May 25, 2026 • 35 mins
A Perth influencer couple has given a masterclass in how NOT to respond in a PR crisis. Connor Wright was forced to apologise after backlash erupted over a video his wife, Chloe, posted to social media. However, after issuing two public apologies, the popular content creator doubled down, calling his naysayers bullies.
Mitch Orvall has shared a cryptic post that points to the reason behind his rumoured break up with Chloe Szep.
Anna’s Paul’s latest attempt at a redemption arc has backfired. More than a year on from her cancellation, the TikToker tried to make light of the situation, but all it did was reignite the controversy.
And Jason Donovon spills the tea in Kylie Minogue's new docuseries.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Amy Torba, I'm Kate Torber, and I'm Sophie Torber and
coming up on today's show, Anna Paul's attempt at a
redemption arc backfires, The Suave Active Where, pr Disaster, and
Jason Donovan's Ultimate Kick to the Dick the First. Mitch
(00:25):
Auvil has shared a cryptic post that points to the
reason behind his rumoured breakup with Chloe Zepp. The og
Influencers shared a quote to his Instagram story that read
normalized not forcing connections with people. If someone doesn't see
the value in having you by their side, don't try
to convince them now. This update, of course, comes after
the pair have unfollowed each other on social media and
(00:47):
removed photos together. There are now also rumors floating around
that they have put their Newcastle home on the market.
So Chloe and Mitch only made the move to Newcastle
from the Gold Coast in June last year, and it
was all a part of this plan to step back
from social media and live regular lives. So Chloe closed
down her active where brand, Zepp and Mitch started a
(01:07):
nine to five job as a career. He was actually
influencer updates AU that broke the news, so she revealed
she got a tip off that someone had spotted the
influencers home advertised at a local real estate company. Apparently
it's not listed online. They have had a really interesting
relationship when it comes to real estate dot com because
the first time they purchased a home on the Gold Coast,
(01:29):
they shared a photo with them in front of the
SOULD sign, and even though they tried to conceal the
exact location and some identifying features, a lot of followers
were able to quickly ascertain exactly where they lived. It
made them feel really unsafe. They actually ended up having
a home invasion in that home. They then went on
to sell that house and did this huge pr campaign
(01:50):
trying to drum up as much attention as they could.
I mean, I remember there was a Channel nine reporter
who did this walk through of the home. She went
through their infamous movie room. It was quite funny at
the time because it just seemed in pole opposite for
them calling for privacy and then them having this huge
orchestrated marketing campaign around the sale of their home. Well,
it makes sense in this case why they're trying to
(02:11):
keep things private. Obviously they don't really want to be
advertising the fact that they've broken up. It's interesting because
Mitch Orville's dad, Mark, better known as Angry Dad, actually
has his own real estate company called Orvil real Estate,
and he's not the one selling this property, which adds
more fuel to the fire that this is a nasty
breakup behind the scenes. I mean, it's already been spotted
that Chloe has unfollowed Mitch's family. It's quite sad. They
(02:34):
were very close. I think it's best to have a
real estate agent who's removed from the situation because at
the end of the day, if Mark Orvill didn't end
up getting the price that Chloe wanted, it could make
things awkward. You know, maybe she thinks that there's someone
a real estate company that's better suited to the job.
Let's be real. It comes down to the fact that
Chloe and Mitch don't want all of this attention on
(02:55):
the sale of their house. It's very awkward. Mark's campaigns
are in your face. He's always in the content and
he's like jumping in pools that kind of stuff. What's
he meant to say, Oh, this is my son's house
that he's now selling and he's split from his wife, Like,
it's not the sort of stuff he'd want to be doing. Fiance, Please, Amy,
I took a.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Video of someone in the gym just doing nothing and
it was thoughtless and stupid and to be honest, it
never should have happened.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
A Perth couple has given a masterclass in how not
to respond in a PR crisis. Connor Wright was forced
to apologize after backlash erupted over a video his wife
Chloe posted to social media. However, after issuing two public apologies,
the popular content creator double down, calling his naysayers bullies. Now, so,
(03:39):
before we get into the drama, can you give listeners
a rundown on who Connor and Chloe Wright are?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, they are founders of activewear brand Suave Activewhere, and
they launched the brand in twenty twenty three off the
back of their social media careers. So, Connor is a
five fox worker and has almost half a million followers
on TikTok, while Chloe is a derm therapist with around
one hundred and thirty five thousand followers. Now, all of
(04:04):
this drama started when Chloe posted a video of a
man using a rowing machine at a gym to her
Snapchat without his knowledge. So in the vision, Chloe mocked
the man's rowing technique, writing it turns out we have
been doing the roller wrong all these years now. Understandably,
people were pretty upset to see the owner of an
active where brand making fun of someone at the gym.
(04:24):
I mean, it's a pretty bizarre move when you consider
an active where brand's marketing hinges on making people feel
inspired and comfortable to go to the gym, and I
think this is people's worst fear, Like if you're a
newbie to a gym, often you feel really self conscious,
like am I doing this right? Like is someone going
to pay me out? And especially when these two have
been quite motivational online, like they've given across this image
(04:47):
that they're welcoming in all of this. It just blows
my mind because these are people in the fitness space,
so they would be well aware of TikTok videos where
people literally erupt if they're in the background of something
at accidentally, like you know what, an influence is trying
to film themselves and then people are in the background
and they're like what a dickhead for including me in this, Like,
this is actually you've actually shot this person in a
(05:09):
very vulnerable state. They've got no idea that they're being
laughed at. Yeah, I mean there's definitely etiquette around shooting
in the gym. I mean the interesting thing is Chloe
wasn't actually at the gym herself. She was eating dinner
in a restaurant opposite a gym and filmed it through
the window. Now, unsurprisingly, this clip made its way to
Tea Time, which is a Facebook gossip forum. It also
(05:29):
went viral after US influencer Joey Swell shared it, and
he's got around five point three million followers. Yeah. I mean,
as soon as Joey got his hands and I was like,
this is not good for Connor and Chloe. What adds
an even more awkward element to this saga is only
a couple of weeks ago, Connor went viral for asking
his fellow business owners for advice. So he shared that
(05:52):
his business was struggling and he didn't know how to
fix it. Well, this was not the solution, no, and
he was instantly praised for being vulnerable and he received
an outpouring of support and advice from people in the
business community as well as his own activewear community, and
he ended up making another video saying things had turned around,
(06:12):
and he thanked everyone for their support and said that
there had been an uptake in sales. Now, some of
those people who supported Connor and purchased from Suave Activewear
off the back of this video are now calling for
a refund. They're saying they're not happy that they supported
this business. It just shows how quickly something can erupt
on social media and how one minute you can be
(06:33):
a hero and the next you're the villain. Now. Connor
ended up issuing a public apology on the active wear
brands TikTok and in the video, he was dressed in
his work uniform and spoke from his car, and he
said he wanted to wait until he was home with
Chloe to make the video together because she really wanted
to apologize as well, but he couldn't wait any longer
to address the matter. Let's take a listen to more
(06:55):
of what he said.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I'm not on here to excuse the behavior. She understands
that what she did was wrong and she is truly sorry.
People think Swab's a big team and it's not. It's
just me and Chloe helps out. I am dealing with
business for the first time myself. It's my first time living,
it's her first time living, and in the public eye,
things hit differently, and we really need to be more
cautious of what we post every single day. I work
(07:18):
to take on the feedback of our community and continue
improving and making it a better product for you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Now, he went on, and it really felt like he
was reading straight from chat GPT because he acknowledged that
for some people, the gym is a daunting place full
of judgment, and he said that it takes vulnerability to
go to the gym and that they understand that they
have violated that trust. He finished up by saying that
they were extremely sorry to have disappointed their community with
a poor taste joke and said it's been a major
(07:46):
lesson and he hopes people can accept the apology.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
The video has gone absolutely viral. At the time of recording,
it has one point three million views. This apology has
been popping up all over my fore page and it's
got international. There are US content creators stitching it up
and responding to it. A lot of Australians have also
done the same thing and it really didn't get the
response he was after. If anything, it has fueled criticism further.
(08:12):
A lot of people were saying, well, where is Chloe?
She should have to apologize as well. Yeah, and what's
confused a lot of people is why was he suddenly
claiming that he's the sole business owner Because Chloe has
long been publicly presented as the co founder of Suave.
I mean, she's listed on the brand's website as the
co founder as well as on the brand's TikTok. What
(08:34):
do you think of a comment about, oh, it's our
first time living, because that copped a lot of criticism.
I mean, it's everyone's first time living. I mean it
didn't even make sense. It's like, if you're going to apologize,
at least take accountability now. Two days later, Chloe fronted
the cameras, sharing a twenty seven second apology to the
brand's TikTok, and just like Connor's video, Chloe's has since
(08:54):
gone viral with one point five million views. In the video,
Chloe said the reason why her apology was a few
days late was because she needed to stop and reflect.
She then said this.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And to be honest, are you all in an apology?
I took a video of someone in the gym just
doing nothing, and it was thoughtless and stupid, and to
be honest, it never should have happened. I'm sorry to
everyone that I offended and to the Suave community. I
am really sorry for letting you guys down. I will
do better. The gym is a very vulnerable place and
I did violate that. I promise you I have learned
from this and I hope you guys can accept my
apology now.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Despite this apology video only running for twenty seven seconds,
there were four editing cuts. Basically after each sentence, she
had to stop the camera and then read from her
script and say it again. It just made it seem
so disingenuous. I mean, this apology didn't do anything to
curb the backlash. It actually incited it more. A lot
of comments is called to boycott the brand, while others
(09:49):
dished abuse towards Chloe. The top comment was you owe
us an apology for those curtain banks first, to be honest,
and that comment got over five point six thousand likes.
I mean, that is just not needed. Those sorts of
comments about people's appearance. Yeah, it is really unnecessary. I
mean the comment that most people resonated with was the
most emotionless and robotic apology of twenty twenty six that
(10:12):
got thirty one thousand likes. My favorite comment on the
post was sorry Ben, who's got four point eight thousand likes. Now,
for those not across it, that is a quote from
Summer Heights High. I mean, I have to say I
understand the feedback, not the personal attacks on Chloe, but
it did feel very emotionless, and I know people were
(10:33):
calling for Chloe to comment, but it really just demonstrated
that there was no internal alignment going on behind the scenes,
because when you're in the midst of a PR crisis
like this, you really need to stick to one spokesperson
that has a clear message. And I think it would
have worked much better if they presented the apology like
they originally planned together, because Chloe's apology then just really
(10:56):
felt tacked on and insincere. It was like very reactive
because people were calling for her to then say something. Well,
if these couldn't get worse. A few days later, Connor
completely doubled down and essentially renegged on his apology. I
have to laugh because this is probably one of the
worst things I've ever seen on TikTok. Let's take a
listen to some of what he said.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
All right, motherfuckers, you asked for an apology, you got
two of them. It still wasn't fucking good enough.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Now I'm gonna fucking bite back.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You woke left hard keyboard warrior motherfuckers sitting behind your
fucking screens, on your little faceless profiles, bullying away. My
wife filmed a fucking video that eighty percent of you
would have filmed yourself. It just would have ended up
in a fucking group chat, not like that, dickhead and
put on a main story. While you all claim to
(11:45):
be having the moral high ground and making her take
accountability for her actions, you are fucking doing the exact
same thing you are accusing her of.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I actually burst out laughing when the video popped up
on my feed. I genuinely thought it was sat because
I've been having a look at his TikTok and he
posted all these videos of like, oh, the other day,
I had this really brave moment where I got up
in front of all of my workmates and did a speech,
and he was talking about how vulnerable he was, and
then I was like, this is just in total conflict. Yeah,
(12:17):
this image that you're trying to put out there, it
was very aggressive, wasn't it. It kind of reminded me
of when you absolutely crack and someone should have just
taken away his phone, Like why was he allowed to
have his phone and put this out there? But the
thing is, I get it. I get it. Like some
of the points he made were correct. Two roles don't
make a ride, Like if someone stuffs up on the internet,
(12:39):
it doesn't mean you can go tell them to kill
themselves and bully them relentlessly. But it was the delivery
was so off. It's like you can't call people fuck
tards or whatever. Yeah, to your point, Amy Connor went
on to share screenshots of countless troll messages that he
and Chloe had received since this all went down. I
couldn't believe the bit of the video when Connor went
(13:00):
and called out this content creator called James So. James
owns his own activewear company called Elite LifeWear, and Connor
said in business, you learned something called trademarking, and then
went on to claim that he had actually trademarked this
man's business Elite lifewere Co out of spite. He then said,
stay tuned for the cease and desist letter is the
(13:20):
best two hundred and fifty dollars I've ever spent. I mean,
this just reflects so poorly on Connor. It makes it
look like the initial apology was a croc of shit
and they didn't believe anything that they were saying. And two,
it kind of makes you question the other vulnerable content
that he's been putting out there about being a better
person and inspiring others. I mean, who wants to be
spiteful like that and try and ruin someone else's business? Yeah,
(13:42):
I mean all this video did was prove Connor and
Chloe's naysay is right in saying that the apology was disingenuous.
I mean, when it comes to public apologies, you actually
need to demonstrate that you've taken accountability and shown some
corrective action. I mean this was the complete opposite of that.
He literally shirked all responsibility and pain to themselves as
the victims. And I think the most awkward thing is
(14:03):
that while this was all going on, Connor and Chloe
were posting new videos as normal about packing orders on
swave active wes TikTok. I mean, if I was their
PR advisor, I would have said, stop posting altogether, deal
with this backlash, because all it did was increase the criticism. Also,
stop putting out mixed messaging. One minute, We're so so sorry,
next minute, oh fuck you, this is obviously fucking fake.
(14:25):
We gave you your apology. You know, we typed how
to apologize and to take the GPT and write it out.
What more do you want?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
While I think this is a terrible PR strategy, the
thought crossed my mind, is he actually trying to target
a new audience because this backflip video really would appeal
to a certain demographic, right winged people that are sick
of you know, the woke community. Yeah, because he said
something at the end like this is the new type
of content you'll be seeing from us. Is he trying
(14:53):
to tap into the sabi audience. Well, I think he
probably thought, we're never going to be able to change
the mind of the people who have been offended by this,
so let's just go all out there, like we've got
eyes on our brand right now, Let's post this absolutely
horrendous message and see if we can get that side
of the internet to come over and buy our active wear.
I'm so fucking sick of as stupid bitch. Anna Paul's
(15:16):
latest attempt at a redemption arc has backfired. More than
a year on from her cancelation. The TikToker tried to
make light of the situation, but all it did was
reignite the controversy. Now, before we get into the latest,
so can you please give listeners a quick refresher on
the scandal. Well. Early last year, Anna Paul faced major
backlash after her brother's ex girlfriend, Mikayla Tester, posted a
(15:39):
viral video accusing her of being fake, manipulative, and misleading
fans about her upbringing and online persona. The controversy escalated
when Mikayla accused her ex boyfriend Addis Paul of emotional, financial,
and sexual abuse during their relationship. Now, Mikayla then went
on to accuse Anna of an and defending her brother's behavior.
(16:02):
I have to put it out there. Addis and Anna
publicly denied the claims, but this was absolutely massive at
the time. It wasn't just a few that played out
on TikTok. This made traditional media headlines for months, and
it resulted in Anna losing her nice girl persona and
also one million of her seven million followers. Yeah, and
the controversy simmered down almost exactly a year ago, and
(16:25):
since then, Anna has continued to post quite normally. She's
sort of gone with the whole ignorance's bliss strategy until
about a month ago, when she was forced to address
backlash during a TikTok live. So during the live, her
comment section was spammed with a bunch of derogatory comments
and allegations directed at her brother Addas, and Anna ended
up addressing a comment relating to a video from her
(16:47):
OnlyFans account that had resurfaced on Reddit. So, in the vision,
Anna and Mikayla were topless, and it appeared that Addis
was filming the video because a voice that sounded like
his was audible in the background, and the video seemingly
backed up Mikayla's claim that Addas filmed some of Anna's
Only Fans content. So in the live, Anna said, are
you showering with your brother? I'm showering with him every
(17:09):
single day. I'm dating him. I'm actually dating my brother.
Did you not know this? That's so funny. I can't
hate when she tries to be funny about this, as
if she's in on the joke and you're just like, look,
no one's finding it funny. Yeah, well the joke is
about incest. It's really not funny.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And you would have thought this whole TikTok Live debacle
would have actually shown Anna, hey, the Internet has not
actually forgotten or forgiven you. But clearly not, because since then,
she's made two more reels mocking her cancelations. So in
the first reel, she jumped on that top five horror
movie TikTok trend where people list actual life advents as
horror movies. She wrote one it made me feel broke.
(17:46):
Two do you realization? Three the way to telling me
I'm ordering too much? Four going away without my boyfriend.
Five Papa being homeless. I don't think enough time has
passed to be joking about these things now. The top
comment under the video was nah, it was my brother
films my only fail, and that comment got over fifteen
(18:08):
thousand likes. One of those likes actually came from Anna herself.
Maybe she thought I've got to be in on the
joke too. Yeah, I mean on that thread, someone else wrote,
and you're dating your brother needs to be at the top,
to which Anna replied literally with three skull emojis to
make things even more awkward. Anna's dad, Hans, also commented
on the video, writing ha ha ha with a love heart,
(18:29):
to which Anna replied, Papa, get back to the Woolies
car park. How do you even have a phone? Oh
my god, what the fuck? That's so awkward. I know,
as we've touched on, she's trying to look like she's
in on the joke, but I don't think people want
her to be in on it because people think that
there's truth to these statements, but there's such big allegations
as well, and there are things that no one's laughing about,
(18:51):
Like you're meant to be taking this seriously, Anna, Like
she was apparently going away and learning from her mistakes
and all this shit, and now you're just using it
as to laugh about. I mean, the gas lighting didn't
stop there. So just last week she posted a video
of her lying on the couch with her cat while
I think it was her mum was stroking both of
their heads in the background, and it was captioned I
(19:12):
think I need a PowerPoint on my own law. I'm
a viewer to what did Anna Paul do and why
is it everything? She added the skull emoji. Now in
know what do you respect? Anna? You don't actually need
a PowerPoint. You need to listen to Outspoken. We have
episodes in February to April that cover it, or alternatively,
Mikayla Tests to put out a think it was like
ten hour podcast series called Unset that's also available on YouTube.
(19:36):
I don't like the way that she's speaking about herself
in third person as well, like Anna Paul as if
she's you know it a bit like I don't know.
That just rubs me up the wrong way, and it
is downplaying the allegations against her. I don't think she's
trying to be big headed. I think it's more about
trying to detach herself away from this character that she's
saying people have invented of her. Now. Unsurprisingly, this video
(19:59):
was sweat Fleet deleted, but it didn't stop it from
being reshared across TikTok and since then, Anna's postmoderators have
been working in overdrive, but it seems like they're not
even quick enough to stop the spam, which includes people
posting a screenshot of her from the only Fans video
that resurfaced that Addis Paul allegedly filmed.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Mikayla was quick to respond to Anna's video in a TikTok,
which has now wrapped up six point four million views.
She said this, I'm so fucking sick of as stupid bitch. Seriously,
shut the fuck up. You posting about this shit like
it's anything other than a joke is so insulting to
all of your brother's victims. This is how sisters speak.
(20:39):
I know that they weren't actually really sister in laws,
but I just love the shut the fuck up, you
know what I mean, Just the absolute calling her out
of the bullshit like she's not how bitch. It might
be how sisters speak, but not sister in laws. No,
I'm saying, yeah, but it's a very sister vibe to
be like, shut the fuck up. I know some listeners
might find Mikayla's tone pretty aggressive, but to me, it
comes across as someone who is just so over I mean,
(21:01):
Mikhayla poured hours and hours of time into putting out
that series on YouTube exposing Anna Paul. Not only would
it have taken time but emotional distress to talk about
these serious allegations, incidents that didn't just allegedly happen to her,
but happened to other young people, and to have this
used as now internet fodder. Like, I can see why
(21:23):
she's angry. I mean, she made a really good point
in this video as well. She said, Look, I've never
been sued for defamation because every single thing I've said
was a fact. And she also said, all you can
do is laugh about it because it's so fucking sick
and twisted. I mean, let's call it for what it is.
It is completely disturbing that Una Paul appears to be
mocking women who've publicly spoken out about experiencing sexual abuse.
(21:48):
The reality is Anna Paul's brother, Addis Paul, was sentenced
in twenty twenty three over statutory rape offenses. He pleaded
guilty to three charges of carnal knowledge of a girl
age between twelve and sixteen. Now for context, carnal knowledge
is a legal term that refers to sexual intercourse with
someone below the age of consent. In Queensland, where he's from,
(22:10):
the age of consent is sixteen, and legally someone under
that age cannot consent because they are considered incapable of
making an informed decision in that situation. Now, the incidents
he pled guilty to occurred between December twenty seventeen and
October twenty eighteen, when Addis was aged between sixteen and seventeen. Now,
despite pleading guilty, no conviction was formally recorded. Instead, he
(22:32):
was placed on a twelve month good behavior bond and
paid some fines for compensation. And because no conviction was recorded,
Adas is not listed on this sex offender registry.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Since then, Addis Paul's ex girlfriend, Alice Patterson has publicly
confirmed that she was the victim in that case. Late
last week, she responded to Anna's tiktoks saying this.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Hey, I was the first victim of your brother that
you tried to silence online. I don't know if you remember,
so I'll just quickly recap a fee. You made a
fifty minute long video about me, lying saying that I
was compulsive liar, saying that I was crazy. You let
all of your fans come and send me. Hey, I
had to drop out of school. I got bullied by
my entire grade because the lies that you told in
that video.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You called a thirteen year old me ugly. I really
love that she's found her voice in all of this
because she was silenced by the Paul family for so long.
It's also really interesting because a lot of what she's
saying Anna could actually sue her for defamation, but it
seems like Alice has been spurred on by Mikayla and
the fact that Michayla was never sued over the comments
(23:32):
she made on YouTube. Yeah, I mean, Alice has been
speaking out ever since Mikayla Tester originally called Anna and
Addis out last year, and she hasn't stopped.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
She has a playlist on her TikTok dedicated to documenting
her experiences with the polls. Some of the videos have
over a million views. I mean even just last week,
she did this review of the fifty minute video Anna
put out about her back in twenty twenty, and in
that video, Anna incited her fans to bully the then teenager.
(24:04):
She actually revealed that the video was used against Adis
in the court case, and she said that she should
have sued them for releasing it because it was all lies,
but unfortunately she didn't have the money at the time.
Getting back to Anna's videos. I am just baffled by
this PR strategy. I don't understand how she ever thought
it would be okay to joke about such a serious situation.
(24:24):
And this has really backfired on her because all it
has done is invite Mikayla and Alice to reshare their
stories and reignite the topic for debate. I think she
and her team must have been hoping that maybe people
had hit their limit on the topic and it had
sort of got to the point where they would say
to Mikayla and Alice, I'll just get over it. I mean,
that has happened to a small degree, but promisingly people
(24:47):
seem to be like, hang on a second, and pulling
her up on it and being like, we have not
forgotten what has happened. One person who hasn't forgotten is
Veruca Sault. She has been posting I've got to say
some hilarious tiktoks about it, and I say that we
probably can't actually air any of them because they're just
so defametry or potentially different. But then again, the whole
(25:08):
smoking gun in this situation is if what all of
these people are saying is untrue, when what then why
haven't the Paul family sued them? One of his content
is still up and readily available. I mean they both
have enough well, Anna has enough money to do so.
I mean it's not like they have to worry about
receipts coming out. I mean that's often what stops people
from going forward with the defamation cases. They don't want
(25:30):
their phone to be subpoened and all their text messages
to come out. But I mean, Mikhayla test has already
revealed most of them. Can we also take a moment
for Jason Donovan saying, oh, yeah, Kylie and Michael. The
next thing I knew they were heading into.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
The bathroom together.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Bitch, I almost choked on my wiglak. This week, Kylie
Minogue's docu series dropped on Netflix, and I think we
all need to spare a thought for her old boyfriend
Jason Donovan. He was an app stand out on this
docu series. He is, of course, the former Neighbors star
who is now fifty seven, and he admitted that he
still gets asked about Kylie on a daily basis. Let's
(26:11):
listen to what he said.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
I mean, the amount of times I get into a
cab and someone will go how's Kylie? And it's like, oh, fuck,
I don't fucking know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
You go and ask fucking her and.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That you know, it's not the disrespect to her, it's
just come on, man, you know that's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I love that this was his opening line on the
docu series because as soon as I heard it, I thought,
this guy is going to give us the goods. He's
not holding back, and it sounded like he was still
a bit dirty about the way things ended with Kylie,
which we will get into in a second. It's a
strange move to Sam sick of being asked about her,
but then appear on the doco. He had to be.
(26:51):
He's a big part of her early years, so it
would not have been the same without him. Though he
made this documentary. I would have liked to have seen
those two reunite. Tho they actually have reunited since at
the premiere, so they were posing for photos together. I
was googling quite a bit while watching this, and one
of the first searches I did was does Jason Donovan
have a wife? And he does. He's been married for
(27:13):
twenty five years and they have three kids together, and
he recently did an interview on Jamie Lang's podcast, and
he spoke about how hard it is for his wife
to continually have Kylie mentioned all the time, and I
suppose be compared to her, it would be absolutely awful. Now,
we need to get into some background about how Kylie
and Jason first met, because I thought this was pretty funny.
(27:35):
Everyone thinks they first met on the set of Neighbors,
but it was actually when they were kids on a
show called Skyways where they were cast as brother and sister. Yeah,
except he didn't remember her. So when Kylie Minogue came
on set for Neighbors, she's like, oh, yeah, we've met before,
and he's like, oh, I had no recollection and then
he said, oh, it's because she had big button teeth
as a child. And I was like, ba, this guy's
(27:56):
not holding back. Yeah, it was a bit rough. He's
probably like, look, babe, I've had to hear about you
thirty seven years, and we've got to remember he was
the star first. Yeah, so he was on Neighbors first
and she was this new character coming into the show.
It sounded like he never got over that that he
was a big deal to begin with and Kylie was
the nobody at the start or they quickly became global
(28:17):
icons for their role. So they played on screen sweethearts
Scott and Charlene, and it wasn't long before their romance
transitioned off camera. Kylie said at the time, the love
story on the show came first, and then it became
a real thing, and they really were this squeaky clean
it couple of the time. Jason admitted in the docu
series that he thought they were destined to get married.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I loved all the inclusion of the home videos because
I said I was watching it with Dale and I
said they were the first bloggers, but they were literally
filming their holidays. I think I'd love to watch the
whole thing. And you could tell that Kylie had had
it with Jason. It's a whole vision. Well, he was
like pissing her. He was so jealous of her. He
was well, I mean, I think the Cracks released it
(29:00):
appearing when Kylie made it big as a singer, because
he was also trying to pursue a singing career, but
it really wasn't working for him. How funny when they
went to that excerpt of him his video clip and
it was like so evident that he was not a
great singer.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I mean the whole thing is I think he was
ultimately jealous of the fact that her music career was
going so well and his wasn't. But I also think
that he was scared that she was going to leave
him for someone else. And I mean that exact scenario
came true. It's almost like he manifested it. And this
would have been a massive kick to the dick to
him because it was actually Jason who inadvertently set Kylie
(29:37):
up with the man that she would leave him for.
So she left him for rock god Michael Hutchins, Like,
oh my god. See, I knew that Kylie and Michael
Hutchins were together, but I didn't realize they got together
so soon after she split with Jason. And the fact that
Jason took her to the Inexcess concert in nineteen eighty eight,
well he got the vibe. There was a bit of crossover,
(29:58):
and it was really awkward because on the docu series,
Jason was saying that Michael was exactly who he wanted
to be as a musician, and you know, he really
looked up to him, and Michael ended up inviting the
backstage and Jason said it was quite evident early on
that Michael was not interested in speaking to him at all.
He only had eyes for Kylie. I think the best
(30:19):
part of this is when Kylie and Jason were retelling
how they were driving in this crappy car behind Michael's
entourage and they were trying to keep up with him
to go to this after party. We'll just set the scene.
The entourage were in like limos and they were driving
around in this tiny, little white ship box and you
would have been absolutely spewing because Michael ended up taking
Kylie into another room where they spent most of the
(30:41):
night chatting, and he apparently claimed that he had some
sort of medicine that would help her voice sustain the
tour she was about to go on, and she was like,
oh yeah, it was basically an excuse for them to
catch up at another time. This actually reminds me of
Steph class Smith and young Blood because recently she had
him on her podcast and she told a story about
how her and her husband were invited backstage and they
(31:04):
were part of his entourage in Melbourne, and I was like, oh, Steph,
he clearly was interested in you. I mean, I think
she knew that as well. Get deep down, let's be clear,
I mean not to be that person. But in terms
of Kylie, she had to go for it. I mean,
who's not going for Michael Hutchins over Jason Donovan. Then
I had this very conversation with my husband. I was like,
(31:24):
I feel sad for Jason Donovan and he's like, who
wouldn't have done that? And then he reminded me she
was twenty one. I was like, true, if you went
to see Dean Guy and we were dating and you
were twenty one, you were totally And I was like, probably, Oh,
I mean it was it's such a I actually said
I wouldn't you'd feel too bad. Yeah. Bradon was watching
it with me and he's like, what a fucking dickhead
(31:44):
doing that to Jason Donovan. I'm like, look at Michael Hotches. Yeah,
but it also depends what's going on in your relationship
at the time, Like cracks were already appearing, they were
at each other's throats, and they were in their early twenties.
I mean, obviously it's not the right thing to do morally,
but you can't really blame her in this situation. That's
what my husband was saying he was like, Jason wasn't
being that great to her. I think it also helped
(32:05):
her career because it helped her move away from just
playing this character of Charlene and Scott. She became her
own person and they became this sort of mega couple together.
They ended up dating for two years, which I'm surprised
they actually made it that long because both of them
were on tour. They wouldn't have been able to spend
much time together. Michael would have had so many girls
throwing themselves at him. You could tell that Kylie was
(32:28):
so into him still, Like that was the saddest part.
She had no anger towards him. Like putting two and
two together, it sounded like maybe he hadn't been faithful
whilst on tour and he had dumped her, but she
was still singing his praises. I mean, I think that
probably has a lot to do with the fact that,
you know, he passed away in nineteen ninety seven, So
(32:49):
I don't think you're really going to go on your
documentary and bag out a guy. I don't think. I
don't think it was just that though. I think that
she felt a really genuine connection and I mean, and
she has previously said that their relationship was doomed because
he was a broken man. He did suffer with a
lot of addiction issues and also depression, So I think
(33:09):
that maybe she blamed a lot of that for the
reason that they couldn't be together. I mean, it's clear
that this relationship had a profound effect on Kylie's life.
In this docu series, she referred to that relationship as
her most meaningful and she said I've probably been looking
for something like that ever since, and I haven't got it.
I have to say, I'm yet to watch this doco
because I have been glued all weeken to off campus.
(33:32):
Do you take that com and you're about Garrett not
being hot? I'm quite appalled with myself. And it's not
often that I say I was wrong, but yes, I
was wrong. It's quite funny. So if you've been sending
me all these tiktoks, it was like, how awkward when
you're falling in love with Garrett Graham and your husband
walks it. Yeah, it was kind of like you forget
that you're a happily married woman. I knew that you
would love this show. This is why Amy needs to
(33:54):
watch it as well. Okay, and you have to watch
Kylie too, because it is a great watch. The Kylie
docco is one one of the best I've seen for
a while. Like, I'm actually jealous that you get to
watch it because I enjoyed it that much. It just
felt fun and I just loved reliving all of the eighties.
I mean, I had no idea that she was referred
to as the what was it, the singing budget? Singing budget. Oh,
I'm jealous. You get to watch Off Campus from the start,
(34:16):
and Amy, I think you need to make a promise
to the listeners that you're actually going to watch it
and come back to us maybe on the subs episode.
I think she's weero interest. I think she should watch
the Summer I turn pretty first. No, No, I think
she'd preferred this one better. It's a bit more fast paced. Amy,
you would fall in love with this guy instantly. Don't
like American teen dramas? All right, well you're missing now.
Please please just watch it because I'm really interested to
(34:38):
hear your opinion on it. Please, can you just watch
it with Dale? How many episodes it's been watching it
with me? I think it's ten episodes. Some people actually
watched all ten hours in one not I don't think
type of show. I don't think I'll be able to
get Dale to watch, but I might watch by myself
when he goes to bed. Well that is where we're
going to leave things today. But if you want to
hear more from us, we drop a bonus episode of
Outspoken every Thursday for Outspoken Plus subscribers. All the details
(35:01):
to sign up are in our show notes. We also
have a second podcast called The mums Group, which comes
out on a Wednesday. Make sure you're following us on
Spotify and Apple at the mums Group. This episode was
recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of
the Adelaide Planes. 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 Torba, I'm Kate Torber, and I'm Sophie Torber and
coming up on today's show, Anna Paul's attempt at a
redemption arc backfires, The Suave Active Where, pr Disaster, and
Jason Donovan's Ultimate Kick to the Dick the First. Mitch
(00:25):
Auvil has shared a cryptic post that points to the
reason behind his rumoured breakup with Chloe Zepp. The og
Influencers shared a quote to his Instagram story that read
normalized not forcing connections with people. If someone doesn't see
the value in having you by their side, don't try
to convince them now. This update, of course, comes after
the pair have unfollowed each other on social media and
(00:47):
removed photos together. There are now also rumors floating around
that they have put their Newcastle home on the market.
So Chloe and Mitch only made the move to Newcastle
from the Gold Coast in June last year, and it
was all a part of this plan to step back
from social media and live regular lives. So Chloe closed
down her active where brand, Zepp and Mitch started a
(01:07):
nine to five job as a career. He was actually
influencer updates AU that broke the news, so she revealed
she got a tip off that someone had spotted the
influencers home advertised at a local real estate company. Apparently
it's not listed online. They have had a really interesting
relationship when it comes to real estate dot com because
the first time they purchased a home on the Gold Coast,
(01:29):
they shared a photo with them in front of the
SOULD sign, and even though they tried to conceal the
exact location and some identifying features, a lot of followers
were able to quickly ascertain exactly where they lived. It
made them feel really unsafe. They actually ended up having
a home invasion in that home. They then went on
to sell that house and did this huge pr campaign
(01:50):
trying to drum up as much attention as they could.
I mean, I remember there was a Channel nine reporter
who did this walk through of the home. She went
through their infamous movie room. It was quite funny at
the time because it just seemed in pole opposite for
them calling for privacy and then them having this huge
orchestrated marketing campaign around the sale of their home. Well,
it makes sense in this case why they're trying to
(02:11):
keep things private. Obviously they don't really want to be
advertising the fact that they've broken up. It's interesting because
Mitch Orville's dad, Mark, better known as Angry Dad, actually
has his own real estate company called Orvil real Estate,
and he's not the one selling this property, which adds
more fuel to the fire that this is a nasty
breakup behind the scenes. I mean, it's already been spotted
that Chloe has unfollowed Mitch's family. It's quite sad. They
(02:34):
were very close. I think it's best to have a
real estate agent who's removed from the situation because at
the end of the day, if Mark Orvill didn't end
up getting the price that Chloe wanted, it could make
things awkward. You know, maybe she thinks that there's someone
a real estate company that's better suited to the job.
Let's be real. It comes down to the fact that
Chloe and Mitch don't want all of this attention on
(02:55):
the sale of their house. It's very awkward. Mark's campaigns
are in your face. He's always in the content and
he's like jumping in pools that kind of stuff. What's
he meant to say, Oh, this is my son's house
that he's now selling and he's split from his wife, Like,
it's not the sort of stuff he'd want to be doing. Fiance, Please, Amy,
I took a.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Video of someone in the gym just doing nothing and
it was thoughtless and stupid and to be honest, it
never should have happened.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
A Perth couple has given a masterclass in how not
to respond in a PR crisis. Connor Wright was forced
to apologize after backlash erupted over a video his wife
Chloe posted to social media. However, after issuing two public apologies,
the popular content creator double down, calling his naysayers bullies. Now, so,
(03:39):
before we get into the drama, can you give listeners
a rundown on who Connor and Chloe Wright are?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, they are founders of activewear brand Suave Activewhere, and
they launched the brand in twenty twenty three off the
back of their social media careers. So, Connor is a
five fox worker and has almost half a million followers
on TikTok, while Chloe is a derm therapist with around
one hundred and thirty five thousand followers. Now, all of
(04:04):
this drama started when Chloe posted a video of a
man using a rowing machine at a gym to her
Snapchat without his knowledge. So in the vision, Chloe mocked
the man's rowing technique, writing it turns out we have
been doing the roller wrong all these years now. Understandably,
people were pretty upset to see the owner of an
active where brand making fun of someone at the gym.
(04:24):
I mean, it's a pretty bizarre move when you consider
an active where brand's marketing hinges on making people feel
inspired and comfortable to go to the gym, and I
think this is people's worst fear, Like if you're a
newbie to a gym, often you feel really self conscious,
like am I doing this right? Like is someone going
to pay me out? And especially when these two have
been quite motivational online, like they've given across this image
(04:47):
that they're welcoming in all of this. It just blows
my mind because these are people in the fitness space,
so they would be well aware of TikTok videos where
people literally erupt if they're in the background of something
at accidentally, like you know what, an influence is trying
to film themselves and then people are in the background
and they're like what a dickhead for including me in this, Like,
this is actually you've actually shot this person in a
(05:09):
very vulnerable state. They've got no idea that they're being
laughed at. Yeah, I mean there's definitely etiquette around shooting
in the gym. I mean the interesting thing is Chloe
wasn't actually at the gym herself. She was eating dinner
in a restaurant opposite a gym and filmed it through
the window. Now, unsurprisingly, this clip made its way to
Tea Time, which is a Facebook gossip forum. It also
(05:29):
went viral after US influencer Joey Swell shared it, and
he's got around five point three million followers. Yeah. I mean,
as soon as Joey got his hands and I was like,
this is not good for Connor and Chloe. What adds
an even more awkward element to this saga is only
a couple of weeks ago, Connor went viral for asking
his fellow business owners for advice. So he shared that
(05:52):
his business was struggling and he didn't know how to
fix it. Well, this was not the solution, no, and
he was instantly praised for being vulnerable and he received
an outpouring of support and advice from people in the
business community as well as his own activewear community, and
he ended up making another video saying things had turned around,
(06:12):
and he thanked everyone for their support and said that
there had been an uptake in sales. Now, some of
those people who supported Connor and purchased from Suave Activewear
off the back of this video are now calling for
a refund. They're saying they're not happy that they supported
this business. It just shows how quickly something can erupt
on social media and how one minute you can be
(06:33):
a hero and the next you're the villain. Now. Connor
ended up issuing a public apology on the active wear
brands TikTok and in the video, he was dressed in
his work uniform and spoke from his car, and he
said he wanted to wait until he was home with
Chloe to make the video together because she really wanted
to apologize as well, but he couldn't wait any longer
to address the matter. Let's take a listen to more
(06:55):
of what he said.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I'm not on here to excuse the behavior. She understands
that what she did was wrong and she is truly sorry.
People think Swab's a big team and it's not. It's
just me and Chloe helps out. I am dealing with
business for the first time myself. It's my first time living,
it's her first time living, and in the public eye,
things hit differently, and we really need to be more
cautious of what we post every single day. I work
(07:18):
to take on the feedback of our community and continue
improving and making it a better product for you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Now, he went on, and it really felt like he
was reading straight from chat GPT because he acknowledged that
for some people, the gym is a daunting place full
of judgment, and he said that it takes vulnerability to
go to the gym and that they understand that they
have violated that trust. He finished up by saying that
they were extremely sorry to have disappointed their community with
a poor taste joke and said it's been a major
(07:46):
lesson and he hopes people can accept the apology.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
The video has gone absolutely viral. At the time of recording,
it has one point three million views. This apology has
been popping up all over my fore page and it's
got international. There are US content creators stitching it up
and responding to it. A lot of Australians have also
done the same thing and it really didn't get the
response he was after. If anything, it has fueled criticism further.
(08:12):
A lot of people were saying, well, where is Chloe?
She should have to apologize as well. Yeah, and what's
confused a lot of people is why was he suddenly
claiming that he's the sole business owner Because Chloe has
long been publicly presented as the co founder of Suave.
I mean, she's listed on the brand's website as the
co founder as well as on the brand's TikTok. What
(08:34):
do you think of a comment about, oh, it's our
first time living, because that copped a lot of criticism.
I mean, it's everyone's first time living. I mean it
didn't even make sense. It's like, if you're going to apologize,
at least take accountability now. Two days later, Chloe fronted
the cameras, sharing a twenty seven second apology to the
brand's TikTok, and just like Connor's video, Chloe's has since
(08:54):
gone viral with one point five million views. In the video,
Chloe said the reason why her apology was a few
days late was because she needed to stop and reflect.
She then said this.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And to be honest, are you all in an apology?
I took a video of someone in the gym just
doing nothing, and it was thoughtless and stupid, and to
be honest, it never should have happened. I'm sorry to
everyone that I offended and to the Suave community. I
am really sorry for letting you guys down. I will
do better. The gym is a very vulnerable place and
I did violate that. I promise you I have learned
from this and I hope you guys can accept my
apology now.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Despite this apology video only running for twenty seven seconds,
there were four editing cuts. Basically after each sentence, she
had to stop the camera and then read from her
script and say it again. It just made it seem
so disingenuous. I mean, this apology didn't do anything to
curb the backlash. It actually incited it more. A lot
of comments is called to boycott the brand, while others
(09:49):
dished abuse towards Chloe. The top comment was you owe
us an apology for those curtain banks first, to be honest,
and that comment got over five point six thousand likes.
I mean, that is just not needed. Those sorts of
comments about people's appearance. Yeah, it is really unnecessary. I
mean the comment that most people resonated with was the
most emotionless and robotic apology of twenty twenty six that
(10:12):
got thirty one thousand likes. My favorite comment on the
post was sorry Ben, who's got four point eight thousand likes. Now,
for those not across it, that is a quote from
Summer Heights High. I mean, I have to say I
understand the feedback, not the personal attacks on Chloe, but
it did feel very emotionless, and I know people were
(10:33):
calling for Chloe to comment, but it really just demonstrated
that there was no internal alignment going on behind the scenes,
because when you're in the midst of a PR crisis
like this, you really need to stick to one spokesperson
that has a clear message. And I think it would
have worked much better if they presented the apology like
they originally planned together, because Chloe's apology then just really
(10:56):
felt tacked on and insincere. It was like very reactive
because people were calling for her to then say something. Well,
if these couldn't get worse. A few days later, Connor
completely doubled down and essentially renegged on his apology. I
have to laugh because this is probably one of the
worst things I've ever seen on TikTok. Let's take a
listen to some of what he said.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
All right, motherfuckers, you asked for an apology, you got
two of them. It still wasn't fucking good enough.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Now I'm gonna fucking bite back.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
You woke left hard keyboard warrior motherfuckers sitting behind your
fucking screens, on your little faceless profiles, bullying away. My
wife filmed a fucking video that eighty percent of you
would have filmed yourself. It just would have ended up
in a fucking group chat, not like that, dickhead and
put on a main story. While you all claim to
(11:45):
be having the moral high ground and making her take
accountability for her actions, you are fucking doing the exact
same thing you are accusing her of.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I actually burst out laughing when the video popped up
on my feed. I genuinely thought it was sat because
I've been having a look at his TikTok and he
posted all these videos of like, oh, the other day,
I had this really brave moment where I got up
in front of all of my workmates and did a speech,
and he was talking about how vulnerable he was, and
then I was like, this is just in total conflict. Yeah,
(12:17):
this image that you're trying to put out there, it
was very aggressive, wasn't it. It kind of reminded me
of when you absolutely crack and someone should have just
taken away his phone, Like why was he allowed to
have his phone and put this out there? But the
thing is, I get it. I get it. Like some
of the points he made were correct. Two roles don't
make a ride, Like if someone stuffs up on the internet,
(12:39):
it doesn't mean you can go tell them to kill
themselves and bully them relentlessly. But it was the delivery
was so off. It's like you can't call people fuck
tards or whatever. Yeah, to your point, Amy Connor went
on to share screenshots of countless troll messages that he
and Chloe had received since this all went down. I
couldn't believe the bit of the video when Connor went
(13:00):
and called out this content creator called James So. James
owns his own activewear company called Elite LifeWear, and Connor
said in business, you learned something called trademarking, and then
went on to claim that he had actually trademarked this
man's business Elite lifewere Co out of spite. He then said,
stay tuned for the cease and desist letter is the
(13:20):
best two hundred and fifty dollars I've ever spent. I mean,
this just reflects so poorly on Connor. It makes it
look like the initial apology was a croc of shit
and they didn't believe anything that they were saying. And two,
it kind of makes you question the other vulnerable content
that he's been putting out there about being a better
person and inspiring others. I mean, who wants to be
spiteful like that and try and ruin someone else's business? Yeah,
(13:42):
I mean all this video did was prove Connor and
Chloe's naysay is right in saying that the apology was disingenuous.
I mean, when it comes to public apologies, you actually
need to demonstrate that you've taken accountability and shown some
corrective action. I mean this was the complete opposite of that.
He literally shirked all responsibility and pain to themselves as
the victims. And I think the most awkward thing is
(14:03):
that while this was all going on, Connor and Chloe
were posting new videos as normal about packing orders on
swave active wes TikTok. I mean, if I was their
PR advisor, I would have said, stop posting altogether, deal
with this backlash, because all it did was increase the criticism. Also,
stop putting out mixed messaging. One minute, We're so so sorry,
next minute, oh fuck you, this is obviously fucking fake.
(14:25):
We gave you your apology. You know, we typed how
to apologize and to take the GPT and write it out.
What more do you want?
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
While I think this is a terrible PR strategy, the
thought crossed my mind, is he actually trying to target
a new audience because this backflip video really would appeal
to a certain demographic, right winged people that are sick
of you know, the woke community. Yeah, because he said
something at the end like this is the new type
of content you'll be seeing from us. Is he trying
(14:53):
to tap into the sabi audience. Well, I think he
probably thought, we're never going to be able to change
the mind of the people who have been offended by this,
so let's just go all out there, like we've got
eyes on our brand right now, Let's post this absolutely
horrendous message and see if we can get that side
of the internet to come over and buy our active wear.
I'm so fucking sick of as stupid bitch. Anna Paul's
(15:16):
latest attempt at a redemption arc has backfired. More than
a year on from her cancelation. The TikToker tried to
make light of the situation, but all it did was
reignite the controversy. Now, before we get into the latest,
so can you please give listeners a quick refresher on
the scandal. Well. Early last year, Anna Paul faced major
backlash after her brother's ex girlfriend, Mikayla Tester, posted a
(15:39):
viral video accusing her of being fake, manipulative, and misleading
fans about her upbringing and online persona. The controversy escalated
when Mikayla accused her ex boyfriend Addis Paul of emotional, financial,
and sexual abuse during their relationship. Now, Mikayla then went
on to accuse Anna of an and defending her brother's behavior.
(16:02):
I have to put it out there. Addis and Anna
publicly denied the claims, but this was absolutely massive at
the time. It wasn't just a few that played out
on TikTok. This made traditional media headlines for months, and
it resulted in Anna losing her nice girl persona and
also one million of her seven million followers. Yeah, and
the controversy simmered down almost exactly a year ago, and
(16:25):
since then, Anna has continued to post quite normally. She's
sort of gone with the whole ignorance's bliss strategy until
about a month ago, when she was forced to address
backlash during a TikTok live. So during the live, her
comment section was spammed with a bunch of derogatory comments
and allegations directed at her brother Addas, and Anna ended
up addressing a comment relating to a video from her
(16:47):
OnlyFans account that had resurfaced on Reddit. So, in the vision,
Anna and Mikayla were topless, and it appeared that Addis
was filming the video because a voice that sounded like
his was audible in the background, and the video seemingly
backed up Mikayla's claim that Addas filmed some of Anna's
Only Fans content. So in the live, Anna said, are
you showering with your brother? I'm showering with him every
(17:09):
single day. I'm dating him. I'm actually dating my brother.
Did you not know this? That's so funny. I can't
hate when she tries to be funny about this, as
if she's in on the joke and you're just like, look,
no one's finding it funny. Yeah, well the joke is
about incest. It's really not funny.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And you would have thought this whole TikTok Live debacle
would have actually shown Anna, hey, the Internet has not
actually forgotten or forgiven you. But clearly not, because since then,
she's made two more reels mocking her cancelations. So in
the first reel, she jumped on that top five horror
movie TikTok trend where people list actual life advents as
horror movies. She wrote one it made me feel broke.
(17:46):
Two do you realization? Three the way to telling me
I'm ordering too much? Four going away without my boyfriend.
Five Papa being homeless. I don't think enough time has
passed to be joking about these things now. The top
comment under the video was nah, it was my brother
films my only fail, and that comment got over fifteen
(18:08):
thousand likes. One of those likes actually came from Anna herself.
Maybe she thought I've got to be in on the
joke too. Yeah, I mean on that thread, someone else wrote,
and you're dating your brother needs to be at the top,
to which Anna replied literally with three skull emojis to
make things even more awkward. Anna's dad, Hans, also commented
on the video, writing ha ha ha with a love heart,
(18:29):
to which Anna replied, Papa, get back to the Woolies
car park. How do you even have a phone? Oh
my god, what the fuck? That's so awkward. I know,
as we've touched on, she's trying to look like she's
in on the joke, but I don't think people want
her to be in on it because people think that
there's truth to these statements, but there's such big allegations
as well, and there are things that no one's laughing about,
(18:51):
Like you're meant to be taking this seriously, Anna, Like
she was apparently going away and learning from her mistakes
and all this shit, and now you're just using it
as to laugh about. I mean, the gas lighting didn't
stop there. So just last week she posted a video
of her lying on the couch with her cat while
I think it was her mum was stroking both of
their heads in the background, and it was captioned I
(19:12):
think I need a PowerPoint on my own law. I'm
a viewer to what did Anna Paul do and why
is it everything? She added the skull emoji. Now in
know what do you respect? Anna? You don't actually need
a PowerPoint. You need to listen to Outspoken. We have
episodes in February to April that cover it, or alternatively,
Mikayla Tests to put out a think it was like
ten hour podcast series called Unset that's also available on YouTube.
(19:36):
I don't like the way that she's speaking about herself
in third person as well, like Anna Paul as if
she's you know it a bit like I don't know.
That just rubs me up the wrong way, and it
is downplaying the allegations against her. I don't think she's
trying to be big headed. I think it's more about
trying to detach herself away from this character that she's
saying people have invented of her. Now. Unsurprisingly, this video
(19:59):
was sweat Fleet deleted, but it didn't stop it from
being reshared across TikTok and since then, Anna's postmoderators have
been working in overdrive, but it seems like they're not
even quick enough to stop the spam, which includes people
posting a screenshot of her from the only Fans video
that resurfaced that Addis Paul allegedly filmed.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Mikayla was quick to respond to Anna's video in a TikTok,
which has now wrapped up six point four million views.
She said this, I'm so fucking sick of as stupid bitch. Seriously,
shut the fuck up. You posting about this shit like
it's anything other than a joke is so insulting to
all of your brother's victims. This is how sisters speak.
(20:39):
I know that they weren't actually really sister in laws,
but I just love the shut the fuck up, you
know what I mean, Just the absolute calling her out
of the bullshit like she's not how bitch. It might
be how sisters speak, but not sister in laws. No,
I'm saying, yeah, but it's a very sister vibe to
be like, shut the fuck up. I know some listeners
might find Mikayla's tone pretty aggressive, but to me, it
comes across as someone who is just so over I mean,
(21:01):
Mikhayla poured hours and hours of time into putting out
that series on YouTube exposing Anna Paul. Not only would
it have taken time but emotional distress to talk about
these serious allegations, incidents that didn't just allegedly happen to her,
but happened to other young people, and to have this
used as now internet fodder. Like, I can see why
(21:23):
she's angry. I mean, she made a really good point
in this video as well. She said, Look, I've never
been sued for defamation because every single thing I've said
was a fact. And she also said, all you can
do is laugh about it because it's so fucking sick
and twisted. I mean, let's call it for what it is.
It is completely disturbing that Una Paul appears to be
mocking women who've publicly spoken out about experiencing sexual abuse.
(21:48):
The reality is Anna Paul's brother, Addis Paul, was sentenced
in twenty twenty three over statutory rape offenses. He pleaded
guilty to three charges of carnal knowledge of a girl
age between twelve and sixteen. Now for context, carnal knowledge
is a legal term that refers to sexual intercourse with
someone below the age of consent. In Queensland, where he's from,
(22:10):
the age of consent is sixteen, and legally someone under
that age cannot consent because they are considered incapable of
making an informed decision in that situation. Now, the incidents
he pled guilty to occurred between December twenty seventeen and
October twenty eighteen, when Addis was aged between sixteen and seventeen. Now,
despite pleading guilty, no conviction was formally recorded. Instead, he
(22:32):
was placed on a twelve month good behavior bond and
paid some fines for compensation. And because no conviction was recorded,
Adas is not listed on this sex offender registry.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Since then, Addis Paul's ex girlfriend, Alice Patterson has publicly
confirmed that she was the victim in that case. Late
last week, she responded to Anna's tiktoks saying this.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Hey, I was the first victim of your brother that
you tried to silence online. I don't know if you remember,
so I'll just quickly recap a fee. You made a
fifty minute long video about me, lying saying that I
was compulsive liar, saying that I was crazy. You let
all of your fans come and send me. Hey, I
had to drop out of school. I got bullied by
my entire grade because the lies that you told in
that video.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
You called a thirteen year old me ugly. I really
love that she's found her voice in all of this
because she was silenced by the Paul family for so long.
It's also really interesting because a lot of what she's
saying Anna could actually sue her for defamation, but it
seems like Alice has been spurred on by Mikayla and
the fact that Michayla was never sued over the comments
(23:32):
she made on YouTube. Yeah, I mean, Alice has been
speaking out ever since Mikayla Tester originally called Anna and
Addis out last year, and she hasn't stopped.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
She has a playlist on her TikTok dedicated to documenting
her experiences with the polls. Some of the videos have
over a million views. I mean even just last week,
she did this review of the fifty minute video Anna
put out about her back in twenty twenty, and in
that video, Anna incited her fans to bully the then teenager.
(24:04):
She actually revealed that the video was used against Adis
in the court case, and she said that she should
have sued them for releasing it because it was all lies,
but unfortunately she didn't have the money at the time.
Getting back to Anna's videos. I am just baffled by
this PR strategy. I don't understand how she ever thought
it would be okay to joke about such a serious situation.
(24:24):
And this has really backfired on her because all it
has done is invite Mikayla and Alice to reshare their
stories and reignite the topic for debate. I think she
and her team must have been hoping that maybe people
had hit their limit on the topic and it had
sort of got to the point where they would say
to Mikayla and Alice, I'll just get over it. I mean,
that has happened to a small degree, but promisingly people
(24:47):
seem to be like, hang on a second, and pulling
her up on it and being like, we have not
forgotten what has happened. One person who hasn't forgotten is
Veruca Sault. She has been posting I've got to say
some hilarious tiktoks about it, and I say that we
probably can't actually air any of them because they're just
so defametry or potentially different. But then again, the whole
(25:08):
smoking gun in this situation is if what all of
these people are saying is untrue, when what then why
haven't the Paul family sued them? One of his content
is still up and readily available. I mean they both
have enough well, Anna has enough money to do so.
I mean it's not like they have to worry about
receipts coming out. I mean that's often what stops people
from going forward with the defamation cases. They don't want
(25:30):
their phone to be subpoened and all their text messages
to come out. But I mean, Mikhayla test has already
revealed most of them. Can we also take a moment
for Jason Donovan saying, oh, yeah, Kylie and Michael. The
next thing I knew they were heading into.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
The bathroom together.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Bitch, I almost choked on my wiglak. This week, Kylie
Minogue's docu series dropped on Netflix, and I think we
all need to spare a thought for her old boyfriend
Jason Donovan. He was an app stand out on this
docu series. He is, of course, the former Neighbors star
who is now fifty seven, and he admitted that he
still gets asked about Kylie on a daily basis. Let's
(26:11):
listen to what he said.
Speaker 6 (26:13):
I mean, the amount of times I get into a
cab and someone will go how's Kylie? And it's like, oh, fuck,
I don't fucking know.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
You go and ask fucking her and.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
That you know, it's not the disrespect to her, it's
just come on, man, you know that's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I love that this was his opening line on the
docu series because as soon as I heard it, I thought,
this guy is going to give us the goods. He's
not holding back, and it sounded like he was still
a bit dirty about the way things ended with Kylie,
which we will get into in a second. It's a
strange move to Sam sick of being asked about her,
but then appear on the doco. He had to be.
(26:51):
He's a big part of her early years, so it
would not have been the same without him. Though he
made this documentary. I would have liked to have seen
those two reunite. Tho they actually have reunited since at
the premiere, so they were posing for photos together. I
was googling quite a bit while watching this, and one
of the first searches I did was does Jason Donovan
have a wife? And he does. He's been married for
(27:13):
twenty five years and they have three kids together, and
he recently did an interview on Jamie Lang's podcast, and
he spoke about how hard it is for his wife
to continually have Kylie mentioned all the time, and I
suppose be compared to her, it would be absolutely awful. Now,
we need to get into some background about how Kylie
and Jason first met, because I thought this was pretty funny.
(27:35):
Everyone thinks they first met on the set of Neighbors,
but it was actually when they were kids on a
show called Skyways where they were cast as brother and sister. Yeah,
except he didn't remember her. So when Kylie Minogue came
on set for Neighbors, she's like, oh, yeah, we've met before,
and he's like, oh, I had no recollection and then
he said, oh, it's because she had big button teeth
as a child. And I was like, ba, this guy's
(27:56):
not holding back. Yeah, it was a bit rough. He's
probably like, look, babe, I've had to hear about you
thirty seven years, and we've got to remember he was
the star first. Yeah, so he was on Neighbors first
and she was this new character coming into the show.
It sounded like he never got over that that he
was a big deal to begin with and Kylie was
the nobody at the start or they quickly became global
(28:17):
icons for their role. So they played on screen sweethearts
Scott and Charlene, and it wasn't long before their romance
transitioned off camera. Kylie said at the time, the love
story on the show came first, and then it became
a real thing, and they really were this squeaky clean
it couple of the time. Jason admitted in the docu
series that he thought they were destined to get married.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I loved all the inclusion of the home videos because
I said I was watching it with Dale and I
said they were the first bloggers, but they were literally
filming their holidays. I think I'd love to watch the
whole thing. And you could tell that Kylie had had
it with Jason. It's a whole vision. Well, he was
like pissing her. He was so jealous of her. He
was well, I mean, I think the Cracks released it
(29:00):
appearing when Kylie made it big as a singer, because
he was also trying to pursue a singing career, but
it really wasn't working for him. How funny when they
went to that excerpt of him his video clip and
it was like so evident that he was not a
great singer.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I mean the whole thing is I think he was
ultimately jealous of the fact that her music career was
going so well and his wasn't. But I also think
that he was scared that she was going to leave
him for someone else. And I mean that exact scenario
came true. It's almost like he manifested it. And this
would have been a massive kick to the dick to
him because it was actually Jason who inadvertently set Kylie
(29:37):
up with the man that she would leave him for.
So she left him for rock god Michael Hutchins, Like,
oh my god. See, I knew that Kylie and Michael
Hutchins were together, but I didn't realize they got together
so soon after she split with Jason. And the fact that
Jason took her to the Inexcess concert in nineteen eighty eight,
well he got the vibe. There was a bit of crossover,
(29:58):
and it was really awkward because on the docu series,
Jason was saying that Michael was exactly who he wanted
to be as a musician, and you know, he really
looked up to him, and Michael ended up inviting the
backstage and Jason said it was quite evident early on
that Michael was not interested in speaking to him at all.
He only had eyes for Kylie. I think the best
(30:19):
part of this is when Kylie and Jason were retelling
how they were driving in this crappy car behind Michael's
entourage and they were trying to keep up with him
to go to this after party. We'll just set the scene.
The entourage were in like limos and they were driving
around in this tiny, little white ship box and you
would have been absolutely spewing because Michael ended up taking
Kylie into another room where they spent most of the
(30:41):
night chatting, and he apparently claimed that he had some
sort of medicine that would help her voice sustain the
tour she was about to go on, and she was like,
oh yeah, it was basically an excuse for them to
catch up at another time. This actually reminds me of
Steph class Smith and young Blood because recently she had
him on her podcast and she told a story about
how her and her husband were invited backstage and they
(31:04):
were part of his entourage in Melbourne, and I was like, oh, Steph,
he clearly was interested in you. I mean, I think
she knew that as well. Get deep down, let's be clear,
I mean not to be that person. But in terms
of Kylie, she had to go for it. I mean,
who's not going for Michael Hutchins over Jason Donovan. Then
I had this very conversation with my husband. I was like,
(31:24):
I feel sad for Jason Donovan and he's like, who
wouldn't have done that? And then he reminded me she
was twenty one. I was like, true, if you went
to see Dean Guy and we were dating and you
were twenty one, you were totally And I was like, probably, Oh,
I mean it was it's such a I actually said
I wouldn't you'd feel too bad. Yeah. Bradon was watching
it with me and he's like, what a fucking dickhead
(31:44):
doing that to Jason Donovan. I'm like, look at Michael Hotches. Yeah,
but it also depends what's going on in your relationship
at the time, Like cracks were already appearing, they were
at each other's throats, and they were in their early twenties.
I mean, obviously it's not the right thing to do morally,
but you can't really blame her in this situation. That's
what my husband was saying he was like, Jason wasn't
being that great to her. I think it also helped
(32:05):
her career because it helped her move away from just
playing this character of Charlene and Scott. She became her
own person and they became this sort of mega couple together.
They ended up dating for two years, which I'm surprised
they actually made it that long because both of them
were on tour. They wouldn't have been able to spend
much time together. Michael would have had so many girls
throwing themselves at him. You could tell that Kylie was
(32:28):
so into him still, Like that was the saddest part.
She had no anger towards him. Like putting two and
two together, it sounded like maybe he hadn't been faithful
whilst on tour and he had dumped her, but she
was still singing his praises. I mean, I think that
probably has a lot to do with the fact that,
you know, he passed away in nineteen ninety seven, So
(32:49):
I don't think you're really going to go on your
documentary and bag out a guy. I don't think. I
don't think it was just that though. I think that
she felt a really genuine connection and I mean, and
she has previously said that their relationship was doomed because
he was a broken man. He did suffer with a
lot of addiction issues and also depression, So I think
(33:09):
that maybe she blamed a lot of that for the
reason that they couldn't be together. I mean, it's clear
that this relationship had a profound effect on Kylie's life.
In this docu series, she referred to that relationship as
her most meaningful and she said I've probably been looking
for something like that ever since, and I haven't got it.
I have to say, I'm yet to watch this doco
because I have been glued all weeken to off campus.
(33:32):
Do you take that com and you're about Garrett not
being hot? I'm quite appalled with myself. And it's not
often that I say I was wrong, but yes, I
was wrong. It's quite funny. So if you've been sending
me all these tiktoks, it was like, how awkward when
you're falling in love with Garrett Graham and your husband
walks it. Yeah, it was kind of like you forget
that you're a happily married woman. I knew that you
would love this show. This is why Amy needs to
(33:54):
watch it as well. Okay, and you have to watch
Kylie too, because it is a great watch. The Kylie
docco is one one of the best I've seen for
a while. Like, I'm actually jealous that you get to
watch it because I enjoyed it that much. It just
felt fun and I just loved reliving all of the eighties.
I mean, I had no idea that she was referred
to as the what was it, the singing budget? Singing budget. Oh,
I'm jealous. You get to watch Off Campus from the start,
(34:16):
and Amy, I think you need to make a promise
to the listeners that you're actually going to watch it
and come back to us maybe on the subs episode.
I think she's weero interest. I think she should watch
the Summer I turn pretty first. No, No, I think
she'd preferred this one better. It's a bit more fast paced. Amy,
you would fall in love with this guy instantly. Don't
like American teen dramas? All right, well you're missing now.
Please please just watch it because I'm really interested to
(34:38):
hear your opinion on it. Please, can you just watch
it with Dale? How many episodes it's been watching it
with me? I think it's ten episodes. Some people actually
watched all ten hours in one not I don't think
type of show. I don't think I'll be able to
get Dale to watch, but I might watch by myself
when he goes to bed. Well that is where we're
going to leave things today. But if you want to
hear more from us, we drop a bonus episode of
Outspoken every Thursday for Outspoken Plus subscribers. All the details
(35:01):
to sign up are in our show notes. We also
have a second podcast called The mums Group, which comes
out on a Wednesday. Make sure you're following us on
Spotify and Apple at the mums Group. This episode was
recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of
the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past and present.
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