Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Sophie Torba and coming up on today's show, The Real
Speaker 1: Reason behind Molly May and Tommy Fury Split, the Queensland
Speaker 1: influencer charged with torturing her baby to boost her social
Speaker 1: media following, and finance podcast a Victoria Devine is in
Speaker 1: hot water for her comments over that controversial billboard. But first,
Speaker 1: it's been a turbulent time for TikTok users in the US.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, one hundred and seventy million Americans were shut
Speaker 1: out from the app as a nationwide band took effect.
Speaker 2: To the US government.
Speaker 1: I'm never forgiving you for this.
Speaker 3: I was so dumb coming on the internet and crying
Speaker 3: about an app.
Speaker 4: But the fact is that this has been a sense
Speaker 4: of community for me.
Speaker 1: But the band was short lived because within fourteen hours
Speaker 1: TikTok was back. I feel like there would have been
Speaker 1: a few red faces because I saw so many creators
Speaker 1: in hysterical tears. I also saw many TikTok creators exposing
Speaker 1: secrets before the app went down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there'd be a.
Speaker 1: Lot of regret over that I was pretty shocked by
Speaker 1: the message that TikTok users receive, so they've got to
Speaker 1: pop up message saying sorry, TikTok isn't available right now.
Speaker 1: A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are
Speaker 1: fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work
Speaker 1: with US on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he
Speaker 1: takes office. Please stay tuned. And it didn't take Donald
Speaker 1: Trump too long to take credit for TikTok's return. So
Speaker 1: he was speaking at an inauguration event and he told crowds,
Speaker 1: as of today, TikTok is back. We have no choice.
Speaker 1: We have to save it. He then went on to
Speaker 1: suggest that the US was set to own fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the company, telling the media it would make a
Speaker 1: lot of money. So if TikTok is worth nothing zero
Speaker 1: without an approval, you know, if you don't.
Speaker 5: Approve of business, there worth nothing.
Speaker 1: If you do approve, there worth like a trillion dollars.
Speaker 5: There worth some crazy number.
Speaker 1: So I said, I'll approve, but.
Speaker 3: Let the United States of America own fifty percent of TikTok.
Speaker 2: I'm approving on behalf of the ivinal self.
Speaker 1: I want to cut through the crap here because he
Speaker 1: is acting like a hero when he is the one
Speaker 1: who initiated talks back in twenty twenty to ban the
Speaker 1: app over fears that it was a national security risk.
Speaker 1: This just seems to be some big public that he's
Speaker 1: stunt for Donald Trump. I think he's in cahoots with TikTok.
Speaker 1: The fact that they even named him in that initial
Speaker 1: pop up message, and also the fact that TikTok did
Speaker 1: have that big blackout in the US. No one was
Speaker 1: expecting it to actually go down. Well, it was early
Speaker 1: as well, and there were a lot of rumors saying, well, no,
Speaker 1: it's not going to cancel out if you have the
Speaker 1: TikTok app, It's just going to stop people from downloading TikTok. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people thought it was going to be a slow transition
Speaker 1: away from TikTok. It wasn't going to be something that
Speaker 1: suddenly just got blacked out. It's scary to see what
Speaker 1: is unfolding on our social media apps. Last week, Mark
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg got rid of fact checking on Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 1: We can see that he is kissing the ring as
Speaker 1: people are saying of Donald Trump, he is sucking up
Speaker 1: to Donald Trump at the moment. Donald Trump also has
Speaker 1: Elon Musk in his camp, and now we're seeing that
Speaker 1: he's in cahoots with TikTok, the app that he originally
Speaker 1: wanted to get rid of. Now I want to get
Speaker 1: to the fun stuff. Let's talk about this TikTok confession trend.
Speaker 1: So before the app shut down, a lot of creators
Speaker 1: jumped on this audio clip from Family Guy where Peter
Speaker 1: Griffin made a confession to his family. So a lot
Speaker 1: of people lip synced to this grab and then they
Speaker 1: made their own confession.
Speaker 6: Since we're all going to die, there's one more secret
Speaker 6: I feel I have to share with you now.
Speaker 1: One of the TikTokers that ruffled feathers was Lexi Hidlergo,
Speaker 1: and she's really well known for her coffee chats and
Speaker 1: also for her workout videos, and she revealed to her
Speaker 1: two point seven million followers that she never once drank
Speaker 1: coffee in her coffee chats and that she only did
Speaker 1: half the workouts. She posted this confession, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: went down like a lead balloon. Everyone was like, why
Speaker 1: the fuck would you admit this, especially if you're trying
Speaker 1: to get followers to follow you over to Instagram. It
Speaker 1: just makes it looks so inauthentic. Well, the one that
Speaker 1: upset me the most was beauty influencer Meredith Duxby, and
Speaker 1: she has gained a lot of attention on TikTok for
Speaker 1: using an outrageous amount of foundations. So she will put
Speaker 1: about twelve pumps onto her face and it's all about
Speaker 1: trusting the process because she always looks incredible after. Well,
Speaker 1: she has admitted that she wiped a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot of that makeup off before the final results. She
Speaker 1: said it was just for rage baiting, which is obviously worse.
Speaker 1: The worst one was some of the creators who admitted
Speaker 1: that they never used the products that they promoted on
Speaker 1: their TikTok shop. There must be so many people kicking
Speaker 1: themselves so jumping on this trend, And as you said earlier,
Speaker 1: I don't understand it because it's not like these people
Speaker 1: were going to lose their following. People were going to
Speaker 1: go across to Instagram or red No or Snapchat and
Speaker 1: still follow these people. Yeah, I'm how stupid can you be?
Speaker 1: It's literally just ruined any credibility they might have had. Also,
Speaker 1: I would be really pissed off as one of the
Speaker 1: brands that's done sponsored work with them, because you'd be questioning, Oh, okay, cool.
Speaker 1: So you've pretty much told everyone you hated the products
Speaker 1: we provided you with.
Speaker 6: Oh no, don't worry, I'm not calling you idiots. All
Speaker 6: the girls that bought my book, listened to my podcast,
Speaker 6: took financial advice for me. You're not idiots. You made
Speaker 6: me millions, all right.
Speaker 1: A national real estate agency has caused a stir online
Speaker 1: after bragging on a billboard that they've been making homes
Speaker 1: more expensive since twenty seventeen. The backlash was swift, with
Speaker 1: the agency labeled out of touch in the current housing
Speaker 1: affordability crisis. Amidst the drama, finance podcaster Victoria Devine went
Speaker 1: into bat for the agency, calling people who don't get
Speaker 1: the billboard idiots. Now, So, when this story first broke,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of confusion because the real estate
Speaker 1: agency in question shares the same name as one of
Speaker 1: Australia's most popular online clothing stores. Yeah, that's right, if
Speaker 1: you believe it. This agency is called White Fox real Estate.
Speaker 1: And what makes things even more confusing is that it's
Speaker 1: branding is nearly identical to the clothing retailer. Well, we
Speaker 1: actually spoke about White Fox real Estate probably a month
Speaker 1: ago now, when Steph kless Smith revealed that she was
Speaker 1: selling her home.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the name of the agency is derived from the
Speaker 1: founder's name, Marty Fox, and he's recently found fame as
Speaker 1: a judge on the Block and he is your stereotypical
Speaker 1: real estate agent. He's very good looking, he dresses well,
Speaker 1: he's got flashy white teeth, and he's very confident. And
Speaker 1: because of his appearance on the Block, he has around
Speaker 1: thirty four thousand followers online. His agency specializes in luxury
Speaker 1: real estate and as you touched on Kate, he has
Speaker 1: a number of celebrity clients like Steph Klesmith and Josh Miller.
Speaker 1: He currently has Sam Wood and Snees's home on his
Speaker 1: listings at the moment, so you can tell the type
Speaker 1: of clientele he works with. Now. The drama kicked off
Speaker 1: when a passer by snapped a photo of the controversial
Speaker 1: billboard in Perth and shared their thoughts on TikTok so.
Speaker 1: The TikTok's user's name is m Redman, and she's got
Speaker 1: around three thousand followers. So she shared vision of the
Speaker 1: billboard with the slogan making homes more expensive since twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: and she wrote, maybe not the message to be gloating
Speaker 1: about in the middle of a housing crisis.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: This video quickly garnered three hundred thousand views and people
Speaker 1: started making reaction videos. And again there was a lot
Speaker 1: of confusion in M's comment section because her audience assumed
Speaker 1: that the billboard was from the clothing brand. So one
Speaker 1: user wrote, I thought this was about White Fox, the
Speaker 1: clothing label and was so lost, and that comment received
Speaker 1: four thousand likes. Another user said I'm so confused. Do
Speaker 1: you mean you're spending more money on their clothes when
Speaker 1: you could be saving for a house? And another time
Speaker 1: beIN saying that advertising must be terrible because I drive
Speaker 1: past one of their offices every day, and up until
Speaker 1: now I thought they were White Fox, the clothing brand.
Speaker 1: I'm very curious from this if this lack of branding
Speaker 1: distinction is one of the reasons why the agency was
Speaker 1: so desperate to create a stir. Maybe they thought a
Speaker 1: stun like this was going to help them build some
Speaker 1: much needed brand awareness and cement their spot in the
Speaker 1: real estate market. Surely Marty being on the block is
Speaker 1: enough advertisement though like good advertisement for well, clearly not,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people have not heard of them.
Speaker 1: I had to look on Google and they appear straight
Speaker 1: after White Fox Boutique, So this stunt hasn't been able
Speaker 1: to get them top spot just yet. That's not how
Speaker 1: SEO works over. I used to work at an SEO firm,
Speaker 1: and you don't generally type in the name of the
Speaker 1: real estate company to find them because you know what already,
Speaker 1: so you're going to search their u URL. If you're
Speaker 1: looking for a real estate agent, you were type in
Speaker 1: real estate agent Adelaide's Those are the terms that real
Speaker 1: estate companies would be going and it sounds like they
Speaker 1: only want the rich and famous anyway, So as long
Speaker 1: as the lights of Steph Claire Smith knows the difference
Speaker 1: between White Fox Boutique and White Fox real Estate. When
Speaker 1: this story blew up, it was picked up by the
Speaker 1: Today Show and even Karl Stefanovic was confused. Here's what
Speaker 1: he said, and it's just stating the facts that at
Speaker 1: White Fox, that's what we do. We try and get
Speaker 1: you as much money as possible.
Speaker 2: I thought you made women's lingerie white Fox.
Speaker 1: Has that a different White Fox, That's a different one.
Speaker 1: I love that you still didn't quite get it right
Speaker 1: that it's apparel clothing brand, not just lingerie. He's like
Speaker 1: offended both of the marketing teams of White Fox Boutique.
Speaker 1: In White Fox real Estate Now, the comments section on
Speaker 1: M's TikTok post was relatively mixed. So many people acknowledge
Speaker 1: that it's a real estate agent's job to make as
Speaker 1: much money for their client as possible and that the
Speaker 1: housing crisis was not their fault, whilst others were outraged
Speaker 1: and thought the billboard added unnecessary salt to the wound
Speaker 1: for those who've been priced out of the market. So
Speaker 1: one user wrote, read the room, White Fox, whilst another said,
Speaker 1: imagine driving passes ad in your car you were forced
Speaker 1: to live in because of the current Perth housing market.
Speaker 1: I really think that your reaction to this campaign mostly
Speaker 1: depends on what financial position you're in, because if you
Speaker 1: own a home and you're looking at selling, you want
Speaker 1: to know that your real estate agent is working for
Speaker 1: you and they're going to get the best price for you.
Speaker 2: But if you are.
Speaker 1: Currently a buyer, and you're having a tough time financially.
Speaker 1: This is going to make you feel so resentful and hopeless.
Speaker 1: You feel like you're never going to get a house.
Speaker 1: You're going to feel ripped off whatever house you do get. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: for White Fox, I think it's clever marketing because the
Speaker 1: people that are offended are not the target market they're
Speaker 1: going for. This is for these high earners who want
Speaker 1: to make as much money as possible. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: questioning why they chose a billboard for that then, because
Speaker 1: that type of advertising you can't measure the return on
Speaker 1: investment of it. It's literally for everyone to see. It's
Speaker 1: that say and spray method. It's douchey though, whereas if
Speaker 1: they had actually used targeted marketing towards people in that
Speaker 1: top echelon, it probably would have done a lot better. Kate,
Speaker 1: they knew exactly what they were doing by putting this
Speaker 1: billboard up. This is a classic case of rage baiting.
Speaker 1: They were banking on someone passing by being completely outraged
Speaker 1: and posting this on social media and it going viral.
Speaker 1: It's very clever and I think that this achieved exactly
Speaker 1: what they wanted it to achieve. Well, so many people
Speaker 1: now know that they're really state firm and not a
Speaker 1: clothing boutique. They knew that this bragging about making homes
Speaker 1: more expensive was going to elicit a huge response, particularly
Speaker 1: when we are in the midst of such a huge
Speaker 1: housing affordability crist I don't think that type of publicity
Speaker 1: is particularly good for this real estate company because now
Speaker 1: people are like, ah, they're a bit douchey, Yeah, rubbing
Speaker 1: it into the common man. But the people who think
Speaker 1: that are people who aren't their customer base. Because not
Speaker 1: only did they attract free commercial attention from this, he
Speaker 1: appeared on the Today Show. There was a ton of
Speaker 1: mainstream media publications, but it was also a very powerful
Speaker 1: value proposition because the slogan, directly spelled out to prospective customers,
Speaker 1: will get you the most money for your home, which
Speaker 1: ultimately is what every seller wants to hear. And White
Speaker 1: Fox knew they weren't going to offend their target demographic,
Speaker 1: which is the insanely wealthy people who own multiple properties.
Speaker 1: Their target demo would have looked at this slogan and
Speaker 1: had a chuckle and thought, Gee, these guys are super confident.
Speaker 1: They're good at what they do. I want them to
Speaker 1: get the best for me. They weren't going to have
Speaker 1: an emotional reaction to this slogan. Yea, even most everyday people.
Speaker 1: I get what you're saying, Sophie, because when I was
Speaker 1: in the market to buy a house with my husband,
Speaker 1: there were real estate agents that popped up and you'd
Speaker 1: go along to the inspection and you go, oh fuck,
Speaker 1: I don't want to deal with them. This house is
Speaker 1: going to be so expensive. However, if I was looking
Speaker 1: to sell, I would totally engage them to sell my
Speaker 1: house because my mindset is they're going to get me
Speaker 1: the most money. There's been a lot of questions over
Speaker 1: whether this has damaged Marty Fox's personal brand because he
Speaker 1: was very popular on The Block, and the majority of
Speaker 1: people who watch that show they're everyday Ozzy, So I
Speaker 1: wonder if this has left a bad taste in their matt.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to affect Marty's brand at all.
Speaker 1: But someone whose brand has been affected is finance podcaster
Speaker 1: Victoria Divine. For those who aren't familiar with Victoria, she
Speaker 1: is a retired financial advisor who is the host of
Speaker 1: hugely successful podcasts She's on the Money Now, She's on
Speaker 1: the Money is marketed as a finance podcast that shares honest,
Speaker 1: relatable and non judgment financial advice to women. Victoria has
Speaker 1: also written three best selling books which provide financial literacy
Speaker 1: to women. She is also hugely successful in the business wll.
Speaker 1: She is a founder of Zella, a finance broking practice
Speaker 1: which supports people through the process of buying a home,
Speaker 1: investment or dream asset. Now, how Victoria fits in this
Speaker 1: story is that she's friends with Marty Fox and she
Speaker 1: saw the backlash he was receiving, and in response to
Speaker 1: one of his Instagram stories about the Billboard, she sent
Speaker 1: him a DM saying, the people talking shit aren't your
Speaker 1: target demographic.
Speaker 2: They're idiots.
Speaker 1: I got it immediately, brilliant. Now, Marty replied saying, can
Speaker 1: I post and say that Even one of the smartest
Speaker 1: business minds in Australia even gets it? And a woman
Speaker 1: who empowers others to get ahead to is not confused
Speaker 1: by this message. There's a lot of ego stroking involved
Speaker 1: in that to get what he wanted, So Victoria replied,
Speaker 1: of course, so she gave him permission to post her
Speaker 1: opinion on the billboard. Marty went ahead and shared the
Speaker 1: screenshot of the post, writing Victoria Divine, Ossie financial advisor,
Speaker 1: author and podcast host known for empowering millennials to take
Speaker 1: control of their finance, even gets it now. This didn't
Speaker 1: get quite the reaction that Victoria was expecting. TikToker m Redman,
Speaker 1: who initially posted about the Billboard, shared this screenshot to
Speaker 1: TikTok and wrote, when the real estate ceo posts your
Speaker 1: comment making fun of like ninety percent of your podcast audience,
Speaker 1: We're not idiots. We get the Billboard. It just makes
Speaker 1: us angry because it's a symbol of the crisis we're
Speaker 1: trapped in now. The video quickly attracted over one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty seven thousand views. The comment section was absolutely scathing.
Speaker 1: One TikToker wrote, oh my god, what the fuck Marty
Speaker 1: Fox and Victoria Divine? Her response is so disgusting. Is
Speaker 1: this real chucking out her book now? Another said oh gross,
Speaker 1: immediately unfollowed She's on the money, whilst another said Oopsie's
Speaker 1: not a nice way to speak about your own target demographic. Now,
Speaker 1: Victoria was on the front foot, so she released an
Speaker 1: apology video that afternoon. What I initially liked about this
Speaker 1: apology video was that Victoria spoke directly on camera to
Speaker 1: her audience, so she didn't put up a black tile
Speaker 1: like a lot of other influencers do with text over it.
Speaker 1: She put up quite a long video where she actually
Speaker 1: acknowledged a lot of the points. Let's have a listen
Speaker 1: to what she said.
Speaker 3: Hey, guys, I just wanted to jump on here and
Speaker 3: address a couple of comments that I have seen online
Speaker 3: today about me being tone deaf and completely.
Speaker 1: Out of touch.
Speaker 3: And I can't disagree with you. At the end of
Speaker 3: the day, the comments I made were tone deaf and
Speaker 3: completely out of touch, and for that I apologize. I
Speaker 3: am genuinely really sorry. I can promise you that I
Speaker 3: never made comments like this with the hope to make
Speaker 3: anybody feel less than or make any fewone feel stupid
Speaker 3: or dumb, because at the end of the day, my
Speaker 3: entire purpose is to financially empower women in particular, and
Speaker 3: there's no world in which I would want anyone to
Speaker 3: feel stupid. And I want to be really clear, I
Speaker 3: was not saying that people who can't buy property are idiots.
Speaker 3: I was saying that people who didn't understand the billboard
Speaker 3: were idiots, and that is very rude. Still, that is
Speaker 3: very unacceptable and for that I do apologize.
Speaker 1: Now, Victoria provided context for those who might not have
Speaker 1: been across the whole story and confirm the screenshot was
Speaker 1: from a conversation between her and Marty and that the
Speaker 1: intention of her comment was to support a friend. She
Speaker 1: also confirmed she gave Marty permission to post a screenshot,
Speaker 1: as at the time she didn't see it as an issue.
Speaker 1: It is interesting to note, though, when describing the billboard
Speaker 1: in this apology video, Victoria misquoted the slogan. So this
Speaker 1: was pointed out by another TikToker called Rachel McQueen. So
Speaker 1: Victoria misquoted the billboard and said making property more expensive
Speaker 1: since twenty seventeen, when it actually said making homes more expensive. Now,
Speaker 1: to me, the word home was strategically used on this
Speaker 1: billboard to evoke more anger and outrage from the everyday
Speaker 1: ossie because the word home is a motive. It's the
Speaker 1: place where you feel a sense of stability and security.
Speaker 1: I feel like Victoria may have been trying to lessen
Speaker 1: the blow by pretending that the campaign said properties and
Speaker 1: not homes, because the word property is far less of motive.
Speaker 1: It speaks to a possession. It doesn't speak to a
Speaker 1: place where everyday Australians live. And when you hear the
Speaker 1: word property, it makes you think of rich and elite
Speaker 1: people who own a number of properties that they rent out.
Speaker 1: I disagree, Sophie. I just think it was a slip
Speaker 1: of the tongue. The video went for about six minutes.
Speaker 1: She was very off the cuff in the video. In
Speaker 1: this apology, she referenced that she'd done wrong. She owned
Speaker 1: up to saying I shouldn't have called my audience idiots.
Speaker 1: I think it was a slip of the time.
Speaker 7: Oh.
Speaker 2: I mean, I definitely think that this was a good apology.
Speaker 1: I just think it's interesting to analyze the misuse of
Speaker 1: words there. Now. She did apologize several times, as you said, Amy,
Speaker 1: and she apologized for hurting people by her comments and
Speaker 1: making people feel less than She completely owned up to it.
Speaker 1: I found this next admission really interesting because Victoria admitted
Speaker 1: in the apology that she'd read all the comments about
Speaker 1: her and she found them confronting because she agrees that
Speaker 1: she has become out of touch and unrelatable. Here's what
Speaker 1: she said.
Speaker 3: They're really upsetting, but they are also very confronting because
Speaker 3: some of them, You're not wrong. I am a little
Speaker 3: bit out of touch nowadays. I am, you know, a
Speaker 3: little bit unrelatable. But what I want you to know
Speaker 3: is that I know you because I was you. I
Speaker 3: have been in a position where I have been in
Speaker 3: mountains of debt, not knowing how I was going to
Speaker 3: pay it off. I have been in a position where
Speaker 3: I just didn't think that property was ever going to
Speaker 3: be for me. And now I am in the very
Speaker 3: foot position where I do own property, and I am
Speaker 3: very grateful for that. But I just want to make
Speaker 3: sure that the people that are in my community know
Speaker 3: that I would never think of you were stupid or
Speaker 3: less than or not worthy of these things.
Speaker 1: Do you guys think that the money expert has to
Speaker 1: be relatable or can they simply be aspirational. I think
Speaker 1: it's difficult for Victoria Divine because you can see she's
Speaker 1: wrestling with trying to be relatable but then also showcasing
Speaker 1: that she is a successful businesswoman. And unfortunately, especially women
Speaker 1: in the media and women who are influencers, they do
Speaker 1: struggle with showing off their wealth because a lot of
Speaker 1: people tear them down over it. I think if Victoria
Speaker 1: was struggling to get by, and it was clear that
Speaker 1: her tips for financial freedom weren't working or advancing her
Speaker 1: in any way. We would not be willing to take
Speaker 1: her advice on board. I see her as a very
Speaker 1: aspirational business woman and someone that a lot of women,
Speaker 1: particularly in her community, look up to. So for the
Speaker 1: average person, maybe her lifestyle doesn't seem achievable, but maybe
Speaker 1: they think if I implement some of these tips, I
Speaker 1: might get a bit further ahead like her. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I think what a lot of listeners are grappling with
Speaker 1: is Victoria will share money hacks to save I don't know,
Speaker 1: like the tram fare, But then people see her in
Speaker 1: designer clothing and at her beach house and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: that seems a little bit disingenuous. So it's this the
Speaker 1: lifestyle and her influencing career is not really matching up
Speaker 1: with what she shares on her money podcast, and that's
Speaker 1: where the clash is wrong or right. I mean, as
Speaker 1: you said, Sophie, I think she's a very successful business
Speaker 1: woman and she should be well within her riots to
Speaker 1: promote the successes that she's had. But I can see
Speaker 1: why there is a clash. I agree, because, as you said,
Speaker 1: she hands out money advice to her community, but then
Speaker 1: her community when they jump on her Instagram, they see
Speaker 1: that she doesn't apply that to the way that she lives.
Speaker 1: And that's been because she doesn't have to, because she
Speaker 1: doesn't have the same financial pressures as her audience. I mean,
Speaker 1: she said herself that she's out of touch at the moment,
Speaker 1: and I do wonder if that's impacting on her podcast success.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's always in the charts, but I have
Speaker 1: seen a lot of negative commentary in her reviews and
Speaker 1: also online more recently, because she has been very vocal
Speaker 1: and jumping on board different topics of discussion. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: she has been really vocal about all of the Kate
Speaker 1: Forster stuff, and she is on a bit of a
Speaker 1: crusade about MLMs, and whilst a lot of people have
Speaker 1: agreed with her stance on them, I think people have
Speaker 1: found maybe the approach to be a bit aggressive, and
Speaker 1: I think that is backed up by her recent discussions
Speaker 1: around Kate Forster. The apology did receive a mixed reception,
Speaker 1: so a lot of people found it to be very genuine.
Speaker 1: You could hear the raw emotion in Victoria's voice, and
Speaker 1: you felt like she was genuinely sorry for affecting her community,
Speaker 1: whilst others said it's interesting to hear the opinion that
Speaker 1: she's behind closed doors and thought that the emission of
Speaker 1: her being out of touch made her look worse. What
Speaker 1: I found quite surprising about the whole thing is that
Speaker 1: she agreed for the screenshot of her message to be
Speaker 1: shared and then suddenly realized how bad it sounded, not
Speaker 1: because of hindsight, but because she obviously absolutely copped it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, let's throw to a reaction video that's currently going
Speaker 1: viral to paint a picture of how some people are feeling.
Speaker 6: Oh no, don't worry, I'm not calling you idiots. All
Speaker 6: the girls that bought my book, listened to my podcast,
Speaker 6: took financial advice for me. You're not idiots. You made
Speaker 6: me millions, all right, I'm talking about all the other
Speaker 6: girls that can't buy their first home because you know
Speaker 6: it's your fault.
Speaker 3: You're idiots.
Speaker 6: You're not my target demographic, because really, the housing market,
Speaker 6: what's that got to do with me? Nothing.
Speaker 1: Someone else who wasn't pleased and buying into the apology
Speaker 1: was TikTok of Rachel McQueen, who has over eighty four
Speaker 1: thousand followers now, she created a ten minute video sharing
Speaker 1: her thoughts on Victoria's apology. She said she thought the
Speaker 1: apology seemed disingenuous.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, the reason that Victoria apologized is because,
Speaker 4: unlike Marty, she did upset and alienate her target demographic,
Speaker 4: the people that she makes money from, the people who
Speaker 4: look to her for honest, relatable and non judgmental financial advice.
Speaker 1: Of course she's going to.
Speaker 4: Apologize when her whole brand is being relatable and non judgmental,
Speaker 4: and it's just been discovered and a lot of people
Speaker 4: are upset by the fact that she's not those things.
Speaker 4: That is why she apologized and Marty didn't. That is
Speaker 4: why she apologized and Marty didn't because it was her
Speaker 4: target demographic that were upset, not Marty's. Marty's target demographic
Speaker 4: are people trying to profit from the housing crisis. Her
Speaker 4: target demographic, especially through her new business ventures Zella Money,
Speaker 4: is people who are struggling because of the housing crisis.
Speaker 4: Victoria is in a dichotomy. She lives in a completely
Speaker 4: different world to the people she's marketing to. It may
Speaker 4: not have been that way in the beginning, but it
Speaker 4: certainly is that way. Now. Did she admit in her
Speaker 4: apology that she is now out of touch with the
Speaker 4: people that she's marketing to and that support her, Yes,
Speaker 4: she did, But I am still not convinced that that
Speaker 4: apology comes from a place of being empathetic toward those people.
Speaker 4: I still believe, until it's proven otherwise, that the apology
Speaker 4: came from a place of desperately trying to repair the
Speaker 4: relationship with the majority of her audience, because, as em
Speaker 4: put beautifully in this video and directly to Victoria, Victoria's
Speaker 4: audience are struggling and cannot outsave and out hustle a
Speaker 4: housing crisis.
Speaker 1: It is interesting to note that Victoria has since deleted
Speaker 1: her apology. What do you think about that move? I
Speaker 1: think it came down to a few factors. She was
Speaker 1: probably absolutely copying it in the comment section, which isn't
Speaker 1: pleasant and sometimes you just don't want.
Speaker 2: To deal with.
Speaker 1: I also think maybe it came down to sponsorship opportunities.
Speaker 1: It's not a good look to have a video up
Speaker 1: where you're saying you're out of touch and you aren't
Speaker 1: relatable to your core demographic when you are trying to
Speaker 1: get people on board. That isn't not worse to delete it,
Speaker 1: because the way social media works is people will have
Speaker 1: saved it and they'll stitch it up on TikTok or
Speaker 1: on Instagram. And now you go over to her page
Speaker 1: and it looks like she's even guiltier because she's removed it. Well,
Speaker 1: she also recently deleted a video where she called out
Speaker 1: Kate Forster, So it's difficult because you want to look
Speaker 1: like you believe in what you say and the content
Speaker 1: that you put out there. I was really interested to
Speaker 1: see if she's on the money, had lost any followers
Speaker 1: since this drama. What surprised me is they've actually gained followers,
Speaker 1: So they gained four thy two hundred this week, which
Speaker 1: can sometimes happen when scandals break out. Over the four
Speaker 1: days when the controversy broke, Victoria did lose one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty two followers, but over the weekend she picked
Speaker 1: up another five hundred and eighty four, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to be affecting her brand too much. But maybe
Speaker 1: she got some advice to take it down because it
Speaker 1: didn't look great to sponsors.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the followers that she picked up.
Speaker 1: Aren't genuine followers. They're probably just following her for the
Speaker 1: controversy and maybe a bit of hate following. I hate
Speaker 1: to say it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, hey guys, hello, Oh so nice to.
Speaker 3: Come.
Speaker 1: It's been a big week for Molly May Hague and
Speaker 1: Tommy Fury. Just two days before Molly's tell all documentary
Speaker 1: aired on Prime, Tommy piped her at the Post, revealing
Speaker 1: the real reason behind their shock breakup. In an interview
Speaker 1: with Men's Health, the boxer revealed it was his addiction
Speaker 1: to alcohol that caused the split. Kate, there is a
Speaker 1: lot to unpack here. I am dying to talk about
Speaker 1: the Molly May doco, but let's start chronologically with what
Speaker 1: Tommy had to say on Wednesday. It is the first
Speaker 1: time Tommy has acknowledged he's had a problem with alcohol. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, and it did come as quite a surprise
Speaker 1: to some of his fans. So during the emotional interview,
Speaker 1: Tommy revealed his dependence on alcohol actually started early last
Speaker 1: year after he had react instructive surgery on his hand.
Speaker 1: So the surgery was to repair a boxing injury from
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen when he snapped all the ligaments in the
Speaker 1: back of his hand. I actually remember Molly vlogging Tommy
Speaker 1: post surgery and he was really frustrated. We now know
Speaker 1: that that recovery had a very detrimental impact on Tommy's
Speaker 1: mental health, and in the interview he said his mental
Speaker 1: health was in the pan, and he started to spend
Speaker 1: nights drinking with the goal to get blackout drunk.
Speaker 7: The reason why me and Molly broke up because I
Speaker 7: got addicted to alcohol and I couldn't be the partner
Speaker 7: that I wanted to be anymore. And it kills me
Speaker 7: to say it's true, you know, I couldn't be. I
Speaker 7: was loved to pint of beer, love to drink, you know.
Speaker 7: And it is what it is. People go through different
Speaker 7: things in life, and I have, you know, we all
Speaker 7: have our crosses to bear.
Speaker 1: Tommy isn't the only member of his family to grapple
Speaker 1: with addiction. His brother, Tyson Fury, who was the heavyweight
Speaker 1: champion of the world, he has also struggled with alcohol
Speaker 1: addiction and cocaine abuse. Yeah, and we saw that play
Speaker 1: out a little bit in real time on Tyson's doco
Speaker 1: last year. Now, as expected, Tommy continued to deny cheating
Speaker 1: was involved in this relationship breakdown. So initially, when the
Speaker 1: couple broke up back in August, the internet was rife
Speaker 1: with rumors that Tommy had cheated on Molly, and one
Speaker 1: persistent rumor was that Molly called off their relationship after
Speaker 1: being sent a video of Tommy up to no good
Speaker 1: on a boy's trip to Macedonia, and it even led
Speaker 1: to a woman coming out to the media and claiming
Speaker 1: that they kissed but she didn't know who he was.
Speaker 1: There was also that rumor at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: breakup that Tommy had got another woman pregnant who was
Speaker 1: actually the daughter of a boxing coach. Well, that one
Speaker 1: got shut down really quickly because the woman had to
Speaker 1: come out and say no, this is my partner and
Speaker 1: the father of my child. And at the time, Tommy
Speaker 1: did vehemently deny these rumors, and a spokesperson for the
Speaker 1: boxer said that his legal team were investigating them. Now,
Speaker 1: his stance on the cheating allegation was no different in
Speaker 1: this men's health interview.
Speaker 2: Here's what he said.
Speaker 7: There's been so much shit, so much crap in the
Speaker 7: every single day for the past six months. I've done
Speaker 7: this and I've done that, and it's like people don't
Speaker 7: know the half of it. If it's not come from
Speaker 7: my mouth or Molly's mouth, it's complete a not of bullshit.
Speaker 7: It's like all I've been seen for the past six
Speaker 7: months is cheeta, cheeta, cheeta, cheeta. Oh, he cheated, he
Speaker 7: slept with me, slept with this girl, slept with that girl.
Speaker 7: Complete a lot of bollocks, and you can ask Molly yourself.
Speaker 1: I cannot get over the timing of this interview. Firstly,
Speaker 1: it dropped two days before Molly's documentary Behind it All
Speaker 1: aired on Prime. The producers would have been absolutely spewing.
Speaker 1: This would have all been pre planned, particularly between Molly,
Speaker 1: Tommy and their management. They wouldn't want Molly to be
Speaker 1: revealing Tommy's secret because it looks like she would be
Speaker 1: exposing something that he's perhaps not ready to talk about
Speaker 1: when it is something as serious as alcohol addiction. I
Speaker 1: think you're right, Sophie, but I think this strategy has
Speaker 1: only been enacted since the New Year's Kiss because a
Speaker 1: lot of people now think that Tommy and Molly are
Speaker 1: back together. Yeah, the New Year's Kiss definitely has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with the timing of this doco, particularly
Speaker 1: because originally I think that all six episodes were going
Speaker 1: to be aired at the same time, but it's now
Speaker 1: been broken up to have three air now and then
Speaker 1: three air in autumn. The date hasn't even been set.
Speaker 1: It's clear that they're still filming because so much has
Speaker 1: gone on behind the scenes, and it's hard for this
Speaker 1: doco to keep up with the immediacy of TikTok and
Speaker 1: everything that is happening. I don't think the producers, though,
Speaker 1: would have been in on Molly allowing Tommy to go
Speaker 1: to another rival media company in Men's Health and break
Speaker 1: that news first. Because this doco it's called Behind All,
Speaker 1: and it's been touted as the real story behind the breakup.
Speaker 1: I think Molly's gone behind the back of the producers
Speaker 1: and agreed on this with Tommy because in an interview
Speaker 1: she did recently, she did say, well, Tommy's going to
Speaker 1: come out and explain his side of things.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's Tommy's story to tell first.
Speaker 1: I think it would have looked completely inappropriate if Molly
Speaker 1: was to break that news.
Speaker 2: I also noticed that.
Speaker 1: The two messages weren't the same throughout, so Tommy said
Speaker 1: he has an alcohol problem, but in the documentary Molly's
Speaker 1: said Tommy doesn't have an alcohol problem.
Speaker 2: Drinking leads to problems.
Speaker 1: And that to me reading between the lines, either meant
Speaker 1: that he cheated or it made me think, has things
Speaker 1: escalated behind the scenes, has something happened that again they're
Speaker 1: not going to tell us about how I watched this
Speaker 1: documentary with Dale and he said, do you know what,
Speaker 1: maybe he's just a complete dickhead when he's been drinking. Well,
Speaker 1: that's that vibe that everyone seemed to get. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was really interesting to be a fly on the
Speaker 1: wall in that conversation between Molly and her mum, Debbie,
Speaker 1: and I felt for Debbie because Molly revealed that when
Speaker 1: her parents broke up, her mum had issues with alcohol
Speaker 1: and it was part of the reason why Molly didn't
Speaker 1: want to be with someone who drank. And during the
Speaker 1: docco they showed Molly rewatching the scene on Love Island
Speaker 1: when she first met Tommy, and they kept in the
Speaker 1: grab where Molly said, oh, do you drink and Tommy
Speaker 1: said not really, and then she confirmed that she actually
Speaker 1: doesn't drink either. That's a big part of her brand,
Speaker 1: her being sober. I mean, she's even spoke recently on
Speaker 1: a YouTube how she doesn't really like out and letting
Speaker 1: herself go and having a drink.
Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting? Though?
Speaker 1: Because this New Year's Eve kiss seemed to all come
Speaker 1: about because Molly was drinking and out there partying with Tommy.
Speaker 1: Let's actually dive a little bit deeper into this doco.
Speaker 1: So it was meant to document the leader to Molly
Speaker 1: and Tommy's wedding, but when they broke up, it was
Speaker 1: repurposed into a documentary about Molly navigating life as a
Speaker 1: single mum as she launched her brand Maybe. Did anyone
Speaker 1: else feel like some sections of the episodes were just
Speaker 1: blatant ads though for Maybe. I don't actually think it
Speaker 1: was a great ad for Maybe though, because they mentioned
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism that the brand has got, especially
Speaker 1: over the balling of one of its blazers. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was more an ad for Molly May
Speaker 1: at her personal brand, which I suppose then cascades down
Speaker 1: into Maybe because people are only really buying the clothes
Speaker 1: because of Molly May. But the documentary really showed from
Speaker 1: her perspective that she was the one who was passionate
Speaker 1: about rectifying this issue and giving back to her consumer
Speaker 1: and making sure her audience weren't angry. Sophie really bought
Speaker 1: into the good prs, so I was laughing with Dale's say,
Speaker 1: I can imagine Sophi're working for her PR team.
Speaker 2: Well I did.
Speaker 1: What I did disagree with, though, is that they put
Speaker 1: out a statement saying anyone who's had issues with this
Speaker 1: jacket please contact us, But they didn't actually outline whether
Speaker 1: they would get a refund.
Speaker 2: There was no resolution.
Speaker 1: They were acting like, oh, we just don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. I said to Dale, just give everyone a
Speaker 1: refund financially, though I don't think that the brand could
Speaker 1: handle it. So you need to come down because we
Speaker 1: are recording a subscriber only episode really getting to the
Speaker 1: nitty gritty of the doco. But for now, I really
Speaker 1: want to talk about what most people are interested in,
Speaker 1: and that is the breakup. So the number one reason
Speaker 1: people tuned in was to find out what actually happened.
Speaker 1: I know Tommy did pip Molly at the post, as
Speaker 1: you said earlier, but it was interesting to see that
Speaker 1: their stories did match up because again she did reveal
Speaker 1: that drinking was a problem in terms of talking about
Speaker 1: the cheating, though she really glazed over that, so she
Speaker 1: didn't actually back Tommy up and say there was definitely
Speaker 1: no cheating. She did say this.
Speaker 5: Though, on Somebody Pregnant, I'm really sorry to hear that
Speaker 5: he's been with this person, And I was just like,
Speaker 5: where is this coming from? It was a build up,
Speaker 5: and there was It was a lot of times of
Speaker 5: sort of okay, like last chance type situation. Last chance,
Speaker 5: last chance, last chance, There's only so.
Speaker 2: Much that.
Speaker 5: You can take. You kind of don't really have another choice.
Speaker 5: You just have to You just have to do what
Speaker 5: you have to do.
Speaker 1: I feel like that comment was trying to shoot down
Speaker 1: the validity of some of those cheating claims. But then
Speaker 1: when we saw the scene of Molly rewatching her proposal
Speaker 1: to Tommy, she reiterated that they actually had a huge
Speaker 1: argument on the way there because she thought he had
Speaker 1: photos of another girl on his phone because he wouldn't
Speaker 1: let her look at the phone. Yeah, he was being shady,
Speaker 1: and she asked, oh, can I check out the photos
Speaker 1: you took of me? And he was being funny about it,
Speaker 1: obviously because he had all of the engagement plans on
Speaker 1: his phone. I saw a lot of people creating TikTok
Speaker 1: saying that it was interesting that they left that section
Speaker 1: of the interview in because it was sort of eluding
Speaker 1: that there was cheating going on, but nothing confirming it. Oh,
Speaker 1: there was so much eluding going on, and I think
Speaker 1: Tommy's alcohol problem is a lot easier to blame, especially
Speaker 1: if they do end up getting back together. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of the conversations between Molly and her sister Zoe
Speaker 1: in the car alluded to cheating being involved. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: could tell that Zoe absolutely hates Tommy Fury's guts. I
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting when Zoe said that she
Speaker 1: had clashed with Tommy as well, because often it is
Speaker 1: the sisters who have to get involved. Well, she said
Speaker 1: that she kept seeing Tommy cheating Molly so badly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I suppose she felt she had to stand up to her.
Speaker 1: And I think it's because Zoe has a really lovely husband.
Speaker 1: His name's Danny. He's in the Army. He seems to
Speaker 1: be the opposite of Tommy and what he stands for,
Speaker 1: So for her, she's like, why are you putting up
Speaker 1: with this shit? Side note, My favorite scene of the
Speaker 1: whole documentary so far was Molly and Zoe singing along
Speaker 1: to the Saddle Club. Oh yea, I know that that
Speaker 1: was aired in the U game. I love it because
Speaker 1: it was so related, even though they're driving around in
Speaker 1: this fuck off g wag and it was just like
Speaker 1: every girl does that with their sister, have a little
Speaker 1: sing alongs in the car. Back to Zoe hating Tommy's guts.
Speaker 1: It's also probably because she's the only family member who
Speaker 1: knows the ins and outs of the relationship with Tommy.
Speaker 1: Because Molly said this.
Speaker 5: I think Zoe ready struggles with Tommy and I the
Speaker 5: most have anyone in my family because she has heard
Speaker 5: it all now and I have really shared it all
Speaker 5: with her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because Molly was like, oh, yeah, just go through
Speaker 1: my messages, my WhatsApp with Tommy. Yeah, she's read too much.
Speaker 1: Clearly interesting that they are conversing through WhatsApp because it's
Speaker 1: a platform that's encrypted, so it's more difficult for the
Speaker 1: press to break into her phone and get her messages.
Speaker 1: And what we're so fascinating was on their YouTube channels,
Speaker 1: on both Zoe and Molly's, they're always putting out such
Speaker 1: positive content about their like, you know, going and doing
Speaker 1: couple things. It was odd to actually hear Zoe negatively
Speaker 1: talk about Tommy because it's always seems to be so
Speaker 1: positive everything they say, but.
Speaker 2: That's just social media.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, did anyone else think
Speaker 1: that maybe Tommy ruined Zoe's wedding, because it does seem
Speaker 1: like the wedding was a bit of a breaking point
Speaker 1: for Molly May. She didn't go into details about what happened,
Speaker 1: but she said this.
Speaker 5: He's never had an alcohol problem. It's just that alcohol
Speaker 5: caused problems for us. It got to a point where
Speaker 5: I wasn't really looking forward to anything because alcohol affected
Speaker 5: it so much. I could only cite a couple of
Speaker 5: examples where he had some alcohol and it's not led
Speaker 5: to anything disastrous. I mean, I actually don't know any
Speaker 5: I really don't my sister's wedding, Like I literally pleaded
Speaker 5: with Tommy, like I begged him to not drink, and.
Speaker 1: It's just.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's it's just really sad because I don't know, I'm
Speaker 5: crying enough.
Speaker 2: Well, the breakup came shortly after Zoe's wedding, so.
Speaker 1: They were on their honeymoon it came out, so this must.
Speaker 2: Have been a tipping point for her.
Speaker 1: Was anyone else surprised at how vocal Molly was about
Speaker 1: her desire to get back with Tommy during this doco,
Speaker 1: because I would love to know the timeline of when
Speaker 1: those bits were filmed. Well, it was clear that she
Speaker 1: blindsided Tommy when she released that statement saying they'd broken up,
Speaker 1: and it felt like a really desperate move of Molly
Speaker 1: to actually get Tommy's attention and to wake him up
Speaker 1: and be like, look, I'm actually serious, because it sounded
Speaker 1: like she had been threatening for a long time to
Speaker 1: break up. Yeah, because she spoke through the process, so
Speaker 1: this wasn't some joint decision to put out a statement.
Speaker 1: She said she was sick of lying in her bed
Speaker 1: wirying all night, so she thought this is the final straw.
Speaker 1: This is going to show him that he needs to change,
Speaker 1: but also make herself accountable because she said that she
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't go through with the breakup if it wasn't public. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And in the third episode of the doco, she revealed
Speaker 1: to Zoe it was never meant to be a permanent thing.
Speaker 5: I know it's exhausting, but if you didn't draw a
Speaker 5: line in the sand, it will carry on being exhausting
Speaker 5: for the next time. But I don't want you because
Speaker 5: I don't want to end. I knew we were going
Speaker 5: to get back together.
Speaker 7: Surely you didn't.
Speaker 5: No, I did know that. No, because you're waiting for
Speaker 5: why do you think?
Speaker 2: How m not cried?
Speaker 5: All I want in this life is to be with
Speaker 5: him and to have another baby with him, and to
Speaker 5: grow old as a family, and to live in a
Speaker 5: nice house together and to have a nice life together.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, that's all I want. To be perfectly honest with you.
Speaker 5: I think what's getting me through is the hope and
Speaker 5: the idea that Tommy and I, well, we will end
Speaker 5: up back together.
Speaker 1: You could tell Zoe was just like, oh for Fox, Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: what's going on? You do forget that they're only twenty five.
Speaker 1: And when Molly was talking about the fact that Tommy
Speaker 1: wants to be a regular twenty five year old and
Speaker 1: got drinking with his friends and partying, but he also
Speaker 1: wants to be have this stable relationship in this family life,
Speaker 1: you can see that he's at a crossroad and he
Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do. He almost doesn't want to
Speaker 1: grow up. How sad was watching the vision of Molly
Speaker 1: their phone out having to FaceTime Tommy to say good
Speaker 1: night to Bamby. That made me feel really upset. I
Speaker 1: think bye bye, that's all she ended the conversation. Every
Speaker 1: con was bye bye. Notice her saying bye bye all
Speaker 1: the time, and I was wondering if it was just
Speaker 1: a Tommy because she felt awkward, but then she said
Speaker 1: it to her manager and everyone in the colledep or.
Speaker 1: One viral clip from this doc that's doing the rounds
Speaker 1: on TikTok is a scene where Molly is trying to
Speaker 1: feed her daughter Bamby, and there's a moment where Bambi
Speaker 1: is absolutely losing it, and then Molly realizes the Bambi
Speaker 1: is trying to say dadda because she misses Tommy. And
Speaker 1: I've seen so many people saying that they were in
Speaker 1: tears over this moment. It doesn't help that Bambi looks
Speaker 1: exactly like Tommy Fury either, like it would be hard
Speaker 1: to get over him when your daughter is his clone.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: The producers, of course, left all of us on the
Speaker 1: edge of our seats in the last episode when Molly
Speaker 1: revealed that she was so adamant that they were going
Speaker 1: to get back together, but now she was worried that
Speaker 1: the problems weren't going to go away, and then I
Speaker 1: flashed to the teaser showing Molly's reaction to the headlines
Speaker 1: that came out about their New Year's Eve kiss, and
Speaker 1: she said, oh my god, what Molly May and Tommy
Speaker 1: Fury kiss on New Year's Eve? That is so bad.
Speaker 1: It's clear that this doco is having to play catch
Speaker 1: up big time, and that is why they haven't actually
Speaker 1: set an exact date for the second installment. It says
Speaker 1: coming spring, as in the spring UK time, sometime around there.
Speaker 1: Do you think it was always planned that it was
Speaker 1: going to have this big break in between it, or
Speaker 1: you're just going with the floor, because I think they
Speaker 1: were almost scraping the barrel a bit to fill out
Speaker 1: three episodes of content. A lot of it was on
Speaker 1: the maybe controversy with the jacket we spoke about earlier,
Speaker 1: so I think they've gone fuck well. A lot of
Speaker 1: this stuff that's happening in current time is far more
Speaker 1: interesting than what we've already recorded. I saw a lot
Speaker 1: of people saying it was boring, but I absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1: I thought the producers did an incredible job. It was
Speaker 1: shot so beautifully. It was But if you weren't a fan,
Speaker 1: of Molly May. I can say why some people might
Speaker 1: think got she was a bit boring. She's got eight
Speaker 1: million followers, so there are a lot of people invested
Speaker 1: in her life and it's like, oh, well, we didn't
Speaker 1: hear all the details. I thought what we did get
Speaker 1: to hear was incredible. A thirty four year old Queensland
Speaker 1: influencer has been arrested and charged after allegedly torturing and
Speaker 1: poisoning her baby daughter to boost her social media following.
Speaker 1: It's important to note that the reason why we and
Speaker 1: other media outlets aren't naming the woman is to protect
Speaker 1: the identity of the child. Now, kay, can you tell
Speaker 1: us more? Yeah? So, on Thursday, the influencer was charged
Speaker 1: with a multitude of offenses, including torture, making child exploitation,
Speaker 1: material fraud, and multiple counts of administering poison. Now, vision
Speaker 1: of the woman being arrested in her pajamas at her
Speaker 1: home and then escorted into a police cart was circulated
Speaker 1: to the media. The woman's face was blurred, but you
Speaker 1: could tell who it was if you know who the
Speaker 1: influencer is. What we can say is this influencer gained
Speaker 1: a following by documenting her child's apparent battle with the
Speaker 1: terminal illness on social media. Now it's alleged that the
Speaker 1: poisoning took place between August and October, when and the
Speaker 1: woman gave the baby, who had a medical condition, medications
Speaker 1: that were not prescribed or medically approved. The charges follow
Speaker 1: an extensive police investigation that took place after medical staff
Speaker 1: from a Brisbane South hospital raised their concern. Now the
Speaker 1: baby was already sick in hospital with a genuine illness
Speaker 1: when staff suspected something was not right now. In a
Speaker 1: press conference, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton labeled the alleged offenses
Speaker 1: as abhorrent. He said, there are no words to describe
Speaker 1: just how repulsive offenses of this nature are. There is
Speaker 1: no excuse for hurting a child, especially not a one
Speaker 1: year old infant who was reliable on others for care
Speaker 1: and survival. Dalton confirmed the little girl is going well
Speaker 1: and she and her siblings are safe, but he did
Speaker 1: not say who was caring for them. When asked about
Speaker 1: the woman's sentence, Dalton said, if convicted, she would be
Speaker 1: facing substantial prison time.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: The influencer has been also accused of defrauding donors of
Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollars via a GoFundMe page that she allegedly
Speaker 1: set up. Now, GoFundMe has announced they will refund the
Speaker 1: money to people who donated, and I've already seen screenshots
Speaker 1: of people sharing that that donation has been refunded to them. Now,
Speaker 1: the thirty four year old woman appeared in a prison
Speaker 1: magistrate's court on Friday, and her lawyer requested that she
Speaker 1: beheld in protective custody because of concerns for her safety
Speaker 1: following the publicity around her arrest. Now, she does plan
Speaker 1: to apply for bail later this month, and the influencer
Speaker 1: was remanded in custody and will face court again in
Speaker 1: late January. Well, that is all we've got time for today.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to another episode of Outspoken. If
Speaker 1: you do like this show, please leave us a review.
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
Speaker 1: Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to
Speaker 1: elders past and present.