March 6, 2025 • 31 mins
Former husband of Instagram, Justine McKeone, is in hot water again, after failing to appear for a second time during his fraud hearing.
Meghan Markle’s new show ‘With Love’ premiered on Netflix this week to mixed reviews. While some critics found joy in Meghan returning ‘back to her roots’, others labelled the show ‘queasy and exhausting’ and an ‘exercise in narcissism’.
And as Queensland and parts of New South Wales brace for Cyclone Alfred, millennials and GenZers are taking to TikTok in their droves to share about how they’re preparing for the natural disaster.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Amy Torbert and coming up on today's show, Justin mckeann
is a no show again at his court hearing at Mega.
Markle's new show airs to mixed reviews. But first, as
Queensland and parts of New South Wales brace for cyclone, Alfred,
(00:27):
millennials and gen Zetters are taking to TikTok in their
droves to share about how they're preparing for the natural disaster.
This is such a scary time for so many people. Yeah,
and we are sending our love to anyone who is affected.
I know that a lot of our listeners will be
caught up in this. I have been absolutely glued to
TikTok because it has been so interesting to see how
this has played out online. I really think that creating
(00:49):
content has become a distraction for a lot of young
people because this is the first cyclone in their lifetime
to cross the South Coast. So there are so many
people who have never experienced situation like this, and I
feel like their way of connecting with other people about
it is to create content.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So we are seeing all.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Of these get ready with Me videos for cyclone Alfred,
and we're also seeing a lot of people posting about
mass panic buying. It's very reminiscent of COVID times, isn't it. Yeah,
because people are stocking up on toilet paper again as
well as canned foods. There is barely anything on the
shelves at the moment. I saw a Pituded Advocate headline
that said, in the Gold Coast, all of the supermarkets
(01:28):
have run out of fake tan and techlightning. Maybe not
the best joke right now, but there are so many
influences on the Gold Coast, and I think that's also
why we're seeing so many TikTok videos coming out.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
You're joking about.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Teeth whitening and fake tan amy, but people are running
out of things like bottled water and torches. They seem
to be out of stock everywhere in these TikTok videos
that I'm seeing. We're also seeing how people are prepping
their houses, which I find really interesting. We live in Adelaide,
so we've never had to prepare for a cyclone. People
are filling up their bath tubs with water in case
(02:01):
they run out. They're also making massive ice cubes so
that they can put them in coolers in case the
power goes out and they can't use their fridge, and
they're also tying down a lot of loose items in
their backyards. I saw someone on TikTok saying that they
almost felt fomo that they weren't part of the prep
going on for cyclone ALF, and I was like, what
the hell is wrong with people? Like this is actually
(02:23):
an extremely serious incident that's ocring, And people were like, Oh,
I wish I was prepping for this, and I love storms.
Do you think it's because it's been five years since COVID,
it's coming up to the anniversary of when all of
the shit hit the fan, and we're sort of reminiscing
on that almost with this nostalgia because we're forgetting about
how awful it was, or we're thinking is at the
(02:44):
moment people like, bloody, hell, I wish I could have
a couple of weeks at home, and oh, wasn't that
funny when everything ran out at the shops, And they're
sort of comparing the two events and thinking, oh, I
wish I could have a couple of days off, but
not facing the reality that people are potentially going to
lose their houses, They're going to get damage, people are
having to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It's going to be mass flooding. It's scary.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, I think it just shows the power of
social media. People are seeing influences, for example, like Tammy
Hembro prepping for it and thinking, oh, I feel a
bit out of the loop. Yeah, I did enjoy seeing
her video. So she put up a TikTok with her husband,
Matt Szakowski, and they showed how they were getting ready
for cyclone.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Alfred. Here's what she said.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
We're just getting the house all prepared in case the
power goes out and things like that. So I'm going
to show you guys what we get for what's worst.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
We've got a few things at home already.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Never really been in in the middle of a cyclone
that's meant to hit right where we are. Apparently we're
on the most destructive side of it too. The couple
also popped into Target and they bought a massive cooler
as well as a lot of drink bottles and board games.
They also stopped up on wine and beer, which I
think is essentially if you've got three young kids stuck
(03:56):
in a house and a cyclone and also a lot
of baked beans were purchased. Yeah, I mean again, the
baked bean surprised me because if you run out of power,
how can you heat the baked beans up? But they
eating cold bake beans. A lot of people do eat
cold bake beans. Really work with a man and he
used to have for lunch a can of cold baked
beans with a piece of bread.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was disgusting.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, but I think he was quite an interesting character,
wasn't he. Well, he was an interesting character. But I
mean in cyclone times you have to make doo with
cold baked beans. Well, it's interesting because Tammy's house is
on the waterfront, and she explained that luckily they're quite
high up because they're worried about the water rising. Obviously
with all the storm, she said she had to reduce
the water level in her pulo to try and avoid
(04:38):
it spilling over and flooding into the house. So she
seems to be following a lot of precautions, which is.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Good to see.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, as She Binds is another influencer who's on the
Gold Coast, and she received criticism earlier this week because
she flew to Sydney for a work trip with her husband, Steve,
and they left their kids at home.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's been a bit of.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
A controversial decision. She's faced a lot of judgment over it.
Shared ahead of the flight that she was really nervous
because she's not a great fly, as she was worried
about the bumpy conditions due to the storm and the
evolving weather event, and many of her followers were confused,
why you would leave your kids home during such an
uncertain time, because what if your flight got canceled and
(05:16):
you're literally stuck in Sydney and your kids are back
at home having defend for themselves. I mean, obviously she
would have had somebody looking on. Yeah, I'm sure maybe
they were with their grandparents or something. Well, as she
actually had to end up returning home early, she made
an eight and a half hour drive with her husband
back from Sydney because they said they knew that their
flight was going to get canceled. They were supposed to
fly back into the Gold Coast on Thursday, which is
(05:39):
when the sight clone was supposed to hit. And in
response to the criticism, Ash ended up sharing a post
from a creator called her Successful Minds, which opened up
about their feelings about all of the fear and panic
before the cyclone.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And I don't know if I really agreed.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
With this sentiment because outline that this creator didn't watch
the news and they didn't engage in low frequency conversations
about the cyclone, which personally, I don't think is the
best advice. When a natural disaster is about to hit,
you need to stay informed. I don't know if this
is the journalist coming out in me, but shit response
to say, oh, I haven't actually been keeping abreast of
(06:15):
the situation that's going on because it's so low vibe
and it's sort of acting as if you shouldn't be
across all of the details. There's so many experts who
are putting out really important warnings for people to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You need to stay across these issues.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The post also spoke about you know, what you focus
on grows. If you feel fear, your body will respond
by searching for more fear. So she was manifesting the
end to this cyclone by not actually taking responsibility and
realizing it was occurring. Is that well, it sounds like it.
The post finish by saying, the real devastation is the
panic before anything has even happened. And I totally understand
(06:50):
that there are a lot of media organizations who do
pump things up and they do try to make everything
seem more dramatic. But in this situation, there are a
lot of xs who were weighing in saying that this
is a very serious incident and you need to be
vigilant and actually planned for this natural disaster. And I
think it's a bit naive to claim that you're not
focusing on it because you don't want the bad energy
(07:11):
and you don't want to let the fear in. I mean,
that's when accidents happen, isn't it. I mean that's when
you get into a situation where perhaps your kids are
at home alone during a huge sight. Well, it was
interesting because when as she arrived home, she made a
point of pointing out that the weather was so nice
and sunny and they went for a big walk, and she.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Was saying before the stow and she.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Then reiterated that, oh, we didn't go out and buy
any extra food. We should be okay for the next
few days. They're running out of food. Like I'm just
putting it out that I hope that that doesn't happen.
I feel terrible that they're involved in this. There are
the people that won't have the toilet paper. No, I'm
the executive creative director, chief buyer and lifestyle coordinator.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm very important. I decide the direction. Just decision decision decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I say, what goes in this world?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What will that be? Darling oh Pon.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Former husband of Instagram Justin McKean, is in hot water
again after failing to appear for a second time during
his fraud hearing Amy Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, earlier this year, Justin made headlines when The Herald's
Sun revealed he had been accused of stealing almost half
a million dollars from his former employer, Rocket Brands, while
working as its head of finance. And Justin's employer claimed
he had been acting erratically and sleeping in the work
toilet for up to four hours a day. And so
these allegations they rocked the Internet when they emerged because
(08:35):
it really gave us some insight into how not everything
you see on social media is a reality. I think
that description of him falling asleep in the bathroom really
painted a picture of how dire the situation had got.
There has been a lot of interest in this court case,
mainly due to the fact that Justin used to be
married to influencer Olivia Rodgers, and there were so many
questions left unanswered when the couple broke up in twenty
(08:59):
twenty two after just eight months of marriage, because they
really painted this picture of this perfect life together, that
they were the ultimate power couple in Melbourne, and they
seemed pretty squeaky clean. They're always talking about how they
were doing dry July and about you know, not drinking alcohol.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So this was a bit of a shock for people.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, and I think it gave people more of an
insight into maybe what was going on behind the scenes
and potentially why this marriage ended so soon. Now, according
to fresh reports from The Daily Mail, Justin appears to
have abandoned his defense in this civil case after failing
to appear in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday.
So Justin was supposed to mount a defense to the allegations,
(09:40):
but he didn't show up for a second time. Now,
according to reports, Justin's no show was the final insult
to the court, so it's believed his failure to submit
a defense is being viewed as an acceptance of.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Guilt, which is very big.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
In November last year, he also failed to appear in court,
but he then declared that he had engaged a rather
large Melbourne legal firm called Gabali and O'Brien. However, the
courtland on Tuesday that the legal firm had actually dumped
justin a day before the hearing, which left him to
represent himself. So it makes a bit more sense why
he didn't appear, and his non appearance might have something
(10:14):
to do with the fact he's also moved back to
Wa So he and his girlfriend former Bachelor contestant Tany Leeson.
It appears they're living together and they recently announced they're
expecting a baby.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mean, this must be a.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Very stressful time for the couple, but it doesn't appear
that way on their socials, like they have been posting
as normal. Yeah, they seem to be living quite a
glamorous lifestyle. Still, They've been appearing at influencer events. They
don't seem to be embarrassed by the situation, or at
least want to look publicly.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Embarrassed by it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I mean they're trying to ignore it. Yeah, I mean,
just because you've moved to wa though it doesn't give you.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
An excuse not to find the welbot for you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
No, not at all. And there were some very serious
allegations leveled at Justin during this new court hearing. So
his former employer tended statements to the court alleging Justin
stole more than thirty four thousand dollars over a two
day period in August last year. So according to bank records,
at the time of the theft, Justin had just one
(11:12):
thousand dollars in his bank account, and it allegedly took
him just a week to spend the money on alcohol,
drugs and gambling.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's really sad. It is very sad.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
The court also heard on Tuesday that when Justin was
confronted by his boss in October last year, Justin allegedly
admitted to the theft, telling his boss he had a
very serious drug habit and he'd do his best to
repay the money. Would be so frustrating for rocket to
be investing a lot of time and energy into this
court case and to have Justin really treat it with
(11:42):
not very much respect and not turner. Oh, it would
be extremely frustrating. And as we touched on, this is
a civil case so far, but this could turn into
criminal charges.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
People say, like, what do you want to do when
you grow up? What do you want to be? Like,
how do you envision your life? I envisioned my life
like how Megan Marko is living. Okay, I want to
live on a gorgeous countryside property. I want to wake
up in the morning and be like, oh my god,
a friend is coming over. Let me just casually whip
up a fortata with all ingredients that are from my
(12:14):
garden outside.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Meghan Markle's new show With Love premiered on Netflix this
week to mixed reviews. While some critics found joy in
Meghan returning back to her roots, others labeled the show
queasy and exhausting and an exercise in narcissism. Now, for
those who haven't seen it, Amy, can you bring us
up to speed? So this show is an eight part
lifestyle series hosted by Meghan which is set in the
(12:38):
luxury estate in Montecito, California. And there's been so much
discussion online about the show not actually being filmed at
Harry and Meghan's house, which I don't even understand what
the big deal is Like, this is common practice for
Tech TV when this couple is so big on their privacy.
You know, there's so many jokes out South Park and
we want Priva, we want privacy. But to be fair,
they would look like complete hypocrites if they said, you know,
(13:00):
we really want to look after our children's privacy. And
then they're filming this huge show in their house.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Apparently there's eighty people on the crew.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I'm sure that Megan's house is big enough to fit
them in, but they wouldn't want to disrupt their family
life like that. But it's not even just that. If
you look on more of a local level shows like
My Kitchen Rules, they don't even film in some of
the contestants' houses because it might be that the lighting
is not good or the setup of the kitchen doesn't
work for filming. Now, just getting back to the show.
In each episode, Meghan is joined by a different celebrity
(13:29):
friend and she shares personal tips and tricks in the kitchen,
as well as talking about her career and life.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And everything about.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
This show is aesthetically pleasing, So from Meghan's wardrobe to
the ingredients she uses, to the cinematography, I don't think
we've seen a lifestyle show like this since the Martha
Stewart Show. Yeah, because it's all about her being the
ultimate hostess. And a lot of people have questioned whether
because obviously Meghan is a feminist, and people are saying.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Oh, how can she be a feminist and want to
be a.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Trad wife, And it's like, I want to be a track.
The whole thing is, it's like, you can still be
a feminist whilst enjoying hosting and cooking nice meals. I
know I was one of the people who fell in
the camp that they were really excited for this show
to drop, and I wanted to watch it instantly. What
did you make.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Of the show?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I don't think it is a surprise to our listeners
that we are pretty big fans of Megan Markle. So
I was really excited to watch the show. I was
a little bit nervous though, because I'd heard a lot
of the criticism about it, and I didn't want to
go into jaded because I was worried that I was
going to cringe.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
But I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I'm one of those people who I loved watching cooking
shows growing up. In lifestyle shows, I feel like I
love the escapism of it. I loved Nigella Lawson and
get being involved in her world, and also shows like
Better Homes and Gardens. So for me, I absolutely loved
every second. One of my favorite things about the show
was the fashion. And I know everyone that's interesting to
(14:56):
say that when the focus was food, Well, I'm just saying, like,
I love seeing what she was wearing because she's such
a fashion icon, and everyone's like, oh, no, one where's
that when they're cooking.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
It's an esthetic fucking cooking show. She was wearing so
much white though, Like it was. She had one stage
this jumper over her shoulders while she was preparing something,
and I was like, wow, that looks ultra restrictive. But
so sheic at the same time, and is that When
she mentioned that her pants were Zarah, it was yeah, Well,
she said that she likes to dress high low, so
(15:26):
as you said, Amy, she had a Zara pants on,
but then she had a number of other high end
brands on. I'm sure some magazine has already broken down.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The costs of these bit somewhere.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Well. I was interested to see how TikTok would react
to the show, and unfortunately I reacted, how I thought,
quite negatively because the platform was flooded with videos of
people mocking Megan, so people called it awkward fake. They
also labeled her out of touch for some of the
tips and tricks she shared, so those who haven't seen it.
(15:56):
Some of those tips included adding sparkling water to scrambled
eggs to make them fluffier. I never knew that wrong
with that, transferring peanut butter pretzels from their original packaging
to a more aesthetically pleasing bag.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I mean, if anything, that was.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Probably the most relatable thing that she's to found it
quite funny though, because these were peanuts snacks for her
friend Daniel, who was her makeup artist on suits, and
she said, oh, he absolutely loves peanuts, but I'm just
putting some writing on there to declare that there are
peanuts in there because it can be an allergy for
some people. That's if he shares the peanuts.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I mean, that's responsible.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I think it was almost an opportunity to show off
her beautiful handwriting because she have some calligraphy business before her.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It sounds familiar.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, apparently the other unrelatable thing, and I've seen a
lot of this online before the show aired. Was the
ice cubes that she made with flowers inside of them.
So her tip was that you shouldn't use tap water
because they'll come out cloudy, and that you should either
use distilled water or boil your tap water.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Oh, I didn't know that. It's not that hard to
boil the kettle. It's not that hard. But I think
people are.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Saying who has time to make ice cubes with flowers
in them? Is quite funny because I felt like a
lot of criticism has also been leveled at how easy
some of the recipes were. For instance, there was I
think in the second episode it was all about planning
for a kid's birthday party, and she shared herself making
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well as cucumber sandwiches,
and then using shapes to cut them out, so she
(17:17):
had star ones and heart ones and everyone's like, we
all know how to make a fucking sandwich, and it's like, yes,
but it's the magic of making them appealing for children. Yeah,
And I actually enjoyed the simpler recipes because I thought, oh, yeah,
this is something that I could easily do at home,
whereas in the third episode, she had this chef on
who was cooking this really intricate Vietnamese recipes. She lost
(17:38):
me on that episode. I have to say, I'm like,
I need the simplicity here. Well, I just find it
really unfair the criticism about her being awkward, because she
would be second guessing everything she says because she knows
that this show is going to be completely torn apart
by the media and also viewers.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And also like, did we really.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Expect her not to have this air of perfectionism in
the show, because if she produced some stock standard meal,
just slopping stuff on plates, she would have been criticized
instantly for being not the perfect royal. I'sover in what
lifestyle program have we ever seen someone slobbing around in
dirty clothes making unappealing food, Like no one wants to
(18:18):
watch that. People want to buy in to the magic
of it. And I just think, to me, she wasn't
even awkward. I thought, you know, and people calling her
a fucking narcissist. I thought she came across as pretty
down to earth, considering she's married a prince, She's been
on a hugely popular show. One thing that was relatable
was she was wearing no shoes in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I noticed. I think that was I mean, maybe it's
all the la ground.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I remember she came out and said that when she
had Prince William and Kate Middleton over for dinner at
her and Harry's house, they came really formally dressed and
she was wearing jeans and no shoes.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I feel like that's her thing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I think it was definitely a strategic decision to make
it look like she was at home, even though we.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Know it's not actually her home.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
One of the biggest talking points that's come out of
the show is whether this type of content is outdated
in twenty twenty five, because there's been a lot of
comparisons made about just how perfect everything appears on the
show and the curated aesthetics made popular on Instagram and
in blogs in twenty sixteen, and a lot of these
conversations have stemmed from the fat Megan had a popular
(19:21):
lifestyle blog called The Tig, and so she started this
in twenty fourteen. She had to close it down in
twenty seventeen once her relationship with Prince Harry started getting
more serious. So the argument is that this type of
content appears to be disingenuous because people are saying, as
a society, we've moved on from the idea that everything
needs to be so perfect. And if you take a
(19:43):
look at influencers who are succeeding in twenty twenty five,
so many of them are very different to the influence
of twenty sixteen. They're very authentic, they have a personality.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I kind of disagree, though.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think in recent times we've really enjoyed creators like
Nara Smith. They've had a huge surge in popular because yes,
it's not relatable her cooking in a ball gown, but
we love the magic of it all, we love.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The theater of it.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I mean I agree with it in some aspects, especially
when it comes to Instagram, because in twenty sixteen, it
was all like flat layer asthetic images and most of
the influencers garnered a following for being hot and also rich.
But now because Instagram has moved away from just photos
like people have to actually put out video content and
have more of a personality, and this narrative has of
(20:28):
course continued. When critiquing her show. One of the biggest
gripes from critics seems to be this rainbow fruit platter
that she created. She has been slammed across the media
and also TikTok for it being something that we'd see
on tumbler in the early two thousands. I don't see
why everyone has such a problem with this. I thought
it was something really cute that you could make for
a kid's birthday party.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And if you look at the content that's popular on
TikTok these days, it is people reorganizing their pantries in
their lavish mansions. I mean, I regularly watch asthetic dinner
party content. I remember used by on the podcast recently
about how you watched a woman who made a candlelarbra
out of butter?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But do you enjoy watching it? Fuck?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yes? Well it's the more ridiculous that gets the views.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And I've seen a lot of commentary from people saying, well,
not everyone has their own beehive like Megan, and we
don't have time to make bee wax candles like she
did on the show. And there's this rhetoric that's formed
that this show is only for the elite. No, this
show is about escapism, and I, for one thoroughly enjoy it.
I mean, for example, I watch Real Housewives of La.
(21:33):
Do I relate to any aspect of their life?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
But do I enjoy watching it?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yes? Of course, Perstly I would love to go to
someone's house and make candles. That sounds fun to me.
We're seeing a lot of girls now creating. You know,
come paint candles with me at my house. It's an
opportunity to actually get your friends together and do something
creative and have a themed night. Well, I think TikTok
a korra lak. You put it so well. Let's have
a listen to what she said. If you don't like
Megan Markle's new show, you're a miserable process.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
One had to say it, and.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
This is coming from someone who has a major chip
on her shoulder, and listen, my life is falling apart.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I mean this is literally my setup currently.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I'm not exactly in a Santa Barbara estate myself.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But what I love about the show is that it's escapeism.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Okay, it is bringing cennema up back to the food space.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We haven't had this really since Martha Stewart, and Meghan
is giving it to us and more with Santa Barbara
fabulosity and I.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Don't care if it's perfectly curated. It absolutely is, but
give the girl a break. What is she supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I completely agree with this sentiment. This show wasn't created
for everyone. It was created for people who like lifestyle shows,
cooking shows, and who want to entertain and get some
ideas and some inspiration. Yeah. Well, we touched on Megan's
blog site The Tig before and you really can see
how important this still is to Meghan because as part
(22:52):
of the launch of her show, she actually surprised a
group of fans who had supported her since her blogging days.
So some fans had been invite added to a screening
of the show. Let's have a listen to what went down. Okay,
we have a big surprise in story for girls would
have been following a Tig and everything else were sawn
found damage. This was very Taylor Swift of her. I
(23:25):
feel like this was right out of her playbook. It
was really cute how she surprised everyone and how she
immediately went and hugged a lot of her fans.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well, Meghan shed some photos with some of the girls
and there were two who had gone to the extreme
of getting as ever, which is Meghan's new brand name
tattooed on their arms.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I mean, if that's not commitment.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I saw that, and I was hoping that they were
like temporary tattoos, because unfortunately I couldn't actually make out
what they said. Like I was thinking, did they do
it at the event because they looked really fresh that
they had. I thought maybe they were handed their tattoos
they handed out. No, they were not. They were real tattoos.
Meghan posted Tostagram story and she had the right explaining
that they said as ever, and I'm like, God, that's
(24:04):
a sign of a.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Bad tattoo and you have to explain what it says.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Well. One of the biggest viral moments of the show
was a scene where Meghan revealed to her friend Mindy
Kayling that she no longer goes by the last name Markle.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Let's have a listen to what she said.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I don't think anyone in the world knows that Megan
Michael has eaten shack.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
In the Marx and loves funny too.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That you keep saying, Megan Mirkele, you know him Sussex.
Now you have kids and you go, no, I share
my name with my children. Yes, And that feels.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So I didn't know how meaningful it would be to me,
but it just means so much to go.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
This is our family name, our little family name.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
This seemed to cause a lot of confusion because the
royal family's official last name is Mount Batton Windsor, and
everyone was like, she doesn't even know her last name.
But they're actually incorrect because when Harry was growing up
at school, for instance, and his family were under the
Wales family. So when Prince Charles was Prince of Wales,
his last name was Wales, so he was known as
(25:06):
Harry Wales and it has evolved throughout his life.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So when Meghan and Harry got married, they were given
the title.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Of Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Queen Elizabeth in
twenty eighteen, so that is officially their last name. I
think I think she knows her last name, Like, I
don't think she's getting confused. Yeah, I was lapping up
any sort of details about Harry and I really wish
that he was one of the guests who came to
visit her.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well he was in the last episode.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, we didn't get much of him, but one thing
we did discover is that she has to undersult her
food constantly because apparently Harry loves.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
A bit of salt.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
What do you mean undersaulted? Well, so she said she
undersaults everything because she knows that her husband immediately tosses
soul on before even trying the food. So I am
guessing the food at Buckingham Palace is quite tasteless, like
he has.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Grown up with shit food.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It sounds like, well, Prince Harry is the man after
my own heart, because that is literally me. I put
salt on everything. Dale was like, how can you eat
so much soul?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
A lot of critics are also focusing on the fact
that Megan and Harry received a huge amount of money
for this deal with Netflix. So they got one hundred
million dollars as an overall deal to produce a number
of shows, including With Love, and people are saying, well,
was this a good financial decision for Netflix? And there
has been a lot of negative press about With Love
(26:21):
receiving terrible viewer ratings, but it's all focused on platforms
like IMDb and also Rotten Tomatoes, which I wouldn't say
were the most highbrow publications. So again, these are people
who don't like her, who don't like lifestyle programs who
don't like cooking programs. Yeah, and I saw one TikToker
saying I wonder if Netflix is relying on people hate watching.
(26:43):
I did see that the show is in Netflix top ten,
so obviously a lot of people have tuned in, which
results in it being a success. So when it came out,
it was in the top ten in the US and
the UK. It has dropped out since, but I would
think that this was a big success for Netflix because
so many people are talking about in the press, so
many people are talking about it online. As you said,
(27:05):
a lot of people might just be hate watching it,
but it's bringing people to that streaming service. Clearly, it
must be financially viable for them, considering they've signed on
as a partner to sell Megan's products with her on
their platform. Yes, so they have partnered with her as
ever brand, and she has dropped eight products, which include
Raspberry preserves. Now, so for you were saying to me
(27:27):
earlier that there's a reason why she calls them preserves
are not jam Yeah. I found this so fascinating because
again I was on hire alert with everyone being so
critical of her, and I'm like, is she just being
a wanker by calling them preserves instead of jam. But
I learned through the show that in order for something
to be jam, it has to be fifty percent sugar
fifty percent fruit. And we learned that Megan doesn't really
(27:47):
like sweet things. She doesn't have a huge sweet tooth
because she's salted.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, she admitted that she didn't like honey, even though
honey featured a lot, but.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
She she has her own Beehi.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well she said she likes it now that it's top
quality honey anyway, So basically, she doesn't like it when
jam is ultra sweet because she likes to be able
to taste the fruit in it, So that is why
she calls it preserves.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Okay, thank you for clearing that up.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Well, we also found out because remember when she sent
out all of her jam to influencers and she labeled
to say the other week that jam is her jam. Well, yes,
well she still likes jam, not as catchy as preserve.
Is my presentment?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, when Mindy was on the show, she pointed out
that she was one of the influencers to receive Megan's
first batch, the first fifty jams that she sent out.
I remember they were numbered, and Mindy was like, I
hope you didn't rate people like as in terms of
her how good a friend they are, because I think
she received the number in the forties and Meghan was like, no, no, no,
I didn't even think about that in saying that, though
(28:41):
I did give my mum number one. Jam. Oh, so
this is like her MySpace top friends again back to
the early two thousands. Yeah. So. The other products she's
got on her website are three types of herbal tea,
honey create Mix, short bread cookie mix, as well as
edible flowers, So Sophie, if you do want to make
the flower ice cubes at home, you can. I was
(29:03):
interested that there was nowhere that you could download the recipes.
I mean, you could have done the old school thing
and had your notebook out and written them down on
the show. But I thought it would have been really
lucrative for Netflix or Megan to have set up a
website which listed all of the recipes that's coming, because
even with these products, when I went on the website,
I was interested to see how much she would be
(29:24):
charging for each product, and there are no prices listed,
and on the website it says available Spring twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
What's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I think you want to strike while the iron is
hot and there's a call to action. Yeah, well, it
prompts you to sign up for a mailing list and
apparently you will get set out an email when it's available.
And it's actually not officially spring in the US yet.
So Spring is officially on the twentieth of March, so
it doesn't seem like we have to wait long. But
as you said, if I was Netflix, I would want
those products out right now. I wonder if they haven't
(29:53):
put them out purposely because perhaps they're expensive and they
think that the bad publicity will overshadow over the show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's going to be interested in the products.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Once they've gone through all eight episodes, they'll forget about it.
And lots more bizarres. This show was held off until March.
It was supposed to air at the end of January,
but because of the la fires, they didn't put it out,
so they've had extra time to make sure that everything
is available. It's a very strange zoo. Maybe they've got
Megan in the kitchen trying to pump out all the preserves. Well,
that's all we've got time for today. If you have
(30:22):
missed our Friday debrief because we chose to add in
a few more influencer topics this week, make sure you
are subscribed to Outspoken Plus because we have done some
big debriefs in recent episode. We had a massive debrief
on Thursday show. I feel like it was quite cathartic
for us. Amy. People will have noticed that Kate has
been absent this week from the podcast. That isn't over
any drama relating to the Carpa click, which I shall
(30:45):
not be mentioning going to that is a joke. It
is because her son Jack, he's had his first cold,
so she has been staying away because Amy and I
have a very low immune system at the moment, so
we so it's been sad not having her on. Hopefully
she'll be back next week. I'm pretty sure she is
dying to be involved in the episodes.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Actually that's a good point. Our episode will be dropping
on Wednesday though, because here in Adelaide it's a public
holiday on Monday.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Isn't it a public holiday everyone?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
No, it's Adelaide Cup Day.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
If it was Labour Day for some reason, it might.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Be Labor Day for some of the other states, but
not for everybody. Yes, so keep an eye out for
that episode dropping on Wednesday. Thank you so much for
joining us, though, if you have enjoyed today's show, could
you please make sure you ask subscribe to Apple podcast
and also Spotify, and please leave us a five star review.
This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
We pay respect to elders past and present,
Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Amy Torbert and coming up on today's show, Justin mckeann
is a no show again at his court hearing at Mega.
Markle's new show airs to mixed reviews. But first, as
Queensland and parts of New South Wales brace for cyclone, Alfred,
(00:27):
millennials and gen Zetters are taking to TikTok in their
droves to share about how they're preparing for the natural disaster.
This is such a scary time for so many people. Yeah,
and we are sending our love to anyone who is affected.
I know that a lot of our listeners will be
caught up in this. I have been absolutely glued to
TikTok because it has been so interesting to see how
this has played out online. I really think that creating
(00:49):
content has become a distraction for a lot of young
people because this is the first cyclone in their lifetime
to cross the South Coast. So there are so many
people who have never experienced situation like this, and I
feel like their way of connecting with other people about
it is to create content.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So we are seeing all.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Of these get ready with Me videos for cyclone Alfred,
and we're also seeing a lot of people posting about
mass panic buying. It's very reminiscent of COVID times, isn't it. Yeah,
because people are stocking up on toilet paper again as
well as canned foods. There is barely anything on the
shelves at the moment. I saw a Pituded Advocate headline
that said, in the Gold Coast, all of the supermarkets
(01:28):
have run out of fake tan and techlightning. Maybe not
the best joke right now, but there are so many
influences on the Gold Coast, and I think that's also
why we're seeing so many TikTok videos coming out.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
You're joking about.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Teeth whitening and fake tan amy, but people are running
out of things like bottled water and torches. They seem
to be out of stock everywhere in these TikTok videos
that I'm seeing. We're also seeing how people are prepping
their houses, which I find really interesting. We live in Adelaide,
so we've never had to prepare for a cyclone. People
are filling up their bath tubs with water in case
(02:01):
they run out. They're also making massive ice cubes so
that they can put them in coolers in case the
power goes out and they can't use their fridge, and
they're also tying down a lot of loose items in
their backyards. I saw someone on TikTok saying that they
almost felt fomo that they weren't part of the prep
going on for cyclone ALF, and I was like, what
the hell is wrong with people? Like this is actually
(02:23):
an extremely serious incident that's ocring, And people were like, Oh,
I wish I was prepping for this, and I love storms.
Do you think it's because it's been five years since COVID,
it's coming up to the anniversary of when all of
the shit hit the fan, and we're sort of reminiscing
on that almost with this nostalgia because we're forgetting about
how awful it was, or we're thinking is at the
(02:44):
moment people like, bloody, hell, I wish I could have
a couple of weeks at home, and oh, wasn't that
funny when everything ran out at the shops, And they're
sort of comparing the two events and thinking, oh, I
wish I could have a couple of days off, but
not facing the reality that people are potentially going to
lose their houses, They're going to get damage, people are
having to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It's going to be mass flooding. It's scary.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, I think it just shows the power of
social media. People are seeing influences, for example, like Tammy
Hembro prepping for it and thinking, oh, I feel a
bit out of the loop. Yeah, I did enjoy seeing
her video. So she put up a TikTok with her husband,
Matt Szakowski, and they showed how they were getting ready
for cyclone.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Alfred. Here's what she said.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
We're just getting the house all prepared in case the
power goes out and things like that. So I'm going
to show you guys what we get for what's worst.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
We've got a few things at home already.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Never really been in in the middle of a cyclone
that's meant to hit right where we are. Apparently we're
on the most destructive side of it too. The couple
also popped into Target and they bought a massive cooler
as well as a lot of drink bottles and board games.
They also stopped up on wine and beer, which I
think is essentially if you've got three young kids stuck
(03:56):
in a house and a cyclone and also a lot
of baked beans were purchased. Yeah, I mean again, the
baked bean surprised me because if you run out of power,
how can you heat the baked beans up? But they
eating cold bake beans. A lot of people do eat
cold bake beans. Really work with a man and he
used to have for lunch a can of cold baked
beans with a piece of bread.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was disgusting.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, but I think he was quite an interesting character,
wasn't he. Well, he was an interesting character. But I
mean in cyclone times you have to make doo with
cold baked beans. Well, it's interesting because Tammy's house is
on the waterfront, and she explained that luckily they're quite
high up because they're worried about the water rising. Obviously
with all the storm, she said she had to reduce
the water level in her pulo to try and avoid
(04:38):
it spilling over and flooding into the house. So she
seems to be following a lot of precautions, which is.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Good to see.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, as She Binds is another influencer who's on the
Gold Coast, and she received criticism earlier this week because
she flew to Sydney for a work trip with her husband, Steve,
and they left their kids at home.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's been a bit of.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
A controversial decision. She's faced a lot of judgment over it.
Shared ahead of the flight that she was really nervous
because she's not a great fly, as she was worried
about the bumpy conditions due to the storm and the
evolving weather event, and many of her followers were confused,
why you would leave your kids home during such an
uncertain time, because what if your flight got canceled and
(05:16):
you're literally stuck in Sydney and your kids are back
at home having defend for themselves. I mean, obviously she
would have had somebody looking on. Yeah, I'm sure maybe
they were with their grandparents or something. Well, as she
actually had to end up returning home early, she made
an eight and a half hour drive with her husband
back from Sydney because they said they knew that their
flight was going to get canceled. They were supposed to
fly back into the Gold Coast on Thursday, which is
(05:39):
when the sight clone was supposed to hit. And in
response to the criticism, Ash ended up sharing a post
from a creator called her Successful Minds, which opened up
about their feelings about all of the fear and panic
before the cyclone.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And I don't know if I really agreed.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
With this sentiment because outline that this creator didn't watch
the news and they didn't engage in low frequency conversations
about the cyclone, which personally, I don't think is the
best advice. When a natural disaster is about to hit,
you need to stay informed. I don't know if this
is the journalist coming out in me, but shit response
to say, oh, I haven't actually been keeping abreast of
(06:15):
the situation that's going on because it's so low vibe
and it's sort of acting as if you shouldn't be
across all of the details. There's so many experts who
are putting out really important warnings for people to evacuate.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You need to stay across these issues.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The post also spoke about you know, what you focus
on grows. If you feel fear, your body will respond
by searching for more fear. So she was manifesting the
end to this cyclone by not actually taking responsibility and
realizing it was occurring. Is that well, it sounds like it.
The post finish by saying, the real devastation is the
panic before anything has even happened. And I totally understand
(06:50):
that there are a lot of media organizations who do
pump things up and they do try to make everything
seem more dramatic. But in this situation, there are a
lot of xs who were weighing in saying that this
is a very serious incident and you need to be
vigilant and actually planned for this natural disaster. And I
think it's a bit naive to claim that you're not
focusing on it because you don't want the bad energy
(07:11):
and you don't want to let the fear in. I mean,
that's when accidents happen, isn't it. I mean that's when
you get into a situation where perhaps your kids are
at home alone during a huge sight. Well, it was
interesting because when as she arrived home, she made a
point of pointing out that the weather was so nice
and sunny and they went for a big walk, and she.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Was saying before the stow and she.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Then reiterated that, oh, we didn't go out and buy
any extra food. We should be okay for the next
few days. They're running out of food. Like I'm just
putting it out that I hope that that doesn't happen.
I feel terrible that they're involved in this. There are
the people that won't have the toilet paper. No, I'm
the executive creative director, chief buyer and lifestyle coordinator.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm very important. I decide the direction. Just decision decision decisions.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I say, what goes in this world?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What will that be? Darling oh Pon.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Former husband of Instagram Justin McKean, is in hot water
again after failing to appear for a second time during
his fraud hearing Amy Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, earlier this year, Justin made headlines when The Herald's
Sun revealed he had been accused of stealing almost half
a million dollars from his former employer, Rocket Brands, while
working as its head of finance. And Justin's employer claimed
he had been acting erratically and sleeping in the work
toilet for up to four hours a day. And so
these allegations they rocked the Internet when they emerged because
(08:35):
it really gave us some insight into how not everything
you see on social media is a reality. I think
that description of him falling asleep in the bathroom really
painted a picture of how dire the situation had got.
There has been a lot of interest in this court case,
mainly due to the fact that Justin used to be
married to influencer Olivia Rodgers, and there were so many
questions left unanswered when the couple broke up in twenty
(08:59):
twenty two after just eight months of marriage, because they
really painted this picture of this perfect life together, that
they were the ultimate power couple in Melbourne, and they
seemed pretty squeaky clean. They're always talking about how they
were doing dry July and about you know, not drinking alcohol.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So this was a bit of a shock for people.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, and I think it gave people more of an
insight into maybe what was going on behind the scenes
and potentially why this marriage ended so soon. Now, according
to fresh reports from The Daily Mail, Justin appears to
have abandoned his defense in this civil case after failing
to appear in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday.
So Justin was supposed to mount a defense to the allegations,
(09:40):
but he didn't show up for a second time. Now,
according to reports, Justin's no show was the final insult
to the court, so it's believed his failure to submit
a defense is being viewed as an acceptance of.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Guilt, which is very big.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
In November last year, he also failed to appear in court,
but he then declared that he had engaged a rather
large Melbourne legal firm called Gabali and O'Brien. However, the
courtland on Tuesday that the legal firm had actually dumped
justin a day before the hearing, which left him to
represent himself. So it makes a bit more sense why
he didn't appear, and his non appearance might have something
(10:14):
to do with the fact he's also moved back to
Wa So he and his girlfriend former Bachelor contestant Tany Leeson.
It appears they're living together and they recently announced they're
expecting a baby.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I mean, this must be a.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Very stressful time for the couple, but it doesn't appear
that way on their socials, like they have been posting
as normal. Yeah, they seem to be living quite a
glamorous lifestyle. Still, They've been appearing at influencer events. They
don't seem to be embarrassed by the situation, or at
least want to look publicly.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Embarrassed by it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I mean they're trying to ignore it. Yeah, I mean,
just because you've moved to wa though it doesn't give you.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
An excuse not to find the welbot for you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
No, not at all. And there were some very serious
allegations leveled at Justin during this new court hearing. So
his former employer tended statements to the court alleging Justin
stole more than thirty four thousand dollars over a two
day period in August last year. So according to bank records,
at the time of the theft, Justin had just one
(11:12):
thousand dollars in his bank account, and it allegedly took
him just a week to spend the money on alcohol,
drugs and gambling.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's really sad. It is very sad.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
The court also heard on Tuesday that when Justin was
confronted by his boss in October last year, Justin allegedly
admitted to the theft, telling his boss he had a
very serious drug habit and he'd do his best to
repay the money. Would be so frustrating for rocket to
be investing a lot of time and energy into this
court case and to have Justin really treat it with
(11:42):
not very much respect and not turner. Oh, it would
be extremely frustrating. And as we touched on, this is
a civil case so far, but this could turn into
criminal charges.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
People say, like, what do you want to do when
you grow up? What do you want to be? Like,
how do you envision your life? I envisioned my life
like how Megan Marko is living. Okay, I want to
live on a gorgeous countryside property. I want to wake
up in the morning and be like, oh my god,
a friend is coming over. Let me just casually whip
up a fortata with all ingredients that are from my
(12:14):
garden outside.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Meghan Markle's new show With Love premiered on Netflix this
week to mixed reviews. While some critics found joy in
Meghan returning back to her roots, others labeled the show
queasy and exhausting and an exercise in narcissism. Now, for
those who haven't seen it, Amy, can you bring us
up to speed? So this show is an eight part
lifestyle series hosted by Meghan which is set in the
(12:38):
luxury estate in Montecito, California. And there's been so much
discussion online about the show not actually being filmed at
Harry and Meghan's house, which I don't even understand what
the big deal is Like, this is common practice for
Tech TV when this couple is so big on their privacy.
You know, there's so many jokes out South Park and
we want Priva, we want privacy. But to be fair,
they would look like complete hypocrites if they said, you know,
(13:00):
we really want to look after our children's privacy. And
then they're filming this huge show in their house.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Apparently there's eighty people on the crew.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I'm sure that Megan's house is big enough to fit
them in, but they wouldn't want to disrupt their family
life like that. But it's not even just that. If
you look on more of a local level shows like
My Kitchen Rules, they don't even film in some of
the contestants' houses because it might be that the lighting
is not good or the setup of the kitchen doesn't
work for filming. Now, just getting back to the show.
In each episode, Meghan is joined by a different celebrity
(13:29):
friend and she shares personal tips and tricks in the kitchen,
as well as talking about her career and life.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And everything about.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
This show is aesthetically pleasing, So from Meghan's wardrobe to
the ingredients she uses, to the cinematography, I don't think
we've seen a lifestyle show like this since the Martha
Stewart Show. Yeah, because it's all about her being the
ultimate hostess. And a lot of people have questioned whether
because obviously Meghan is a feminist, and people are saying.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Oh, how can she be a feminist and want to
be a.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Trad wife, And it's like, I want to be a track.
The whole thing is, it's like, you can still be
a feminist whilst enjoying hosting and cooking nice meals. I
know I was one of the people who fell in
the camp that they were really excited for this show
to drop, and I wanted to watch it instantly. What
did you make.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Of the show?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I don't think it is a surprise to our listeners
that we are pretty big fans of Megan Markle. So
I was really excited to watch the show. I was
a little bit nervous though, because I'd heard a lot
of the criticism about it, and I didn't want to
go into jaded because I was worried that I was
going to cringe.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
But I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I'm one of those people who I loved watching cooking
shows growing up. In lifestyle shows, I feel like I
love the escapism of it. I loved Nigella Lawson and
get being involved in her world, and also shows like
Better Homes and Gardens. So for me, I absolutely loved
every second. One of my favorite things about the show
was the fashion. And I know everyone that's interesting to
(14:56):
say that when the focus was food, Well, I'm just saying, like,
I love seeing what she was wearing because she's such
a fashion icon, and everyone's like, oh, no, one where's
that when they're cooking.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
It's an esthetic fucking cooking show. She was wearing so
much white though, Like it was. She had one stage
this jumper over her shoulders while she was preparing something,
and I was like, wow, that looks ultra restrictive. But
so sheic at the same time, and is that When
she mentioned that her pants were Zarah, it was yeah, Well,
she said that she likes to dress high low, so
(15:26):
as you said, Amy, she had a Zara pants on,
but then she had a number of other high end
brands on. I'm sure some magazine has already broken down.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The costs of these bit somewhere.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Well. I was interested to see how TikTok would react
to the show, and unfortunately I reacted, how I thought,
quite negatively because the platform was flooded with videos of
people mocking Megan, so people called it awkward fake. They
also labeled her out of touch for some of the
tips and tricks she shared, so those who haven't seen it.
(15:56):
Some of those tips included adding sparkling water to scrambled
eggs to make them fluffier. I never knew that wrong
with that, transferring peanut butter pretzels from their original packaging
to a more aesthetically pleasing bag.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I mean, if anything, that was.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Probably the most relatable thing that she's to found it
quite funny though, because these were peanuts snacks for her
friend Daniel, who was her makeup artist on suits, and
she said, oh, he absolutely loves peanuts, but I'm just
putting some writing on there to declare that there are
peanuts in there because it can be an allergy for
some people. That's if he shares the peanuts.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I mean, that's responsible.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I think it was almost an opportunity to show off
her beautiful handwriting because she have some calligraphy business before her.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It sounds familiar.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, apparently the other unrelatable thing, and I've seen a
lot of this online before the show aired. Was the
ice cubes that she made with flowers inside of them.
So her tip was that you shouldn't use tap water
because they'll come out cloudy, and that you should either
use distilled water or boil your tap water.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Oh, I didn't know that. It's not that hard to
boil the kettle. It's not that hard. But I think
people are.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Saying who has time to make ice cubes with flowers
in them? Is quite funny because I felt like a
lot of criticism has also been leveled at how easy
some of the recipes were. For instance, there was I
think in the second episode it was all about planning
for a kid's birthday party, and she shared herself making
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well as cucumber sandwiches,
and then using shapes to cut them out, so she
(17:17):
had star ones and heart ones and everyone's like, we
all know how to make a fucking sandwich, and it's like, yes,
but it's the magic of making them appealing for children. Yeah,
And I actually enjoyed the simpler recipes because I thought, oh, yeah,
this is something that I could easily do at home,
whereas in the third episode, she had this chef on
who was cooking this really intricate Vietnamese recipes. She lost
(17:38):
me on that episode. I have to say, I'm like,
I need the simplicity here. Well, I just find it
really unfair the criticism about her being awkward, because she
would be second guessing everything she says because she knows
that this show is going to be completely torn apart
by the media and also viewers.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And also like, did we really.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Expect her not to have this air of perfectionism in
the show, because if she produced some stock standard meal,
just slopping stuff on plates, she would have been criticized
instantly for being not the perfect royal. I'sover in what
lifestyle program have we ever seen someone slobbing around in
dirty clothes making unappealing food, Like no one wants to
(18:18):
watch that. People want to buy in to the magic
of it. And I just think, to me, she wasn't
even awkward. I thought, you know, and people calling her
a fucking narcissist. I thought she came across as pretty
down to earth, considering she's married a prince, She's been
on a hugely popular show. One thing that was relatable
was she was wearing no shoes in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I noticed. I think that was I mean, maybe it's
all the la ground.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I remember she came out and said that when she
had Prince William and Kate Middleton over for dinner at
her and Harry's house, they came really formally dressed and
she was wearing jeans and no shoes.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I feel like that's her thing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I think it was definitely a strategic decision to make
it look like she was at home, even though we.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Know it's not actually her home.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
One of the biggest talking points that's come out of
the show is whether this type of content is outdated
in twenty twenty five, because there's been a lot of
comparisons made about just how perfect everything appears on the
show and the curated aesthetics made popular on Instagram and
in blogs in twenty sixteen, and a lot of these
conversations have stemmed from the fat Megan had a popular
(19:21):
lifestyle blog called The Tig, and so she started this
in twenty fourteen. She had to close it down in
twenty seventeen once her relationship with Prince Harry started getting
more serious. So the argument is that this type of
content appears to be disingenuous because people are saying, as
a society, we've moved on from the idea that everything
needs to be so perfect. And if you take a
(19:43):
look at influencers who are succeeding in twenty twenty five,
so many of them are very different to the influence
of twenty sixteen. They're very authentic, they have a personality.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I kind of disagree, though.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I think in recent times we've really enjoyed creators like
Nara Smith. They've had a huge surge in popular because yes,
it's not relatable her cooking in a ball gown, but
we love the magic of it all, we love.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The theater of it.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I mean I agree with it in some aspects, especially
when it comes to Instagram, because in twenty sixteen, it
was all like flat layer asthetic images and most of
the influencers garnered a following for being hot and also rich.
But now because Instagram has moved away from just photos
like people have to actually put out video content and
have more of a personality, and this narrative has of
(20:28):
course continued. When critiquing her show. One of the biggest
gripes from critics seems to be this rainbow fruit platter
that she created. She has been slammed across the media
and also TikTok for it being something that we'd see
on tumbler in the early two thousands. I don't see
why everyone has such a problem with this. I thought
it was something really cute that you could make for
a kid's birthday party.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And if you look at the content that's popular on
TikTok these days, it is people reorganizing their pantries in
their lavish mansions. I mean, I regularly watch asthetic dinner
party content. I remember used by on the podcast recently
about how you watched a woman who made a candlelarbra
out of butter?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Would you ever do that?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But do you enjoy watching it? Fuck?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yes? Well it's the more ridiculous that gets the views.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And I've seen a lot of commentary from people saying, well,
not everyone has their own beehive like Megan, and we
don't have time to make bee wax candles like she
did on the show. And there's this rhetoric that's formed
that this show is only for the elite. No, this
show is about escapism, and I, for one thoroughly enjoy it.
I mean, for example, I watch Real Housewives of La.
(21:33):
Do I relate to any aspect of their life?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
No?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
But do I enjoy watching it?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yes? Of course, Perstly I would love to go to
someone's house and make candles. That sounds fun to me.
We're seeing a lot of girls now creating. You know,
come paint candles with me at my house. It's an
opportunity to actually get your friends together and do something
creative and have a themed night. Well, I think TikTok
a korra lak. You put it so well. Let's have
a listen to what she said. If you don't like
Megan Markle's new show, you're a miserable process.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
One had to say it, and.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
This is coming from someone who has a major chip
on her shoulder, and listen, my life is falling apart.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I mean this is literally my setup currently.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I'm not exactly in a Santa Barbara estate myself.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But what I love about the show is that it's escapeism.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Okay, it is bringing cennema up back to the food space.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
We haven't had this really since Martha Stewart, and Meghan
is giving it to us and more with Santa Barbara
fabulosity and I.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Don't care if it's perfectly curated. It absolutely is, but
give the girl a break. What is she supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I completely agree with this sentiment. This show wasn't created
for everyone. It was created for people who like lifestyle shows,
cooking shows, and who want to entertain and get some
ideas and some inspiration. Yeah. Well, we touched on Megan's
blog site The Tig before and you really can see
how important this still is to Meghan because as part
(22:52):
of the launch of her show, she actually surprised a
group of fans who had supported her since her blogging days.
So some fans had been invite added to a screening
of the show. Let's have a listen to what went down. Okay,
we have a big surprise in story for girls would
have been following a Tig and everything else were sawn
found damage. This was very Taylor Swift of her. I
(23:25):
feel like this was right out of her playbook. It
was really cute how she surprised everyone and how she
immediately went and hugged a lot of her fans.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well, Meghan shed some photos with some of the girls
and there were two who had gone to the extreme
of getting as ever, which is Meghan's new brand name
tattooed on their arms.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I mean, if that's not commitment.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I saw that, and I was hoping that they were
like temporary tattoos, because unfortunately I couldn't actually make out
what they said. Like I was thinking, did they do
it at the event because they looked really fresh that
they had. I thought maybe they were handed their tattoos
they handed out. No, they were not. They were real tattoos.
Meghan posted Tostagram story and she had the right explaining
that they said as ever, and I'm like, God, that's
(24:04):
a sign of a.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Bad tattoo and you have to explain what it says.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Well. One of the biggest viral moments of the show
was a scene where Meghan revealed to her friend Mindy
Kayling that she no longer goes by the last name Markle.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Let's have a listen to what she said.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
I don't think anyone in the world knows that Megan
Michael has eaten shack.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
In the Marx and loves funny too.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That you keep saying, Megan Mirkele, you know him Sussex.
Now you have kids and you go, no, I share
my name with my children. Yes, And that feels.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So I didn't know how meaningful it would be to me,
but it just means so much to go.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
This is our family name, our little family name.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
This seemed to cause a lot of confusion because the
royal family's official last name is Mount Batton Windsor, and
everyone was like, she doesn't even know her last name.
But they're actually incorrect because when Harry was growing up
at school, for instance, and his family were under the
Wales family. So when Prince Charles was Prince of Wales,
his last name was Wales, so he was known as
(25:06):
Harry Wales and it has evolved throughout his life.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So when Meghan and Harry got married, they were given
the title.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Of Duke and Duchess of Sussex by Queen Elizabeth in
twenty eighteen, so that is officially their last name. I
think I think she knows her last name, Like, I
don't think she's getting confused. Yeah, I was lapping up
any sort of details about Harry and I really wish
that he was one of the guests who came to
visit her.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well he was in the last episode.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, we didn't get much of him, but one thing
we did discover is that she has to undersult her
food constantly because apparently Harry loves.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
A bit of salt.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
What do you mean undersaulted? Well, so she said she
undersaults everything because she knows that her husband immediately tosses
soul on before even trying the food. So I am
guessing the food at Buckingham Palace is quite tasteless, like
he has.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Grown up with shit food.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It sounds like, well, Prince Harry is the man after
my own heart, because that is literally me. I put
salt on everything. Dale was like, how can you eat
so much soul?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
A lot of critics are also focusing on the fact
that Megan and Harry received a huge amount of money
for this deal with Netflix. So they got one hundred
million dollars as an overall deal to produce a number
of shows, including With Love, and people are saying, well,
was this a good financial decision for Netflix? And there
has been a lot of negative press about With Love
(26:21):
receiving terrible viewer ratings, but it's all focused on platforms
like IMDb and also Rotten Tomatoes, which I wouldn't say
were the most highbrow publications. So again, these are people
who don't like her, who don't like lifestyle programs who
don't like cooking programs. Yeah, and I saw one TikToker
saying I wonder if Netflix is relying on people hate watching.
(26:43):
I did see that the show is in Netflix top ten,
so obviously a lot of people have tuned in, which
results in it being a success. So when it came out,
it was in the top ten in the US and
the UK. It has dropped out since, but I would
think that this was a big success for Netflix because
so many people are talking about in the press, so
many people are talking about it online. As you said,
(27:05):
a lot of people might just be hate watching it,
but it's bringing people to that streaming service. Clearly, it
must be financially viable for them, considering they've signed on
as a partner to sell Megan's products with her on
their platform. Yes, so they have partnered with her as
ever brand, and she has dropped eight products, which include
Raspberry preserves. Now, so for you were saying to me
(27:27):
earlier that there's a reason why she calls them preserves
are not jam Yeah. I found this so fascinating because
again I was on hire alert with everyone being so
critical of her, and I'm like, is she just being
a wanker by calling them preserves instead of jam. But
I learned through the show that in order for something
to be jam, it has to be fifty percent sugar
fifty percent fruit. And we learned that Megan doesn't really
(27:47):
like sweet things. She doesn't have a huge sweet tooth
because she's salted.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
She didn't.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, she admitted that she didn't like honey, even though
honey featured a lot, but.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
She she has her own Beehi.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well she said she likes it now that it's top
quality honey anyway, So basically, she doesn't like it when
jam is ultra sweet because she likes to be able
to taste the fruit in it, So that is why
she calls it preserves.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Okay, thank you for clearing that up.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Well, we also found out because remember when she sent
out all of her jam to influencers and she labeled
to say the other week that jam is her jam. Well, yes,
well she still likes jam, not as catchy as preserve.
Is my presentment?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, when Mindy was on the show, she pointed out
that she was one of the influencers to receive Megan's
first batch, the first fifty jams that she sent out.
I remember they were numbered, and Mindy was like, I
hope you didn't rate people like as in terms of
her how good a friend they are, because I think
she received the number in the forties and Meghan was like, no, no, no,
I didn't even think about that in saying that, though
(28:41):
I did give my mum number one. Jam. Oh, so
this is like her MySpace top friends again back to
the early two thousands. Yeah. So. The other products she's
got on her website are three types of herbal tea,
honey create Mix, short bread cookie mix, as well as
edible flowers, So Sophie, if you do want to make
the flower ice cubes at home, you can. I was
(29:03):
interested that there was nowhere that you could download the recipes.
I mean, you could have done the old school thing
and had your notebook out and written them down on
the show. But I thought it would have been really
lucrative for Netflix or Megan to have set up a
website which listed all of the recipes that's coming, because
even with these products, when I went on the website,
I was interested to see how much she would be
(29:24):
charging for each product, and there are no prices listed,
and on the website it says available Spring twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
What's bizarre.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I think you want to strike while the iron is
hot and there's a call to action. Yeah, well, it
prompts you to sign up for a mailing list and
apparently you will get set out an email when it's available.
And it's actually not officially spring in the US yet.
So Spring is officially on the twentieth of March, so
it doesn't seem like we have to wait long. But
as you said, if I was Netflix, I would want
those products out right now. I wonder if they haven't
(29:53):
put them out purposely because perhaps they're expensive and they
think that the bad publicity will overshadow over the show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's going to be interested in the products.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Once they've gone through all eight episodes, they'll forget about it.
And lots more bizarres. This show was held off until March.
It was supposed to air at the end of January,
but because of the la fires, they didn't put it out,
so they've had extra time to make sure that everything
is available. It's a very strange zoo. Maybe they've got
Megan in the kitchen trying to pump out all the preserves. Well,
that's all we've got time for today. If you have
(30:22):
missed our Friday debrief because we chose to add in
a few more influencer topics this week, make sure you
are subscribed to Outspoken Plus because we have done some
big debriefs in recent episode. We had a massive debrief
on Thursday show. I feel like it was quite cathartic
for us. Amy. People will have noticed that Kate has
been absent this week from the podcast. That isn't over
any drama relating to the Carpa click, which I shall
(30:45):
not be mentioning going to that is a joke. It
is because her son Jack, he's had his first cold,
so she has been staying away because Amy and I
have a very low immune system at the moment, so
we so it's been sad not having her on. Hopefully
she'll be back next week. I'm pretty sure she is
dying to be involved in the episodes.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Actually that's a good point. Our episode will be dropping
on Wednesday though, because here in Adelaide it's a public
holiday on Monday.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Isn't it a public holiday everyone?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
No, it's Adelaide Cup Day.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
If it was Labour Day for some reason, it might.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Be Labor Day for some of the other states, but
not for everybody. Yes, so keep an eye out for
that episode dropping on Wednesday. Thank you so much for
joining us, though, if you have enjoyed today's show, could
you please make sure you ask subscribe to Apple podcast
and also Spotify, and please leave us a five star review.
This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
We pay respect to elders past and present,
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