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Mikaela Testa Brings The Receipts · Outspoken the Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Before we get into the episode, we want to issue
0:02
Speaker 1: a trigger warning as we touch on issues around domestic
0:04
Speaker 1: violence and sexual assault. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's
0:11
Speaker 1: your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news
0:14
Speaker 1: twice a week. I'm Sophie Torber and we have a
0:17
Speaker 1: big episode today. We are going to be unpacking the
0:20
Speaker 1: Michaela Testa and Anna and Addis Paul drama that has
0:24
Speaker 1: exploded on YouTube over the weekend. So Michaela Tester has
0:28
Speaker 1: shared some very disturbing insights into her relationship with the
0:32
Speaker 1: Paul family in a two-and-a-half-hour podcast episode shared to YouTube
0:37
Speaker 1: The OnlyFans creator leveled some very serious allegations against the
0:41
Speaker 1: TikTok stars. Before we get into it, we want to
0:43
Speaker 1: reiterate that at this stage, these are just allegations that
0:47
Speaker 1: are being made by Michaela Tester. The polls have not
0:50
Speaker 1: yet weighed in officially. Now, Kate, can you get us
0:52
Speaker 1: up to speed with what actually led to this podcast
0:55
Speaker 1: in the first place? So last month, Michaela released an
0:58
Speaker 1: eight-minute expose on Anna and Atta's poll, which caused the
1:01
Speaker 1: internet to explode. So for some background, Michaela dated Addis
1:05
Speaker 1: for several years before they broke up in 2022. And
1:08
Speaker 1: within the first weeks of dating, Michaela moved in with
1:11
Speaker 1: the Paul family and really did become a family member. Well,
1:14
Speaker 1: she was particularly close with Anna and they labeled each
1:17
Speaker 1: other best friends. Yeah, they were all very close. So
1:20
Speaker 1: initially on TikTok, Michaela leveled serious allegations against Addis, which
1:24
Speaker 1: we have not been able to report on for legal reasons.
1:26
Speaker 1: But those allegations are all over TikTok and have not
1:29
Speaker 1: been censored. So I think everyone is up to speed
1:31
Speaker 1: what those allegations are. And the polls are yet to
1:34
Speaker 1: actually address any of those allegations. No, when Anna put
1:37
Speaker 1: out her apology, she didn't touch on anything to do
1:39
Speaker 1: with her brother.
1:40
Speaker 2: No.
1:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, as for the claims against Anna, Michaela accused
1:43
Speaker 1: her of incentivizing her underage fan base to sign up
1:46
Speaker 1: to her OnlyFans account with the lure of a cash giveaway,
1:50
Speaker 1: lying about growing up poor, as well as calling a
1:52
Speaker 1: fan fat and sweaty. And in a statement, Anna claimed
1:55
Speaker 1: that she felt poor at the time and that she
1:57
Speaker 1: called the fan sweaty, but not fat. Now, Michaela started
2:01
Speaker 1: the podcast by providing some disclaimers, the first being that
2:05
Speaker 1: she is not in trouble legally. She also confirmed that
2:08
Speaker 1: the Paul's legal team have not contacted her. And I
2:11
Speaker 1: felt that this was a really clever move by Michaela
2:13
Speaker 1: to strengthen her claims as when it comes to defamation,
2:16
Speaker 1: the truth is a defense. I thought that was really
2:19
Speaker 1: interesting insight into how the Paul family work, because I
2:22
Speaker 1: think everybody assumed looking in that they would have been
2:25
Speaker 1: completely lawyered up, that they would have reached out to
2:28
Speaker 1: Michaela Tester. Yeah, it's not really a good look, is it? Now,
2:31
Speaker 1: the second disclaimer that Michaela put out there was that
2:33
Speaker 1: the podcast was not being monetized. And that's despite the
2:36
Speaker 1: fact that she had been offered paid opportunities. She was
2:39
Speaker 1: also offered to appear on a number of other podcasts,
2:42
Speaker 1: but she made the decision not to monetize it because
2:44
Speaker 1: she said she didn't want to profit off trauma and abuse,
2:47
Speaker 1: which I thought was a really good move. Yeah, it's
2:49
Speaker 1: a very clever strategic move because It makes her claims
2:53
Speaker 1: more valid as well. Yeah. And I think she was
2:55
Speaker 1: predicting that a lot of people would go on TikTok
2:58
Speaker 1: and say, oh, she's full of shit because she's making
3:00
Speaker 1: money off this podcast. I do think an alternative move
3:03
Speaker 1: that she could have made was actually to monetize it,
3:05
Speaker 1: but say that all of the money was going to
3:07
Speaker 1: a women's charity. But sometimes that opens up the door
3:11
Speaker 1: for people to scrutinize further, like it's the wrong charity
3:14
Speaker 1: or she hasn't given the full amount. Or, you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: remember when Sarah's Day raised that money for bushfire victims
3:19
Speaker 1: and Even though she did donate all of the money,
3:22
Speaker 1: everyone's like, she didn't do it soon enough.
3:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:24
Speaker 1: Well, sadly, the final disclaimer came in the form of
3:27
Speaker 1: Michaela saying that she's not the perfect victim. So Michaela
3:30
Speaker 1: gave some insight into her childhood. She explained that she
3:34
Speaker 1: grew up in an abusive environment with a teen mum
3:36
Speaker 1: who was a drug addict and also a stepdad who
3:39
Speaker 1: abused her. What I found fascinating is she spoke about
3:42
Speaker 1: how she was one of seven kids and that she
3:44
Speaker 1: grew up, quote, dirt broke. and wouldn't have food because
3:48
Speaker 1: her mum spent money on drugs. And it just made
3:50
Speaker 1: me think about how annoyed she must have been sitting
3:53
Speaker 1: there while Anna Paul was trying to perpetuate this image
3:56
Speaker 1: that she grew up for when that was actually Michaela's reality.
3:59
Speaker 1: It really seems like Anna was cosplaying Michaela's life and
4:03
Speaker 1: using her personal stories to build this narrative about herself
4:06
Speaker 1: that would garner sympathy and interest. It was so sad
4:09
Speaker 1: because Michaela also touched on the fact that she finally
4:13
Speaker 1: met her biological father when she was 14. But sadly,
4:16
Speaker 1: he died of cancer when she was 18. Yeah, that
4:19
Speaker 1: really broke my heart because it felt like she was
4:20
Speaker 1: finally in a good place with her dad. And then
4:23
Speaker 1: that happened. I do think it was really clever of
4:25
Speaker 1: the way that she prefaced her childhood at the start
4:28
Speaker 1: of this video. So listeners could actually make sense of
4:31
Speaker 1: her actions. And it did upset me that she kept
4:33
Speaker 1: having to apologize and say that she blamed herself because
4:38
Speaker 1: it's clear throughout her life she has been a victim
4:40
Speaker 1: of abuse. I was just in awe of how she
4:42
Speaker 1: was able to speak so confidently in this video. And
4:45
Speaker 1: How likable she came across. Sadly, I think if she
4:48
Speaker 1: hadn't made all of these disclaimers, though, there would be
4:50
Speaker 1: a section of people who would say that she's just
4:52
Speaker 1: as bad for perhaps being a bystander in this. Because,
4:55
Speaker 1: I mean, we will go further into it, but she
4:58
Speaker 1: played unseen videos, but you could hear her voice in
5:00
Speaker 1: the background giving directions. It was quite interesting because she
5:03
Speaker 1: also said that she thinks that she suffered from Stockholm
5:07
Speaker 1: syndrome during this experience with the polls, which we will
5:09
Speaker 1: further dive into. But yeah, there were a lot of disclaimers,
5:12
Speaker 1: which were very important, I think. I do want to
5:14
Speaker 1: applaud Michaela because it would have been hard opening up
5:16
Speaker 1: about her personal life, but it was really clever because
5:20
Speaker 1: it made you empathize with her and understand what triggered
5:23
Speaker 1: her to call out Anna on claiming that she grew
5:26
Speaker 1: up poor. And I really enjoyed the receipts that Michaela
5:28
Speaker 1: provided in this YouTube to prove that Anna did not
5:31
Speaker 1: grow up poor. Not only did she label Anna's claims
5:34
Speaker 1: as a sham, a lie and an exaggeration, She shared
5:37
Speaker 1: countless photos to back up her claims. I think the
5:40
Speaker 1: most damning ones were the ones of Anna and Addis
5:43
Speaker 1: as kids living in the waterfront home and then later
5:45
Speaker 1: on as teenagers showing that they were in that same home.
5:48
Speaker 1: I just loved her pointing out, she's like, brand name,
5:50
Speaker 1: brand name. They always had Starbucks. They were out for
5:53
Speaker 1: like at cafes with their mom. My favorite one was
5:56
Speaker 1: when she was saying, oh, Anna thinks that she grew
5:58
Speaker 1: up poor because her first car was a Holden Astra.
6:01
Speaker 1: And then Michaela ended up bringing up a Google Maps
6:04
Speaker 1: photo from back in the day, showing the family van
6:08
Speaker 1: that she used to have to drive to school in,
6:10
Speaker 1: which looked like it was broken down, like it's seen
6:13
Speaker 1: better days. Oh, that made me laugh. The crazy thing
6:15
Speaker 1: is all of these photos were readily available on Anna's
6:18
Speaker 1: own Instagram account. Like why did she not delete them?
6:21
Speaker 1: And how come it's only until now that these have
6:23
Speaker 1: been brought up? Look, after this whole ordeal, you think
6:26
Speaker 1: you'd go and do a bit of a delete on Instagram,
6:28
Speaker 1: wouldn't you? Yeah, but is it that she's so delusional
6:30
Speaker 1: that she thinks that that was growing up poor? Is
6:32
Speaker 1: she trying to claim that a lot of the designer
6:35
Speaker 1: goods were fake? Because didn't she say that a dead
6:37
Speaker 1: Hans used to go to garage sales or sell fake stuff? Yeah,
6:42
Speaker 1: that she sat on first class, but she was only
6:44
Speaker 1: there for a second or something. I mean, maybe she
6:46
Speaker 1: doesn't think Michael Kors is as good as a Rolex.
6:49
Speaker 1: Have you guys seen those TikToks popping up? And it's
6:52
Speaker 1: a guy who's imitating Addis Paul, his videos from 2022.
6:55
Speaker 1: And it's like, I am so rich. Fuck you all.
6:59
Speaker 1: Like this is how rich I am. This is my
7:01
Speaker 1: $ 21 million watch. I think what was so apparent during
7:04
Speaker 1: this video is how clever Michaela Tester is because she
7:08
Speaker 1: understands Anna's fan base and what an absolute ace it
7:12
Speaker 1: would be if she had the backing of Anna's beloved ex,
7:15
Speaker 1: Glenn Thompson. And not only did Michaela reveal that Glenn
7:18
Speaker 1: helped her during her personal experiences of abuse, but that
7:22
Speaker 1: he also supports her now. He sounded so lovely. Like
7:25
Speaker 1: you just got a vibe that he was that one
7:28
Speaker 1: person that Michaela could have actually confided in during that experience.
7:32
Speaker 1: And she was really respectful of Glenn, which I think
7:34
Speaker 1: was another strategic move because she knew if she started
7:36
Speaker 1: outing all of her text messages between Glenn, then That
7:39
Speaker 1: would not be seen favourably with Anna's fan base. Well,
7:41
Speaker 1: it would also get Glenn offside as well and that
7:43
Speaker 1: led to more drama where maybe he could have provided
7:46
Speaker 1: receipts about Michaela. Well, she ended up sharing screenshots from
7:49
Speaker 1: a conversation with him that supported her claims. Michaela also
7:53
Speaker 1: alleged that Anna constantly fat shamed Glenn. This is what
7:56
Speaker 1: she said.
7:58
Speaker 2: Anna, behind Glenn's back to me and my entire friend
8:01
Speaker 2: group that we had, you know, Anna, me, Lilith, Chloe, Bailey,
8:07
Speaker 2: she would call Glenn fat on the daily. She'd call
8:10
Speaker 2: him fat every single day. She'd fat shame him. She'd
8:13
Speaker 2: fat shame him.
8:13
Speaker 1: With her mom.
8:14
Speaker 2: It was mostly like Attis and her mama. This was
8:18
Speaker 2: the times that I recall in person her saying this.
8:20
Speaker 2: She'd be talking shit in German about Glenn.
8:22
Speaker 4: Okay, I heard it.
8:23
Speaker 1: And I also heard her.
8:25
Speaker 4: Just talking shit to me and my friend group in
8:26
Speaker 4: English as well. Shit about Glenn being fat. It was
8:29
Speaker 4: very fucked to witness. And I swear to God, no
8:31
Speaker 4: word of a lie.
8:32
Speaker 2: She was saying this about Glenn and Glenn's family for years.
8:34
Speaker 2: Like one time she came back from a trip in
8:37
Speaker 2: Bali with Glenn and all of Glenn's family members. And
8:40
Speaker 2: she had made a really fucked up comment about how
8:43
Speaker 2: they wear shower curtains to the day clubs and Anna's
8:48
Speaker 2: in a bikini and it feels so awkward because they're
8:50
Speaker 2: so fat. And she literally thinks that his family is
8:54
Speaker 2: jealous of her. It was just really bizarre. Like she'd
8:56
Speaker 2: be It was just like an unspoken thing that Attis,
9:00
Speaker 2: her and Mama hated Glenn's family. And it was always
9:04
Speaker 2: like a them versus Glenn, like their family versus.
9:07
Speaker 4: Glenn's family sort of thing. Like it was just really
9:09
Speaker 4: fucking weird.
9:11
Speaker 1: Michaela's obviously putting this out there because she's trying to
9:14
Speaker 1: back up her original claim saying that Anna called a
9:16
Speaker 1: fan fat. So she's trying to demonstrate that this is
9:19
Speaker 1: a pattern of behavior and language that she used quite comfortably.
9:22
Speaker 1: It's particularly awkward because for a number of years, Anna
9:25
Speaker 1: Paul portrayed herself as this body positivity advocate. And the
9:28
Speaker 1: fact that Glenn lost so much weight after he and
9:31
Speaker 1: Anna broke up, it really makes you think, what about
9:33
Speaker 1: when Michaela said that the whole family had to take
9:35
Speaker 1: part in fasting as this plot to make Glenn thinner?
9:39
Speaker 1: without making him feel bad. And then Michaela said that
9:41
Speaker 1: she ended up getting this eating disorder. I also thought
9:44
Speaker 1: it was interesting when Michaela said that Anna would lose
9:46
Speaker 1: it if they went to Starbucks and apparently Glenn would
9:49
Speaker 1: order a particularly sugary drink and she'd be like, no,
9:52
Speaker 1: he has to have this one. Like it just painted
9:54
Speaker 1: such a picture. And it's these little details that just
9:57
Speaker 1: make her story seem so believable because you just couldn't
10:00
Speaker 1: make this shit up. Yeah. I can't stop thinking about
10:02
Speaker 1: the fact that Anna continued to push this narrative that
10:05
Speaker 1: her and Glenn were still best friends after the breakup
10:07
Speaker 1: and that their families would spend christmas together also anna
10:10
Speaker 1: giving glenn the car well we spoke about this on
10:13
Speaker 1: the podcast when they were pretending to be friends and
10:15
Speaker 1: i said this is bullshit at the time like no
10:17
Speaker 1: one is that close to their ex all very sus
10:19
Speaker 1: now throughout this whole saga we have had to be
10:22
Speaker 1: really careful on how we report on the allegations michaela
10:25
Speaker 1: has leveled at addis paul as they are of a
10:28
Speaker 1: serious nature After viewing the public court documents that appeared
10:32
Speaker 1: in Michaela's video, though, what we can legally say is
10:35
Speaker 1: it appears Addis was sentenced in the district court on
10:38
Speaker 1: the 8th of May, 2023. It is unclear the terms
10:41
Speaker 1: of the sentencing. To be transparent, we have applied to
10:44
Speaker 1: the court to view the sentencing document, but at the
10:47
Speaker 1: time of the recording, we have not received it. It
10:49
Speaker 1: takes seven business days, so we are hoping to receive
10:51
Speaker 1: the document soon. What has caused some confusion, though, is
10:54
Speaker 1: that Addis appeared in court under his real name. which
10:57
Speaker 1: is actually Johannes Theodore Paul. Where does Attis come from then?
11:01
Speaker 1: That's what I'm so confused about. Is it because it's
11:04
Speaker 1: Johannes Attis? I don't understand. When did he change his
11:07
Speaker 1: name and why? It's very sus, isn't it? And a
11:10
Speaker 1: lot of people have been wondering why the media haven't
11:12
Speaker 1: really been on this story. And I wonder if the
11:14
Speaker 1: media were searching under Addis Paul. And I love, though,
11:17
Speaker 1: that Michaela went as far as to show Addis' Medicare
11:21
Speaker 1: card as proof that this actually was his real name.
11:23
Speaker 1: Because there would be so many people being like, that's
11:25
Speaker 1: not even his name. That's someone else. We will go
11:27
Speaker 1: into it in more detail a little bit later. But
11:29
Speaker 1: his name, Johannes Paul, actually appeared on the cease and
11:32
Speaker 1: desist letter that he sent his ex-girlfriend. Interestingly, the timing
11:36
Speaker 1: of Addis' appearance at the sentencing hearings coincided with him
11:40
Speaker 1: leaving social media. So in late April, 2023, Addis vanished
11:45
Speaker 1: from social media after uploading a very cryptic video of
11:48
Speaker 1: himself walking around at night smoking. He had also unfollowed
11:52
Speaker 1: all of his friends on Instagram. And he shared a
11:54
Speaker 1: statement at the time saying social media had destroyed his
11:58
Speaker 1: mental health and the internet was treating him like an
12:01
Speaker 1: evil villain. A week later, he then appeared in front
12:04
Speaker 1: of the district court for sentencing. So it's very interesting timing,
12:07
Speaker 1: isn't it? I think the most chilling allegations came at
12:10
Speaker 1: the hour mark of this podcast. So Michaela shared her
12:13
Speaker 1: personal experiences with manipulation and abuse within the Paul family.
12:18
Speaker 1: She also detailed disturbing accounts of alleged domestic and emotional
12:22
Speaker 1: abuse and coercion. So Michaela spoke in depth about an
12:25
Speaker 1: incident at the Paul family house. And this is where
12:28
Speaker 1: Addis allegedly held a knife to his throat and threatened
12:31
Speaker 1: to harm himself if she left. I was actually watching
12:34
Speaker 1: this alone late at night. Rhys had gone to bed
12:37
Speaker 1: and I actually got quite scared because the way she
12:40
Speaker 1: told the story, it felt like you were there and
12:43
Speaker 1: watching it all unfold. Or she was sort of reenacting
12:46
Speaker 1: what happened almost. Michaela also alleged that she was financially
12:50
Speaker 1: abused by Addis Paul. So according to Michaela, He was
12:53
Speaker 1: in the process of starting up an OnlyFans management company
12:56
Speaker 1: when she first started dating him, and the plan was
12:59
Speaker 1: for him to manage Anna's friends on the platform. Michaela
13:02
Speaker 1: claims that Anna and Attis persuaded her to let Attis
13:06
Speaker 1: manage her OnlyFans, and it wasn't long until Attis was
13:09
Speaker 1: taking a 50% cut for doing minimal work. And when
13:12
Speaker 1: I say minimal work, according to Michaela, the extent of
13:16
Speaker 1: his management was telling her what color lingerie to wear.
13:19
Speaker 1: To put it into perspective, when she was 19, she
13:22
Speaker 1: was earning $ 120, 000 a month from OnlyFans. So Addis Paul
13:26
Speaker 1: was taking $ 60, 000 a month. She also claimed that when
13:30
Speaker 1: she threatened to cut Addis off from the earnings, he
13:32
Speaker 1: would threaten suicide and the situation would turn abusive. So
13:36
Speaker 1: in one instance, Michaela alleges while driving with Addis, he
13:39
Speaker 1: slammed on the brakes of his car causing her to
13:41
Speaker 1: hit her head on the windshield. Michaela did preface during
13:45
Speaker 1: this part of the YouTube that when she first met Addis,
13:48
Speaker 1: she had a far bigger profile than him because I
13:50
Speaker 1: think there is this narrative online that she used the
13:53
Speaker 1: polls and she moved in with them to grow her
13:55
Speaker 1: own career, but her career was doing really well. She
13:57
Speaker 1: already had a manager. She didn't need another manager. Yeah,
14:00
Speaker 1: and what I found particularly difficult to listen to was
14:03
Speaker 1: when Michaela spoke about how Anna and Addis' mother, who
14:06
Speaker 1: she referred to as Mama, were allegedly complicit in all
14:09
Speaker 1: of this. So Michaela claims that Anna and Mama enabled Addis' behavior.
14:13
Speaker 1: She said that Anna was always defensive of Addis and
14:16
Speaker 1: excused his behavior despite witnessing this alleged abuse. According to Michaela,
14:21
Speaker 1: Anna would emotionally blackmail her to stay with Addis saying
14:25
Speaker 1: things like, you're the one that can get through to him.
14:28
Speaker 1: No joke. The things you say to him could save
14:30
Speaker 1: his life. I saw this TikTok pop up focusing on
14:33
Speaker 1: the Paul's mom and saying, what was Mama thinking in
14:36
Speaker 1: the sense of, Obviously all of the people involved in
14:39
Speaker 1: the story apart from her were very young and they're
14:41
Speaker 1: like there was actually an adult in this situation who
14:43
Speaker 1: was just watching this all happen allegedly. Yeah, and Anna's involvement,
14:47
Speaker 1: like they were talking about how she was allegedly recruiting
14:50
Speaker 1: her friends to date Addis and encouraging Michaela to date
14:54
Speaker 1: Addis so that they could be sisters. Like it was
14:56
Speaker 1: all very odd. It was very clear that they wanted
14:59
Speaker 1: to recruit as many women as possible to potentially join
15:02
Speaker 1: this only fan management team. Because clearly it was a
15:05
Speaker 1: way to make huge money during the pandemic. It was
15:07
Speaker 1: a way for Addis to make money because his sister
15:10
Speaker 1: is there making a lot of money off OnlyFans. And
15:12
Speaker 1: people weren't really interested at the time in subscribing to
15:16
Speaker 1: a guy doing OnlyFans. And what really shocked listeners was
15:20
Speaker 1: when Michaela revealed just how close Addis and Anna's relationship
15:24
Speaker 1: was in regards to OnlyFans. So she said that there
15:27
Speaker 1: was this weird dynamic between Anna, Addis and Mama. And
15:31
Speaker 1: in her opinion... it seemed like they were all codependent
15:34
Speaker 1: because allegedly they wouldn't spend more than a couple of
15:36
Speaker 1: hours apart. It was actually really difficult for Michaela to
15:38
Speaker 1: spend alone time with Addis without his mum or sister there.
15:42
Speaker 1: They were in fact so close that Michaela alleged that
15:44
Speaker 1: Addis shot Anna's OnlyFans content. That was absolutely fucked and
15:48
Speaker 1: particularly because she backed it up by showing one of
15:50
Speaker 1: the photos that Addis took and saying that he actually
15:53
Speaker 1: also filmed content where Michaela and Anna did collaborations where
15:58
Speaker 1: presumably they performed sex acts together. It was one of
16:01
Speaker 1: those moments where I was like, I don't think the
16:03
Speaker 1: Paul family can come back to this, especially because there's
16:05
Speaker 1: been so many rumours about how close Anna and Ash are. Well,
16:08
Speaker 1: there's this video floating around on TikTok that Anna uploaded
16:11
Speaker 1: last year that has not aged well in light of
16:13
Speaker 1: Michaela's allegations. Let's play it.
16:16
Speaker 3: My brother is my soulmate and we are so close
16:18
Speaker 3: that in high school there was a rumour going around
16:20
Speaker 3: that apparently we sleep together because I think teenagers, they
16:22
Speaker 3: see a.
16:22
Speaker 4: Girl and a boy close and they're like, oh my God, sex, right?
16:25
Speaker 1: Like, guys, what's going on?
16:27
Speaker 4: And I'm 25 and he's 23 and we are so inseparable.
16:29
Speaker 4: We read each other's mind.
16:30
Speaker 1: He's literally my twin. Most brothers would refuse to take
16:34
Speaker 1: a nice photo of their sister, let alone their sister
16:37
Speaker 1: undressing or in these positions. Like, it's just wild to
16:40
Speaker 1: me that this allegedly went on. Now, towards the end
16:44
Speaker 1: of the podcast, Michaela alleged that in 2021, Addis Paul
16:48
Speaker 1: tried to silence his ex-girlfriend. We have decided not to
16:51
Speaker 1: name her as she was underage at the time. For
16:54
Speaker 1: the purpose of the podcast, we will call her Jane.
16:56
Speaker 1: We actually did cover this story back in 2021. And
16:59
Speaker 1: funnily enough, it was our introduction to the Paul family.
17:02
Speaker 1: I actually listened back to the episode to prep for
17:04
Speaker 1: today and I was so embarrassed. It definitely was our
17:07
Speaker 1: first introduction to the Pauls because sometimes we referred to
17:11
Speaker 1: him as Addis and other times we referred to him
17:13
Speaker 1: as Addis. And I was like, oh my God. After
17:16
Speaker 1: that episode dropped, we actually received a message from Michaela
17:19
Speaker 1: Tester threatening to sue us. which shows what a full
17:22
Speaker 1: circle moment this all is. Yeah, it really does. Now,
17:25
Speaker 1: this whole saga started back in 2021, as we said earlier,
17:29
Speaker 1: when a then 16-year-old Jane made a TikTok about dating
17:33
Speaker 1: an older man who she said took advantage of her.
17:36
Speaker 1: Jane didn't refer to the man by name, but it
17:39
Speaker 1: led people from their hometown to speculate in the comments
17:42
Speaker 1: that she was talking about Attis. To provide some context,
17:46
Speaker 1: Jane alleges that she was 13 when she dated a
17:48
Speaker 1: then 16-year-old Attis. Now, off the back of this TikTok,
17:52
Speaker 1: Michaela alleges that Addis created a fake email address and
17:56
Speaker 1: messaged Jane pretending to be a brand manager, all in
18:00
Speaker 1: a bid to obtain her address to send a cease
18:03
Speaker 1: and desist letter. Michaela also claimed that Addis wrote the
18:07
Speaker 1: letter himself. And upon receiving the letter, Jane immediately shared
18:11
Speaker 1: it to her Instagram story and commented how poorly it
18:14
Speaker 1: was written. She was right. It was very clear that
18:15
Speaker 1: this was not written by a lawyer. What is with
18:18
Speaker 1: all these influencers pretending to be lawyers? Like surely they
18:21
Speaker 1: have enough money to just seek legal help at first. Well,
18:25
Speaker 1: the letter stated that if Jane didn't immediately stop making
18:29
Speaker 1: false and slanderous claims, against Addis Paul that a defamation
18:32
Speaker 1: lawsuit would commence against her. Interestingly, as I said earlier,
18:36
Speaker 1: the letter referred to Addis by his real name, Johannes Paul.
18:40
Speaker 1: One line that really stood out to me in the
18:42
Speaker 1: letter was, you must not make false accusations of being
18:45
Speaker 1: a victim and accusing Johannes Paul of pedophilia grooming as
18:49
Speaker 1: if it was not consensual. Now in Queensland, the age
18:52
Speaker 1: of consent for having sex is 16. So if you
18:55
Speaker 1: are under 16, you legally cannot give consent. So for
18:58
Speaker 1: this legal letter to say, oh, you can't call me
19:01
Speaker 1: a pedophile as if it wasn't consensual. Well, you actually
19:04
Speaker 1: can't give consent at the age of 16. So it
19:07
Speaker 1: is a criminal offence to engage in sexual activity with
19:10
Speaker 1: a child under 16. Queensland laws apply to a range
19:13
Speaker 1: of sexual activity, including sexual penetration and touching a person
19:17
Speaker 1: in a sexual way, For example, on their breasts. Now,
19:19
Speaker 1: there was a picture of Attis and Jane when she
19:23
Speaker 1: was in year 8 when she was 13 and he
19:25
Speaker 1: was in year 12 when he was 16. And he's
19:27
Speaker 1: groping her breasts. The photo was taken by Anna Paul.
19:30
Speaker 1: This went viral at the time on social media. I mean,
19:32
Speaker 1: it's even more proof that this letter wasn't written by
19:34
Speaker 1: a lawyer. The fact that this person who wrote this
19:36
Speaker 1: letter clearly doesn't understand Queensland's laws for one. And the
19:40
Speaker 1: wording is so off. Yeah. I mean, a lawyer would
19:43
Speaker 1: never make a comment using consent as a defence when
19:46
Speaker 1: it's not a legal defence in Queensland. The only defence
19:49
Speaker 1: that can be considered is if the child is over
19:52
Speaker 1: the age of 12 and the accused believed on reasonable
19:55
Speaker 1: grounds that the child was above the age of 16.
19:57
Speaker 1: In the case of Attis and Jane... The pair went
20:01
Speaker 1: to school together, so it's likely that Addis was aware
20:03
Speaker 1: of how old she was at the time. It's quite
20:05
Speaker 1: ironic because their attempts to silence Jane actually did the
20:09
Speaker 1: opposite and the story completely blew up and that cease
20:12
Speaker 1: and desist letter went viral. And Michaela said it caused
20:15
Speaker 1: the Pauls to scramble and engage real lawyers. So they
20:18
Speaker 1: also released a statement on YouTube defending themselves and slamming Jane.
20:23
Speaker 1: And it was at this point in Michaela's YouTube video
20:25
Speaker 1: that she held the smoking gun. Because she actually had
20:28
Speaker 1: the unedited version of the Paul's video statement. My jaw
20:33
Speaker 1: was on the floor when she played some of these
20:35
Speaker 1: unedited parts. This was the first scene from the unedited
20:38
Speaker 1: video of Attis Paul.
20:41
Speaker 5: For the most part of the relationship, I barely thought
20:46
Speaker 5: she was hot.
20:49
Speaker 1: Just not sum this guy up. This is apparently an
20:52
Speaker 1: example of his sense of humor. And Michaela was saying
20:55
Speaker 1: that he thought it'd be hilarious to say something that
20:57
Speaker 1: he'd get cancelled for at the start of the video.
20:59
Speaker 1: He obviously knew it wouldn't go to air. It has
21:01
Speaker 1: gone to air now. The fact that these allegations were
21:04
Speaker 1: so serious and he thought, oh, I'm going to make
21:06
Speaker 1: this joke at the start of it. Also, do they
21:08
Speaker 1: not realise things like that get leaked? All the time.
21:11
Speaker 1: They have and it's interesting because I went to go
21:13
Speaker 1: watch the original video and Anna Paul's YouTube channel is
21:16
Speaker 1: no longer available to view. I would have got that
21:19
Speaker 1: shit down immediately if I was them when she first
21:21
Speaker 1: came out with the allegations on TikTok. Yeah. Throughout this
21:24
Speaker 1: podcast episode, Michaela was really trying to paint a picture
21:28
Speaker 1: of how much Anna protected Addis and these snippets from
21:32
Speaker 1: the unedited statement really demonstrated it. She really did the
21:36
Speaker 1: dirty work for her brother and it's so disturbing that
21:39
Speaker 1: it appears that she knew the truth. and knowingly covered
21:41
Speaker 1: it up for Addis. Now, in the statement that went live,
21:44
Speaker 1: Anna denied that she and Addis had any knowledge of
21:47
Speaker 1: the cease and desist letter, and that it was the
21:49
Speaker 1: Paul team who sent it to Jane. In the unedited
21:53
Speaker 1: version of the video, though, it showed that this was
21:55
Speaker 1: not the case at all.
21:58
Speaker 3: We convinced our lawyer, like, We thought.
22:05
Speaker 5: We told our lawyer we'll make a video. Yeah, we
22:08
Speaker 5: pitched out the idea to our lawyer. We would prefer
22:10
Speaker 5: to make a video so.
22:12
Speaker 3: That everyone still has a chance.
22:14
Speaker 5: Yeah. So still give a chance for... Because that's what
22:18
Speaker 5: we do.
22:18
Speaker 1: We make videos.
22:20
Speaker 5: We make videos. We talk to you guys.
22:22
Speaker 3: Please let us try to resolve this ourselves with a
22:25
Speaker 3: video before.
22:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
22:30
Speaker 3: So, so we pitched to a lawyer that we want
22:33
Speaker 3: to make this right with a video rather than legal action.
22:37
Speaker 1: I think Michaela's commentary really summed it up. The Paul's team.
22:43
Speaker 1: We didn't have a team. We never had a Paul team.
22:47
Speaker 4: The team didn't exist.
22:49
Speaker 1: I just was sitting there on his.
22:50
Speaker 4: Laptop, making the fake email, sending it off, sending it
22:54
Speaker 4: to her address. He was, he was doing all of it.
22:57
Speaker 5: All right.
22:59
Speaker 1: All I could think about when I was watching this
23:01
Speaker 1: unedited version is Anna's most recent statement that went viral
23:05
Speaker 1: regarding Michaela's original claims. Imagine getting the unedited version of that.
23:10
Speaker 1: It shocks me that someone as famous and rich as
23:12
Speaker 1: Anna Paul doesn't have her own team. I mean, it's
23:15
Speaker 1: pretty clear that. The family sat around like they had
23:18
Speaker 1: previously done to try and work out this awful apology.
23:22
Speaker 1: Do we buy that she doesn't have a team though?
23:24
Speaker 1: Watching that video, she does not have a team. Yeah,
23:26
Speaker 1: but she runs a business with Sam Magnin who has
23:29
Speaker 1: a PR company. Sam had nothing to do with that statement. No,
23:31
Speaker 1: I don't think that he did. I don't think that
23:32
Speaker 1: he did and he's probably trying to distance himself from
23:34
Speaker 1: all of this as it's blowing up. But what I'm
23:36
Speaker 1: saying is surely they would have spoken to someone and
23:39
Speaker 1: got some advice over it. Do you think any expert
23:41
Speaker 1: would have given them that advice for her to say
23:43
Speaker 1: what she did in the TikToks? that maybe they've been
23:46
Speaker 1: given advice and they're too arrogant to take it on board. No,
23:49
Speaker 1: but I think that they're so caught up in thinking
23:51
Speaker 1: that everyone loves them and it's just going to blow
23:53
Speaker 1: over and everyone's not going to believe Michaela. I think
23:56
Speaker 1: it gives more of an insight into the fact that
23:58
Speaker 1: maybe this family isn't as powerful as everybody thinks they are.
24:02
Speaker 1: I would put a lot of money on the fact
24:04
Speaker 1: that they would be now sitting with a crisis PR
24:06
Speaker 1: management team working out their next steps from here. Now,
24:11
Speaker 1: the levels that the Pools allegedly went to to silence
24:14
Speaker 1: a 16-year-old girl were very disturbing. Michaela claims that Addis
24:17
Speaker 1: purchased bots and sent them to Jane's account for two reasons.
24:22
Speaker 1: So the first was to try and get Jane's Instagram
24:24
Speaker 1: account taken down by Instagram so she would stop posting
24:27
Speaker 1: receipts about him. The second was to try and paint
24:30
Speaker 1: Jane as a fame-hungry clout chaser. So Jane had 60,000
24:35
Speaker 1: followers at the time after sharing the cease and desist letter.
24:38
Speaker 1: And this part of the strategy worked particularly after Anna
24:41
Speaker 1: said this in her statement on YouTube.
24:45
Speaker 3: And even this morning, she was buying likes and followers
24:48
Speaker 3: on her Instagram, which this is irrelevant petty shit, right?
24:52
Speaker 3: But when it comes into the story of her doing
24:54
Speaker 3: this for wrong intentions, it makes complete sense. You know,
24:58
Speaker 3: having a large, she's not doing, she doesn't, she didn't
25:00
Speaker 3: buy followers to get her voice out there because followers,
25:04
Speaker 3: they're not real people, right? She just wants a bigger
25:06
Speaker 3: number next to her name. which is why we think
25:09
Speaker 3: this whole thing started in the first place. As old
25:12
Speaker 3: friends have said, she's jealous of the fame that Michaela got.
25:16
Speaker 3: A lot of petty stuff. And it's just unfortunate that
25:18
Speaker 3: this very petty person and very petty situation has blown
25:23
Speaker 3: up to such a large extent.
25:26
Speaker 1: It's just completely fucked. The manipulation is insane.
25:29
Speaker 3: You know, she's buying followers now. She has now wanted
25:32
Speaker 3: to come out with her own business endeavour. literally one
25:36
Speaker 3: day after this whole happened. She's now saying that she
25:38
Speaker 3: wants to come out with her own business endeavor, literally
25:41
Speaker 3: just after this.
25:43
Speaker 1: I'll take my hat off to them. It was definitely
25:45
Speaker 1: a very clever and strategic move to do that and
25:47
Speaker 1: to plant a seed of doubt in people's mind as
25:50
Speaker 1: to what her intentions were. Extremely unethical. Oh, completely unethical,
25:55
Speaker 1: the wrong thing to do. But I was so fascinated
25:57
Speaker 1: by this concept of bot wars because Michaela was saying
26:00
Speaker 1: that she's had people send her bots, she sent bots
26:03
Speaker 1: to other It seems like some of the influencers do
26:06
Speaker 1: to discredit people. Yeah, it seemed just like this common
26:09
Speaker 1: tactic and it was more like, oh, it's really annoying
26:11
Speaker 1: because I've got to remove all of these bots. It
26:14
Speaker 1: does blow my mind that everyone was okay at the
26:16
Speaker 1: time with Anna sending millions of her followers to bully
26:20
Speaker 1: a 16-year-old girl. Yeah, her tone about her, even in
26:23
Speaker 1: there were snippets where she was like, this little girl,
26:26
Speaker 1: and then she'd have to rephrase and be like, a
26:28
Speaker 1: 16-year-old girl. It's ironic that they're calling her a little
26:30
Speaker 1: girl and also quite disturbing considering what she's accused Atis of. Yeah, exactly. Well,
26:35
Speaker 1: it's like your brother was dating this little girl. Yeah, well,
26:37
Speaker 1: if things couldn't get any worse, Michaela added this unedited snippet.
26:42
Speaker 3: So we decided to drive to her house to tell
26:45
Speaker 3: her to please stop spreading our address.
26:47
Speaker 5: And when I say we, I mean myself, Atis, Glenn...
26:54
Speaker 5: Glenn's older sister, Glenn's sister, and their family friend. So
26:59
Speaker 5: it was five of us. It was five adults going
27:02
Speaker 5: to confront a 14-year-old. And I fully understand how that
27:07
Speaker 5: is just inappropriate. Being older now, that is something that
27:10
Speaker 5: we shouldn't have done. Like, I realize that we did
27:12
Speaker 5: it to intimidate her, but come on, she's 14.
27:14
Speaker 1: But, okay.
27:15
Speaker 5: Because we have to take accountability.
27:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to say we didn't talk.
27:19
Speaker 5: We were just there to... We were just there to support.
27:23
Speaker 3: I mean.
27:24
Speaker 1: The fact that they thought that that was okay to
27:27
Speaker 1: put out, oh, there were five adults there to intimidate
27:29
Speaker 1: a 14-year-old and the artist is like, probably shouldn't say that.
27:33
Speaker 1: I mean, what is going on? Why is Anna putting
27:37
Speaker 1: her career on the line to protect her brother so much? Well, again,
27:40
Speaker 1: it sounded like. the whole house revolved around Addis Paul.
27:44
Speaker 1: It made me feel so sick hearing Addis coaching Anna
27:47
Speaker 1: what to say. It's like, you've got your sister here
27:49
Speaker 1: whose career's on the line because of something that you've done.
27:52
Speaker 1: It's important to know that Addis Paul and Michaela Testa
27:54
Speaker 1: also featured in this video, but it was really Anna
27:57
Speaker 1: taking the rap for it because she has the biggest profile.
28:00
Speaker 1: I suppose she had the most to protect in this situation,
28:03
Speaker 1: but it's also a pretty strategic move to use her
28:05
Speaker 1: because she is so likeable. Yeah, with her coming up
28:09
Speaker 1: and defending him, people are like, okay, it must be true.
28:11
Speaker 1: And Michaela touched on the fact that she felt really
28:14
Speaker 1: guilty for her part in this video, but we've got
28:16
Speaker 1: to remember, it sounded like she was being completely gaslit
28:18
Speaker 1: about this whole situation. She said she had Stockholm Syndrome,
28:21
Speaker 1: and this is something that people with Stockholm Syndrome do.
28:24
Speaker 1: They report their abuses. We've got to remember as well
28:26
Speaker 1: that this situation with Jane is took place several years
28:30
Speaker 1: before Michaela even came onto the scene. So she was
28:33
Speaker 1: just believing what the polls were telling her and obviously
28:36
Speaker 1: wanted to think the best of her partner. Now, despite
28:39
Speaker 1: the attempts to intimidate and silence Jane, to her credit,
28:43
Speaker 1: the 16-year-old did not back down. So she released a
28:46
Speaker 1: statement to her Instagram that read, to anyone normalising 13-year-olds
28:50
Speaker 1: dating 16-year-olds plus, I hope you give the same energy
28:54
Speaker 1: to your younger siblings if she finds herself in that position.
28:57
Speaker 1: Better yet, your future child. Dating Addis is a time
29:00
Speaker 1: in my life that has been very detrimental to my
29:03
Speaker 1: mental health and self-esteem. Post healing from the breakup, it
29:06
Speaker 1: took me well over a year to fully recover from
29:09
Speaker 1: all the built up manipulation, lies and gaslighting I'd been
29:13
Speaker 1: fed and susceptible to. I believed I was mature at
29:16
Speaker 1: the time, but I had to deal with the emotional
29:18
Speaker 1: aspect for longer than the relationship. He told me how
29:21
Speaker 1: to act, what music I should listen to, what to
29:23
Speaker 1: wear and post so I don't come off too young.
29:26
Speaker 1: And when people say I would look older, that would
29:29
Speaker 1: give him a lot of satisfaction. But my self-image was
29:32
Speaker 1: me trying to be several years older and more mature
29:34
Speaker 1: than I was. Engaging in underage drinking, drugs, sex, etc.
29:38
Speaker 1: with Addis Paul. I lost a lot of my true
29:41
Speaker 1: identity young and innocent throughout this and mental challenges faced
29:45
Speaker 1: being with the presence of their family and the pedestal
29:47
Speaker 1: they put themselves on Years after healing from this, I
29:51
Speaker 1: felt no need to speak on this as I've grown.
29:53
Speaker 1: But once again, I chose to be silent. And now
29:56
Speaker 1: I choose to voice against your pathetic attempt to silence
29:58
Speaker 1: me and save your career when I wasn't coming for
30:01
Speaker 1: it in the first place. Taking accountability would serve you
30:04
Speaker 1: better than threatening to destroy me in court. But that's
30:07
Speaker 1: the morally correct thing to do. But your morals clearly
30:09
Speaker 1: aren't in check. The truth is spilling out. But hey,
30:12
Speaker 1: at least I'm not silenced. Speak up. You are heard.
30:15
Speaker 1: What a powerful statement. I think the thing that's most
30:18
Speaker 1: shocking is All of these allegations seem to just disappear.
30:22
Speaker 1: Everyone seemed to forget about them. Anna and Addis' career exploded.
30:27
Speaker 1: Remember we spoke about this metamorphosis of Addis Pohl and
30:30
Speaker 1: he turned into this guy who liked painting and horse
30:33
Speaker 1: riding and he seemed really sweet. Well, he was a
30:35
Speaker 1: background character to Anna's videos because he stopped posting on
30:39
Speaker 1: social media and it was actually good for him to
30:41
Speaker 1: only be the background character. And you talk about Anna's success.
30:45
Speaker 1: Her meet and greet shut down the CBD in Perth and,
30:49
Speaker 1: When you look back at those photos, you see Addis
30:52
Speaker 1: there around a bunch of underage girls signing people's heads.
30:56
Speaker 1: As Michaela said, no one had a problem with him
30:59
Speaker 1: being around all these young girls. It would have been
31:01
Speaker 1: so tough for Jane sitting back and watching this happen
31:04
Speaker 1: because you've put your heart and soul out there. You've
31:06
Speaker 1: explained what's gone on and you probably would feel like
31:08
Speaker 1: no one believed you. And when you look back at
31:11
Speaker 1: what went down in 2021 between Jane and Addis, you
31:14
Speaker 1: just wonder how the Poles were even able to reach
31:17
Speaker 1: that level of success I mean, it kind of just
31:19
Speaker 1: shows us as a society and also media-wise that people
31:23
Speaker 1: were just willing to overlook the claims. Well, I think
31:26
Speaker 1: it's because the mainstream media only really picked up on
31:29
Speaker 1: who Anna Paul was when she shut down Perth CBD.
31:33
Speaker 1: And a lot of the time, media don't really want
31:36
Speaker 1: to put the effort into these influencer stories because they
31:38
Speaker 1: think it's just some trashy thing. I mean, we've seen
31:41
Speaker 1: that play out recently. Last month, when Michaela Testa we
31:44
Speaker 1: started making all these allegations. The media were all over it.
31:48
Speaker 1: But now when allegations and very serious ones have been
31:51
Speaker 1: leveled at an influencer who is a male, no one
31:55
Speaker 1: can be stuffed to put in the groundwork to uncover
31:57
Speaker 1: what is going on. Well, from having worked in the media,
31:59
Speaker 1: I think there are a few reasons why the mainstream
32:02
Speaker 1: media is not picking up in this story. And I
32:04
Speaker 1: think a lot of it has to do with the
32:05
Speaker 1: fact of who these people are. I think that If
32:08
Speaker 1: you look into newspaper journalism, for example, there are a
32:11
Speaker 1: lot of older journalists who might not understand what a
32:15
Speaker 1: big pop culture story this is. But they understood it
32:17
Speaker 1: a month ago, how big this was. I mean, that's
32:19
Speaker 1: why all the publications were picking up on it. But
32:21
Speaker 1: they're picking up on stuff that they can easily report on.
32:24
Speaker 1: They're not wanting to do the groundwork. In order to
32:26
Speaker 1: actually release this story in the newspaper... there's a lot
32:30
Speaker 1: of legalities around it. I mean, you can't just come
32:32
Speaker 1: out and say this person did X, Y, and Z.
32:35
Speaker 1: And there was a really interesting documentary that was released
32:38
Speaker 1: a few years ago on Belle Gibson, and it showed
32:40
Speaker 1: the efforts of one reporter to expose her. And it
32:43
Speaker 1: also spoke about how the media actually have this huge
32:47
Speaker 1: responsibility when they're promoting people like Belle Gibson and Anna
32:50
Speaker 1: Paul and Addis Paul, and how often journalists don't actually
32:54
Speaker 1: look into the full story Like with Belle Gibson, for example,
32:57
Speaker 1: her friend had been trying to expose her for months.
33:00
Speaker 1: She'd been emailing numerous journalists about this story. And a
33:03
Speaker 1: lot of people just said to her, well, these are
33:05
Speaker 1: really serious allegations. Like we need proof. And often the
33:08
Speaker 1: onus of proof is placed on the source of the story.
33:11
Speaker 1: People aren't like journalism is different now. They don't have
33:14
Speaker 1: the time to spend looking into these big stories as much. Yeah,
33:17
Speaker 1: but Michaela is putting it on a plate. You know
33:19
Speaker 1: what I mean? She's providing all of the receipts necessary.
33:21
Speaker 1: So it makes it slightly different. But some of the
33:23
Speaker 1: receipts wouldn't actually hold up in the journalism world. Like
33:27
Speaker 1: you can't just say, oh, here's a message of me
33:29
Speaker 1: DMing my friend about it. But I also think that
33:31
Speaker 1: it comes down to journalists being scared and also media
33:34
Speaker 1: organisations not having the money and power that they once had.
33:38
Speaker 1: They're coming up against people who also they know have money.
33:41
Speaker 1: So I think that's why they're a bit reluctant to
33:43
Speaker 1: do it. Let's be realistic. This is a case of
33:47
Speaker 1: a story is more interesting to the Australian media if
33:50
Speaker 1: it is a catfight between two of Australia's biggest OnlyFans stars.
33:54
Speaker 1: They don't want to report on a guy who has
33:56
Speaker 1: been accused of domestic violence. Even though violence against women
34:01
Speaker 1: is such a serious issue in the country, it's clear.
34:04
Speaker 1: I mean, look at the Australian media landscape. We've got
34:07
Speaker 1: Ben Cousins on Dancing with the Stars and then promoted
34:10
Speaker 1: into the AFL footy commentating team. The media do not
34:14
Speaker 1: care about domestic violence against women. I'm in two minds
34:17
Speaker 1: about it because I also think that sections of the
34:19
Speaker 1: media could potentially be discrediting Michaela's claims due to what
34:23
Speaker 1: her profession is, which is so unfair. As she's a
34:26
Speaker 1: sex worker, maybe they think that the mainstream media or
34:29
Speaker 1: public aren't going to take her claim seriously. See, I
34:32
Speaker 1: actually think Anna being a sex worker and being Australia's
34:36
Speaker 1: most famous sex worker actually went in her favour in
34:40
Speaker 1: terms of people not wanting to question her. I actually
34:43
Speaker 1: predicted at the start of this year that she would
34:46
Speaker 1: be cancelled because I saw the momentum of how people
34:49
Speaker 1: reacted to Bonnie Blue when she came to Australia. And
34:53
Speaker 1: I think we went through this phase of very sex positivity,
34:57
Speaker 1: very supportive of sex workers. And it got to the
34:59
Speaker 1: point where people didn't want to say anything that went
35:02
Speaker 1: against her because they would be seen to be being derogatory.
35:06
Speaker 1: At the time, everyone felt a bit too awkward or
35:09
Speaker 1: like they weren't allowed to question why a sex worker
35:12
Speaker 1: was becoming a pinup. For school-aged children. A role model.
35:16
Speaker 1: A role model and that it was inappropriate. I agree, Kate, though,
35:19
Speaker 1: with your comments about the momentum changing because even this
35:23
Speaker 1: week I saw that it was highly publicised that James
35:27
Speaker 1: Brayshaw's son, got engaged to an OnlyFans creator. Well, she
35:31
Speaker 1: is touted as the most sexually active woman in Australia
35:34
Speaker 1: and they ran with that. Yeah, and that's the thing.
35:36
Speaker 1: Headlines were disgusting about this woman. I looked at the
35:39
Speaker 1: comment section. It was appalling what they were saying about her.
35:41
Speaker 1: So I feel like it's almost feeling like we've done
35:43
Speaker 1: a full 180 and we've gone back to what we were,
35:46
Speaker 1: which I don't think is a good place to be either.
35:48
Speaker 1: We want progression and acceptance of sex work as a career,
35:51
Speaker 1: but I think... the way it has been put on
35:53
Speaker 1: a pedestal recently. Well, and directed at children as being
35:57
Speaker 1: a job that maybe teenagers should aspire to do. Yeah,
36:00
Speaker 1: because Michaela Testa spoke about how she would not want
36:03
Speaker 1: her children following in her footsteps and doing sex work,
36:06
Speaker 1: whereas she played a clip of Anna Paul saying that
36:09
Speaker 1: she thinks it's this great profession and, you know, people
36:12
Speaker 1: should look into it essentially. I think what's so fascinating
36:15
Speaker 1: about this whole story is that in 2025 it really
36:17
Speaker 1: shows you just how powerful social media is compared to
36:22
Speaker 1: the mainstream media. Well, it's like citizen journalism, really, because
36:26
Speaker 1: Michaela has managed to get her story out. She didn't
36:28
Speaker 1: have to go to a Herald Sun and give it
36:30
Speaker 1: to them exclusively. And let's be real. I mean, how
36:33
Speaker 1: many Gen Zers or millennials actually still read the newspapers?
36:37
Speaker 1: Her going straight to YouTube, she could air any claims
36:41
Speaker 1: that she wanted. She didn't actually have to stick to
36:43
Speaker 1: the legalities or you know, the journalist's rules of what
36:45
Speaker 1: they can include and what they can't. And she can
36:48
Speaker 1: control the narrative as well. And you can see how
36:51
Speaker 1: she has been able to tell her story on YouTube
36:54
Speaker 1: and it has gone straight to her audience. People are
36:56
Speaker 1: posting this all over TikTok. There are really no rules
36:59
Speaker 1: people are following when they're talking about this story as well.
37:02
Speaker 1: I mean, the only publication that wrote an overview of
37:05
Speaker 1: Michaela Tester's podcast was Pedestrian. And I wonder if they
37:09
Speaker 1: had any legal trouble because the article was removed for
37:12
Speaker 1: a few days and then it returned I actually didn't
37:15
Speaker 1: see the original article, so I don't know if they
37:16
Speaker 1: had to tweak anything. But to me, it does really
37:20
Speaker 1: demonstrate the copycat nature of the media where people no
37:24
Speaker 1: longer come up with story ideas. They just copy what's
37:26
Speaker 1: going around. So a month ago when these initial claims
37:29
Speaker 1: first came out, you had every media publication writing about
37:33
Speaker 1: it because they're like, oh, I'll just copy what news.com wrote. Oh,
37:35
Speaker 1: that's okay. I'll copy what Mamma Mia wrote. And it
37:37
Speaker 1: was all just the same thing, but everyone was writing
37:40
Speaker 1: about it. But because not one big publication has come
37:43
Speaker 1: out and wanted to touch this, the other ones are like, oh, okay,
37:46
Speaker 1: there's nothing to copy. I'm going to have to go
37:47
Speaker 1: and listen to that two and a half hour podcast.
37:49
Speaker 1: I mean, because I have heard there are a number
37:51
Speaker 1: of media organizations who they have literally been given the
37:54
Speaker 1: directive from staff above, like, do not print stories where
37:59
Speaker 1: we're going to get sued. We actually don't have the budget.
38:00
Speaker 1: I mean, you can see how the media is slowly dying.
38:04
Speaker 1: There's not as much money in it. So people aren't
38:06
Speaker 1: wanting to stick their neck on the line and to
38:08
Speaker 1: print stories like this. We're two now for the polls
38:11
Speaker 1: because I personally don't know if they can return from this.
38:15
Speaker 1: I don't think that they can come back from this.
38:18
Speaker 1: I might be naive in saying that, but this is
38:20
Speaker 1: just one installment of a number of YouTube videos that
38:24
Speaker 1: Michaela is planning on putting out against the polls. And
38:27
Speaker 1: I feel like she's still got some big things to drop.
38:30
Speaker 1: I just wish they'd put it in the movies like
38:31
Speaker 1: the Eras Tour. Like you could go to Gold Class
38:33
Speaker 1: and sit and watch this with others. Well, a lot
38:35
Speaker 1: of people were saying that it was almost too long.
38:37
Speaker 1: I saw a few people on TikTok joking, could someone just,
38:40
Speaker 1: you know, make this a reef for us? Well, that's
38:41
Speaker 1: another reason I think the media hasn't touched it because
38:43
Speaker 1: I think the journo's like, I'm not sitting down for
38:45
Speaker 1: two and a half hours to watch this. I think
38:46
Speaker 1: the only way Anna could potentially recover from this is
38:50
Speaker 1: if she adopts the strategy that Taylor Swift did when
38:53
Speaker 1: she was being called a snake by Kim Kardashian. And
38:56
Speaker 1: also what Elle Darby did recently, because a couple of
38:58
Speaker 1: years ago, all these old racist tweets and homophobic and
39:02
Speaker 1: fat phobic tweets that Elle Darby made when she was
39:04
Speaker 1: a teenager reemerged and she was absolutely cancelled. So she
39:09
Speaker 1: just went offline for around eight months to a year
39:12
Speaker 1: and then returned. And she obviously had to paint the
39:15
Speaker 1: full story that she was a different person, blah, blah, blah.
39:17
Speaker 1: I think that's the only way Anna can return. Surprisingly though,
39:21
Speaker 1: I thought she would have lost more followers on TikTok
39:23
Speaker 1: and Instagram because I had a look at social blade
39:26
Speaker 1: and over the last 30 days, she's lost 105,000 on Instagram.
39:30
Speaker 1: and 200,000 on TikTok. Initially, when the scandal broke, she
39:35
Speaker 1: lost over a million followers on TikTok. Do you think
39:37
Speaker 1: people are sticking around to see if there's another... Terrible
39:41
Speaker 1: apology video. Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's sort of like
39:44
Speaker 1: watching a car crash, isn't it? Like it's become this
39:47
Speaker 1: sport of almost disliking Anna Paul and engaging in a
39:51
Speaker 1: negative way with her content. So it's still getting engagement.
39:53
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, at the end of the day,
39:55
Speaker 1: I think it's right, Kate. I think that they will
39:57
Speaker 1: have to disappear for a considerable amount of time. But
39:59
Speaker 1: how do you do that when you've got a business,
40:02
Speaker 1: Paul Bliske, and you've got a business partner? You've probably got,
40:05
Speaker 1: you know, promotions in the work that you're supposed to
40:07
Speaker 1: be doing. It's really awkward for them, isn't it? People
40:10
Speaker 1: have been saying on TikTok that they have seen a
40:12
Speaker 1: lot more Paulie ads recently, whether they've pumped money into advertising.
40:16
Speaker 1: She's been quite active on Paulie's TikTok and people have
40:19
Speaker 1: been hypothesising that they're really trying to test the market there.
40:22
Speaker 1: I would love to know the sales stats. Can you
40:26
Speaker 1: just imagine the massive dive? One thing that she can't
40:29
Speaker 1: do is return to TikTok as if nothing has happened again.
40:32
Speaker 1: Do you reckon at this point in time, at the
40:35
Speaker 1: Paul HQ, they're trying to find some incriminating evidence against Michaela,
40:40
Speaker 1: you know, the way that Michaela had the unedited video.
40:42
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to help. But you reckon
40:44
Speaker 1: they are? Like I'm just trying to think from seeing
40:47
Speaker 1: how they've worked in the past, they're probably trying to
40:49
Speaker 1: find a video where they've got Michaela saying something untoward,
40:53
Speaker 1: like hit back that way. Probably. I'm personally really interested
40:56
Speaker 1: to see when this next podcast drops because at the
40:59
Speaker 1: start of this episode, Michaela, as we mentioned, said that she,
41:03
Speaker 1: had not heard from the Paul's legal team. But I
41:06
Speaker 1: do think that potentially now that may have changed. Well,
41:09
Speaker 1: that is where we're going to leave things today. Thank
41:12
Speaker 1: you for listening to another episode of Outspoken. If you
41:14
Speaker 1: do enjoy the show, we would absolutely love it if
41:17
Speaker 1: you could recommend us to a friend and share where
41:19
Speaker 1: you're listening from. This podcast was recorded on the traditional
41:22
Speaker 1: land of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We
41:25
Speaker 1: pay respect to elders past and present.