Speaker 1: Hi, I'm James Weir. You're listening to Witness, the home
Speaker 1: of investigative podcasts for News dot com dot Au. This
Speaker 1: is our newest series sex Lies and Streaming, and as
Speaker 1: you might have guessed by the title, this series is
Speaker 1: designed for adult ears only, so maybe don't play this
Speaker 1: one in the car with kids. Emma, Hi, Hey, James,
Speaker 1: how are you. That's Emma Gilman. She's a publicist. I'm
Speaker 1: good and that's me James Weir. Hi in La. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for letting me tag along with you guys.
Speaker 1: I know it's a big week. Am I still okay
Speaker 1: to do the private jet with you guys and travel
Speaker 1: with Bonnie?
Speaker 2: Well, so you are able to do the private chat
Speaker 2: with us. But yeah, some bad news is Bonnie has
Speaker 2: just got a cold.
Speaker 3: She's a bit exhausted.
Speaker 4: You know she did the.
Speaker 2: World record attempt week. We're going ahead. It's only going
Speaker 2: to be three of us plus you. It's a nice
Speaker 2: and intimate but yeah, she won't be joining.
Speaker 5: For the flight.
Speaker 1: Okay, will she still be in Vegas?
Speaker 2: I'm with her manager and her sister, so we'll be
Speaker 2: meeting her.
Speaker 5: There was going to be a few.
Speaker 1: This phone call is happening on a Tuesday morning in January.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Bonnie Blue, the notorious diy paorn creator
Speaker 1: who has turned controversy into cold hard cash. She's the
Speaker 1: racy alter ego of Tea Billinger, a twenty five year
Speaker 1: old from Derbyshire, England, and depending on who you ask,
Speaker 1: she's either a feminist entrepreneur or the Internet's most dangerous influence.
Speaker 1: It's about one week after Bonnie's world record attempt where
Speaker 1: she claims to have slept with one fifty seven men
Speaker 1: in twelve hours. I've been promised an interview with her,
Speaker 1: along with access inside her world. I've flown twelve thousand
Speaker 1: kilometers from Sydney to LA to catch a private jet
Speaker 1: to Vegas with Bonnie and her entourage. But now that
Speaker 1: plan seems to have changed. If we can, if I
Speaker 1: can definitely track her down in Vegas, that would be good.
Speaker 1: If it can help me, If it can help me
Speaker 1: log her down, she sounds like she's in demand at
Speaker 1: the moment.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're there for another full weeks, so I'll
Speaker 2: fine sometime.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Emma, I will I'll see you soon on
Speaker 1: the PJA. I'm on my way to an Airport Hangar
Speaker 1: in Van Nights, just north of la to catch a
Speaker 1: flight with one of the most controversial women in the world,
Speaker 1: Bonnie Blue. But there's an issue. Bonnie has gone a wall.
Speaker 1: She's seemingly missing. It's hard to believe someone like this
Speaker 1: could just disappear from the spotlight, vanishing faster than a
Speaker 1: teenage boy's Internet browser history, especially when that person has
Speaker 1: spent the past year courting global news headlines with device
Speaker 1: of sex stunts.
Speaker 4: Next guest is one of the most controversial people online.
Speaker 3: Twenty five year old Bonnie Blue from Derbyshire is making
Speaker 3: headlines around the world for filming herself having sex with
Speaker 3: teenagers and posting the footage online.
Speaker 6: Kay, Karen's I thought i'd give you an education. Just
Speaker 6: because you don't enjoy it does not mean your son's day.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's okay that men cheat on their
Speaker 1: wives with you?
Speaker 7: One hundred percent? Because women are lazy. If you ask
Speaker 7: the average person, when's the last time your wife went
Speaker 7: down on him, they're going to say is ages ago.
Speaker 7: The other thing with women, they want women rides and
Speaker 7: they want things equal, but then they're the ones that
Speaker 7: want the bills to be paid for.
Speaker 1: I first became aware of Bonnie Blue a few months
Speaker 1: ago when I was reporting from Schoolies on the Gold
Speaker 1: Coast in Australia. The annual week long party for high
Speaker 1: school graduates aged seventeen and eighteen had been hijacked by Bonnie,
Speaker 1: who was on a mission to well, I'll just let
Speaker 1: her explain it.
Speaker 6: And the girl that's been sleeping whispering breakers. So it's
Speaker 6: my last night at the Grand Oasis, and I want
Speaker 6: to make a special for both you and me. I'm
Speaker 6: in room four five to five to as and I
Speaker 6: want to film with you tonight. So bring your idea along,
Speaker 6: bring your friends along, and get me on my knees,
Speaker 6: let me pleasure you, and let me get a video
Speaker 6: out of there and know your faces and have to
Speaker 6: be shown. Nor do you even have to last a
Speaker 6: long time? Yes, you can finish wherever you want. And
Speaker 6: if you do not disturb signs aren't it's because someone
Speaker 6: else will probably beat you to it. So given five minutes.
Speaker 1: After having her visa canceled in Australia before the Gold
Speaker 1: Coast Schoolies event, she tried taking her challenge to Fiji
Speaker 1: to sleep with vacation and graduates, only to be deported
Speaker 1: from the island paradise. Over the past year, it's scandalous
Speaker 1: exploits like this that have become the cornerstone of her
Speaker 1: online adult entertainment business model. The strategy seems simple. Bonnie
Speaker 1: trolls pearl clutching conservatives with debaucherous antics that attract thousands
Speaker 1: of headlines and even more subscribers who pay to watch
Speaker 1: the X rated scenes on platforms like OnlyFans, one of
Speaker 1: the most popular online pay per view websites that has
Speaker 1: completely disrupted the adult entertainment industry. Revenue jumped from three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five million dollars in twenty twenty to
Speaker 1: six point six billion dollars in twenty twenty three, with
Speaker 1: reports its owner, Phoenix International, is now in talks to
Speaker 1: sell at evaluation of around eight billion dollars. What started
Speaker 1: as a niche platform has quickly become a household name,
Speaker 1: with everyone from reality TV stars to university students joining
Speaker 1: the site. Now, with an iPhone and an Internet connection, anyone,
Speaker 1: even your own friends, colleagues, and family members including grandma,
Speaker 1: can become a porn star. I'm following Bonnie to Las
Speaker 1: Vegas for the annual Adult video news convention, a week
Speaker 1: long carnival of flesh that explosively climaxes with the so
Speaker 1: called oscars of porn. This is ground zero of the
Speaker 1: attention economy, where fame is measured in subscribers and everyone's
Speaker 1: convinced they're just one viral moment away from financial freedom.
Speaker 1: In the neonlit hallways of a desert casino, I'll live
Speaker 1: alongside the performers, agents, and die hard fans who have
Speaker 1: turned intimate exposure into big business and expose the one
Speaker 1: thing everyone involved would rather keep covered. What's the real
Speaker 1: cost of this X rated digital gold rush? In Vegas,
Speaker 1: Bonnie's supposed to be meeting some of the groupies who
Speaker 1: make up her nearly three hundred thousand followers on OnlyFans.
Speaker 1: They're no doubt frothing about her recent world record attempt,
Speaker 1: which is her latest thrust on the world stage.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I wanted to update you on what my
Speaker 3: body looks like at taking over one thousand men. My
Speaker 3: eyes not that rat and to people did not have
Speaker 3: the best of EAMs. I was expecting them to be
Speaker 3: maybe even so swollen or very red to day, but
Speaker 3: they're not. My wrists really ache and my legs. On
Speaker 3: the other hand, they're the ones that are probably taken there.
Speaker 3: I don't know most physical battering because they are very
Speaker 3: bruised and very sore today, But as a whole, it's
Speaker 3: no difference to do in America. This is a phase
Speaker 3: of a girl that's taken over one thousand men, and
Speaker 3: it's already for round.
Speaker 1: It's that stunt that has apparently taken a toll on
Speaker 1: her body, though her team would prefer you not to
Speaker 1: know that because they're worried that people will think that
Speaker 1: she's sick because of the stunt. I've flun to La
Speaker 1: because I want to get a glimpse behind the mask.
Speaker 1: She seems very in on the joke, and she also
Speaker 1: seems like she's kind of thrilled with the backlash. I
Speaker 1: want to see who the real person is behind this
Speaker 1: tabloid villain character that she's become over the past year.
Speaker 5: Take to a consortis Cass.
Speaker 1: Jess Emma Hello Fantasy, I know that's Emma Gilmot, Bonnie's publicist.
Speaker 1: She's standing inside the airport lounge, just the flight crew
Speaker 1: fuss around with luggage and paperwork. This petite, no nonsense
Speaker 1: twenty something with a blonde Bob represents a stable of
Speaker 1: adult content creators, and it's responsible for getting them as
Speaker 1: many headlines as possible. When it comes to Bonnie, Emma
Speaker 1: has helped orchestrate her assent to global tabloid fixture, courting
Speaker 1: media attention with sex stunts and inflammatory remarks. While Bonnie's
Speaker 1: in the US, Emma's frantically trying to schedule press appearances.
Speaker 1: Their mission is to crack the American market and build
Speaker 1: her profile like they've done in the UK and Australia.
Speaker 2: So we're in Vegas and then after Vegas, we're going
Speaker 2: to head to Houston for Fox News. Then we're going
Speaker 2: to maybe go to Miami if we can get some
Speaker 2: media secured there, and we have Last or Sports locked
Speaker 2: in and the Mirror US.
Speaker 1: What's going to happen on Fox News?
Speaker 2: You know, I can't say what I want to say,
Speaker 2: but I will look like she's done very controversial media
Speaker 2: before She's done like Good Morning Britain, and you know,
Speaker 2: she's had some pretty big grillings from Australian and British
Speaker 2: news presenters. I actually find Fox News, while it's obviously
Speaker 2: you know, right leaning and controversial, I think that she
Speaker 2: might even get more of a sympathetic view in We
Speaker 2: basically saw Yeah. Fox News had covered her a few
Speaker 2: weeks ago, and as we were planning the trip, I
Speaker 2: just reached out to the team and said, hey, if
Speaker 2: you'd like to have her in studio, we can come past.
Speaker 2: And the host of it, who I was talking to,
Speaker 2: he was a massive fan on the show, was like, man,
Speaker 2: if I was eighteen, I would have loved Barney Blue.
Speaker 2: So I think it'll actually be more of a chill one,
Speaker 2: but hey, like it could go anywhere.
Speaker 1: What do you look for in those kinds of media appointments?
Speaker 5: Are you looking for a moment?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean Funny just makes moments like she's not thinking,
Speaker 2: she just does and you know I'll always prep her,
Speaker 2: but she's pretty comfortable on the fly. Really, what we
Speaker 2: want is to break that US market, which is why
Speaker 2: we're doing a few weeks. She's got such a massive
Speaker 2: market in the UK and Australia. We really just want
Speaker 2: to build that here. So you know, if I can
Speaker 2: do something, I'd love like a canvass Owens, I'd love
Speaker 2: like a Joe Rogan. They're sort of the areas where
Speaker 2: we're going to be pushing for but yeah, it's whatever,
Speaker 2: and things just keep popping up. I've got a lot
Speaker 2: of people inquiring since it's just off the back of
Speaker 2: the world record.
Speaker 1: Emma seems to be mapping a blueprint to ensure Bonnie's
Speaker 1: world domination. These TV and podcast appearances have become her
Speaker 1: bread and butter. Bonnie says something provocative and it feeds
Speaker 1: the news cycle for days, sort of like a hyper
Speaker 1: sexual Piers Morgan. But is all publicity good publicity that depends?
Speaker 1: It seems the team only wants the kind of media
Speaker 1: attention that suits their carefully created image of Bonnie, and
Speaker 1: this act is playing out right in front of me
Speaker 1: as we wait in the airport lounge. After Emma agreed
Speaker 1: to let me come to America and record this podcast,
Speaker 1: certain restrictions began to pop up. They don't want listeners
Speaker 1: knowing Bonnie's sick, But how am I supposed to explain
Speaker 1: why she's missing from a podcast that's supposed to be
Speaker 1: following her. And they don't want me asking about Bonnie's
Speaker 1: personal life or family, even though her little sister, Summer Billinger,
Speaker 1: is standing just meters away from me. Only days ago,
Speaker 1: she officially joined Bonnie's entourage as a paid member of staff.
Speaker 4: I literally just quit my job at supermarket about two
Speaker 4: weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Why did you quit the job at the supermarket?
Speaker 4: I didn't want to, I read, I read didn't want
Speaker 4: to because I loved I've really loved it there. I
Speaker 4: love of the people. But I always thought to myself,
Speaker 4: I could, I can probably my life save oop to
Speaker 4: go to LA, But I'm never in my life's even
Speaker 4: not to go on a private jazz never.
Speaker 1: Summer is twenty one, but could be mistaken for a
Speaker 1: high schooler. She looks more like the kind of girl
Speaker 1: you'd see hanging out with her friends at a movie theater.
Speaker 1: There's not even the slightest tinge of her sister's vava
Speaker 1: voom vampiness. Summer has the sweet outlook, gleeful optimism, and
Speaker 1: wide eyed innocence of a child. This new world her
Speaker 1: big sister has escorted her into is nothing like her
Speaker 1: old life back home in England. At the supermarket, she
Speaker 1: shrieks at the mention of sex acts and gets flustered
Speaker 1: at the new luxuries Bonnie has granted her.
Speaker 4: The first dame of my job I had try on
Speaker 4: Nuverton Dressers drink champagne have cocktails. Such a hard day,
Speaker 4: it was so tiring.
Speaker 1: There's still some question marks around her addition to Team Bonnie.
Speaker 1: What exactly will she be doing.
Speaker 4: I've not got a set thing that I'm going to do,
Speaker 4: but as soon as we find something that I can do,
Speaker 4: that's what I'll be doing. I think it's weird though,
Speaker 4: because obviously then my sister will be paying me. I
Speaker 4: don't want to listen. I'll be like, tell me to
Speaker 4: do something. No, I don't want to.
Speaker 2: Bob everyone family's salaries. Oh yeah, yeah, mom, Dad, you
Speaker 2: do you.
Speaker 1: Mind asking an intimate question like how much is the salary? Oh?
Speaker 8: I don't know yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 2: She just takes something the account.
Speaker 1: Then there's Bonnie's manager, Ollie.
Speaker 5: We do quite well in Bonnie's team.
Speaker 1: Who's trying his best to seem in control of the
Speaker 1: logistics and schedule.
Speaker 10: Could you say the details of the plane.
Speaker 1: He's an affable but unremarkable bloke who wouldn't see him
Speaker 1: out of place some one of those British reality shows
Speaker 1: about young people who party and drink and tan and fight.
Speaker 5: So as you'll bring it like.
Speaker 1: When it comes to Oli, not everything is as it seems.
Speaker 9: No, we didn't get Lamborghini because you have to be
Speaker 9: thirty years old. They wouldn't let me. They would't let
Speaker 9: me drive it.
Speaker 10: So we've got rain drover in saith.
Speaker 9: It was the blue cyber truck or I didn't fancy
Speaker 9: drive on that to be first, So we've got the
Speaker 9: rein drover. I a range drove at home, so I'm
Speaker 9: used to that. But the Lamborghini would have been cool.
Speaker 9: A blue Lamborghini m.
Speaker 1: Bruand Emma sticks to her publicity duties, hovering around and
Speaker 1: monitoring what's being said.
Speaker 2: Summer and Olie have never spoken to media.
Speaker 1: And that's because there's another secret they're trying to hide.
Speaker 1: The team is murky about Olie's identity. I glanced down
Speaker 1: at his luggage and the bag tags spell out his
Speaker 1: name in bold black font Ollie Davidson. Both he and
Speaker 1: Emma seem to be hoping. I haven't seen the recent
Speaker 1: gossip articles reporting that he's Bonnie's husband or ex husband.
Speaker 1: Are they secretly still together? Inside this airport lounge, it
Speaker 1: becomes clear Bonnie's team think they can present a version
Speaker 1: of their porn star boss that won't be questioned. Even
Speaker 1: though the truth of her real life is standing right
Speaker 1: in front of me. Is Bonnie kind of your exclusive client?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 10: It's mony client.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you start managing her?
Speaker 9: I've known her quite a long time, so we've got
Speaker 9: quite a unique relationship.
Speaker 10: So I don't know what I can say on this part.
Speaker 1: You keep it start on are you guys exes?
Speaker 5: I do want to say that on sure.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I've known each other ten years.
Speaker 1: So how did it come about for you? Like? Was
Speaker 1: it just then a natural progression? Her business started blowing
Speaker 1: up and she trusted you, so it just was normal.
Speaker 9: And she after she was doing her like on cam websites,
Speaker 9: she needed help starting and only fans, so I looked
Speaker 9: into it. I didn't know anything about only funds management,
Speaker 9: so I looked on YouTube how to how you meant
Speaker 9: to run an account?
Speaker 10: Had to just teach myself. Yeah, the truth is that
Speaker 10: we did used to which she is my ex. But
Speaker 10: I don't want that out there because the press do.
Speaker 1: They've been doing a lot of like digging.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and they'd be going after like my family and stuff.
Speaker 9: And there's like a few things I've gone out.
Speaker 1: Recently, just days earlier, a tabloid news website wrote a
Speaker 1: story alleging Ollie was appalled with his ex wife following
Speaker 1: her world record gang bang. But in this airport hangar,
Speaker 1: as the private jet rolls closer, Ollie doesn't seem perturbed
Speaker 1: or disgraced with Bonnie's choices or the money that's now
Speaker 1: flooding in because of those choices. He's dripping with designer labels,
Speaker 1: from the Gucci sunglasses on top of his head to
Speaker 1: the Louis Viaton shoes on his feet.
Speaker 9: It's a Dorchinko banner jacket, al Vi shirt and I've
Speaker 9: got a Rolex day turner on in yellow gold and
Speaker 9: a Bulgari.
Speaker 5: Ring as well.
Speaker 1: And how much was the roleggs.
Speaker 10: Fifty five thousand US.
Speaker 9: We got it actually Welsh Rover in California, So it
Speaker 9: was quite amazing moment to get that.
Speaker 5: We've achieved a lot together.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: While Ali says he wants to stay out of the
Speaker 1: press for privacy reasons, there's another factor at play. It's
Speaker 1: better for business.
Speaker 9: A lot of people get very angry if there's like
Speaker 9: a man behind her. So as her manager and then
Speaker 9: also Josh as her videographer, we kind of try and
Speaker 9: stand in the background. Obviously, Josh is on screen a lot,
Speaker 9: but with her type of content and her saying barely
Speaker 9: legal and sort of some of the slogans that she says.
Speaker 9: People don't like the idea that there's men in the
Speaker 9: background helping her out. We'd get a lot of hate,
Speaker 9: you know, so we try and stay out the public eye.
Speaker 9: The sort of hate online is pretty extreme, you know,
Speaker 9: death threats and the media.
Speaker 5: Trying to.
Speaker 9: Kind of track down family members. Friends go into their
Speaker 9: dressers trying to find out dirt, and there's a lot
Speaker 9: of lies.
Speaker 1: What kind of dirt are they trying to dig for?
Speaker 1: Suddenly the doors of the lounge swing open and the
Speaker 1: sound of the whirl and jet engine washes in. As
Speaker 1: the entourage strolls out to the tarmac, Emma, Summer and
Speaker 1: Olie start posing in front of the slick black aircraft,
Speaker 1: taking photos of each other before climbing the metal steps
Speaker 1: and rushing aboard to explore the luxury cabin with its
Speaker 1: lacquered wood grain surfaces and cream leather upholstery. It's clearly
Speaker 1: a big day for Team Bonnie to them chartering a
Speaker 1: private jet for the first time. It's a proof they've
Speaker 1: finally made it.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna put your bags right over here. It's like
Speaker 4: a little bag copy here.
Speaker 5: This is so sick. This is amazing. I've come on business.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Bonnie flies first, I fly business.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4: It's amazing, it's so cooled.
Speaker 7: It's so called.
Speaker 4: Just to go out to the.
Speaker 8: Bathroom, will be on our way in a few minutes.
Speaker 8: There's usually flow into Vegas, but it shouldn't be an issue.
Speaker 5: It's Tuesday, so it should be.
Speaker 8: It should be pretty quick.
Speaker 10: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank Would you want to try some pre juices from
Speaker 1: air one? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: As the team gushes over the array of pastries, nuts,
Speaker 1: and bespoke juices from hip La grocery store Air One,
Speaker 1: they reflect on how their lives have drastically changed with
Speaker 1: Bonnie since she pivoted into being a full time porn
Speaker 1: star about one year ago.
Speaker 9: The last six months, she's blown up beyond belief, you know,
Speaker 9: as in, there was one point when she was the
Speaker 9: most talks about woman in the world, and in terms
Speaker 9: of only fun subscriptions, the money that she's making is insane.
Speaker 9: So anyone that's working with her, their lives have been changed.
Speaker 5: You know, at least for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 9: So growing up private jets, nice clothes, nice cars. You know,
Speaker 9: it's a completely different life to what we had before.
Speaker 1: I asked, Golly, how much money Bonnie has made in
Speaker 1: the past years since business started booming. He gets nervous
Speaker 1: and says he doesn't want to reveal an exact amount
Speaker 1: because he's concerned the UK's tax Department will find out.
Speaker 9: I can't really feel because I don't know if HMRC
Speaker 9: are listening.
Speaker 1: But it is millions, right, yeah, like how many millions
Speaker 1: are we talking in the past year.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's over seven million.
Speaker 1: Wow, in the year. And do you see it as
Speaker 1: like uncapped earnings or like is there a roof on it?
Speaker 10: I'd say on cap to an extent.
Speaker 9: She she can easily earn over a million in a month,
Speaker 9: so you know, if you think of.
Speaker 5: That, it's twelve million year.
Speaker 10: But at the moment, like this month, after.
Speaker 9: The you know, one and fifty seven world record, it's
Speaker 9: projected to be anywhere between one point four to two.
Speaker 5: Million in a one month.
Speaker 1: And that's with the world record channel that's the world record.
Speaker 10: All the extra sort of traffic from how it's.
Speaker 1: Blown up on social media At the time of this interview,
Speaker 1: just one week after the world record Gang Bang, the
Speaker 1: footage hasn't been posted yet, rumors are already starting to
Speaker 1: swirl among industry rivals and critics, with some suggesting Bonnie
Speaker 1: is lying about actually having slept with one and fifty
Speaker 1: seven men in twelve hours. If she had, then where
Speaker 1: are the tapes? But on this private jet, Olie doesn't
Speaker 1: seem concerned. He's busy calculating the estimated earnings.
Speaker 9: Well, you know, before then, she'd be making between six
Speaker 9: and eight hundred k per month. So when it levels out,
Speaker 9: we think it could definitely level out a million per month,
Speaker 9: So she could very easily earn fifteen million or more.
Speaker 9: And that's what Rid expects in a color a year.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of money he's talking about. And it's
Speaker 1: better for Bonnie's anti hero image if it's reported that
Speaker 1: she has endless streams of cash flowing in, that she
Speaker 1: reaping the rewards of riches for her naughty behavior despite
Speaker 1: worldwide criticism. I later asked Bonnie's team if I can
Speaker 1: look at documentation that supports these claims of eye watering
Speaker 1: annual earnings, but no luck Still thirty thousand dollars. Private
Speaker 1: jets and designer clothes don't just pay for themselves. And
Speaker 1: how long do you kind of expect that to go on?
Speaker 1: Like is it something sustainable or does she you know,
Speaker 1: does Bonnie have a plan of like I want to
Speaker 1: be done, you know, with this in like X amount
Speaker 1: of years and just retire.
Speaker 9: No, she it's only been a year and she really
Speaker 9: really genuinely enjoys her job.
Speaker 1: But there is a grand scheme in motion. Ollie seems
Speaker 1: to suggest the past year of scandal has all been
Speaker 1: a strategy to turn Bonnie into a household name so
Speaker 1: she can then pursue her goal of becoming a TV host.
Speaker 9: She would like to move into, you know, sort of
Speaker 9: more mainstream media. She has finished with porn and only fans,
Speaker 9: but that's no time soon.
Speaker 10: There's there's no limit on that.
Speaker 1: What kind of mainstream stuff does she want to get into.
Speaker 9: We've got a lot of ideas and plans in the works.
Speaker 9: But she'd like to have her own TV show.
Speaker 1: And what would the show be about?
Speaker 9: It would definitely be based around sex. But obviously there's
Speaker 9: only so much that you can have on TV. But
Speaker 9: there's without revealing too much that there's a lot of
Speaker 9: thing ideas that we have, but it would sort of
Speaker 9: incorporate her personality, So.
Speaker 10: There's only so much we could say at the moment.
Speaker 1: This is all a giant shift from the life Ollie
Speaker 1: and Bonnie were living on the Gold Coast just a
Speaker 1: few years ago. The pair were high school sweethearts and
Speaker 1: got married young before moving from the UK to the
Speaker 1: hazy beaches of Australia on the Glitter Strip. Bonnie was
Speaker 1: working in recruitment and got bored with the monotony of
Speaker 1: a regular office job.
Speaker 9: Before very well, and she had a very good salary,
Speaker 9: but it was a very stressful life, sort of working
Speaker 9: seven till seven most days, and then.
Speaker 10: Then she goes to the gym in the evening.
Speaker 9: So it never felt that she she had a sort
Speaker 9: of quality of life. It was like she lived to work,
Speaker 9: not work to live.
Speaker 1: This pivot into pawn is not an original story. In
Speaker 1: recent years, it's almost become a well worn trope, one
Speaker 1: that's retold by many adult content creators who have left
Speaker 1: behind the obligations and commitments of their regular old lives
Speaker 1: to try their luck at making a fortune by fornicating.
Speaker 1: For Bonnie, she soon gave up her nine to five
Speaker 1: job and started dabbling as a cam girl in X
Speaker 1: rated internet chat rooms before expanding to only fans. She
Speaker 1: wanted more of everything, bigger, bolder, bluer.
Speaker 4: I see her all the time on my phone, a
Speaker 4: lot of social media. But does it feel any different
Speaker 4: though I see like, oh yeah, that's my sister, carry on.
Speaker 4: Does it feel any well, No, very different. But when
Speaker 4: I see a face, it doesn't like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: she's on my phone. It just feels a bit normal.
Speaker 10: Yeah, every time you go on the Future, every.
Speaker 4: Time I go on my TikTok, It's just it's just
Speaker 4: normal now to see the.
Speaker 1: Face while we chat. Summer struggles with referring to her
Speaker 1: sister by her stage name. Instead, she breaks them as
Speaker 1: publicity protocol and calls her by her real name, Tia.
Speaker 1: I ask some aer about their relationship and how close
Speaker 1: they are. How frequently do you guys hang out or
Speaker 1: like chat on the phone and like do all that stuff.
Speaker 4: No, I'm going to say a lot more recently, but
Speaker 4: we never used to speak as much all the time.
Speaker 4: To be fair, I probably spoke to Oli more than
Speaker 4: I speak to myself. Actually I don't can I say that?
Speaker 4: Probably not.
Speaker 1: It's at this point Olie jumps in and asks if
Speaker 1: I can show him this podcast before I publish it,
Speaker 1: so he can flag revelations they don't included. I tell
Speaker 1: him no and then take a sip of my air
Speaker 1: on green juice. It's clear the team seems more comfortable
Speaker 1: talking about the alter ego of Bonnie and her newfound
Speaker 1: fortune rather than the real life of Tea Billinger. Some
Speaker 1: are mentioned. She found out through social media that her
Speaker 1: sister had recently flown to Paris for the sole purpose
Speaker 1: of buying a designer dress. Ollie and Emma seem relieved
Speaker 1: at the superficial topic.
Speaker 9: Change it's fiftunds.
Speaker 1: She was picking up a fifteen thousand pounds dress.
Speaker 2: One of a kind from Louverton.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was their for six hours. Yeah, just a
Speaker 4: quick six Oul tripped Paris as you do normal normal stuff.
Speaker 1: Bonnie dropped around thirty one thousand Ossie dollars on the
Speaker 1: dress that Ollie says was a one of a kind
Speaker 1: gown that featured in a recent Louis Vertone runway show.
Speaker 1: After strutting into the luxury brands store with her stylist
Speaker 1: named Amez, Bonnie even argued with the Parisian staff members
Speaker 1: and demanded they breach company procedure by altering it to
Speaker 1: be more revealing. After all, she'd be wearing it to
Speaker 1: the Porn Awards in Vegas at the end of this week,
Speaker 1: where she's nominated for Independent Female Creator of the Year.
Speaker 1: In keeping with the time of such an event, this
Speaker 1: dress needed to be Trey risque. It also needed to
Speaker 1: send a strong message to her rivals.
Speaker 9: I very much doubt looking at some of the other
Speaker 9: porn stars like Riley reed Or, I don't Lina Rhodes,
Speaker 9: whoever's attended before, I don't think there've wore something quite
Speaker 9: like a one of one LV dress. So she's going
Speaker 9: to look very, very unique and very classic for the event.
Speaker 9: She also bought some very expensive diamonds to wear as
Speaker 9: well for the awards.
Speaker 1: How much for the diamonds.
Speaker 9: The diamond necklace is about seventy pounds, So yeah, she again,
Speaker 9: it was the when she got back from Paris, she
Speaker 9: was in London and she just decided, I think I need, like,
Speaker 9: you know, something that's really going to stand out if
Speaker 9: she know, if she gets on stage.
Speaker 1: But even the most cashed up porn star knows it's
Speaker 1: not good economics to buy such an expensive piece of
Speaker 1: jewelry that will only be worn for one event. So
Speaker 1: ensuring she gets adequate cost per wear out of this
Speaker 1: diamond necklace, Bonnie has also sported it elsewhere during her
Speaker 1: recent world record gang Bang.
Speaker 9: There's a thousand men's fluids all over these diamonds, and
Speaker 9: have a picture of it, and I can show you afterwards.
Speaker 9: But all the diamonds, obviously at the very start that
Speaker 9: you can because the all the different lights, the ring
Speaker 9: lights or the box lights that are around, you can see
Speaker 9: them glistening the whole time. And then towards the end.
Speaker 5: They're so dull.
Speaker 9: And she had a picture of them afterwards and all
Speaker 9: the diamonds have just gone yellow, and yeah, we have
Speaker 9: to get them clean just before she flew out, and
Speaker 9: now now they look perfect.
Speaker 10: And yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9: You know, I didn't tell the cleaner what was on it.
Speaker 9: She's just like, you know what's on this? And she
Speaker 9: was like looking at it, and I couldn't tell her
Speaker 9: that it's a thousand men's Come you can't. You can't
Speaker 9: go into a diamond dealer and say can you clean
Speaker 9: the com off this seventy grand necklace? But I know
Speaker 9: it's all sorted and we've got it.
Speaker 5: All clean for her.
Speaker 1: For a moment, it seems Ollie is telling this story
Speaker 1: as if it's a relatable scenario we've all faced in
Speaker 1: our day to day jobs. I ask if he ever
Speaker 1: dreamt that one day he'd be able to brag on
Speaker 1: his CV that his skills include getting semen incrusted diamonds
Speaker 1: professionally cleaned.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I never know what stories are interesting, because everything in
Speaker 9: her life is crazy. Every day is different, and obviously
Speaker 9: being around her it becomes normal.
Speaker 1: Speaking of things that have become the new normal, Summer
Speaker 1: pulls out her phone and sees her screen flooded with
Speaker 1: Snapchat notifications about her sister.
Speaker 4: Oh there she's again.
Speaker 10: She's not even on Snapchat, so there she's again.
Speaker 1: Oh there she's again again.
Speaker 9: The whole of Snapchat is just Bonnie three five.
Speaker 5: Water Yes.
Speaker 1: As the flight attendants serve Champagne, I ignore Emma's instruction
Speaker 1: to avoid the topic of Bonnie's personal life and try
Speaker 1: inching closer to the subject, asking Summer how her sister's
Speaker 1: controversial explosion in the headlines has affected their family. With
Speaker 1: Bonnie's face flooding social media, feeds. What do her friends
Speaker 1: make of it?
Speaker 4: I don't really have many friends, so I don't really
Speaker 4: and I don't really talk about a lot with because
Speaker 4: I'm not bothered. But I'm not bothered what anyone's I'm
Speaker 4: not well what their opinions are. So and that's it's
Speaker 4: a good one. I'm not interested in knowing if it's
Speaker 4: not good.
Speaker 1: Seven a Summer and Olie say they're more concerned with
Speaker 1: the media attention Bonnie has been receiving and the backlash
Speaker 1: that has gone beyond run the mill trolling in the
Speaker 1: comment sections.
Speaker 9: She gets death threats daily, and it means when we
Speaker 9: go and do events or any sort of area where
Speaker 9: she might be exposed, we do employ security to watch
Speaker 9: her and follow her sort of highly trained professionals. It's
Speaker 9: not just like a bouncer they you know, it's ex
Speaker 9: special forces that are employed to follow her and make
Speaker 9: sure that she's okay, do a risk assessment, and make
Speaker 9: sure that she's okay wherever she goes.
Speaker 1: What's been the scariest situation that's come of all of this.
Speaker 9: So, yeah, her car being robbed, which was definitely targeted.
Speaker 9: They've been watching her and her team for days. Also
Speaker 9: when she got back from Paris, she was getting into
Speaker 9: a car with multiple Louverton bags and they put it
Speaker 9: in the boot. And then when she got in the
Speaker 9: car there was a group of lads that went and
Speaker 9: tried to like open the boot and still all.
Speaker 5: The stuff at the back.
Speaker 9: Oh, and then her phone got robbed at when she
Speaker 9: did the fresh of them. There was a lot of
Speaker 9: content that was on that phone and the lads stole it,
Speaker 9: made an instagum account saying I've got Bonnie blues phone,
Speaker 9: tried to extort her for money, which we didn't respond.
Speaker 1: To in summer as her sister like, how does hearing
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff make you feel like the dangerous situations?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it was pretty scary. It's a bit scary
Speaker 4: to think that some people are that bothered about someone
Speaker 4: that would go to the extremes for things to do that.
Speaker 4: I could never imagine disliking someone that much to even
Speaker 4: text someone, because then you do care. You got oh
Speaker 4: I don't care, and you say, well, then you do
Speaker 4: if you go you're texting them. It's hitting nerve. So
Speaker 4: many people have put our family address on the internet
Speaker 4: and then you see the comments and there's like hundreds
Speaker 4: of comments, and then people on, Oh, well, they don't
Speaker 4: actually live in there anymore. We do, we do, and
Speaker 4: it's not what we do. We do live there?
Speaker 7: Where?
Speaker 1: And where else do I live? Always says The sense
Speaker 1: danger intensified after Bonnie started marketing the content she was
Speaker 1: filming with eighteen year old school graduates as barely legal,
Speaker 1: a tagline that for decades has been its own genre
Speaker 1: in the porn industry, used to describe content featuring performers
Speaker 1: who are of legal age but look like teens. In
Speaker 1: its twenty fifteen report of search statistics, Pornhub, the biggest
Speaker 1: pornography website in the world, listed the teen category as
Speaker 1: the second most popular genre in the world. In recent years,
Speaker 1: the company has stopped including the categories and its annual reports.
Speaker 1: The thing is, these genres are usually centered around mature
Speaker 1: men chasing young women. When Bonnie latched on to the
Speaker 1: barely legal phrase, there was something about her brazenness, audaciousness,
Speaker 1: and maybe even arrogance that rubbed people the wrong way.
Speaker 1: She was accused by commentators of being an opportunistic predator,
Speaker 1: preying on young men whose frontal lobes weren't yet fully developed.
Speaker 1: Some even took the barely Legal tagline to mean her
Speaker 1: recruitment of young men wasn't above board. Ollie insists Bonnie's
Speaker 1: practices adhere to the rules.
Speaker 9: Her whole thing is, they have to come with an idea,
Speaker 9: They have to sign concept forms, only funds checks. You know,
Speaker 9: a billion dollar company, they check everything. Everything's eighteen plus
Speaker 9: and everything's checked. So anything to do with underage it's
Speaker 9: just wrong and not what she represents.
Speaker 1: In a way. The Barely Legal stunts that have catapulted
Speaker 1: Bonnie to notoriety are a role reversal of Girls Gone Wild,
Speaker 1: the scandalous franchise from the nineties and two thousands that
Speaker 1: capitalized on amateur exhibitionism. The phenomenon was an early precursor
Speaker 1: to today's creator economy, blurring exploitation with empowerment, where participants
Speaker 1: who signed release forms received little more than a T shirt,
Speaker 1: while founder Joe Francis amassed millions for the barely Legal
Speaker 1: boys who play with Bonnie. They don't receive a T
Speaker 1: shirt or slice of the millions of dollars that she
Speaker 1: claims to earn from the antics, but they do get
Speaker 1: bragging rights and maybe some regrets once they grow up.
Speaker 1: At the time, Girl's Gone Wild was almost viewed as
Speaker 1: a sexy, larkish punchline, not something to be taken seriously.
Speaker 1: It's only recently that the franchise and its problematic ways
Speaker 1: have been reassessed and criticized. How will Bonnie's brand of
Speaker 1: tit for tat sexual role reversal be viewed in the future.
Speaker 1: Bonnie's publicist, Emma, has her own spin.
Speaker 2: People really really hate what she does. I see that constantly,
Speaker 2: but ultimately I think, definitely from my perspective, she's not
Speaker 2: doing anything wrong. People don't like that she is capitalizing
Speaker 2: on the public appetite to hate a woman, but what
Speaker 2: she does can open up really interesting conversations about consent
Speaker 2: and why power answers can be varied. I can totally
Speaker 2: understand when people's criticism comes down to not really loving
Speaker 2: the barely legal comment. But I think that what I
Speaker 2: want from her in twenty twenty five is the opportunity
Speaker 2: to keep having conversations that make people angry but also
Speaker 2: are really useful for public discourse. Because we have such
Speaker 2: a wide audience and it's always a balance between how
Speaker 2: can we go viral on social and how can we
Speaker 2: kind of prolong her brand for ten twenty thirty years.
Speaker 1: But today, just for a moment, the team is not
Speaker 1: worrying about what will happen over the next few decades.
Speaker 1: They stretch out in their leather chairs, take selfies and
Speaker 1: talk about money.
Speaker 9: You know, obviously it's completely different from being on a
Speaker 9: private jet. We've never done that. But you know, let's
Speaker 9: see flying it used to just be economy. Now just
Speaker 9: business as normal, you know, driving cars. She has a
Speaker 9: range overt SVR. She's just bought a Ferrari.
Speaker 1: Shit. Oh no, the plane just took off and everyone's
Speaker 1: air won green juice is just spilled across the wall
Speaker 1: nut table. I'll no a UK summer, it's in your
Speaker 1: w's in your pan. As the private jet shoots up
Speaker 1: into the Californian sky, all the glamour is sucked out
Speaker 1: as Summer's air won green juice flies off the table
Speaker 1: and spills up her short black eighty dollar dress. It
Speaker 1: shouldn't come as a surprise that in the world of
Speaker 1: Bonnie Blue, you can be sprayed with all kinds of
Speaker 1: liquid at any given moment. Next time on sex lies
Speaker 1: and Streaming.
Speaker 4: Hi, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Las Vegas.
Speaker 5: Things for enjoying your private flight.
Speaker 8: The current temperature outside is about fifty degrees, light winds
Speaker 8: out of the north as clear skies.
Speaker 4: Enjoy your time at the Oscar Sport, and welcome to Vegas.
Speaker 1: When you're hunting someone who's made a career of exposure,
Speaker 1: what happens when they suddenly want to hide What was
Speaker 1: supposed to be an exclusive sit down interview with Bonnie
Speaker 1: Blue suddenly turns into a manhunt across America, taking me
Speaker 1: from the sunny Hollywood Hills to the neon soaked underbelly
Speaker 1: of Las Vegas, where porn stars and porn addicts mingle
Speaker 1: at the industry's biggest convention inside a desert casino. At
Speaker 1: one point, I was spending hundreds a week on different platforms,
Speaker 1: subscribeing to this, subscribe to that. Glad, how much were
Speaker 1: you spending in a week that is worse? Yeah, three
Speaker 1: hundred pounds a week. Can you make anything sound sexy
Speaker 1: when you use that voice?
Speaker 7: Oh for sure?
Speaker 1: Can you say I need to go get my Nissan
Speaker 1: patrol service, and then I need to go to the
Speaker 1: supermarket to pick up milk. I'm going to take my
Speaker 1: car go for a service.
Speaker 9: You know what I mean, I've repaid like two hundred
Speaker 9: bucks to send a guy a video of me just
Speaker 9: voting on camera.
Speaker 11: I had to tell the fan that it's incredibly inappropriate
Speaker 11: to call my room. And secondly, you know, say, I'm
Speaker 11: so sorry, but we're not in a relationship and you've
Speaker 11: been speaking to a catfish for many months.
Speaker 1: It's here where I unknowingly parachute into the middle of
Speaker 1: a war with Bonnie's army of enemies on one side
Speaker 1: and her legion of young copycats on the other, all
Speaker 1: desperately trying to crack the code of Internet infamy and
Speaker 1: get rich quick by gambling their sexuality.
Speaker 10: You gotta be careful, you know, because it can backfire.
Speaker 10: Your story better be real, because all ittics is one
Speaker 10: person to find out it's not, and the dominoes will fall.
Speaker 7: I own over one thousand pounds an hour. I'm the
Speaker 7: one with the most fews. I'm the one that goes
Speaker 7: rivate all the time.
Speaker 1: It's nearing midnight and Bonnie emerges from the theater after
Speaker 1: the annual Pawn Awards. Her arms are crossed, her team's
Speaker 1: lacking energy, and kay, oh hi, it seemed disappointed to
Speaker 1: see me.
Speaker 2: Oh Isn't wanted to see you?
Speaker 1: Why what happened inside? That's next time on sex Lies
Speaker 1: and streaming. Take it to.
Speaker 5: Hey kushat concessive.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. You can read more from me on
Speaker 1: news dot com dot a U and find me on
Speaker 1: Facebook if you want to let me know your thoughts
Speaker 1: about this series. This show was written and hosted by me.
Speaker 1: My executive producer is Nina Young. Sound design and editing
Speaker 1: by Tiffany Dinnak. Additional production assistant by Phoebe Zakowski Wallace.
Speaker 1: A big thanks to Carrie Warren, the editor of news
Speaker 1: dot com dot a U, for her support for the show.