healthy and had fewer toxins to flush out via menstruation.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: In reality, it is.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Actually a result of low body weight, poor nutrition, disordered eating.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: And other illnesses.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Additionally... it can lead to infertility and osteoporosis. Is that
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: why they were trying to push it so much? Because
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: they were trying to stamp out people from wanting children. Yeah,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: they were trying to stop reproduction with their love of vasectomies.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Now to make matters worse, Freely was also fat phobic.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: So she regularly criticized the appearance of other YouTubers and
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: overweight people in general. And she also claimed that there
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: were more deaths caused in the 9-11 terrorist attack because
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of obese people blocking the doors.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: And not allowing fit people to pass through.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: God.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: What the hell? That is just disgusting.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: It gets worse because after the tragic death of teenage
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: makeup guru Talia Castanello, known as TaliaJoy18 on YouTube. Freely
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: uploaded a video claiming that Talia's death could have been
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: prevented had she forgone chemotherapy in favour of a raw
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: vegan diet.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: She also claimed that chemotherapy was dangerous, poisonous and an
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: ineffective treatment for cancer.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: That makes me so mad.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Now, one of the biggest controversies to rock Freely's image
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: centred around her boyfriend and partner in crime, Durian Ryder.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Next week, we will dive into the drama that unfolded
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: at Freely's Thai Fruit Festival and and explore her breakup
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: with Durian Ryder and her move to the jungle. This
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: episode was recorded on the traditional land of the Kaurna
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: past and present.