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, Molly May
Speaker 1: says she was bedbound following split from boxer Tommy Fury
Speaker 1: and Megan Gaylee's surprising return, but first eight weeks out
Speaker 1: from her due date. Fitness influencer Sarah's Day is dropping
Speaker 1: clues on her third son's name. In an Instagram story,
Speaker 1: she shared a mere selfie of her pregnant belly and
Speaker 1: wrote clue, followed by an emoji of a hand saluting
Speaker 1: a mountain and the praying hands. This was posted in
Speaker 1: our Facebook community and we have some very clever listeners.
Speaker 1: So many people are guessing the name could either be
Speaker 1: Everest or Rocky, and that's due to the mountain emoji.
Speaker 1: And I remember Sarah saying in a vlog that Fox
Speaker 1: wanted to call the baby Rocky, but that she wasn't
Speaker 1: quite sure. And isn't that the name of Courtney Kardashian's baby.
Speaker 1: So I feel like Rocky is somewhat in vogue at
Speaker 1: the moment.
Speaker 2: The other big.
Speaker 1: Contender is Elijah so as one of our listeners pointed
Speaker 1: out in the Bible, it says the Lord told Elijah
Speaker 1: to go to the top of the mountain so that he.
Speaker 2: Could speak to Elijah.
Speaker 1: So this makes sense because not only does it relate
Speaker 1: to the mountain, but also the praying hands and perhaps
Speaker 1: saluting God. What makes me think that this really could
Speaker 1: be on.
Speaker 2: The money is that.
Speaker 1: Funnily enough, she is launching a collaboration with a perfume
Speaker 1: line called who Is Elijah.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm not.
Speaker 1: Saying that she's doing it to sell this perfume, but
Speaker 1: she does have a habit of becoming attached to the
Speaker 1: brand names that she works with during the time of
Speaker 1: her pregnancy, because she was working closely with White Fox
Speaker 1: Boutique when her first son, Fox was born. She also
Speaker 1: recently admitted in a YouTube that if Fox was a girl,
Speaker 1: he was going to be called Bloom, and at the time,
Speaker 1: she had just launched a product called body Bloom.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll have to wigh and see.
Speaker 1: I think Sarah is going to release a few more
Speaker 1: clues in the next eight weeks. How do you feel
Speaker 1: about people dropping clues baby names. Do you think it's
Speaker 1: a bit of fun or do you feel like it's
Speaker 1: someone cashing in on the birth of their child. Look
Speaker 1: in this instance, I just think it's a bit of fun.
Speaker 1: Everybody is waiting with anticipation to see what Sarah calls
Speaker 1: her third child, and she's just giving her followers what
Speaker 1: they want, a few clues. I'm surprised she only shared
Speaker 1: this as an Instagram story and not a feed post,
Speaker 1: because I thought that she would have liked people to
Speaker 1: guess in the comment section. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: maybe she was worried that too many people would guess
Speaker 1: the name and it would fill up the comment section
Speaker 1: and it would no longer be a surprise. You know,
Speaker 1: when you know the answer to a question and it
Speaker 1: seems so obvious the clue to think about, Like, I
Speaker 1: wonder if it feels like that for them.
Speaker 3: I just I'm really looking forward to just like I say,
Speaker 3: pressing on.
Speaker 1: Molly may Haigu has returned to YouTube just two weeks
Speaker 1: after announcing her shock split from boxer Tommy Fury. The
Speaker 1: UK influencer has been under pressure to make an online comeback,
Speaker 1: with her secret project set to be unveiled in.
Speaker 2: A few days.
Speaker 1: Sophy off the bat this video was giving vibes of
Speaker 1: a tell all Yeah, it really did have all the
Speaker 1: right ingredients to be one of those iconics, sit down,
Speaker 1: tell all videos. So it was entitled high with a
Speaker 1: little black love heart emoji and in the thumb. Now,
Speaker 1: Molly looked very serious and I have never clicked on
Speaker 1: a video so far, so we had so many.
Speaker 2: People setting this through to us.
Speaker 1: Well. She also looked very glammed up in comparison to
Speaker 1: how she normally comes across on YouTube. She's often stripped back,
Speaker 1: she'll have a hair bag, but this time her hair
Speaker 1: was down, her makeup was on points. Yeah, well, she
Speaker 1: would have been aware of just how many people would
Speaker 1: be tuning in and how many news publications would be
Speaker 1: scrutinizing how she looked, because I really think how you
Speaker 1: present yourself says so much without you having to say anything.
Speaker 1: And I know people are throwing around this sort of
Speaker 1: jokey line that she's the people's princess, but it really
Speaker 1: felt like she had this cool, rich girl vibes and
Speaker 1: she was a princess who was addressing the nation on
Speaker 1: a very important matter. And she kicked things off by
Speaker 1: saying she hadn't made a plan of what she wanted
Speaker 1: to say realistically, though, Prior to filming, Molly and her
Speaker 1: manager Fran would have devised exactly how to tackle this scandal.
Speaker 1: There is a secret project in the works, and there's
Speaker 1: so much media scrutiny at the moment that this video
Speaker 1: really had to hit the right notes for her. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of strategy would have been put
Speaker 1: into what Molly said and more importantly, what she didn't say.
Speaker 2: Well, I agree, but.
Speaker 1: I think what Molly was saying is she hasn't written
Speaker 1: out some statement. She's not reading off an auto que.
Speaker 1: It came across as very real what she was saying.
Speaker 1: Of course, they probably came up with a few dot points. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think that this is why she's such a
Speaker 1: successful blogger, is because she connects with her audience so well,
Speaker 1: and she makes you feel like you're a friend. And
Speaker 1: if she was sitting there delivering some scripted piece, I
Speaker 1: don't think it would feel so authentic. Now, it did
Speaker 1: become clear straight off the bat that we weren't going
Speaker 1: to be getting all of the dirty details. So she
Speaker 1: acknowledged that she knows a lot of people will have
Speaker 1: clicked on the video expecting for her to spill the
Speaker 1: tea and get an explanation of what happened, but that
Speaker 1: was never something that she was going to do.
Speaker 2: Here's part of what she said.
Speaker 3: I don't really ever plan on talking about the last
Speaker 3: couple of weeks. I just it's not something that I
Speaker 3: feel comfortable with. And I know a lot of you
Speaker 3: will be like, we want to know what's going on.
Speaker 3: But it's just like I say, this is real life.
Speaker 3: It is not drama. It is not tea. It is
Speaker 3: not a publicity stunt like this is as much as
Speaker 3: I wish it was, this is real life. And it's
Speaker 3: very sad and it's very deep, and I just don't
Speaker 3: feel not even ready. It's not that I don't feel ready,
Speaker 3: it's that I just don't. It doesn't feel right for
Speaker 3: me to come in here and talk about it, so
Speaker 3: also out of respect to Tommy as well, because it's
Speaker 3: just not nice. And I feel like everything over the
Speaker 3: last couple of weeks has really it's been a lot,
Speaker 3: Like it's been a lot and been blown way out
Speaker 3: of proportion and gotten it's really carried and what's the word,
Speaker 3: It's all got a bit carried away with itself, and
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, the last thing I want to do
Speaker 3: is fueling that fire anymore and stirring the pot when
Speaker 3: it just doesn't need to be stunned.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that she touched on the breakup not being
Speaker 1: a publicity stunt because there has been a lot of
Speaker 1: speculation online that Molly is trying to drum up publicity
Speaker 1: because she is launching her biggest product to date. But
Speaker 1: what stood out to me is that she said she
Speaker 1: wishes it was a publicity stunt because it shows that
Speaker 1: she did not want this breakup to happen, and something
Speaker 1: has forced her and Tommy to break up.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: While she didn't go into the explicit details of what
Speaker 1: went down, she also didn't once deny the cheating rumors
Speaker 1: or put them to bed, because she did acknowledge that
Speaker 1: things had been blown out of proportion and people had
Speaker 1: got carried away, but she didn't once say cheating wasn't
Speaker 1: a factor. Please leave Tommy alone. This is unfair on him,
Speaker 1: and that was her opportunity to say something if it
Speaker 1: wasn't true. Now, the next section of the video continued
Speaker 1: the royal sort of vibes I've been feeling of her,
Speaker 1: because she spoke about pressing on and moving on and
Speaker 1: whenever a drama happens in the royal family, it's always
Speaker 1: about putting on a brave face and looking forward. Let's
Speaker 1: listen to part of what she said.
Speaker 3: I just I'm really looking forward to just like I say,
Speaker 3: pressing on, moving on and the birds. Just yes, sort
Speaker 3: of definitely not brushing it under the carpet, because that's
Speaker 3: definitely not what I've done. Like I've really been dealing
Speaker 3: with it and my support system, like my personal support
Speaker 3: system has been incredible, and I've gotten everything out obviously,
Speaker 3: like dealing with everything is still an ongoing process. But
Speaker 3: I not swiping it under the carpet. It's just that publicly,
Speaker 3: it's not something that I want to go into or
Speaker 3: discuss for myself. And also out of respect to Tommy
Speaker 3: because he's Bambi's dad and I will always I will
Speaker 3: always value him and respect him and obviously always have
Speaker 3: a lot of love for him. And yeah, like we
Speaker 3: were together for five years and it's very very sad.
Speaker 1: I'm really not surprised that Molly is keeping the details
Speaker 1: of this breakup private because she's obviously got her young daughter,
Speaker 1: Bambie who is involved, and that adds a different element
Speaker 1: to it. And also with the level of fame Molly
Speaker 1: now holds, she also seems above getting into all the
Speaker 1: dirty detail. Yeah, because she really has this different level
Speaker 1: of celebrity than other influences. She doesn't need to throw
Speaker 1: out these little crumbs or details or divulge everything to
Speaker 1: us to keep us hooked. The breakup was announced on
Speaker 1: BBC News, so there's no way that she actually needs,
Speaker 1: as you said, to be dropping little bits here and
Speaker 1: there to get people's attention. People are interested in this
Speaker 1: story already. While she was really careful to not reveal
Speaker 1: the cause of the breakup, I don't know about you, Amy,
Speaker 1: but don't you think it was written all over her face?
Speaker 1: You could just tell from her body language that she
Speaker 1: felt disgusted by his behavior, because she kept having this
Speaker 1: little twitch of her nose and her eyebrow would raise
Speaker 1: in a certain way. It was almost as if you know,
Speaker 1: when you smell something gross. It was sort of that
Speaker 1: look on her face, this look of repulsion.
Speaker 2: While she was talking about you.
Speaker 1: Can tell that she was visibly upset and almost shaken.
Speaker 2: By the whole ordeal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And she finished up that section of the video
Speaker 1: by reiterating that the support of her fans has been
Speaker 1: helping her get through this difficult time now. Following the
Speaker 1: sit down address, the video then turned into a regular
Speaker 1: vlog where Molly showed how she'd spent the last week.
Speaker 1: And this was the part that I found the most
Speaker 1: fascinating because so many of us have been wanting to
Speaker 1: be a fly on the wall to know how she's
Speaker 1: getting through this breakup. Well. She prefaced the start of
Speaker 1: the vlog by saying, look, it's not going to be
Speaker 1: anything great. Like people who know me, you'll know this
Speaker 1: is going to be a very mundane vlog, And I thought, fuck,
Speaker 1: what is she actually going to show, because so much
Speaker 1: of the last two weeks would have been her sitting
Speaker 1: around with her friends, probably bitching about Tommy crying.
Speaker 2: But she actually showed quite a bit. I loved her.
Speaker 1: The clips spoke volumes, so in the first section of
Speaker 1: the vlog, Molly explained that she was having a child
Speaker 1: free day and didn't know what to do with herself
Speaker 1: because she and Bambi have been joined by the hit
Speaker 1: for the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: I feel like that was a bit of a.
Speaker 1: Subtle dig that she's been doing all of the parenting
Speaker 1: for quite some time. She then said that Bambie has
Speaker 1: been experiencing attachment issues and can sense what's going on.
Speaker 2: Here's what she said.
Speaker 3: I think she can definitely sense that, Like obviously there's
Speaker 3: changes and things are strange at the minute. I can
Speaker 3: really feel that she can sense that, which is very
Speaker 3: interesting considering she's just a baby. To me, she's just
Speaker 3: a baby. She's not even two yet, and I feel
Speaker 3: like they're just not stupid, like they can ready pick
Speaker 3: up on things.
Speaker 1: That was a really sad insight, and I think it
Speaker 1: made it real for a lot of people because there's
Speaker 1: been so much gossip and speculation on TikTok, but this
Speaker 1: just confirms these are real people's eyes that this is affecting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a poor little girl whose whole life has been
Speaker 1: thrown upside down. Molly also said that she's been experiencing
Speaker 1: cabin fever and that she's been bedbound as well as
Speaker 1: house bound. She said her sister Zoe had been coming
Speaker 1: around to help with Bambi and that Tommy.
Speaker 2: Had had her as well.
Speaker 1: It was really interesting to see how she's been spending
Speaker 1: her time, so she's been doing a lot of self care.
Speaker 1: She went and got her eyebrows and lashes done, and
Speaker 1: also visited a spa and she said that the stress
Speaker 1: of the last few weeks has made her skin do
Speaker 1: crazy things, so she's been having huge breakouts and rashes,
Speaker 1: so you can see how much stress she is under.
Speaker 1: I like that she knew so many people would be watching,
Speaker 1: yet she kept it real about her spa day because
Speaker 1: she said she almost shot herself during the massage because
Speaker 1: she'd had a huge coffee and it toasted before her
Speaker 1: and love. She went to the drive for the toast
Speaker 1: and she's like, a Heines been toasted, thank you, And
Speaker 1: they're just like, oh God, I've given myself the ck
Speaker 1: naming the brand of you know, Hines. I just kept
Speaker 1: thinking the whole time all of these people like the
Speaker 1: messus and also like because she stopped off at this
Speaker 1: little pop up cookie van on the way home, all
Speaker 1: of the people were talking to her as if they
Speaker 1: had no idea who she even is, Like this girl's
Speaker 1: breakup has been placid on the BBC, the freaking news,
Speaker 1: and she's just stopped by to go and get this
Speaker 1: sweet tree.
Speaker 2: Well, she also went into.
Speaker 1: Boots and I was like, where's the paparazzi? Like Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've been camped out in.
Speaker 2: The front of her house.
Speaker 1: She's literally wandering along these streets, going to cookie vans,
Speaker 1: going to spars. At one point I could see her
Speaker 1: sort of look around as she was vlogging.
Speaker 2: I think she was like, fuck, I hope no.
Speaker 1: One really sees me.
Speaker 2: But then she did point out her own fake tan.
Speaker 2: I don't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: Well. That week, she also had a woman come in
Speaker 1: to organize her cupboard for her. So she said that
Speaker 1: with all of the chaos going on in her life,
Speaker 1: she needed her place to be sorted out. AKA, she
Speaker 1: wants to get all of Tommy's shit out of there
Speaker 1: and clean all.
Speaker 2: Of the cupboards.
Speaker 1: So is that the woman who was dumping all of
Speaker 1: Tommy's stuff outside in the skin? Oh? Most probably just
Speaker 1: get everything, get get it all out now. She did
Speaker 1: seem to put on a brave face for most of
Speaker 1: the blog until it got to the final scene and
Speaker 1: you saw a true indication of how she was traveling.
Speaker 1: She told her followers that she was dreading the weekend
Speaker 1: because she's so lonely.
Speaker 2: Here's what she said.
Speaker 3: I'm kind of dreading this weekend because I feel like
Speaker 3: weekends are crap, like when you're going for a breakup.
Speaker 3: I feel like weekends are literally the worst because weekends
Speaker 3: are always something for me that like I really look
Speaker 3: forward to, especially when you're in your family because it's
Speaker 3: family time and I don't know, it's like memory making
Speaker 3: time and like you always do nice things and I
Speaker 3: don't know, And I feel like weekends now I like
Speaker 3: the hardest time because it's fricking lonely and just sad.
Speaker 1: Really, I felt so sorry for Molly when I saw this.
Speaker 1: It reminded me of a really bad breakup I went
Speaker 1: through where I was so miserable and I couldn't find
Speaker 1: joy in anything, and you just felt like there was
Speaker 1: like a constant knife in your heart, Like that is
Speaker 1: how she'd be feeling, but magnified. Well, it's clear that
Speaker 1: Molly's return to YouTube was far sooner than she would
Speaker 1: have liked it to have been, and she did say
Speaker 1: this was because of her secret project which is in
Speaker 1: the works. So in August last year, Molly announced that
Speaker 1: she'd started work on this secret project, and this was
Speaker 1: where she was reportedly being paid a massive four hundred
Speaker 1: thousand pounds.
Speaker 2: A money's insane.
Speaker 1: The money that was being thrown at her from PLT Now,
Speaker 1: Molly said that this project has actually been two and
Speaker 1: a half years in the making, and that she started
Speaker 1: working on it when she was pregnant with her daughter Bambi. Now.
Speaker 1: Ahead of the breakup, Molly had been teasing this secret
Speaker 1: project and saying it would go live in September. Now.
Speaker 1: She addressed this in the vlog, saying that she had
Speaker 1: contemplated pushing back the launch because she didn't feel like
Speaker 1: she was me He's strong enough, But then upon reflection
Speaker 1: thought well, why should she push it back. She's poured
Speaker 1: her heart and soul into it and it's a good distraction.
Speaker 1: The skeptic in me, though, thinks that they are striking
Speaker 1: while the iron is hot. They want to get this
Speaker 1: brand out there while she is still one of the
Speaker 1: most talked about influencers and celebrities in the UK. The
Speaker 1: video that she shared just over the weekend has already
Speaker 1: got two point nine million views, so I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people will be invested in whatever project this
Speaker 1: is well and they will also be wanting to support her.
Speaker 1: Now they have pushed this launch out by a week,
Speaker 1: so we were supposed to be finding out about it
Speaker 1: on September first, but they've pushed it to the eighth
Speaker 1: to give her a week to recoup and get back
Speaker 1: online now. She explained that the project is why she's
Speaker 1: made a return to social media so soon.
Speaker 2: Here's what she said.
Speaker 3: If it wasn't for my project, probably, like I probably
Speaker 3: wouldn't have come back as soon as I have done,
Speaker 3: just because there was not really like any need for
Speaker 3: me too. But because this has been planned and in
Speaker 3: the pipeline like years, I just I'm ready for it
Speaker 3: to launch. I'm ready for it to be here, and
Speaker 3: I'm ready for Yeah, I'm just ready for it to
Speaker 3: no longer be a secret and to just actually share
Speaker 3: with you what I've been doing the last years.
Speaker 1: So what do you think this secret project is? Because
Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Well, one super.
Speaker 1: Sleuth who I think should be working for the FBI
Speaker 1: thinks that she's cracked the code on what this secret
Speaker 1: project is. So she is a massive Molly May fan.
Speaker 1: She's a TikToker called Luella, and she has come across
Speaker 1: a Pinterest board which she thinks belongs to Molly May
Speaker 1: and is full of clues.
Speaker 2: Here's what she said.
Speaker 4: It has clothing and spo so of course I went
Speaker 4: over to Instagram and there was a new account that
Speaker 4: is called Maybe. I only had seventeen followers and it
Speaker 4: was only following one person, and of course the only
Speaker 4: person it is following is Molly May. So I then
Speaker 4: went on.
Speaker 1: To since this TikTok came out Maybe on Instagram now
Speaker 1: has fifty seven point five thousand followers. I am one
Speaker 1: of those followers. I want to know what the news
Speaker 1: is as soon as it comes out. Imagine if it
Speaker 1: wasn't actually her account, this person's just like, oh wow, okay,
Speaker 1: it's just this TikTok has come up with her. It
Speaker 1: could be quite a good strategy. Now, following the discovery
Speaker 1: of the Pinterest board and also the Instagram account the TikToker,
Speaker 1: Luella then went on to Trademark UK and located a
Speaker 1: store called Maybe. Now she did some digging and the
Speaker 1: Maybe store registration number is also the same number as
Speaker 1: one of Molly May's newly listed companies. So she strongly
Speaker 1: believes that this is going to be a clothing brand.
Speaker 1: And the fact that Molly May has proven through PLT
Speaker 1: that she can sell clothes, I think that this would
Speaker 1: be an incredibly lucrative business for her. Well, it makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense why Molly would abruptly leave PLT
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, because when she was first announced in
Speaker 1: the role, she made headlines around the world for the
Speaker 1: size of the page packet and at the time she
Speaker 1: said that it was her dream job, and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of questions around what is she actually doing
Speaker 1: in this role to be paid that sum of money. Now,
Speaker 1: she was asked by a journal and she said, people
Speaker 1: get it twisted and think I'm in charge of the
Speaker 1: whole brand and I've come in and I'm going to
Speaker 1: flip it upside down.
Speaker 2: But that's not the case.
Speaker 1: I give my creative input when I can, and I
Speaker 1: give my ideas.
Speaker 2: It's like she's an ambassador, well pretty much.
Speaker 1: I think they just wanted to put her face on everything.
Speaker 2: She's the star power behind it.
Speaker 1: It really didn't sound like a strenuous job, though, did
Speaker 1: it amy like? It didn't sound like she was working
Speaker 1: around the clock in the office. She would occasionally reply
Speaker 1: to the odd message in a WhatsApp group come out
Speaker 1: of shoots, and I think that's why so many people
Speaker 1: were surprised when Molly revealed that she was quitting this job.
Speaker 1: This sort of seen as non strenuous job to concentrate
Speaker 1: on motherhood because it seemed like the ideal job to have. Well,
Speaker 1: I wonder if she was forced to quit or she
Speaker 1: decided that she needed to get out of PLT before
Speaker 1: they discovered that she was coming up with her own
Speaker 1: clothing brand. I wonder if she was forced to quit
Speaker 1: or she decided that she needed to get out before
Speaker 1: PLT discovered she had plans to make her own clothing brand,
Speaker 1: because depending on the price point, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a direct competitor of PLT. Well, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of speculation when Molly wasn't invited to PLT owner
Speaker 1: Umar Carmani's wedding last year, and this could be why.
Speaker 2: Now we've got.
Speaker 1: To touch on Tommy because he appears to have been
Speaker 1: inspired by Molly May's initial return to Instagram. So a
Speaker 1: day and a half after Molly thanked fans for their support,
Speaker 1: Tommy released his own Instagram post and it almost felt
Speaker 1: like he was trying to recreate the vibe of Molly's.
Speaker 2: Post but failing. Miserable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it totally missed the mark. So in Molly's post,
Speaker 1: she appeared to be deep in thought as she looked
Speaker 1: out at this beautiful lake, it looked like she'd taken
Speaker 1: some time away a cozy cabin, which, funnily enough, we
Speaker 1: didn't see in the vlog. I was waiting to see
Speaker 1: some time at the cabin, but maybe that was in the.
Speaker 2: Very early days.
Speaker 1: It was very wholesome and it received a very strong
Speaker 1: reaction from her fans. At the time of recording, it
Speaker 1: has two million likes and over twenty thousand comments from
Speaker 1: fans sending love and well wishes her way. Now, instead
Speaker 1: of looking out ominously at a lake, Tommy looked deep
Speaker 1: in concentration while doing up his shoelacers. Now this photo
Speaker 1: appears to be taken after one of Tommy's training sessions,
Speaker 1: as there were some boxing gloves in front of him,
Speaker 1: and the caption read these last few weeks have been heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: The false allegations about me have been horrendous. Thank you
Speaker 1: to everybody who was stood by me through this and
Speaker 1: added a little white love heart emoji. I think Tommy
Speaker 1: needs a new PR person because Molly's PR manager, Fran
Speaker 1: is just absolutely kicking this PR manager's ass.
Speaker 2: I mean, why would you come out.
Speaker 1: With a near identical pose did he think that he
Speaker 1: was going to get the same reception as Molly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it was so awkward because he thanked his followers
Speaker 1: for standing by him, just like Molly did in her post.
Speaker 1: But unlike Molly, he hasn't received this huge outpouring of support.
Speaker 1: If anything, people have been openly hating on the guy
Speaker 1: and been spreading rumors about his alleged cheating. I'm also
Speaker 1: been so many jokes about him being dumb, Like there's
Speaker 1: been so many tiktoks where people are like, I don't
Speaker 1: believe that Tommy was recording an audio book he doesn't
Speaker 1: know how to read, and it kind of plays into
Speaker 1: this stereotype because he looked confused about tying his shoela
Speaker 1: and I don't know why he was saying thank you
Speaker 1: for the support, because even at the moment, there's a
Speaker 1: new trend on TikTok where women are referring to him
Speaker 1: as trash. So they will start the TikTok by saying,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I can't believe I've spotted him in
Speaker 1: the flesh, and they flipped the screen to reveal a
Speaker 1: large skip bin, like it's pretty funny.
Speaker 2: I mean, it is mean.
Speaker 1: It's also interesting that he used his return on Instagram
Speaker 1: to refute these cheating allegations. I think he had word
Speaker 1: that Molly was going to be putting out her video,
Speaker 1: and he knew that she wasn't going to touch on anything.
Speaker 1: She wasn't going to throw him to the wolves. Thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that I haven't cheated because I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get caught out in this instance. If anything,
Speaker 1: I mean Molly's YouTube video, it only makes her look
Speaker 1: superior in.
Speaker 2: Every way to Tommy.
Speaker 1: Like, yes, I suppose in ways it hasn't made him
Speaker 1: look that bad because she hasn't gone into the dirty details,
Speaker 1: but it's evident that he's done the wrong thing, and
Speaker 1: so much public sympathy continues to.
Speaker 2: Flow for Molly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I was so interested to see the reaction
Speaker 1: in Tommy's comments section. Yeah so the top comment said,
Speaker 1: then tell us what you did, bra, which at the
Speaker 1: time of recording has had over eleven thousand life. I'm
Speaker 1: surprised the comments were even left on. It was very
Speaker 1: ballsy to keep the comments on, But then again, if
Speaker 1: you shut them off, it looks like you've got something
Speaker 1: to hide. I just think it was a really lazy
Speaker 1: pr move. And that whoever is managing Tommy's socials and
Speaker 1: his pr response has gone, well, it worked for Molly.
Speaker 2: Let's just put up Tommy's pictures.
Speaker 1: Well, I think they were definitely trying to evoke sympathy
Speaker 1: for him and show that he's back in the gym,
Speaker 1: he's not focusing on the drama not working. But no,
Speaker 1: it did not work for him.
Speaker 5: Look, I'm a very nostalgic kind of person, so and
Speaker 5: you know, and I know a lot of people are too.
Speaker 5: And I think it's great for me because it brings
Speaker 5: back a lot of I think some of my best memories.
Speaker 1: After a decade long hiatus, Australian model Megan Gail is
Speaker 1: making her iconic return as the face of David Jones.
Speaker 1: The forty nine year old has been on the press
Speaker 1: rounds spooking the announcement, which many are hailing as an
Speaker 1: ingenious move by the fashion retailer.
Speaker 5: It's been a ten year hiatus and in that time
Speaker 5: I've had two beautiful children. But my little munchkins are
Speaker 5: getting a little bit more independent. They're both at school now,
Speaker 5: so I've got one drop off, which I love, so
Speaker 5: I've got more time on my head.
Speaker 1: This made me feel really nostalgic. Is so exciting to
Speaker 1: see her back with David Jones. So for those who
Speaker 1: don't remember, she stepped down in twenty thirteen when she
Speaker 1: was pregnant with her first child, and there was a
Speaker 1: bit of controversy over the decision because it followed the
Speaker 1: announcement that Jacinta Campbell would be joining the David Jones family.
Speaker 1: It almost felt like they were replacing Megan Gale with
Speaker 1: a newer model. Well yeah, and also not long after
Speaker 1: the announcement, Meghan publicized that she would be designing home
Speaker 1: wares for Target, which is one of David Jones' competitors,
Speaker 1: so it seemed like maybe there was a bit of
Speaker 1: nastiness involved in it. But overall, I think this is
Speaker 1: such a clever pr move because it's really signaling to
Speaker 1: the world that David Jones is going back to its
Speaker 1: glory days. So its marketing team is promoting this as
Speaker 1: a new era, which is quite relevant for the company
Speaker 1: because it's just announced it's under new ownership. It's quite
Speaker 1: funny though, because whilst I saying it's a new era,
Speaker 1: they're actually going back to an old era, which obviously
Speaker 1: did really well for them. But we're seeing this a
Speaker 1: lot with movies and TV shows. We're seeing all of
Speaker 1: these revamp programs that people felt nostalgic about. I think
Speaker 1: it's a very clever idea, it is. And so in
Speaker 1: March this year, it was announced that Anchorage Capital Partners
Speaker 1: had bought David Jones about one hundred million dollars, which
Speaker 1: might sound like a lot of money, but for context,
Speaker 1: Wars Holding bought David Jones in twenty fourteen for two
Speaker 1: point one billion dollars, so it was sold at just
Speaker 1: a fraction of the price. So if you compare the
Speaker 1: success and standing of David Jones from when Megan Gael
Speaker 1: was the face of the brand to now, it really is.
Speaker 2: Talking cheesez yeah.
Speaker 1: And that is due to the fact that it has
Speaker 1: been a very turbulent time for retailers over the past
Speaker 1: five years, with the pressures from COVID and also rising
Speaker 1: interest rates and the overall cost of living, so those
Speaker 1: things do come into play. Last year, The Australian reported
Speaker 1: that David Jones stores across the country had experienced significant
Speaker 1: drops in sales. Well, it's evident that this new owner
Speaker 1: is trying to bring back what people used to love
Speaker 1: about David Jones because they're investing more than two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars over the next three years, and
Speaker 1: this marketing campaign appears to be the very start of
Speaker 1: this turnaround. So I just think it's such clever marketing
Speaker 1: because it's using nostalgia to not only gain widespread media attention,
Speaker 1: which we've seen, there's also reshaping how members of the
Speaker 1: public view the brand. Again, I also think it's a
Speaker 1: great move for David Jones to platform someone who's nearly fifty,
Speaker 1: especially off the back of the negative publicity that the
Speaker 1: Witchery rebrand received when it was seen to exclude age.
Speaker 2: Groups and larger body times. When did Meekin Gale turn
Speaker 2: forty nine?
Speaker 1: That blows my mind, I think because she's married to
Speaker 1: a much younger footballer is Sean what's Sean Hampson from Richmond? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that she seems so much younger. I mean, she doesn't
Speaker 1: look a day of besore. Remember when it was like
Speaker 1: such a big headline because she and Andy Lee started dating.
Speaker 2: I think that was around the time of her real
Speaker 2: heyday at David Joe.
Speaker 1: I remember this rumor that was going around that said
Speaker 1: that Andy Lee broke up with Rebecca Harding, who is
Speaker 1: now his fiance, because after dating Megan Gaye, he felt
Speaker 1: like he should be with someone high profile. I like
Speaker 1: to think that wasn't true, I mean, considering there now together,
Speaker 1: but you never know. With media times now, David Jones
Speaker 1: have marked this announcement by making Megan Gale the cover
Speaker 1: girl of their Spring twenty twenty four season launch and
Speaker 1: in this article announcing Megan Gale as the new face
Speaker 1: of David Jones. They have likened the connection between David
Speaker 1: Jones and Meghan Gail to that of Nike and Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: which I thought was pretty iconic. I find it an
Speaker 1: interesting way that they've made this announcement by putting her
Speaker 1: on the front cover of the magazine. Obviously it makes
Speaker 1: sense because she's a supermodel and she's stunning, but I
Speaker 1: wonder how many people actually read this magazine. But it's
Speaker 1: they even't just announced it on the magazine. They've put
Speaker 1: out a huge pr release. It's all over their socials,
Speaker 1: She's been all over Morning TV, It's in all of
Speaker 1: the newspapers. This is a huge announcement for them, and
Speaker 1: what I'm really interested to see is if this means
Speaker 1: we'll suddenly see Mayer announced Jenn Hawkins come back. Because
Speaker 1: if you rewind the clocks back to the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: it was always Megan versus Jen, and the media actually
Speaker 1: nicknamed the rivalry the store Wars.
Speaker 2: And when you thought of David.
Speaker 1: Jones, you instantly thought of Megan Gale, and the same
Speaker 1: with Maya, you instantly thought of Jen Hawkins.
Speaker 2: Were you a Maya girl or a David Jones girl.
Speaker 1: I was a Maya girl, and I think that's because
Speaker 1: of how old I was when they were the wars
Speaker 1: going on, because they had the Missshop, so it was
Speaker 1: quite cheap to buy clothes from there. David Jones always
Speaker 1: had an older vibe to it. I'm elitist, Yeah, a
Speaker 1: very snobby vibe which I didn't connect with. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: any gen Zetta's listening, just so you know, being the
Speaker 1: ambassador of a store like David Jones or Maya in
Speaker 1: the early nineties or two thousands was like landing the
Speaker 1: biggest influencer deal. There was such an intense sense of
Speaker 1: brand loyalty, and people like Jen and Megan could literally
Speaker 1: move product like no other person.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 1: I wanted to find out how much they were being
Speaker 1: paid for these deals at the time, so it was
Speaker 1: around fifteen to twenty years ago. Obviously money has changed
Speaker 1: a lot. I couldn't find an exact figure, but at
Speaker 1: the height of their notoriety, they were being predicted to
Speaker 1: be paid about one million dollars a year, which is
Speaker 1: huge at the time. And if you look back, Meagan
Speaker 1: left David Jones in twenty thirteen, but Jen continued on
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until twenty eighteen that Jen Hawkins announced
Speaker 1: sh'd be retiring as the face of Meyer, and interestingly,
Speaker 1: off the back of it, Meyer announced there would never
Speaker 1: be another face of Meyer and this led to many
Speaker 1: media publications speculating that this was the end of the
Speaker 1: ambassador era in Australian retail and it did change things.
Speaker 1: So brands like Meyer and David Jones, while they still
Speaker 1: had some ambassadors, they were very much on a campaign basis,
Speaker 1: so they signed ambassadors on for limited periods, where back
Speaker 1: in the day you would sign on for like a
Speaker 1: five year deal. That's because with social media there is
Speaker 1: always a new IP person.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the issue is that there's not as much
Speaker 1: customer loyalty as there once was, and this is why
Speaker 1: brands like Maya got rid of someone being the face
Speaker 1: of it, but now we are seeing Megan goalback. She
Speaker 1: has just signed a multi year deal. They haven't said
Speaker 1: how many years exactly, but they've said it's a multi
Speaker 1: year deal. So we just have to sit back and
Speaker 1: see what does Maya do. Do You also think it's
Speaker 1: because as a society it's been such a tumultuous time
Speaker 1: with COVID and the cost of living.
Speaker 2: We need some stability.
Speaker 1: We need someone who is the face of one of
Speaker 1: these iconic Australian brands, and we need to be reflecting
Speaker 1: on a happier time. Yeah, I think you've hit the
Speaker 1: nail on the head. People want nostalgia. Nostalgia is so
Speaker 1: popular right now, and to.
Speaker 2: Be honest, it does actually make me go I would
Speaker 2: like to return to David Jones.
Speaker 1: Well, I still shop there all the time. Well, I
Speaker 1: think that's all we have time for today. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us for today's show. If you
Speaker 1: have enjoyed it, could you please make sure you subscribe
Speaker 1: to Apple Podcasts and also Spotify. You can also follow
Speaker 1: us on TikTok and Instagram. We're at Outspoken Underscore, the
Speaker 1: Underscore podcast This episode was recorded on the traditional land
Speaker 1: of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plaines.
Speaker 2: We pay respect to elders past and present