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The TikTok Blood Bath · Outspoken the Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:05
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Amy Torber and coming up on today's show, the Kate
0:12
Speaker 1: Forster and Sabi Store TikTok bloodbath. Michael Finch opens up
0:17
Speaker 1: about hitting rock bottom and Andre Ribello is found guilty
0:21
Speaker 1: of murdering his mother. But first, Tammy Hembrough and Matt
0:24
Speaker 1: Zukowski have surprised their followers by opting for a winter
0:28
Speaker 1: honeymoon in Lapland. It looks so Christmassy and magical there.
0:31
Speaker 1: It is the perfect time of year to go to Lapland.
0:34
Speaker 1: But I did think that they might go back to
0:36
Speaker 1: the Maldives. Yeah, because that's where they got engaged. I
0:38
Speaker 1: think everyone thought that they would opt for a hot honeymoon.
0:41
Speaker 1: But it sort of makes sense because they're from the
0:43
Speaker 1: Gold Coast. They travel whenever they want. You know, Tammy's
0:46
Speaker 1: got the money to do so. So they're probably thinking,
0:48
Speaker 1: what's something a little bit different? I also think they
0:51
Speaker 1: wanted to make a bit of a statement with their
0:53
Speaker 1: choice of honeymoon location. I mean, their whole wedding has
0:56
Speaker 1: been a statement so far. And the fact that they're
0:58
Speaker 1: doing something so different is creating a lot of attention
1:02
Speaker 1: and engagement. Surely there is some kind of sponsorship agreement
1:05
Speaker 1: going on, even if it was just Lapland's Tourism Commission
1:09
Speaker 1: sponsoring this holiday, because there have been so many epic
1:12
Speaker 1: TikToks that Tammy has shared. It's made me feel like
1:15
Speaker 1: I need to go to Lapland. Like the shots they
1:17
Speaker 1: got of the Northern Lights at their resort. I also
1:20
Speaker 1: want to know, do they have someone following them around
1:23
Speaker 1: filming these videos? Well, it's funny you say that because
1:25
Speaker 1: they actually ended up getting locked out of their cabin
1:28
Speaker 1: because they wanted to do a little photo shoot. So
1:30
Speaker 1: Tammy asked Matt to take some photos of her and
1:33
Speaker 1: she reminded him to grab the key card. But he
1:36
Speaker 1: forgot and they ended up being stranded for quite some
1:38
Speaker 1: time outside. they actually had to seek refuge in this
1:42
Speaker 1: half-built cabin because it was so cold. This happened to
1:45
Speaker 1: some friends of mine who were holidaying in the snow.
1:47
Speaker 1: So they went out to have a spa and decided
1:49
Speaker 1: to skinny dip and they got locked out of their chalet.
1:52
Speaker 1: And it was only out of luck that the person
1:54
Speaker 1: who owned the Airbnb popped by to see if they're okay.
1:57
Speaker 1: They were like, we could have died. That is my
1:59
Speaker 1: worst nightmare. Going back to whether this is a sponsored
2:02
Speaker 1: trip or there's elements that are gifted, I think it
2:05
Speaker 1: could be because Tammy has posted the name of the
2:08
Speaker 1: accommodation a number of times. So they're staying at the
2:10
Speaker 1: Aurora Collection Lapland Resort. And the Daily Mail is reporting
2:14
Speaker 1: that the accommodation is costing as much as $ 1, 100 per night,
2:18
Speaker 1: which I actually thought was low-balling it because I definitely
2:22
Speaker 1: think that they're spending a lot more. I had a
2:25
Speaker 1: look on the accommodation's website and they offer a four-night package.
2:29
Speaker 1: So for four nights is $ 2, 965 per person. And with that,
2:34
Speaker 1: it includes a lot of the activities that they're doing.
2:36
Speaker 1: So the activities range from a husky safari, a reindeer safari,
2:41
Speaker 1: and also Arctic ice karting. I've seen them do a
2:43
Speaker 1: couple of those activities so far. What they seem to
2:46
Speaker 1: be spending most of their time doing is watching Christmas movies, though,
2:49
Speaker 1: which I can get around. It looks so magical. Well,
2:51
Speaker 1: it's quite romantic as well. A lot of people were
2:54
Speaker 1: calling Tammy and Matt's wedding the content wedding, and I
2:57
Speaker 1: needed a palate cleanser from them. And this honeymoon has
3:00
Speaker 1: provided the goods. I'm really enjoying seeing it. but it
3:03
Speaker 1: may get to a point where I'm sick of it.
3:05
Speaker 1: I think that happens when anyone goes on holiday though.
3:07
Speaker 1: You enjoy the first couple of bits of content and
3:09
Speaker 1: then you're like, can you just get back? I was
3:10
Speaker 1: getting mass views on TikTok and it makes me think
3:13
Speaker 1: that it was a strategy to choose somewhere that was
3:16
Speaker 1: out of the norm. Like if they went to the
3:17
Speaker 1: Maldives again, everyone would be like yawn. But the fact
3:20
Speaker 1: that they've gone somewhere like Finland, which you don't often
3:23
Speaker 1: hear about, it looks so magical. But surely they're not
3:26
Speaker 1: sitting around saying, oh my God, Let's pick our honeymoon
3:29
Speaker 1: location based on what will shock TikTok. These people are
3:31
Speaker 1: content creators. I feel like, yes, it's not their whole
3:34
Speaker 1: reason for doing so, but I think it would take
3:36
Speaker 1: up some of their thinking. Matt literally referred to his
3:39
Speaker 1: wedding photography and videography as content. Like, of course, they're
3:43
Speaker 1: thinking what is going to create the best content. And
3:45
Speaker 1: they have... hit the nail on the head with this one. Well,
3:47
Speaker 1: I actually think they're winning people over a little bit
3:50
Speaker 1: with their very cutesy romantic content because there's been a
3:53
Speaker 1: lot more positive comments about Matt in particular. See, I
3:55
Speaker 1: actually kind of found it funny because it looked like
3:58
Speaker 1: they were getting on each other's nerves because everyone says
4:00
Speaker 1: that a honeymoon, like I'm actually not referencing my honeymoon
4:03
Speaker 1: here because I did recently get back, but it's funny
4:05
Speaker 1: because a lot of the time honeymoons can be actually
4:08
Speaker 1: the place where a lot of arguments happen because You know,
4:11
Speaker 1: all of the hype from the wedding has ended and
4:13
Speaker 1: it's just the two of you now focusing on maybe
4:16
Speaker 1: each other's little quirks. And there were instances where I
4:19
Speaker 1: was wondering, I wonder if they're getting on each other's
4:20
Speaker 1: nerves because Tammy didn't look too pleased about getting locked
4:24
Speaker 1: out of the cabin due to Matt. I think people
4:25
Speaker 1: are just surprised that the marriage has lasted to the honeymoon.
4:29
Speaker 2: Hi, team, and welcome to Fugtown. So what I'm going
4:32
Speaker 2: to do here is put all the shit up that
4:34
Speaker 2: I can't put up on fucking TikTok because people are annoying.
4:40
Speaker 1: TikTok is divided after author Kate Forster pointed out that
4:44
Speaker 1: local clothing brand Sabi is following Donald Trump. In what's
4:48
Speaker 1: been described as an internet bloodbath, the latest controversy has
4:51
Speaker 1: sparked death threats, mass reportings and cancellation. Now, Soph, before
4:56
Speaker 1: we get into the drama, can you get listeners up
4:58
Speaker 1: to speed with who Kate Forster is? Well, she is
5:00
Speaker 1: an author who has really exploded in popularity on TikTok
5:04
Speaker 1: this year. In the space of a few months, she
5:06
Speaker 1: gained 95,000 followers on TikTok. And what really makes her
5:10
Speaker 1: stand out is that she's not afraid to share her opinion,
5:14
Speaker 1: which I think all of us have found really refreshing
5:16
Speaker 1: this year because she's so funny. She doesn't take herself
5:19
Speaker 1: too seriously and she doesn't play into a lot of
5:23
Speaker 1: the games that we see influencers or TikTokers playing into. Like,
5:26
Speaker 1: you know, there's people who just want to keep their
5:28
Speaker 1: little click happy and try and say the right thing.
5:31
Speaker 1: I think that's why she is so divisive and people
5:34
Speaker 1: are so threatened by her at the moment because she
5:37
Speaker 1: doesn't just fit into this influencer clique that we've come
5:41
Speaker 1: to know. And she doesn't care who she upsets. Yeah,
5:45
Speaker 1: you don't know what's coming out of her mouth next.
5:46
Speaker 1: But you know that what she's saying, she has conviction
5:49
Speaker 1: in and actually believes in. Now, she's also known for
5:52
Speaker 1: sharing fashion reviews and also encouraging her audience not to
5:56
Speaker 1: be sheep and to support local businesses. So she's all
5:59
Speaker 1: about encouraging her followers to to not just buy the
6:01
Speaker 1: brands that fashion influencers are promoting and getting kickbacks from. Yeah,
6:05
Speaker 1: and she gained a massive amount of traction back in
6:08
Speaker 1: August when she called out the viral Henny cardigan. So
6:11
Speaker 1: we covered that story in depth, but at the time,
6:14
Speaker 1: the 53-year-old simply questioned why young people all want to
6:17
Speaker 1: look the same and are wearing this specific cult cardigan,
6:20
Speaker 1: which was created by influencer Nadia Bartel's label Henny. Now,
6:24
Speaker 1: this led to Kate receiving prank calls and even death
6:28
Speaker 1: threats It also resulted in her developing an even stronger
6:32
Speaker 1: follower base. I know I followed her after this drama. Yeah,
6:35
Speaker 1: a lot of people did. Now let's get into this
6:37
Speaker 1: latest controversy. And as we touched on, Kate often creates
6:41
Speaker 1: fashion reviews and she received an influx of messages from
6:45
Speaker 1: followers asking her to look into a local brand called Sabi.
6:49
Speaker 1: And this brand is known for selling oversized t-shirts with
6:52
Speaker 1: positive affirmations across them. And it's owned by a husband
6:55
Speaker 1: and wife team called Jace McDonald and Ash Tardrew. who
6:59
Speaker 1: live in Queensland. Now, some of Kate's followers had noticed
7:02
Speaker 1: that a growing number of mummy influencers had started wearing
7:06
Speaker 1: Sabi shirts and all of those influencers held very far
7:10
Speaker 1: right views. Now, it is unclear if those influencers were
7:14
Speaker 1: gifted the shirts or if they were just organically wearing them.
7:17
Speaker 1: And this led Kate to do some research into Sabi
7:20
Speaker 1: and she quickly discovered that one of the owners, Jace,
7:23
Speaker 1: was following Donald Trump on his personal account. Now, he
7:27
Speaker 1: was also following podcaster Joe Rogan, who heavily supported Trump's campaign. Now,
7:33
Speaker 1: this led Kate to create a TikTok video connecting the
7:36
Speaker 1: dots saying, it kind of seems like the brand's co-owner
7:39
Speaker 1: is a Trump supporter. She then referenced the problematic mummy
7:43
Speaker 1: influencers who were wearing the brand and explained that a
7:46
Speaker 1: lot of them share anti-vax and also anti-sun cream views. Now,
7:50
Speaker 1: she didn't blame Sabi for it, but she pointed out
7:53
Speaker 1: that if Savi's views don't align with these influencers' very
7:57
Speaker 1: far right views, then they should touch base with them
8:00
Speaker 1: and say, don't wear our shirt. I don't know if
8:02
Speaker 1: you can tell someone not to wear your brand if
8:04
Speaker 1: they've purchased it. I mean, you can obviously say, look,
8:07
Speaker 1: if we've gifted you something and you're going to be
8:08
Speaker 1: spouting out offensive things, we'd prefer you not to wear
8:11
Speaker 1: our clothing. I mean, that is very dependent on what
8:13
Speaker 1: the relationship is between the brand and the influencer. And
8:16
Speaker 1: I think that's why Kate has used this as an example,
8:18
Speaker 1: because she must know that that this brand has gifted
8:22
Speaker 1: these influencers these t-shirts. And she's trying to point out
8:24
Speaker 1: that clearly they all have the same views and all
8:27
Speaker 1: their views align and that's why they're wearing the t-shirt. Well, yeah,
8:30
Speaker 1: and that's the thing because if these influencers have– been
8:34
Speaker 1: organic customers and purchased them themselves, I don't think that
8:37
Speaker 1: the brand necessarily has the right to tell people that
8:39
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to wear them. Yeah. And it would
8:40
Speaker 1: be very difficult for a brand to say, actually don't
8:42
Speaker 1: wear that. Like what control do they have over people
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Speaker 1: wearing their items of clothing? Now, as always on TikTok,
8:48
Speaker 1: the response was very mixed to Kate's video. So there
8:52
Speaker 1: were some followers who immediately started accusing Ash and Jace
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Speaker 1: of being Trump supporters and threatening to boycott the brand.
8:59
Speaker 1: TikTok videos also started surfacing of Sabi customers clarifying that
9:05
Speaker 1: whilst they have worn the t-shirts in the past they
9:07
Speaker 1: have left leaning views like they were quite funny on
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Speaker 1: the flip side Kate started receiving an influx of hate
9:14
Speaker 1: from some Sabi supporters and also death threats I just
9:18
Speaker 1: think it's so wild That this woman has received so
9:22
Speaker 1: many death threats for simply pointing out who the brand
9:26
Speaker 1: is following. Yeah, but I think it's much greater than
9:28
Speaker 1: that in terms of it's not just about fashion. This
9:31
Speaker 1: is about politics and how fashion and politics intersect. And
9:34
Speaker 1: that's why people are so upset. It is being alleged
9:37
Speaker 1: that one of the Sabi owners posted a TikTok in
9:40
Speaker 1: response to Kate's video threatening her. Now, those claims have
9:43
Speaker 1: come from internet sleuths who say that the video was
9:46
Speaker 1: quickly taken down. So I want to reiterate, that is
9:49
Speaker 1: just an allegation. There is no proof of this video
9:51
Speaker 1: still being online. I had actually never heard of the
9:54
Speaker 1: brand Sabi until this TikTok drama, but all I could
9:57
Speaker 1: think of was the Sabi and Soul brand. who were
10:00
Speaker 1: caught up in that Moroccan pillow drama with Sarah's Day.
10:03
Speaker 1: Remember that a few years ago? Yeah, I was like,
10:05
Speaker 1: oh no, these poor bastards. Have they been dragged into
10:07
Speaker 1: something again? But I can confirm this is a completely
10:10
Speaker 1: separate business. This is the danger with TikTok and how
10:13
Speaker 1: quickly things spread and also when you like, I think
10:16
Speaker 1: I've heard of that brand. I actually thought of Sabo skirt,
10:18
Speaker 1: which are not in any way attached to this brand either. Well,
10:21
Speaker 1: Sabi have addressed the controversy on their Instagram account. So
10:25
Speaker 1: they wrote legends. We just wanted to quickly address some
10:28
Speaker 1: things that are currently going on. We really didn't want
10:30
Speaker 1: to get involved and it goes against everything we stand
10:33
Speaker 1: for here at Sabi. We would never condone bullying people
10:37
Speaker 1: or brands online. So this is the one and only
10:40
Speaker 1: statement we will be making. Our entire brand is built
10:43
Speaker 1: upon building people up and helping them feel happy and
10:46
Speaker 1: confident while wearing our brand. These comments and the video
10:50
Speaker 1: that have been shared by people online are not a
10:52
Speaker 1: true representation of myself and Jace. It's unfortunate that people
10:56
Speaker 1: can take things out of context and spread rumors and
10:59
Speaker 1: misinformation about us online. Our little brand means the world
11:03
Speaker 1: to us and our customers mean the world to us.
11:05
Speaker 1: And we know there are a lot of you all
11:07
Speaker 1: standing up for us on these posts. We appreciate you.
11:11
Speaker 1: But ultimately, all we want is for everyone to interact
11:14
Speaker 1: in a positive way that doesn't tear others down. We
11:17
Speaker 1: just hope everyone can choose their words wisely as words
11:20
Speaker 1: have power and our actions are online forever. Big love,
11:23
Speaker 1: Jace and Ash. Now, the reason why that statement has
11:26
Speaker 1: been included in full is because the one thing that
11:29
Speaker 1: stood out to me is that nowhere did they say
11:32
Speaker 1: we do not politically align with Donald Trump. And one
11:36
Speaker 1: follower called them out on the obvious omission saying, Maybe
11:40
Speaker 1: you should make it clear if you actually support Trump
11:42
Speaker 1: and right-wing views or not. Now, Sabi responded saying this,
11:46
Speaker 1: Back when he first got into government, he was threatening
11:49
Speaker 1: to put tariffs on clothing importations to protect the U.S. economy.
12:00
Speaker 1: Jace had a factory in China with huge US orders
12:03
Speaker 1: as if we wouldn't want to know everything and anything
12:06
Speaker 1: to do with it. Also, he is now sitting there
12:08
Speaker 1: culling who he follows and who he doesn't years later.
12:11
Speaker 1: It's absolutely insane that people jump to conclusions. Jace is
12:14
Speaker 1: pro you and whoever you want to be and all
12:17
Speaker 1: about leaving a positive impact on the world. To me,
12:20
Speaker 1: I think that they originally didn't touch on Who they
12:23
Speaker 1: support because they didn't want to offend any customers who
12:26
Speaker 1: may support Donald Trump because they would be ostracizing a
12:30
Speaker 1: collection of their customers. Well, it's a pretty common thing
12:33
Speaker 1: not to get political when it comes to business because
12:35
Speaker 1: we've seen a lot of companies having to backflip. Like
12:38
Speaker 1: recently there was a chain of pubs that came out
12:40
Speaker 1: and said that they would not be supporting Australia Day
12:43
Speaker 1: and not be having any celebrations in their pubs. literally
12:46
Speaker 1: 24 hours after they had to backflip because they got
12:48
Speaker 1: so many complaints. So I understand why they didn't initially
12:52
Speaker 1: put it in the statement. However, the way TikTok works
12:55
Speaker 1: is that the audience were never going to be happy
12:58
Speaker 1: with that statement. Oh, see, I mean, I actually disagree.
13:01
Speaker 1: From a PR perspective, I think it was incredibly important
13:04
Speaker 1: for the owners of the brand to refute these claims
13:06
Speaker 1: and say, just because Jace is following Donald Trump, it
13:09
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that he supports Donald Trump's policies. Because Donald
13:13
Speaker 1: Trump is obviously known for not caring about women's rights.
13:16
Speaker 1: He's made homophobic, racist comments. Yeah, but no one's here
13:19
Speaker 1: saying that Donald Trump is a good guy. Like it's
13:22
Speaker 1: obviously not a great brand move to align, particularly from
13:25
Speaker 1: a female brand, to align with Donald Trump. But the
13:28
Speaker 1: issue is that I think a lot of people on
13:30
Speaker 1: TikTok and in the world, and this is why everyone,
13:32
Speaker 1: a lot of people were shocked by the election result,
13:34
Speaker 1: is they operate in silos where people think, oh, Donald
13:38
Speaker 1: Trump is the devil. Of course, no one would ever
13:40
Speaker 1: want to support him. But I mean, the guy got
13:42
Speaker 1: voted in. There are a lot of people that support
13:44
Speaker 1: him and the business wouldn't have wanted to come out
13:47
Speaker 1: and offend those people that did. particularly it seems like
13:50
Speaker 1: they do align. It doesn't mean now that if you
13:53
Speaker 1: follow somebody on social media, that means you 100% support
13:57
Speaker 1: them because Abby Chatfield has also weighed into this debate
14:00
Speaker 1: and we will get into what she has said later.
14:02
Speaker 1: But I remember Abby had to come out and say,
14:04
Speaker 1: oh my God, I follow all of these people who
14:07
Speaker 1: I don't actually support their views, but I follow them
14:11
Speaker 1: because I want to be up to date on what's
14:13
Speaker 1: happening in the world. I A lot of journalists would
14:16
Speaker 1: be following Donald Trump. It doesn't mean that they support
14:19
Speaker 1: him and believe in his views. It's to keep track
14:21
Speaker 1: of what he's doing. Well, I went and looked at
14:23
Speaker 1: who followed Donald Trump from Outspoken's name and quite a
14:26
Speaker 1: number of high profile people did. Again, I think that
14:29
Speaker 1: that is something that they should have touched on in
14:31
Speaker 1: the statement because, you know, their point of view saying, oh,
14:34
Speaker 1: Jace is following him because of the tariffs that he's
14:36
Speaker 1: putting on clothing. That seemed like a pretty fair enough statement,
14:39
Speaker 1: but that's something that should have been mentioned in the
14:41
Speaker 1: initial statement, not as a response to someone's question. Well,
14:44
Speaker 1: maybe they just thought from a PR perspective, it's best
14:46
Speaker 1: not to actually touch on this controversial part. I'm always
14:49
Speaker 1: really fascinated to hear what actually goes on behind the
14:52
Speaker 1: scenes when someone finds themselves in the middle of an
14:55
Speaker 1: internet controversy like this. And Ash and Jace were interviewed
14:58
Speaker 1: by News.com and they said that they were shocked when
15:01
Speaker 1: they first learned of the backlash. So they were sitting
15:04
Speaker 1: at their desk and they got a call from a
15:06
Speaker 1: stockist who was like, people are debating online. Are you
15:08
Speaker 1: guys right wing or left wing? And the stockist then said,
15:11
Speaker 1: apparently you guys follow Donald Trump. And they said they
15:14
Speaker 1: were so confused because Sabi itself doesn't follow Donald Trump
15:18
Speaker 1: and Ash's account didn't follow Donald Trump. And then of
15:20
Speaker 1: course they worked out. that Jace has been following him
15:23
Speaker 1: and had been following him for over a decade. Now,
15:26
Speaker 1: Ash got really overwhelmed because it got to the point
15:29
Speaker 1: where people were trawling through their personal Facebook accounts and
15:32
Speaker 1: looking for clues about their political alignment. And she said
15:35
Speaker 1: she felt sick all weekend and couldn't eat. Now, this
15:38
Speaker 1: just really demonstrates the toll that it took on her.
15:41
Speaker 1: And Jace said he found the backlash ridiculous and couldn't
15:44
Speaker 1: believe there was discussion around who or who didn't buy
15:47
Speaker 1: and wear the t-shirts. He said, it's hard. You're always
15:50
Speaker 1: offending somebody. Why do people need to know our political
15:54
Speaker 1: beliefs to buy our clothes? He continued saying if he
15:57
Speaker 1: believed in Donald Trump, he'd come out and say so.
15:59
Speaker 1: But in general, he said, I don't care if you
16:01
Speaker 1: do or not. Now, I do want to point out
16:04
Speaker 1: that the article did state that the couple do not
16:06
Speaker 1: support Trump, but there wasn't a direct quote from Jace
16:09
Speaker 1: saying it. And this controversy has gone viral on TikTok
16:12
Speaker 1: with creators weighing in on the drama and picking if
16:15
Speaker 1: they're Team Kate or Team Sabi. It's even led to
16:18
Speaker 1: high profile names in the media and influencer landscape also
16:22
Speaker 1: weighing in. Yeah, so she's on the Money podcast host
16:25
Speaker 1: Victoria Devine shared her views on the controversy and she
16:29
Speaker 1: appeared to be shocked that some corners of the internet
16:32
Speaker 1: were siding with Kate Forster. Here's what she said.
16:35
Speaker 3: I'm so done with people coming in to defend someone
16:40
Speaker 3: who has made their entire brand snarking other women. Like,
16:45
Speaker 3: why are you coming in and being like, oh, well,
16:47
Speaker 3: she never said that exactly. Or no, she never knew
16:51
Speaker 3: who that person was to begin with. Or she never
16:53
Speaker 3: meant it that way. Didn't you watch her entire five
16:56
Speaker 3: to 10 minute rant?
16:58
Speaker 1: Like, I'm sorry. That content was made.
17:00
Speaker 4: With the intention of bringing other women down. It was
17:04
Speaker 4: made with the intention of making them feel bad about
17:07
Speaker 4: what they're wearing or what they're doing or how that
17:09
Speaker 4: they are doing it and calling them sheep or calling them,
17:12
Speaker 4: you other people like it's actually just ick that content
17:18
Speaker 4: wasn't made with the intention of lifting women up and
17:21
Speaker 4: making them feel good about themselves or helping them be
17:23
Speaker 4: in a better position it was literally made with the
17:27
Speaker 4: intention of making you snarky against other women and now
17:30
Speaker 4: you're defending the person who said.
17:32
Speaker 1: That Victoria continued saying she's not naming names because she
17:36
Speaker 1: can't be bothered, but if followers were going to draw
17:39
Speaker 1: the inference about what she's talking about, then the shoe
17:42
Speaker 1: probably fits. Now, this isn't the first time Victoria has
17:45
Speaker 1: commented on online controversies surrounding Kate Forster. So during the
17:49
Speaker 1: viral Henny Cardigan saga, Victoria showed her support for a
17:53
Speaker 1: fashion TikToker who came up against Kate writing under the post.
17:57
Speaker 1: It's not even being passive aggressive. She's being a bully.
18:00
Speaker 1: I can't believe in 2024 so many people are supportive
18:04
Speaker 1: of her content. I think there has been a bit
18:06
Speaker 1: of back and forth between the two and they both
18:09
Speaker 1: won't name one another when talking about one another. Victoria
18:12
Speaker 1: had a pretty mixed response in her comment section. There
18:15
Speaker 1: were some people who supported her sentiments. whilst others strongly disagreed.
18:19
Speaker 1: So one user wrote, I don't agree with this. I
18:21
Speaker 1: don't think Kate was ever trying to tear women down
18:24
Speaker 1: at all. She is a critical thinker on TikTok, and
18:26
Speaker 1: I actually quite like her approach to talking about fashion.
18:29
Speaker 1: I watched her video. It wasn't that deep. She never
18:32
Speaker 1: tore down an individual person, just had an interesting perspective
18:35
Speaker 1: on a brand. I think the backlash of the comments
18:37
Speaker 1: is what's gotten out of hand. Whilst another commented, the
18:41
Speaker 1: irony of a woman ragging on another woman for ragging
18:44
Speaker 1: on another woman. Come on, ladies. See, I thought that
18:48
Speaker 1: when I was watching it because I find it a
18:50
Speaker 1: very lazy argument that whenever a woman critiques or analyzes
18:54
Speaker 1: another woman's behavior, that people go, oh, shouldn't women be
18:57
Speaker 1: supporting women? I mean, we cop it a lot. So
18:59
Speaker 1: maybe that's why I'm a little bit defensive about it.
19:01
Speaker 1: Just because you're a woman, it doesn't mean you have
19:04
Speaker 1: to blindly agree with all women because funnily enough, women
19:07
Speaker 1: all share different opinions and points of view. And it's
19:10
Speaker 1: actually unfeminist just to support someone because you're the same gender.
19:14
Speaker 1: Like I just find it such an interesting argument. I
19:17
Speaker 1: think people forget that feminism is about equality. So we
19:20
Speaker 1: can equally critique men and women if we are a woman. Now,
19:24
Speaker 1: Abby Chatfield was also asked to weigh in on the
19:27
Speaker 1: drama and she strongly threw her support behind Kate Forster,
19:31
Speaker 1: calling her her very own Julian Assange. Let's listen to
19:34
Speaker 1: part of what she said.
19:35
Speaker 2: It's just interesting that Kate pointing out that someone follows
19:40
Speaker 2: a political leader and is so scary to people because
19:45
Speaker 2: they know he's an awful person. They know that it
19:47
Speaker 2: isn't the right thing to do. So instead of being like, hmm,
19:52
Speaker 2: maybe me, a commenter, should think about where my morals lie,
19:56
Speaker 2: they instead attack Kate and get mad at her. Main
19:59
Speaker 2: thing is that no one should be sending Kate Force
20:02
Speaker 2: to death threats or threats of violence because she pointed
20:05
Speaker 2: out something that was a fact.
20:07
Speaker 3: She didn't lie.
20:08
Speaker 2: She didn't make anything up. She just noticed something and
20:10
Speaker 2: she pointed it out. It's not really fair to shoot
20:13
Speaker 2: the messenger. And if you're commenting anything abusive to Kate
20:17
Speaker 2: or making videos saying that she's a bully, I really
20:19
Speaker 2: want you to check your internalized misogyny. I really want
20:21
Speaker 2: you to maybe look into like what activism is a
20:27
Speaker 2: little bit. And I want you to reevaluate your own
20:33
Speaker 2: moral compass seems extreme, but I want you to reevaluate
20:35
Speaker 2: your own value system. and why you're so angry that
20:39
Speaker 2: someone pointed out the truth. Like, it's giving persecuting Julian Assange.
20:43
Speaker 2: Kate is my Julian Assange.
20:45
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
20:45
Speaker 2: She's WikiLeaks right now. Not her fault that they did it.
20:50
Speaker 1: I find it very interesting, the vitriol that is thrown
20:54
Speaker 1: at people like Abby Chatfield and Kate Forster, because I
20:57
Speaker 1: think a lot of people don't know what to do
21:00
Speaker 1: with them because they don't want to align with a
21:04
Speaker 1: group of influencers or a group of media personalities. They
21:08
Speaker 1: don't care who they piss off. And that is very
21:11
Speaker 1: threatening to a group of people who don't want to
21:14
Speaker 1: be called out. And there is a clique of influencers
21:17
Speaker 1: that we've spoken about this a lot. Clementine Ford has
21:20
Speaker 1: spoken about the cool group, whatever you want to call
21:23
Speaker 1: this group of people. It gets bigger and bigger to
21:26
Speaker 1: the point where if anyone ever says anything against these people,
21:30
Speaker 1: they've got a bunch of other high profile people to
21:33
Speaker 1: back them up. And that's not what we want either.
21:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:36
Speaker 1: It's interesting because even when you look at the fact
21:39
Speaker 1: that Kate Forster called out a lot of influencers for
21:42
Speaker 1: all wearing the Henny cardigan, it seemed like it really
21:45
Speaker 1: hurt their feelings.
21:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:47
Speaker 1: And there was a lot of offense like, oh my God.
21:49
Speaker 1: When in actual fact, what they probably didn't like Kate
21:51
Speaker 1: pointing out is that they all get kickbacks because for
21:54
Speaker 1: promoting that cardigan constantly through their affiliate links. And what
21:57
Speaker 1: I find funny is people will call Abby or Kate bullies.
22:02
Speaker 1: But to me, a bullying behavior is when you gang
22:05
Speaker 1: up on someone and leave people out. And that's what's
22:09
Speaker 1: been happening online. And there was no bullying or snark
22:11
Speaker 1: in Kate's post about Sabi anyway. I hate the way
22:14
Speaker 1: that the word bullying is being thrown around because all
22:17
Speaker 1: she did was, was review a local brand that she
22:20
Speaker 1: was asked to review. And in this instance, I think
22:23
Speaker 1: her intention was to help her audience make informed choices
22:26
Speaker 1: about who they want to support with their funds. And
22:28
Speaker 1: let's be honest, it wasn't just the fact that this
22:31
Speaker 1: owner was following Donald Trump. She was connecting the dots
22:34
Speaker 1: of quite controversial right-wing influencers suddenly popping up wearing these
22:40
Speaker 1: positive affirmation t-shirts. And who most probably were gifted those
22:44
Speaker 1: t-shirts from the brand. Now, Abby then offered up some
22:47
Speaker 1: free PR advice saying if Sabi don't actually support Donald Trump,
22:51
Speaker 1: then create a TikTok clarifying it. Here's what she said.
22:55
Speaker 2: Who knows if them following Donald Trump means they support him.
22:59
Speaker 2: It could just mean they follow him because they think
23:00
Speaker 2: he's so horrific. If that is the case, they could
23:03
Speaker 2: do a video. Um, if you're watching this, if you
23:06
Speaker 2: don't actually support him, I reckon do a video and
23:08
Speaker 2: just be like, guys, we follow him because he's so crazy.
23:11
Speaker 2: Like just, I think that could be cleared up very easily.
23:13
Speaker 2: So yeah, There is a chance that them following Donald
23:15
Speaker 2: Trump isn't them supporting him.
23:20
Speaker 1: I think she's right because they've sort of been tiptoeing
23:22
Speaker 1: around who they support and who they don't support and
23:25
Speaker 1: have seemed like they don't want to offend anyone. But
23:27
Speaker 1: at the same time, being neutral is offending both parties almost.
23:31
Speaker 1: I think it looks like they have something to hide
23:32
Speaker 1: when maybe they don't. That's why it's really dangerous for
23:35
Speaker 1: brands to be on TikTok if they haven't fully formulated
23:38
Speaker 1: what what they stand for as a brand, if they
23:41
Speaker 1: don't know their core values inside out, if they're not
23:43
Speaker 1: picking the right influences. Because if you're marketing your product
23:47
Speaker 1: at young women, then you have to be very careful
23:50
Speaker 1: because they are expecting more and more from brands. Well,
23:53
Speaker 1: it's because people find it hypocritical to have these positive
23:55
Speaker 1: affirmations splashed across a t-shirt, but then be potentially supporting
23:59
Speaker 1: someone who is so negative. It It's crazy as well
24:02
Speaker 1: that this isn't even a US company. This is happening
24:05
Speaker 1: in Australia. It shows you how strongly people feel about
24:09
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and the fact he has been elected. But
24:11
Speaker 1: also it is a statement, the influencers you choose. Now,
24:14
Speaker 1: they haven't come out and said whether they hand-selected these
24:17
Speaker 1: influencers or if they organically wore the T-shirts. But if
24:20
Speaker 1: it is the case and they have selected them, that
24:23
Speaker 1: sends a statement of what your core values are. It's
24:25
Speaker 1: more complicated these days to have a business. Now, following
24:29
Speaker 1: this shitstorm, Kate Forster lost every single video on her
24:33
Speaker 1: TikTok account. So her page was mass reported in what
24:37
Speaker 1: really seemed like an attempt to silence her. Yeah, she
24:39
Speaker 1: told her followers that she spoke to the team at
24:41
Speaker 1: TikTok in length and they informed her that it was
24:44
Speaker 1: mass fake reporting, which lost all of her videos. So
24:48
Speaker 1: apparently that triggers every single video to be removed. So
24:52
Speaker 1: is that like a bot? Then someone's paid for a
24:54
Speaker 1: bot to report her page? Sounds like it. I really
24:57
Speaker 1: feel for her because she has spent months and months
25:00
Speaker 1: creating this content. And she's had so many clever videos,
25:03
Speaker 1: which are either comedic or there's been a lot of
25:05
Speaker 1: time invested in these reviews. And she's really built a
25:09
Speaker 1: community by people sending those videos on. So many people
25:12
Speaker 1: are asking her, can you please recreate some of the videos?
25:15
Speaker 1: But she said there's all this weird copywriting around it.
25:18
Speaker 1: So if she uploads a video that was similar, it
25:20
Speaker 1: gets removed. Now, she ended up switching her account to
25:23
Speaker 1: private to stop people from reporting her. And it's unclear
25:28
Speaker 1: what she's going to do moving forward because this seems
25:30
Speaker 1: to be a real issue for her. People want to
25:32
Speaker 1: silence her. And people seem like they don't want women,
25:35
Speaker 1: particularly older women, with a strong opinion. It's actually really
25:38
Speaker 1: disturbing that there's been this orchestrated effort to silence her.
25:42
Speaker 1: And now this is going to be an example of
25:43
Speaker 1: what you can do if you don't agree with someone's opinion.
25:45
Speaker 1: I mean, people are having a problem with her pointing
25:47
Speaker 1: out that this brand follows Trump. Isn't the behaviour that
25:50
Speaker 1: you've just exhibited very Trumpist?
25:53
Speaker 3: From appearing to live a glamorous life to the inside
25:56
Speaker 3: of a jail cell, Andre Ribello is now facing a
25:59
Speaker 3: likely life prison term.
26:01
Speaker 1: Cheers. Andre Ribello has been found guilty of murdering his mother.
26:07
Speaker 1: A jury took two days to deliberate after the eight-week trial.
26:11
Speaker 1: Prosecutors say Ribello killed his mother for money after taking
26:14
Speaker 1: out three life insurance policies in her name just days earlier.
26:19
Speaker 1: He will be sentenced in April next year and is
26:21
Speaker 1: expected to get life in prison. Was anyone else pretty
26:24
Speaker 1: surprised to hear the news? Like from the onset, I
26:27
Speaker 1: thought he probably was guilty, but to actually have confirmation
26:32
Speaker 1: that this man murdered his mother, it just rocked me
26:35
Speaker 1: to my core that anyone could do that. I wasn't shocked,
26:38
Speaker 1: but I think it really did hit a nerve to
26:40
Speaker 1: know that this is actually what has happened, to know
26:43
Speaker 1: for a fact this is what happened and more gruesome
26:46
Speaker 1: details have come out about the day. So It started
26:49
Speaker 1: off as a very normal day for Colleen Ribello. So
26:52
Speaker 1: she had dropped her son off at work at 10 a.m.
26:55
Speaker 1: and she came home and was visited by Andre. So
26:58
Speaker 1: he originally denied seeing his mom on the day of
27:01
Speaker 1: her death. However, in court, he revealed he did in
27:04
Speaker 1: fact visit her, but he said he just chatted about
27:06
Speaker 1: Gracie and their son over a coffee. Now, prosecutors say
27:10
Speaker 1: that Andre murdered his mother during this visit. Now, Colleen's
27:14
Speaker 1: cause of death was actually ruled inconclusive by the coroner.
27:18
Speaker 1: But it's alleged that Andre suffocated her with a pillow.
27:22
Speaker 1: It's then believed he removed his mother's clothes and placed
27:25
Speaker 1: her body in the shower to make it look like
27:27
Speaker 1: she'd had a medical episode and died of natural causes.
27:30
Speaker 1: And the saddest part is that at the time of
27:32
Speaker 1: her death, she was happy and healthy. There was no
27:35
Speaker 1: animosity between her and her son. Can you imagine how
27:38
Speaker 1: horrifying her final moments would have been for her? And
27:41
Speaker 1: how scarring this also was for Andre's brother, Fabian, because
27:45
Speaker 1: his mum was meant to go and pick him up
27:47
Speaker 1: from work at 2 p.m., And when she didn't arrive,
27:50
Speaker 1: Fabian then returned home to discover her dead in the shower.
27:54
Speaker 1: So he called paramedics before calling his three siblings. And
27:58
Speaker 1: Andre was the last sibling to be called. Now, he
28:01
Speaker 1: ended up joining his siblings at their mother's home as
28:04
Speaker 1: police arrived. And at no point did Andre mention that
28:07
Speaker 1: he had seen his mom alive and well that day.
28:09
Speaker 1: What really shocked me is that police set up surveillance
28:12
Speaker 1: on Andre. So they planted a listening device in the
28:16
Speaker 1: bedroom that he shared with Gracie Piscopo. and also a
28:19
Speaker 1: camera with audio in their lounge room. So they were
28:22
Speaker 1: listening into conversations for over three months. Now, apparently these
28:26
Speaker 1: recordings made it very clear that Gracie was unaware that
28:29
Speaker 1: Andre had murdered Colleen. So that's why she was ruled
28:32
Speaker 1: out of this investigation. Now, I do want to talk
28:34
Speaker 1: about the reporting because as we have previously discussed, Gracie
28:38
Speaker 1: has been front and center despite having nothing to do
28:41
Speaker 1: with the murder. And of course, a murder trial of
28:44
Speaker 1: this nature, when a son kills their mother, it's going
28:46
Speaker 1: to have a bit of interest, but the interest was
28:49
Speaker 1: next level due to Gracie's profile. And it also has
28:52
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the motive that the prosecutors
28:54
Speaker 1: were pushing because during the trial, the prosecutors alleged that
28:58
Speaker 1: the reason Andre killed his mum was to get money
29:01
Speaker 1: to fund the couple's lavish lifestyle. And this was an
29:04
Speaker 1: angle very much focused on by the media. Well, I'm
29:06
Speaker 1: not surprised because I watched quite a number of TV
29:09
Speaker 1: reports about this and they had the perfect overlay for
29:13
Speaker 1: all of those claims. So they used a lot of
29:14
Speaker 1: vision from YouTube. of Andre and Gracie on these extravagant
29:19
Speaker 1: holidays in the Maldives that showed him living the life.
29:22
Speaker 1: But it perfectly pictured his fall from grace as well. Well,
29:25
Speaker 1: also the fact that he was a reported cryptocurrency trader,
29:30
Speaker 1: like it just fit into that profile and that story.
29:34
Speaker 1: The reality of the situation is, yes, he was doing
29:36
Speaker 1: crypto on the side, but it was making him no money.
29:39
Speaker 1: He previously was was actually a delivery driver for Coles
29:42
Speaker 1: and he was studying. And in his final year of study,
29:45
Speaker 1: he gave it up to be Gracie's assistant and also
29:48
Speaker 1: to be the primary caregiver of their son. So Gracie
29:50
Speaker 1: was the breadwinner in this relationship. And I think it
29:53
Speaker 1: shocked a lot of people because his background, you know,
29:56
Speaker 1: working for Coles and studying wasn't really publicized. It was
29:59
Speaker 1: almost like, oh, he's this cryptocurrency bro who's very successful.
30:03
Speaker 1: And in the trial, the prosecutors tried to play up
30:06
Speaker 1: that there was this power imbalance in Andre and Gracie's relationship.
30:10
Speaker 1: So it was reported that Gracie was making six figures
30:13
Speaker 1: by 2020, but the court was told the couple was
30:16
Speaker 1: spending more than they were actually making. Yeah. And it
30:19
Speaker 1: was at this point that Gracie's influencing career was taking off.
30:22
Speaker 1: She had a million followers on Instagram and was making
30:25
Speaker 1: good money. However, she had to support Andre and their son.
30:29
Speaker 1: And if you cast your mind back to 2020, everyone
30:31
Speaker 1: was struggling. Brands were cutting marketing budgets. Everyone was losing
30:35
Speaker 1: their jobs. And it was at this point that Gracie
30:37
Speaker 1: and Andre, they were renting a house for $ 880 a week.
30:41
Speaker 1: This was before COVID. So that was very expensive at
30:44
Speaker 1: the time. And they also had a big car loan
30:48
Speaker 1: for a Range Rover. And it's interesting because when you
30:51
Speaker 1: are an influencer with a million followers on Instagram, it
30:55
Speaker 1: does come with a certain expectation and an image to uphold.
30:59
Speaker 1: And Gracie is a lifestyle influencer and her content is
31:01
Speaker 1: about promoting an enviable lifestyle with a nice home, clothes
31:05
Speaker 1: and holidays. So she did have this image to uphold.
31:08
Speaker 1: And it's believed that Andre was feeling a lot of
31:11
Speaker 1: pressure about that. What does make me feel uncomfortable about
31:14
Speaker 1: some of this coverage, though, is the implication that Gracie
31:18
Speaker 1: was pushing this lifestyle or that she had anything to
31:21
Speaker 1: do with this murder. Because It's so far from the truth.
31:25
Speaker 1: He obviously got involved in his own lies. Like if
31:27
Speaker 1: he was making up lies that he's made all of
31:29
Speaker 1: this money off crypto, there are a lot of skeletons
31:32
Speaker 1: obviously in his closet. And I think it's really unfair
31:35
Speaker 1: that Gracie isn't being portrayed as a victim in this case.
31:39
Speaker 1: She's a young mum who now her partner of eight
31:41
Speaker 1: years has been found guilty of the worst possible crime.
31:44
Speaker 1: Her baby daddy as well. And instead of feeling sorry
31:47
Speaker 1: for her, I feel like the media are trying to
31:49
Speaker 1: portray her as being part of the problem. Yeah, and
31:50
Speaker 1: I think that really speaks a lot to how society
31:54
Speaker 1: views influencers at the moment. We want to believe the
31:57
Speaker 1: worst in people. But also women as well.
31:59
Speaker 5: Yeah.
31:59
Speaker 1: And if you think about how the media has covered
32:02
Speaker 1: this story, you know, they've used a lot of photos
32:04
Speaker 1: of Gracie and it's because the media rely on clicks
32:07
Speaker 1: and engagement. And they know that using an image of
32:10
Speaker 1: this beautiful girl with this guy and saying he murdered
32:13
Speaker 1: his mum to fund this lifestyle, people are going to
32:15
Speaker 1: hate on her. People are going to write disgusting things
32:19
Speaker 1: when it didn't even have anything to do with her. Look,
32:22
Speaker 1: on a different level, I do understand why the media
32:24
Speaker 1: is reporting it in this way. From working there for
32:27
Speaker 1: many years, it's the perfect story for them. It's got
32:30
Speaker 1: all of the right ingredients to sell papers. Not saying
32:32
Speaker 1: it's the right thing to do, but I totally understand it.
32:35
Speaker 1: Before we get into the next topic, we want to
32:37
Speaker 1: issue a trigger warning as we do touch on issues
32:40
Speaker 1: surrounding alcohol and drug use as well as suicide. Fresh
32:44
Speaker 1: from taking out Food Creator of the Year at the
32:47
Speaker 1: TikTok Awards, Michael Finch has opened up about hitting rock
32:50
Speaker 1: bottom and losing his passion for makeup. In the Raw
32:53
Speaker 1: interview on his best friend Amy Jane Brand's podcast, Emotional Content,
32:58
Speaker 1: Michael spoke about suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. I
33:01
Speaker 1: found this interview fascinating because a lot of our listeners
33:04
Speaker 1: will know that we did a deep dive into Michael's
33:06
Speaker 1: career and also his social media transformation last year. And
33:09
Speaker 1: this filled a lot of blanks for us about what
33:11
Speaker 1: was going on in the background. Might have to redo that. Yeah.
33:15
Speaker 1: And this was Michael's first ever podcast interview. I'm a
33:18
Speaker 1: bit sad that it didn't take place on our podcast,
33:20
Speaker 1: but I think the fact that he did it with
33:21
Speaker 1: his best friend, it really helped him feel comfortable and
33:24
Speaker 1: also safe to open up. And He really did bear
33:28
Speaker 1: all in this interview. He spoke about gradually losing his
33:31
Speaker 1: passion for makeup. He said he became hyper aware of
33:34
Speaker 1: the ingredients going into some makeup brands and no longer
33:38
Speaker 1: felt comfortable putting it on his skin every day. When
33:41
Speaker 1: I first heard this, my first thought was, I wonder
33:43
Speaker 1: how all of those makeup brands feel that have worked
33:46
Speaker 1: with him over the years. It's interesting because a part
33:49
Speaker 1: of his job was to influence people to buy that makeup.
33:52
Speaker 1: And if he's worried about what's in it and he's
33:54
Speaker 1: telling people to buy it as well, I mean, ethically...
33:57
Speaker 1: he might have a bit of a hang up about that. Well, yeah,
33:58
Speaker 1: but that kind of makes more sense why he's deleted
34:00
Speaker 1: a lot of his old videos over the years, because
34:03
Speaker 1: he's really wiped his YouTube channel. And maybe it's because
34:06
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to encourage something that he no longer supports. Wow.
34:10
Speaker 1: An influencer actually taking accountability for the past mistakes that
34:13
Speaker 1: they've made, you know, I mean, he's deemed them mistakes
34:16
Speaker 1: and clearing it off the internet and not making ad
34:18
Speaker 1: revenue off it.
34:18
Speaker 2: Wow.
34:19
Speaker 1: That is an absolute shock.
34:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:20
Speaker 1: It's very refreshing. It's very refreshing. Now, as he started
34:23
Speaker 1: falling out of love with makeup, Michael said he stopped
34:26
Speaker 1: creating content altogether. Now, this was around 2019 and he
34:30
Speaker 1: said he quickly ran out of money and found himself
34:33
Speaker 1: in debt. So he started working at a friend's nursery. Now,
34:37
Speaker 1: he ended up working there for over six months and
34:40
Speaker 1: then COVID hit. I specifically remember this period of time
34:43
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, God, I hope he's okay. Yeah,
34:47
Speaker 1: let's listen to what he said about that time.
34:50
Speaker 5: COVID happened after that. And then I didn't want to
34:52
Speaker 5: put that shit on my skin anymore. Like, you know,
34:54
Speaker 5: a lot of people had like, well, they call it
34:56
Speaker 5: like an awakening before like COVID happened or whatever. And
34:59
Speaker 5: I guess I kind of had that and just like
35:01
Speaker 5: looked into a lot of the shit that was in
35:03
Speaker 5: makeup and just was just like, I don't want to
35:05
Speaker 5: put this shit on my skin anymore. I learned a lot.
35:08
Speaker 1: Michael also said he became totally disillusioned by the industry
35:12
Speaker 1: and he was rapidly losing followers and relevance from not
35:15
Speaker 1: posting content, And he knew that the only way to
35:17
Speaker 1: get attention was to insert himself into some type of drama.
35:21
Speaker 1: But this wasn't for him. He said he found it
35:23
Speaker 1: gross and took a further six month hiatus to try
35:26
Speaker 1: and find himself.
35:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
35:27
Speaker 1: And he said during that time, he went completely off
35:30
Speaker 1: the rails and became heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
35:34
Speaker 1: Here's a bit of what he said.
35:36
Speaker 5: There was a point where I really hit rock bottom
35:38
Speaker 5: where I was just like a full-blown alcoholic and I
35:40
Speaker 5: was so addicted to that. I don't know if anyone knows,
35:42
Speaker 5: but there was like this thing that you used to be,
35:44
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure, I don't know if you can still
35:45
Speaker 5: get it, but I used to get this weed oil,
35:47
Speaker 5: but it was like fake weed oil. And it was
35:49
Speaker 5: like a hundred and- Yeah, synthetic. It was like $ 110
35:51
Speaker 5: for like a little bottle of oil. And you used
35:54
Speaker 5: to put it through a vape that used to get
35:55
Speaker 5: up to 200 degrees Celsius. And I used to just
35:58
Speaker 5: rip that all day, every single day. My rock bottom
36:01
Speaker 5: was that, smoking that, getting addicted to bricks. You know,
36:03
Speaker 5: bricks are fucking those bricks. I don't know what the
36:06
Speaker 5: real name is.
36:06
Speaker 1: Oh my God, I don't, but wait.
36:08
Speaker 5: They're like the pharmaceuticals, like the bricks and the Xanax.
36:11
Speaker 1: Oh, Xanax?
36:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
36:12
Speaker 5: I don't know if bricks and Xanax is the same thing.
36:15
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure it is, yeah. I got so addicted
36:17
Speaker 5: to them.
36:17
Speaker 1: This actually really shocked me because- I know he's tiptoed
36:22
Speaker 1: around having some sort of issues with alcohol and maybe
36:25
Speaker 1: doubled in drugs, but the extent of what he was
36:28
Speaker 1: going through, I had no idea. And he did reference
36:31
Speaker 1: one occasion where he thought he might not wake up
36:34
Speaker 1: from his drug binge. And this was very upsetting for
36:36
Speaker 1: the host, Amy Jane Brand, because she said that she
36:39
Speaker 1: and Michael had lost contact at that time. They had
36:41
Speaker 1: a bit of a falling out. And it was really
36:44
Speaker 1: upsetting to hear that things had gotten so bad for
36:46
Speaker 1: Michael like that. It's really sad and it just demonstrates
36:49
Speaker 1: the lack of support influencers have because like child stars, Michael, Finch,
36:54
Speaker 1: Shani Grimman, they're the first lot of child teenage influencers
36:59
Speaker 1: who have had this level of fame and money given
37:03
Speaker 1: to them at this young age. And it's clear that
37:05
Speaker 1: it's been very hard for Michael to navigate that. Well,
37:07
Speaker 1: in this interview, he went into a lot of detail
37:10
Speaker 1: how he actually developed anxiety from being followed around by fans.
37:14
Speaker 1: He said he didn't have a problem with people asking
37:16
Speaker 1: for photos, but what became a problem was that feeling
37:19
Speaker 1: of being followed. And this happened a lot to them
37:22
Speaker 1: at nightclubs as well, because at the time, Michael said
37:25
Speaker 1: that he was secretly smoking. So he said that Sharni,
37:28
Speaker 1: his best friend at the time, didn't even know that
37:31
Speaker 1: he was smoking, but he would try and have a
37:33
Speaker 1: sneaky cigarette when he was out and about. And he
37:35
Speaker 1: mentioned that someone tried to snap a photo of him
37:39
Speaker 1: smoking and his manager at the time, I don't know
37:41
Speaker 1: if this was Mia Pleszek, but they apparently grabbed the
37:44
Speaker 1: fan's phone and threw it across the room. It sounds
37:48
Speaker 1: like maybe something Mia Plesic would allegedly do. I mean,
37:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if that would be worse PR, a
37:53
Speaker 1: manager smashing someone's phone or a photo of him smoking.
37:56
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think that just demonstrates to people
37:58
Speaker 1: who didn't grow up in the era of Michael Finch
38:00
Speaker 1: just how big he was at the time. Now, going
38:03
Speaker 1: back to this really difficult time that Michael found himself in,
38:06
Speaker 1: he said that things were so dire that he thought
38:08
Speaker 1: he was going to have to move back to his
38:10
Speaker 1: hometown with his parents. He said he had a lot
38:12
Speaker 1: of support, though. His parents ended up loaning him $ 50, 000
38:14
Speaker 1: to get back on his feet. He also said some
38:18
Speaker 1: of his influencer friends loaned him money. I'm not sure
38:20
Speaker 1: if that was shiny grim and, but interesting that they
38:23
Speaker 1: were very kind enough to do that. He also said
38:26
Speaker 1: he sold a ton of his designer stuff and all
38:28
Speaker 1: of his furniture, which at the time sparked a lot
38:31
Speaker 1: of speculation. I remember talking about it on the podcast.
38:34
Speaker 1: He said it was so awkward because he's like, everyone's like,
38:37
Speaker 1: why are you selling it? And he's like, oh, it's
38:39
Speaker 1: a secret. Like he didn't want to say that he
38:41
Speaker 1: had no money. And he said that his motivation for
38:44
Speaker 1: getting out of such a dark place was survival. He
38:47
Speaker 1: said he needed to make money to keep afloat. And
38:50
Speaker 1: this is really how he made his grand return with food.
38:53
Speaker 1: He said it was scary to totally change his content
38:56
Speaker 1: because he said he'd grown his followers by sharing about
38:59
Speaker 1: superficial content like makeup and designer gear. And he knew
39:02
Speaker 1: that he was going to get a lot of his
39:05
Speaker 1: followers dropping off, but he knew that he needed to
39:07
Speaker 1: try and get new people in. This just makes it
39:10
Speaker 1: even better that he has become so successful in that
39:13
Speaker 1: area because it's just such an incredible transformation going from
39:17
Speaker 1: a makeup guru to TikTok's best chef.
39:20
Speaker 3: Yeah.
39:20
Speaker 1: I mean, the fact that he won TikTok creator of
39:22
Speaker 1: the year for food is incredible. And he said it's
39:25
Speaker 1: really paid off making the switch because he's now making
39:27
Speaker 1: more money from his cooking videos than he ever was
39:30
Speaker 1: with makeup.
39:31
Speaker 5: Really?
39:32
Speaker 1: That's surprising. And he also has said that he has
39:35
Speaker 1: resided himself to the fact that he will always be
39:37
Speaker 1: an addict, whether it's with cigarettes, alcohol or weed, but
39:40
Speaker 1: it's just about managing it. That is all we have
39:43
Speaker 1: time for today, though. Thank you so much for joining
39:45
Speaker 1: us for another episode. If you have enjoyed it, could
39:48
Speaker 1: you please, please, please leave us a positive review and
39:51
Speaker 1: also make sure you are subscribed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
39:54
Speaker 1: This episode was recorded on the traditional land of the
39:57
Speaker 1: Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to
40:00
Speaker 1: elders past and present.