Speaker 1: Episode one, The Angry Dad era, Mitchell Orviell went viral
Speaker 1: at a time with the term influencer hadn't even been coined.
Speaker 2: The ad page three hundred thousand Nine's all right the
Speaker 2: odor of Manjurick you put.
Speaker 1: At eighteen. He became an Internet sensation when he started
Speaker 1: sharing hilarious pranks he pulled on his dad.
Speaker 2: Me and Dylan have about to play the most epic
Speaker 2: fucking prank ever.
Speaker 3: Mitchell, where the fucking the doors snap laundry? I'm telling
Speaker 3: you right now.
Speaker 1: A relationship with one of Australia's most popular YouTubers, Chloe Zepp,
Speaker 1: catapulted him into influencer fame.
Speaker 3: It's Mitchell Orwell and I'm with my girlfriend Chloe Zepp.
Speaker 1: The social media couple will love for keeping it real
Speaker 1: and being transparent about their elationships, ups and downs.
Speaker 2: The next question is how many times a week do
Speaker 2: you do it?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I must been having sex with a ghost then maybe
Speaker 2: ten seconds.
Speaker 1: It was Mitch's most vulnerable confession that earned him the
Speaker 1: most respect online. In twenty twenty, he revealed he'd been
Speaker 1: battling a secret cocaine habit one way.
Speaker 2: To help others be vulnerable is to be vulnerable yourself.
Speaker 1: So he goes Mitch was arguably the most popular Australian
Speaker 1: male influencer. But what goes up must come down. We
Speaker 1: are journalist Sophie Kate and Amy Torba and this is Outspoken.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to get into this deep dive and
Speaker 1: also give Outspoken listeners a taste of what our subscribers
Speaker 1: have been getting over the past couple of months because
Speaker 1: we are sharing part one of our deep dive into
Speaker 1: Mitch Orbell and it's a great one. I have really
Speaker 1: enjoyed researching this topic. So I want to take you
Speaker 1: back to twenty fourteen and at the time, Mitchell Orviell
Speaker 1: was eighteen years old and finishing off year twelve and
Speaker 1: growing up it was a tradition for him and his
Speaker 1: older brother Dylan to pull pranks on their dad, and
Speaker 1: this tradition had been passed down by their own dad,
Speaker 1: Mark Orville, who used to prank his own father. The
Speaker 1: only difference was Mitch and Dylan decided to start filming
Speaker 1: their pranks, and as you did back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: the boys started sharing the videos on social media. So
Speaker 1: it actually first started when Dylan shared a Snapchat story
Speaker 1: of him annoying his dad, and he got a lot
Speaker 1: of replies to it. Twenty fourteen was the peak of snapchat,
Speaker 1: I think, I know. This is when I was most
Speaker 1: obsessed with the app at the time. You could see
Speaker 1: who people's best friends were. Everyone was sharing Snapchat stories
Speaker 1: because Instagram didn't have stories then, so it was the
Speaker 1: only way you could see what people were doing right
Speaker 1: then and there. Yeah, it was the golden time of Snapchat. Now,
Speaker 1: Mitch decided to film a prank and upload it to
Speaker 1: his personal Facebook account with the hashtag angry Dad, and unexpectedly,
Speaker 1: the video received seven hundred likes and Mitch started receiving
Speaker 1: a lie a lot of friend requests, which was kind
Speaker 1: of annoying for him. So he was chatting about it
Speaker 1: to a friend at school who suggested, well, why don't
Speaker 1: you just set up a separate Facebook page for the
Speaker 1: prank videos. Now, miss decided on the name Angry Dad.
Speaker 1: He took inspiration from The Simpsons because there was an
Speaker 1: episode where Bart was pranking Homer called angry Dad. We
Speaker 1: were talking about snapchat before, but this also really was
Speaker 1: the golden days of Facebook, and I remember there were
Speaker 1: so many Facebook groups popping up that were getting hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of likes. I mean a lot of businesses
Speaker 1: now would wish that Facebook returned to that because it's
Speaker 1: so hard to get organic traction on pages now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because this is before Facebook ads. So if you had
Speaker 1: a Facebook following of say one hundred thousand people, most
Speaker 1: of your videos would actually reach those one hundred thousand people.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be cap and the algorithm isn't what it
Speaker 1: is now. So this page went absolutely viral and within
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks had fifty thousand likes, and the
Speaker 1: likes just kept coming in their droves, with the page
Speaker 1: now sitting at one point two million page likes. Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember the iconic video Honk if You're Horny
Speaker 1: that got over one hundred million collective views. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was shared across that Jimmy Kimmel and also lad Bible
Speaker 1: and all of those big pages. And to give context
Speaker 1: to people who haven't seen it, this was of course
Speaker 1: a video where Mitch put a sign on Angry Dad's
Speaker 1: car that said honk if You're horny, and they were
Speaker 1: driving around the streets of Melbourne and he was just
Speaker 1: going nuts. He's like, why are all these dickheads honking?
Speaker 1: I think we need to throw to a clip of it.
Speaker 3: Fucking flashing. His lights are more on. There's another fucking
Speaker 3: flash and he fucking lights. Maybe you've got a flat tire,
Speaker 3: because you should fucking tell me it's fucking looking at
Speaker 3: as well. He's fucking bit dabby.
Speaker 1: Hang on a sec, your fucking it's red. I love
Speaker 1: that these videos were just filmed off their iPhones because
Speaker 1: a lot of the time when you watch prank content,
Speaker 1: you think, oh, everyone must be in on the job
Speaker 1: because it's filmed with a professional camera. But I think
Speaker 1: the isn't it so successful is because Angry Dad's reactions
Speaker 1: were so genuine. The best bit is that this was
Speaker 1: all a secret from Mark Orvil, so he had no
Speaker 1: idea that he was Angry Dad. Like. He was literally
Speaker 1: walking around and people would come up to him and
Speaker 1: say stuff about it, and it was only then when
Speaker 1: he realized what was going on.
Speaker 4: Do you think his.
Speaker 1: Profile as a former footballer helped? Because not only did
Speaker 1: Angry Dad himself have a profile, but also Dylan he
Speaker 1: used to play for the Adelaide Crows. I remember seeing
Speaker 1: videos and I was like, he's an ex Crow, you
Speaker 1: were just saying off Mike before that you thought the
Speaker 1: two of them were quite hot at the time, Well,
Speaker 1: like they're a bit younger than us, but I thought
Speaker 1: they were pretty cute, like cute little bondies back in
Speaker 1: the day, and I think that obviously helped the channel.
Speaker 1: It's funny to think, though, that he had no idea
Speaker 1: what was going on, because I think in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three we kind of think of Facebook as the social
Speaker 1: media channel for old people. But when you cast in
Speaker 1: mind back to twenty fourteen, parents weren't really on Facebook,
Speaker 1: and that's how Mark Orvile had no idea what was
Speaker 1: going on. I think it was a better time Facebook.
Speaker 1: I remember they used to have this activity slide in
Speaker 1: the corner so you can see what everyone was liking.
Speaker 1: You could see remember they used to put up Oh
Speaker 1: this person's just become friends with Everyone would comment. Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember that other video? I think it's my
Speaker 1: favorite angry Dad video where Mitchell gets control of the
Speaker 1: TV remote. So angry Dad's in watching a current affair
Speaker 1: or something and Mitch keeps changing the channel and he's like,
Speaker 1: hell was just happening.
Speaker 4: He's just going nuts about it fucking Telly.
Speaker 1: It's also really interesting to take a look at how
Speaker 1: popular pranks were back in the early sort of twenty tens.
Speaker 1: Remember Jack asked that that was massive, the most popular
Speaker 1: show for teenage boys growing up, and I think that
Speaker 1: they probably found a lot of inspiration in that. Now,
Speaker 1: eventually Angry Dad was in on the prank because everyone
Speaker 1: was coming up and talking to him about it. So
Speaker 1: Mitch and Dylan had to go to these great lengths
Speaker 1: to pull pranks on him. And Mitch talked about this
Speaker 1: on a podcast, which was really interesting. Let's throw to
Speaker 1: what he said.
Speaker 2: It started to get like people knew it was like
Speaker 2: a bit of a thing. Like it wasn't just like
Speaker 2: a one off video or two off was like because
Speaker 2: we were pretty consistent back then, because one was a
Speaker 2: lot more organic and natural, and it was easier to
Speaker 2: get him because you weren't We didn't necessarily have to
Speaker 2: prank him at the start. It was just showing who
Speaker 2: he was, like his reactions, and he was very reactive
Speaker 2: and all that stuff, so small things would work and stuff.
Speaker 2: But by the end of it, obviously we had to
Speaker 2: be pretty clever with how we got him because he
Speaker 2: knew what was going on, Like he knew everything was
Speaker 2: going online and he knew that like.
Speaker 3: To watch his back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as we had a good like one or two
Speaker 2: years of just being able to pump out whatever we wanted.
Speaker 1: Now, at the time, the word influencer hadn't even been coined,
Speaker 1: and influencer marketing really was in its infancy, So Mitch
Speaker 1: and Dylan were unaware of the money that could be
Speaker 1: made from the platform that they had built. It was
Speaker 1: only when Mitch and Dylan got approached by a management
Speaker 1: team that they began to understand the commercial side of
Speaker 1: their massive platform. So back then, monetization of content wasn't
Speaker 1: available on Facebook, so the only way they could earn
Speaker 1: money off their videos was through brand deals. However, prank
Speaker 1: videos didn't really lend themselves to product placement, and there
Speaker 1: were a lot of times that they'd get big brand deals,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't execute them in the videos. Yeah, Mitch
Speaker 1: was saying, how they'd get this big brand deal on board, However,
Speaker 1: it really depended on whether they could successfully pull the
Speaker 1: prank cord not. And I just think it shows how
Speaker 1: organic these pranks really were. A bit of a fun fact.
Speaker 1: So my partner around this time, he had a YouTube
Speaker 1: channel where they didn't do pranks, but they did trick
Speaker 1: shot videos, and they got approached by Nike and they
Speaker 1: did this film, this video for Nike at a golf course,
Speaker 1: and it's just crazy to think that a lot of
Speaker 1: these young guys who were early twenties were getting approached
Speaker 1: by these huge brands and dealing with all of that themselves. Well,
Speaker 1: they actually ended up taking a deal with Kiss, so
Speaker 1: Kiss signed them to do prank videos for the network.
Speaker 1: And this was at a time when prank videos were
Speaker 1: under the microscope. So you remember there was that awful
Speaker 1: Royal Nurse prank where sadly a British nurse took her
Speaker 1: own life after being duped by some presenters. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was Mel Grigg and Michael Christian. They were the radio
Speaker 1: presenters and it was pretty wild because Mel pretended to
Speaker 1: be the Queen and Michael pretended to be Prince Charles
Speaker 1: and they managed to bluff their way through and get
Speaker 1: information from the nurse about Kate Middleton, who was suffering
Speaker 1: from morning sickness at the time. The prank was really successful,
Speaker 1: but it had disastrous consequences for everyone involved. Now back
Speaker 1: to Mitch and Dylan. They also got paid to do
Speaker 1: nightclub tours, which feels very of the time. I remember
Speaker 1: all the reality stars were out there appearing at nightclubs.
Speaker 1: That's where we met Gary Beadle from Jordi Show. Now
Speaker 1: to demonstrate just how quickly Angry Dad took off, Mitch
Speaker 1: started sharing prank videos at the end of year twelve
Speaker 1: and he was recognized on his schoolies trip to Fiji.
Speaker 1: So a schoolies trip to Fiji that seems very bougie.
Speaker 1: I know when I saw that, I was like, hang on,
Speaker 1: most of us just go down to Victor Harbor or
Speaker 1: maybe the Gold Coast. Now, Mitch only lasted three months
Speaker 1: at what he called his first and last job, selling
Speaker 1: memberships at Fitness First, because his social media career took off.
Speaker 1: I think we need to get into the Chloe zep
Speaker 1: era because I feel like Mitch and Chloe together they
Speaker 1: are now a huge social media power couple. But it's
Speaker 1: really interesting to find out how they first met. So
Speaker 1: they've been together for seven years and met back in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen when Mitch was eighteen and Chloe was sixteen,
Speaker 1: and funnily enough, they met through social media and it
Speaker 1: was actually Chloe, who slid into Mitch's DMS. So it
Speaker 1: all started when Chloe spotted Mitch in a photo with
Speaker 1: Kurk Coleman. Doesn't this guy have so much to answer
Speaker 1: for in the social media world? Ops up all the time?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, at the time, Mitch was working as a promoter
Speaker 1: at a nightclub with the sole aim to get people
Speaker 1: into the club. That's a very smart move by that nightclub,
Speaker 1: I know. So one night Kurk Coleman appeared at the
Speaker 1: club and he posted a photo with Mitch, and it
Speaker 1: appears Chloe liked what she saw, so she gave Mitch
Speaker 1: a follow, and she also DMed him, saying the iconic
Speaker 1: angry dad catchphrase, fuck off Mitchell. I think that was
Speaker 1: a good move by Chloe. This would be a great
Speaker 1: wedding story if they do get married at a future Well,
Speaker 1: despite Chloe being being on Instagram, Mitch had no idea
Speaker 1: who she was. Let's throw to what Mitch said on
Speaker 1: a recent podcast interview about meeting Chloe.
Speaker 2: I was actually like talking to a girl at the time,
Speaker 2: and she asked me, so, holy fuck, Cloe's up just
Speaker 2: followed you. I was like, the fuck is Chloe's out?
Speaker 2: And then I like clicked. I was like, oh, she's mad.
Speaker 3: I was like, thanks tell.
Speaker 1: At the time, when Chloe was sixteen, she was really
Speaker 1: writing off the coattails of Shiny Grimmon, who was the
Speaker 1: girl of the time, but she did have a huge
Speaker 1: social media presence. I actually went back and watched some
Speaker 1: of her YouTube videos and they are so funny, like
Speaker 1: she's kept them all up there. It's hilarious. I suggest
Speaker 1: everyone go back and have a look now. Mitch ended
Speaker 1: up following Chloe back and they did speak for a
Speaker 1: little bit. However, when things turned serious with the girl
Speaker 1: he was originally talking to, he stopped talking to Chloe,
Speaker 1: and Mitch said that this was great for his future
Speaker 1: relationship with Chloe because now she really trusts him. Well,
Speaker 1: things ended up fizzling out with the other girl Mitch
Speaker 1: was seeing, and he was on holiday in Hawaii, but
Speaker 1: his cousin wanted him to come back to Melbourne for
Speaker 1: his Bucks party, so much so that he booked him
Speaker 1: a flight. And while flying back from Hawaii, Mitch had
Speaker 1: stopped over in Brisbane and this is where Chloe was
Speaker 1: living at that time, and so Chloe happened to be
Speaker 1: flying out of Brisbane to Sydney that very day. Now,
Speaker 1: Mitch noticed that Chloe was at Brisbane Airport on Snapchat
Speaker 1: and messaged her asking if she was around, and it
Speaker 1: ended up that her flight was delayed, so they got
Speaker 1: sushi together at the airport. Is this just like the
Speaker 1: social media and the airport? God's all working together? Oh,
Speaker 1: It's definitely fate. And after their hour long day at
Speaker 1: the airport, Mitch ended up inviting Chloe to come stay
Speaker 1: with him and his family in Melo for five days
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. She really moved state very
Speaker 1: quickly to be with him, and you think how young
Speaker 1: they were at the time, they were teenagers. Meeting Mitch
Speaker 1: obviously had a big impact on Chloe's life, but it
Speaker 1: also had a big impact on his life, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't just his personal life. It was also on his career.
Speaker 1: While Angry Dad was a viral success, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: career with longevity. It's not like he could prank his
Speaker 1: dad forever. So when Mitch met Chloe, he had actually
Speaker 1: taken a step back from social media. But with Chloe's
Speaker 1: career as a YouTuber booming, Mitch became a very important
Speaker 1: part of her channel and a pivot from prank videos
Speaker 1: to vlogging allowed Mitch to share more about himself rather
Speaker 1: than just setting up pranks. I always feel like Mitch
Speaker 1: has been the driving force though behind their YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: because eventually they did combine the YouTube channels and have
Speaker 1: a couple channel. And he's the one that seems most
Speaker 1: passionate about it, which isn't surprising when you do see
Speaker 1: how he established himself with Angry Dad. I think he
Speaker 1: has all needed Chloe to go that step further. Like
Speaker 1: while Angry Dad did provide the foot in the door
Speaker 1: for his influencing career, it was Chloe Zepp that pointed
Speaker 1: his career in that new direction and really drove it
Speaker 1: because she was much more popular than him. I really
Speaker 1: loved the era when they moved out to their own place,
Speaker 1: but they were living with Tommy Bug, who ended up
Speaker 1: dating Shany Grimman. We need to do a deep dive
Speaker 1: on Shaney Grimman and all her relationships, definitely. And I
Speaker 1: remember they'd always be going out late night to get
Speaker 1: like zinger boxes and stuff, and then they'd be sleeping
Speaker 1: until early afternoon. It was a very different lifestyle to
Speaker 1: you know, how they live now. Could I please get
Speaker 1: an ultimate box.
Speaker 3: She got one right here.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited. I haven't had.
Speaker 3: Gainsy the agents honestly haven't had it.
Speaker 2: I honestly haven't had it since we used to get
Speaker 2: hungover every weekend.
Speaker 1: I think that was at a time when influencers didn't
Speaker 1: feel like they had to defend their career choice, so
Speaker 1: they were sort of happy having the perks of the
Speaker 1: laid back influencer lifestyle. Nowadays it has turned in to
Speaker 1: more of a business and more of a role. But
Speaker 1: I think that influencers now want to tell you how
Speaker 1: much work that they're doing at the time now exactly.
Speaker 1: And even though they were living in this amazing place,
Speaker 1: they were so relatable that you didn't really envy them.
Speaker 1: You just enjoyed actually seeing their lifestyle. Sadly, though, it
Speaker 1: hasn't been smooth sailing for Chloe and Mitch's relationship, though
Speaker 1: having their relationship in the spotlight for seven years has
Speaker 1: taken a toll. And you would assume Instagram fame at
Speaker 1: a young age would mean a lot of temptation with
Speaker 1: people sliding into your DM. So Mitch interestingly said that
Speaker 1: that's not the case for him. Let's throw to what
Speaker 1: he said in a podcast interview, and your dms must
Speaker 1: be getting lit up at this point.
Speaker 2: Well, that's everyone's pretty respectful because everyone loves Chloe more
Speaker 2: than me, you know what I mean. Girls love Chloe's
Speaker 2: so I never get any of that shit, Like no
Speaker 2: girls would step on like Choeah.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see a breakdown of his followers because
Speaker 1: I would assume doing all those prank videos, a lot
Speaker 1: of them would also be men. The thing is Instagram
Speaker 1: wasn't big at the time, so I don't think a
Speaker 1: lot of his audience came from angry Dad. I think
Speaker 1: it came from Chloe's channel, so I would argue that
Speaker 1: they were probably predominantly female. I really love that Chloe's
Speaker 1: followers were respectful and weren't trying to cut her lant.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. So if they were so incredibly popular
Speaker 1: as a couple, and that's why everyone was left absolutely
Speaker 1: shocked in June twenty nineteen when they announced they were
Speaker 1: no longer living together anymore. In a YouTube video filmed
Speaker 1: in Bali, they addressed their followers questions, revealing that they
Speaker 1: had actually broken up during Chloe's solo trip to the US.
Speaker 1: I remember this trip because Everyone's like, why she by herself?
Speaker 1: Wasn't she partying at Coachella acting very much single? I
Speaker 1: think so because, unbeknown to Mitch, Chloe had embarked on
Speaker 1: this trip with the mission to find herself and this
Speaker 1: is where she became really in touch with her spiritual side.
Speaker 1: And I suppose the Chloe Zepp that we know now
Speaker 1: with the moon water and all of that, not the
Speaker 1: KFC zing a boxer. No, it was a very different
Speaker 1: shift for her. And Chloe said spirituality had always been
Speaker 1: an interest of hers, but she had kind of hid
Speaker 1: because she wanted to pretend that she wasn't into it
Speaker 1: to fit in with everyone else. I suppose it wasn't
Speaker 1: very popular at the time. Now, during the trip, Chloe
Speaker 1: made the decision to break up with Mitch, and when
Speaker 1: she returned home, they had a good week together until
Speaker 1: something undisclosed happened. Now, the undisclosed issue was the catalyst
Speaker 1: that made them decide to move out from one another.
Speaker 1: So Chloe and Mitch explained that a big part of
Speaker 1: the decision to live separately was because they got together
Speaker 1: really young and no longer wanted to step on each
Speaker 1: other's toes. You can imagine it would be hard because
Speaker 1: they were only sixteen and eighteen at the time, and
Speaker 1: they essentially had been living together ever since then because
Speaker 1: of their long distance relationship, and they said they kind
Speaker 1: of felt like this old married couple and weren't doing
Speaker 1: anything adventurous or interesting. It'd be particularly hard because most
Speaker 1: times when people get together as teenagers, they do split
Speaker 1: up and get back together, but they don't have this
Speaker 1: public attention on them and people really rooting for them
Speaker 1: to get back together. They can't afford to be living
Speaker 1: in a house together with all these expensive things, So
Speaker 1: Chloe ended up saying, Oh, I'm stuck in this place.
Speaker 1: That's eight hundred dollars a week. Again, this was a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago when eight hundred dollars was probably
Speaker 1: the norm now for a lot of people. They also
Speaker 1: revealed that they'd been to a counselor who taught them
Speaker 1: about their love languages, and they revealed that theirs were
Speaker 1: just so different. Yeah, it was so interesting because Chloe
Speaker 1: revealed in that video that she felt like Mitch didn't
Speaker 1: love her because he wasn't very affectionate and he didn't
Speaker 1: say nice things to her, and that's what she needs
Speaker 1: from a partner.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: During that time, Chloe also revealed that she was thinking
Speaker 1: about moving to the Gold Coast by herself to find
Speaker 1: herself some more. I think it was really clear from
Speaker 1: this video that Chloe was the one wanting more and
Speaker 1: very much growing apart from Mitch. Yeah, and they were
Speaker 1: so transparent about their relationship issues online, and this is
Speaker 1: something we were not seeing at the time. It wasn't
Speaker 1: really cool to be sharing this much information. It was
Speaker 1: more about glamorizing your relationship. Yeah, a couple goals was
Speaker 1: a bit thing. However, they did the exact opposite of that,
Speaker 1: and they really let their audience in on their relationship issues,
Speaker 1: which was so refreshing. It really made you like them more.
Speaker 1: And in a podcast interview, Mitch spoke about how as
Speaker 1: an influencer, he felt like to a degree that he
Speaker 1: owed his audience transparency. Let's row to what he said.
Speaker 2: I mean, our job is to influence people and to
Speaker 2: take people along with our journeys and hopefully be good
Speaker 2: role models, inspire people, you know, just make good of
Speaker 2: your following with that. Obviously, we commercialize our following, so
Speaker 2: we sell to people and we do all that. So
Speaker 2: to a degree you owe them that sort of transparency.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can't just serve them with you know,
Speaker 2: branded deals, ads, the good parts of your life and
Speaker 2: then just completely shut off the bad and pretend it
Speaker 2: doesn't exist, because it's not realistic.
Speaker 1: I found Mitch's commentary fascinating on the matter of influencer transparency.
Speaker 1: He went on to say that if you're too perfect online,
Speaker 1: people start to not like you because they they make
Speaker 1: you feel bad about yourself. He also said it causes
Speaker 1: people to become jealous and resentful because their life is
Speaker 1: not like that, and he's so spot on. I think
Speaker 1: that's why Chloe and Mitch remained so popular for so
Speaker 1: many years. Yeah, he did say, however, if you're transparent
Speaker 1: with what you're going through, people can relate, and if
Speaker 1: people relate, then they like you. And that is so true.
Speaker 1: It's quite interesting because he said that he experienced this
Speaker 1: situation firsthand at the start of his career, because he
Speaker 1: admitted that he used to wear fake designer jewelry and
Speaker 1: clothes and pretend that he had a lot of money,
Speaker 1: more so than what he actually had at the time,
Speaker 1: because he thought that that's what people wanted to see
Speaker 1: from him. And then he discovered that all that did
Speaker 1: was make people feel bad about themselves and jealous of him. Now,
Speaker 1: the real reason behind Chloe and Mitch's relationship problems came
Speaker 1: to light in May twenty twenty when Mitch shared that
Speaker 1: he had been battling a secret cocaine habit. He began
Speaker 1: by saying he felt like he had a moral obligation
Speaker 1: to share what he'd been gone through. In the YouTube video,
Speaker 1: he revealed he was five months sober from both drugs
Speaker 1: and alcohol. He said he had been a frequent drug
Speaker 1: user for years and would go on absurd cocaine bingers
Speaker 1: up to three times a week and had no control
Speaker 1: over himself when he was under the influence. Let's throw
Speaker 1: to a snippet of what he said.
Speaker 2: I got to the point where I almost lost my partner.
Speaker 2: I was lying to her, I was lying to my family,
Speaker 2: I was lying to everyone around me, and I thought
Speaker 2: it's time to make a change. There was times in
Speaker 2: our relationship over the three four years where you know,
Speaker 2: I would tell Chloe I'm going to change. I'm going
Speaker 2: to do this. I promise you I'll stop partying, I'll
Speaker 2: stop drinking. I stopped doing drugs, and you know, I'll
Speaker 2: do it for two weeks, three weeks, and then I'll
Speaker 2: gain no trust back, and then I'll do it again.
Speaker 2: And it was that was that was all part of
Speaker 2: for me. I wasn't ready to stop, so I didn't
Speaker 2: want to stop. I wanted to keep my relationship because
Speaker 2: I was in love with my partner, but I didn't
Speaker 2: want to give up that side of my life.
Speaker 1: Mitch then went on to say, you have to be
Speaker 1: willing to change for yourself and not for someone else.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The turning point for Mitch occurred following a spiral period
Speaker 1: between July and December twenty nineteen. He said he was
Speaker 1: no longer using drugs to have fun, but instead to
Speaker 1: escape reality and run away from his problems. At the time,
Speaker 1: Chloe had strict rules in place around his drug use,
Speaker 1: but she allowed him to go to a friend's birthday
Speaker 1: party on the Gold Coast, and the only proviso she
Speaker 1: gave Mitch was that he had to keep his phone
Speaker 1: on him and have it charged. However, Mitch couldn't keep
Speaker 1: this promise. He disappeared with a flat phone that was
Speaker 1: dead for over eight hours, and when his friends found him,
Speaker 1: he was at a random sixtieth birthday party off his face.
Speaker 1: Chloe's sister was one of the people that found him
Speaker 1: and called Chloe straight away on FaceTime, and Mitch says
Speaker 1: he can remember just how broken she looked on FaceTime
Speaker 1: and this was the turning point for him. How brave
Speaker 1: to open up about that on YouTube. I remember at
Speaker 1: the time everyone was congratulating Mitch for his transparency, and
Speaker 1: he moved into this motivational space. I know, he appeared
Speaker 1: on a lot of podcasts talking about what he'd been through,
Speaker 1: and we hadn't seen this sort of vulnerability from men
Speaker 1: before online. It was only starting to happen slowly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely think that his YouTube videos would have helped
Speaker 1: a lot of male followers who found themselves in a
Speaker 1: similar situation but didn't know how to deal with it well.
Speaker 1: In a recent podcast interview, Mitch opened up about his
Speaker 1: problem with drugs, citing his sudden rise to fame as
Speaker 1: a big part of the problem. Let's throw to what
Speaker 1: he said.
Speaker 3: You got to remember when I finished high school and
Speaker 3: Angry Dad took off. I was eighteen years old with
Speaker 3: a random, massive following just given to me. Our videos
Speaker 3: were getting millions of views every week. I was fresh eighteen.
Speaker 3: What do you do when you start turnating? You start partying.
Speaker 3: Not only was I party, I was running venues. I
Speaker 3: was given nights bottles for free. Everyone wanted to be around.
Speaker 3: Everyone was giveing me cocaine. Everyone's doing whatever they want
Speaker 3: it because at that time we were getting millions and
Speaker 3: millions of views in Australia and Australia only our audience
Speaker 3: for Angrier. I only ever went Australia, and I'm eighteen
Speaker 3: years old. All of these perks.
Speaker 2: Everyone wants me at their nightclubs all night, and I
Speaker 2: just got taken away and swept up in the scene.
Speaker 1: Mitch went on to say that it wasn't anyone else's
Speaker 1: fault but his own, and he massively enabled himself by
Speaker 1: surrounding himself with the wrong people and scene. Now that's
Speaker 1: where we're going to leave things today. Next week we'll
Speaker 1: be discussing the events that led to Mitch Orville quitting
Speaker 1: social media for nearly a year. If you do want
Speaker 1: to listen to part two of this deep dive series,
Speaker 1: the next episode will be dropping on Outspoken Plus next Wednesday.
Speaker 1: You can sign up on Apple Podcasts or Patreon by
Speaker 1: following the links in the show notes this podcast was
Speaker 1: recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of
Speaker 1: the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past and
Speaker 1: present