December 9, 2024 • 40 mins
TikTok is divided, after author Kate Forster pointed out that local clothing brand Sabi is following Donald Trump. In what’s being described as an 'internet blood-bath', the latest controversy has sparked death threats, mass-reportings and cancellation.
Fresh from taking out Food Creator of the Year at the TikTok Awards, Michael Finch has opened up about hitting rock bottom and losing his passion for makeup.
Andre Rebelo has been found guilty of murdering his mother. A jury took two days to deliberate after the eight week trial.
And Tammy Hembrow and Matt Zukowski have surprised their followers by opting for a winter honeymoon in Lapland.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influenza and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Amy Torber and coming up on today's show, The Kate
Forster and Sarbi Store TikTok blood Bath, Michael Finch opens
up about hitting rock bottom, and Andre Ribello is found
guilty of murdering his mother. But first, Tammy Hembro and
(00:24):
Matt Zakowski have surprised their followers by opting for a
winter honeymoon in Lapland. It looks so Christmasy and magical there.
It is the perfect time of year to go to Lapland.
But I did think that they might go back to
the Maldives, Yeah, because that's where they got engaged. I
think everyone thought that they would opt for a hot honeymoon.
But it sort of makes sense because they're from the
Gold Coast. They travel whenever they want. You know, Tammy's
(00:46):
got the money to do so, so they're probably thinking,
what's something a little bit different. I also think they
wanted to make a bit of a statement with their
choice of honeymoon location. I mean, their whole wedding has
been a statement so far, and the fact that They're
doing something so different is creating a lot of attention
and engagement. Surely there is some kind of sponsorship agreement
going on, even if it was just Lapland's Tourism Commission
(01:09):
sponsoring this holiday. Because there have been so many epic
tiktoks that Tammy has shared, it's made me feel like
I need to go to Lapland. Like the shots they
got of the northern lights at their resort. I also
want to know did they have someone following them around.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Filming these videos.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's funny you say that, because they actually ended up
getting locked out of their cabin because they wanted to
do a little photo shoot. So Tammy asked Matt to
take some photos of her, and she reminded him to
grab the key card, but he forgot and they ended
up being stranded for quite some time outside.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
They actually had to seek.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Refuge in this half built cabin because it was so cold.
This happened to some friends of mine who were holidaying
in the snow. So they went out to have a
spa and decided to skinny dip and they got locked
out of their chalet. And it was only out of
luck that the person who owned the Airbnb popped by
to see if they're okay.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They're like, we could have died. That is my worst man.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Going back to whether this is a sponsored trip or
there's elements that are gifted, I think it could be
because Tammy has posted the name of the accommodation a
number of times, so they're staying at the Aurora Collection
Laplan Resort, and the Daily Mail is reporting that the
accommodation is costing as much as one thy one hundred
per night, which I actually thought was low balling it
(02:21):
because I definitely think that they're spending a lot more.
I had a look on the accommodation's website and they
offer a four night package, so for four nights is
two nine hundred and sixty five dollars per person, and
with that it includes a lot of the activities that
they're doing. So the activities range from a husky safari,
a reindeer safari, and also Arctic ice karting. I've seen
(02:43):
them do a couple of those activities so far. What
they seem to be spending most of their time doing
is watching Christmas movies, though which I can get around.
It looks so magical. It's quite romantic as well. A
lot of people were calling Tammy and Matt's wedding the
content wedding, and I needed a palate cleanser from them,
and this honey moon has provided the goods. I'm really
enjoying seeing it, but it may get to a point
(03:04):
where I'm sick of it. I think that happens with
when anyone.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Goes on holiday.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Though you enjoyed the first couple of bits of content
and then you're like, can you just get back? It
was getting mass views on TikTok, and it makes me
think that it was a strategy to choose somewhere that
was out of the norm. Like if they went to
the Maule Dives again, everyone would.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Be like yawn.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But the fact that they've gone somewhere like Finland, which
you don't often hear about it looks so magical. But
surely they're not sitting around saying, oh my god, let's
pick our honeymoon location based.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
On what will shop TikTok. These people are content creators.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I feel like, yes, it's not their whole reason for
doing so, but I think it would take up some
of their thinking. Matt literally referred to his wedding photography
and videography as content, Like, of course they're thinking what
is going to create the best content, and they have
hit the nail on the head with this one. I
actually think they're winning people over a little bit with
their very cutesy, romantic content because there's been a lot
(03:53):
more positive comments about Matt in particularly see. I actually
kind of found it funny because it looked like they
were getting on each other's nerves because everyone says that
the honeymoon, Like, I'm actually not referencing my honeymoon here
because I did recently get back. But it's funny because
a lot of the time, honeymoons can be actually the
place where a lot of arguments happen, because you know,
all of the hype from the wedding has ended and
(04:13):
it's just the two of you now focusing on maybe
each other's little quirks. And there were instances where I
was wondering, I wonder if they're getting on each other's
nerves because Tammy didn't look too pleased about getting locked
out of the cabin due to me. People are just
surprised that the marriage has lasted to the honeymoon.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Hi, Tim, and welcome to fag town. So what I'm
going to do here is put all the shit up
that I can't put up on fucking TikTok because I
hope are annoying.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
TikTok is divided after author Kate Forster pointed out that
local clothing brand Sabi is following Donald Trump in what's
been described as an internet blood bath. The latest controversy
has sparked death threats, mass reportings, and cancelation. Now, so
before we get into the drama, can you get listeners
up to speed.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
With who Kate Forster is.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
She is an author who has really exploded in popularity
on TikTok this year. In the space of a few months,
she gained ninety five thousand followers on TikTok. And what
really makes her stand out is that she's not afraid
to share her opinion, which I think all of us
have found really refreshing this year because she's so funny.
She doesn't take herself too seriously, and she doesn't play
(05:22):
into a lot of the games that we see influencers
or TikTokers playing into, like you know, those people who
just want to keep their little click happy and try
and say the right thing. I think That's why she
is so divisive and people are so threatened by her
at the moment because she doesn't just fit into this
influencer click that we've come to know, and she doesn't
(05:43):
care who she upsets. Well, yeah, you don't know what's
coming out of her mouth neck, but you know that
what she's saying she has conviction in and actually believes in. Now,
she's also known for sharing fashion reviews and also encouraging
her audience not to be sheep and to support local businesses.
So she's all about encouraging her followers to not just
buy the brands that fashion influencers are promoting and getting
(06:04):
kickbacks from. Yeah, and she gained a massive amount of
traction back in August when she called out the viral
Henny cardigan. So we covered that story in death. But
at the time, the fifty three year old simply question
why young people all want to look the same and
are wearing this specific cult cardigan, which was created by
influencer Nadia Bartel's label Henny Now. This led to Kate
(06:26):
receiving prank calls and even death threats. It also resulted
in her developing an even stronger follower base. I know
I followed her after this drama. Yeah, a lot of
people did. Now let's get into this latest controversy. And
as we touched on, Kate often creates fashion reviews and
she received an influx of messages from followers asking her
(06:46):
to look into a local brand called Sabi. And this
brand is known for selling oversized T shirts with positive
affirmations across them, and it's owned by a husband and
wife team called Jace McDonald and Ashtadu who live in
Queen Now, some of Kate's followers had noticed that a
growing number of Mummy influencers had started wearing Sarb's shirts,
(07:07):
and all of those influences held very far right views.
Now it is unclear if those influences were gifted the
shirts or if they were just organically wearing them, And
this led Kate to do some research into SARB and
she quickly discovered that one of the owners, Jace, was
following Donald Trump on his personal account. Now he was
(07:27):
also following podcaster Joe Rogan, who heavily supported Trump's campaign. Now,
this led Kate to create a TikTok video connecting the dots,
saying it kind of seems like the brand's co owner
is a Trump supporter. She then referenced the problematic Mummy
influencers who were wearing the brand and explained that a
lot of them share anti vax and also anti suncream views. Now,
(07:50):
she didn't blame Sarby for it, but she pointed out
that if Sarb's views don't align with these influences very
far right views, then they should touch with them and
say don't wear ushirt. I don't know if you can
tell someone not to wear your brand if they've purchased it.
I mean you can obviously say, look, if we've gifted
you something and you're going to be spouting our offensive things,
we prefer you not to wear our clothes. I mean
(08:12):
that is very dependent on what the relationship is between
the brand and the influencer. And I think that's why
Kate has used this as an example, because she must
know that this brand has gifted these influences these T shirts,
and she's trying to point out that clearly they all
have the same views and all their views aligned, and
that's why they're wearing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
The T shirt.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Well, yeah, and that's the thing, because if these influencers
have been organic customers and purchased them themselves. I don't
think that the brand necessarily has the right to tell
people that you're not allowed to wear, and it would
be very difficult for a brand to say, actually, don't
wear that, Like what control do they have over people
wearing their items of clothing?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
As always on TikTok, the response was very mixed to
Kate's video, so there were some followers who immediately started
accusing Ash and Jason being Trump supporters and threatening to
boycott the brand. TikTok videos also started surfacing of Sarbi
customers clarifying that whilst they have worn the t shirts
(09:07):
in the past, they have left leaning views. They were
quite funny on the flip side, Kate started receiving an
influx of hate from some Sabi supporters and.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Also death threats.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I just think it's so wild that this woman has
received so many death threats for simply pointing out who
the brand is followed. But I think it's much greater
than that in terms of it's not just about fashion.
This is about politics and how fashion and politics intersect,
and that's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Why people are so upset.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
It is being alleged that one of the Sabi owners
posted a TikTok in response to Kate's video threatening her.
Now those claims have come from Internet sleuths who say
that the video was quickly taken down, So I want
to reiterate that is just an allegation. There is no
proof of this video still being online. I had actually
never heard of the brand Sabi until this TikTok drama.
(09:57):
But all I could think of was the Sabi and
Soul who were caught up in that Moroccan pillow drama
with Sarah's Dave Rember that a.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Few years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I was like, oh no, these poor bastards. Have they
been dragged into something again. But I can confirm this
is a completely separate business. This is the danger with
TikTok and how quickly things spread. And also when you
like I think I've heard of that brand, I actually
thought of Sabo skirt, which are not in any way
attached to this brand.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Eiough Well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Sabi have addressed the controversy on their Instagram account, so
they wrote legends we just wanted to quickly address some
things that are currently going on. We really didn't want
to get involved and it goes against everything we stand
for here at Sabi. We would never condone bullying people
or brands online. So this is the one and only
statement we will be making. Our entire brand is built
(10:43):
upon building people up and helping them feel happy and
confident while wearing our brand. These comments and the video
that have been shared by people online are not a
true representation of myself and Jas. It's unfortunate that people
can take things out of context and spread rumors and
missing information about us online. Our little brand means the
world to us and our customers mean the world to us,
(11:05):
and we know there are a lot of you all
standing up for us on these posts.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We appreciate you, but.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Ultimately all we want is for everyone to interact in
a positive way that doesn't tear others down. We just
hope everyone can choose their words wisely as words have
power and our actions are online forever.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Big love, Jace and Ash.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The reason why that statement has been included in full
is because the one thing that stood out to me
is that nowhere did they say we do not politically
align with Donald Trump, and one follower called them out
on the obvious admission, saying, maybe you should make it
clear if you actually support Trump and right wing views
or not now. Sabi responded, saying this, we didn't want
(11:47):
to talk about our political views because we aren't political.
Jace in no way supports his views and values. Back
when he first got into government, he was threatening to
put tariffs on clothing importations to protect the US ACA
Jays had a factory in China with huge US orders,
as if we wouldn't want to know everything and anything
to do with it. Also, he is now sitting there
(12:08):
culling who he follows and who he doesn't years later.
It's absolutely insane that people jump to conclusions. Jace is
pro you and whoever you want to be, and all
about leaving a positive impact on the world. To me,
I think that they originally didn't touch on who they
support because they didn't want to offend any customers who
may support Donald Trump, because they would be ostracizing a
(12:30):
collection of their customers. Well, it's a pretty common thing
not to get political when it comes to business, because
we've seen a lot of companies having to backflip, Like recently,
there was a chain of pubs that came out and
said that they were would not be supporting Australia Day
and not be having any celebrations in their pubs literally
twenty four hours after they had to backflip because they
got so many complaints. So I understand why they didn't
(12:51):
initially put it in the statement. However, the way TikTok
works is that the audience were never going to be
happy with that statement. I actually disagree from a pr perspective.
I think it was incredibly important for the owners of
the brand to refute these claims and say, just because
Jason's following Donald Trump, it doesn't mean that he supports
Donald Trump's policies. Because Donald Trump is obviously known for
(13:15):
not caring about women's rights, He's made homophobic, racist comments
if but no one's here saying that Donald Trump is
a good guy. Like It's obviously not a great brand
move to align, particularly from a female brand, to align
with Donald Trump. But the issue is that I think
a lot of people on TikTok and in the world,
and this is why everyone a lot of people were
shocked by the election result. Is they operate in silos
(13:36):
where people think, oh, Donald Trump is the devil. Of course,
no one would ever want to support him, but I mean,
the guy got voted in. There are a lot of
people that support him and the business wouldn't have wanted
to come out and offend those people that did. Particularly,
it seems like they do a line. But does it
mean now that if you follow somebody on social media
that means you one hundred percent support them. Because Abby
(13:58):
Chatfield has also weighed into this debate, and we will
get into what she has said later, but I remember
Abby had to come out and say, oh my god,
I follow all of these people who I don't actually
support their views, but I followed them because I want
to be up to date on what's happening in the world.
I mean, for example, a lot of journalists would be
following Donald Trump. It doesn't mean that they support him
(14:19):
and believe in his views. It's to keep track of
what he's doing. Well, I went and looked at who
followed Donald Trump from Outspoken's name, and quite a number.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Of high profile people did.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Again, I think that that is something that they should
have touched on in the statement, because you know their
point of view. Saying, oh, Jase's following him because of
the tariffs that he's putting on clothing. That seem like
a pretty fair enough statement. But that's something that should
have been mentioned in the initial statement, not as a
response to someone's question. They just thought, from a pr perspective,
it's best not to actually touch on this controversial part.
(14:49):
I'm always really fascinated to hear what actually goes on
behind the scenes when someone finds themselves in the middle
of an Internet controversy like this. And Ash and Jace
were interviewed by news dot com and they said that
they were shocked when they first learned of the backlash.
So they were sitting at their desk and they got
a call from a Stockers who was like, people are
debating onliner. You guys right wing or left wing? And
(15:10):
the Stockers then said, apparently you guys followed Donald Trump.
And they said they were so confused because Sabi itself
doesn't follow Donald Trump, and Ash's account didn't follow Donald Trump.
And then of course they worked out that Jase has
been following him and had been following him.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
For over a decade.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Ash got really overwhelmed because it got to the point
where people were trawling through their personal Facebook accounts and
looking for clues about their political alignment. And she said
she felt sick all weekend and couldn't eat. Now, this
just really demonstrates the toll that it took on her,
and Jay said he found the backlash ridiculous and couldn't
believe there was discussion around who or who didn't buy
(15:47):
and wear the t shirts. He said, it's hard you're
always offending somebody. Why do people need to know our
political beliefs to buy our clothes? He continued, saying if
he believed in Donald Trump, he'd come out and say
sober in gen he said, I don't care if you
do or not. Now, I do want to point out
that the article did state that the couple do not
support Trump, but there wasn't a direct quote from Jay
(16:09):
saying it. And this controversy has gone viral on TikTok,
with creators weighing in on the drama and picking if
their team Kate or Team Sarby. It's even led to
high profile names in the media and influencer landscape also
weighing in. Yeah, so she's on the money. Podcast host
Victoria Devine shared her views on the controversy, and she
(16:29):
appeared to be shocked that some corners of the internet
were siding with Kate Forster.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I'm so done with people coming in to defend someone
who has made their entire brand snarking other women, like
why are you coming in and being like, oh, well,
she never said that exactly, or no, she never knew
who that person was to begin with, or she never
meant it that way. Didn't you watch her entire five
to ten minute rant, like I'm sorry. That content made
(17:00):
with the intention of bringing other women down. It was
made with the intention of making them feel bad about
what they're wearing or what they're doing, or how that
they are doing it, and calling them sheep or calling them,
you know, copy pastes of other.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
People, like it's actually just ick.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That content wasn't made with the intention of lifting women
up and making them feel good about themselves or helping
them be in a better position. It was literally made
with the intention of making you snarky against other women.
And now you're defending the person who said that.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Victoria continued saying she's not naming names because she can't
be bothered. But if followers were going to draw the
inference about what she's talking about, then the shoe probably fits.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
This isn't the first time Victoria has commented on online
controversies surrounding Kate Forster. So during the viral Henny Cardigan's saga,
Victoria showed her support for a fashion TikToker who came
up against Kate, writing under the post, it's not even
being passive aggressive, she's being a bully. I can't believe
in twenty twenty four so many people are supportive of
(18:04):
her content. I think there has been a bit of
back and forth between the two and they both won't
name one another when talking about one another. Victoria had
a pretty mixed response in her comment section. There were
some people who supported her sentiment, whilst others strongly disagreed.
So one user wrote, I don't agree with this. I
don't think Kate was ever trying to tear women down
at all. She is a critical thinker on TikTok and
(18:26):
I actually quite like her approach to talking about fashion.
I watched her video. It wasn't that deep. She never
tore down an individual person, just had an interesting perspective
on a brand. I think the backlash of the comments
is what's gotten out of hand. Whilst another commented the
irony of a woman ragging on another woman for ragging
on another woman. Come on, ladies, see I thought that
(18:48):
when I was watching it, because I find it a
very lazy argument that whenever a woman critiques or analyzes
another woman's behavior, that people go, oh, shouldn't women be
supporting women? I mean, we cop it a lot, so
that's why I'm a little bit defensive about it. Just
because you're a woman, it doesn't mean you have to
blindly agree with all women, because funnily enough, women all
(19:08):
share different opinions and points of view, and it's actually
unfeminist just to support someone because you're the same gender. Like,
I just find it such an interesting argument. I think
people forget that feminism is about equality, so we can
equally critique men and women if.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We are a woman.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Now. Abby Chatfield was also asked to weigh in on
the drama, and she strongly threw her support behind Kate Forster,
calling her her very own Julian Assange. Let's listen to
part of what she said.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
It's just interesting that Kate pointing out that someone follows
a political leader is so scary to people because they
know she's.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
An awful person.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They know that it isn't the right thing to do.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
So instead of being like, hmm, maybe me, a commenter
should think about where my morals lie. They instead attack
Kate and get mad at her. Main thing is that
no one should be sending Kate force to death threats
or threats of violence because she pointed out something that
was a fact. She didn't lie, she didn't make anything up.
She just noticed something and she pointed it out. It's
(20:13):
not really fair to shoot the messenger. And if you're
commenting anything abusive to Kate or making videos saying that she's.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
A bully, I really want you to check your internalized misogyny.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
I really want you to maybe look into what activism
is a little bit, and I want you to reevaluate
your own.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Moral coumbas seems extreme, but I want you to reevaluate
your own value system and why you're so angry that
someone pointed out the truth like it's giving persecuting Juliane Massange.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Kate is mine, Julie Massage, you know what I mean.
She's a wiki leaks right now, not her fault that
they did it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I find it very interesting the vitriol that is thrown
at people like Abby Chatfield and Kate Forster, because I
think a lot of people don't know what to do
with them because they don't want to align with a
group of influencers or a group of media personalities. They
don't care who they piss off, and that is very
(21:11):
threatening to a group of people who don't want to
be called out. And there is a click of influencers
that We've spoken about this a lot, you know, Clementine
Ford has spoken about the cool group, whatever you want
to call this group of people. It gets bigger and
bigger to the point where if anyone ever says anything
against these people, they've got a bunch of other high
(21:32):
profile people to back them up.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And that's not what we want either.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, it's interesting because even when you look at the
fact that Kate Forster called out a lot of influencers
for all wearing the Henny cardigan, it seemed like it really.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Hurt their feelings.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, there was a lot of offense, like oh my god,
when in actual fact, what they probably didn't like Kate
pointing out is that they all get kickbacks for promoting
that cardigan constantly through their affiliate leaks. And what I
find funny is people will call Abby or Kate bullies,
but to me, a bullying behavior is when you gang
up on someone and leave people out, and that's what's
(22:09):
been happening online. And there was no bullying or snark
in Kate's post about Sarbi anyway. I hate the way
that the word bullying is being thrown around because all
she did was review a local brand that she was
asked to review, and in this instance, I think her
intention was to help her audience make informed choices about
who they want to support with their funds. And let's
be honest, it wasn't just the fact that this owner
(22:32):
was following Donald Trump. She was connecting the dots of
quite controversial right wing influences suddenly popping up wearing these
positive affirmation tis who most probably were gifted those T
shirts from the brand. Now Abby then offered up some
free pr advice, saying, if Sarbi don't actually support Donald Trump,
then create a TikTok clarifying it.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
Who knows if them following Donald Trump means they support him,
It could just mean it follow him because they think
he's so horrific.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
If that is the case, they could do a video.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
If you're watching this, if you don't actually support him,
I reckon do a video and just be like guys,
we follow him because he's so cozy, like just I.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Think that could be cleared up very easily.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
So there is a chance that them following Donald Trump
isn't them supporting him.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I think she's right because they've sort of been tiptoeing
around who they support and who they don't support. Have
seem like they don't want to offend anyone, but at
the same time, being neutral is offending both parties almost,
like I think it looks like they have something to
hide when maybe they don't. That's why it's really dangerous
for brands to be on TikTok if they haven't fully
formulated what they stand for as a brand, if they
(23:41):
don't know their core values inside out, if they're not
picking the right influences, because if you're marketing your product
at young women, then you have to be very careful
because they are expecting more and more from brands. Well,
it's because people find it hypocritical to have these positive
affirmations splashed across a T shirt but then be potentially
supporting some who was so negative. It's crazy as well
(24:02):
that this isn't even a US company, like this is
happening in Australia. It shows you how strongly people feel
about Donald Trump and it just actually has been elected.
But also it is a statement the influencers you choose. Now,
they haven't come out and said whether they hand selected
these influences or if they organically wore the T shirts,
but if it is the case and they have selected them,
that sends a statement of what your core values are.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
It's more complicated these days to have a business now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Following this shit storm, Kate Forster lost every single video
on her TikTok account, so her page was mass reported
in what really seemed like an attempt to silence her. Yeah,
she told her followers that she spoke to the team
at TikTok in length and they informed her that it
was mass fake reporting which lost all of her video
So apparently that triggers every single video to be removed.
(24:52):
It's not like a bot. Then someone's paid for a
bot to report her page. Sounds like it. I really
feel for her because she has spent months and months
creating this content, and she's had so many clever videos
which are either comedic or There's been a lot of
time invested in these reviews, and she's really built a
community by people sending those videos on so many people
(25:12):
are asking her, can you please recreate some of the videos,
but she said there's all this weird copywriting around it,
so if she uploads a video that was similar, it
gets removed. Now she ended up switching her account to
private to stop people from reporting her, and it's unclear
what she's going to do moving forward because this seems
to be a real issue for her. People want to
silence her, and people seems like they don't want women,
(25:35):
particularly older women with a strong opinion. It's actually really
disturbing that there's been this orchestrated effort to silence her,
and now this is going to be an example of
what you can do if you don't agree with someone's opinion.
I mean, people are having a problem with her pointing
out that this brand follows Trump. Isn't the behavior that
you've just exhibited very trumpest.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
From appearing to live a glamorous life to the inside
of a jail cell Andre Rabella is now facing a
life life prison term.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeer Andre Rebello has been found guilty of murdering his mother.
A jury took two days to deliberate after the eight
week trial. Prosecutors say Rebello killed his mother for money
after taking out three life insurance policies in her name
just days earlier. He'll be sentenced in April next year
and is expected to get life in prison. Was anyone
(26:24):
else pretty surprised to hear the news? Like from the onset,
I thought he probably was guilty, but to actually have
confirmation that this man murdered his mother, it just rocked
me to my call that anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Could do that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I wasn't shocked, but I think it really did hit
a nerve to know that this is actually what has happened,
to know for a fact this is what happened, and
more gruesome details have come out about the day. So
it started off as a very normal day for Colleen Rebello.
So she had dropped her son off at work at
ten am and she came home and was visited by
andre So he originally denied his mum on the day
(27:01):
of her death. However, in court he revealed he did
in fact visit her, but he said he just chatted
about Gracie and their son over a coffee. Now prosecutors
say that Andrea murdered his mother during this visit. Now,
Colleen's cause of death was actually ruled inconclusive by the coroner,
but it's alleged that Andre suffocated her with a pillow.
(27:22):
It's then believed he removed his mother's clothes and placed
her body in the shower to make it look like
she'd had a medical episode and died of natural causes.
And the saddest part is that at the time of
her death she was happy and healthy. There was no
animosity between her and her son. Can you imagine how
horrifying her final moments would have been for her and
how scarring this also was for Andre's brother, Fabian, because
(27:45):
his mum was meant to go and pick him up
from work at two pm, and when she didn't arrive,
Fabian then returned home to discover her dead in the shower,
so he called paramedics before calling his three siblings, and
Andre was the last sibling to be called. Now, he
ended up joining his siblings at their mother's home as
police arrived, and at no point did Andre mention that
(28:07):
he had seen his mum alive and well that day.
What really shocked me is that police set up surveillance
on Andre, so they planted a listening device in the
bedroom that he shared with Grace Episcopo and also a
camera with audio in their loundroom, so they were listening
into conversations for over three months.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Apparently these recordings made it very clear that Gracie was
unaware that Andre had murdered Colleen, so that's why she
was ruled out of this investigation. Now, I do want
to talk about the reporting because, as we have previously discussed,
Gracie has been front and center despite having nothing to
do with the murder. And of course a murder trial
of this nature, when a son kills their mother, it's
(28:46):
going to have a bit of interest, but the interest
was next level due to Gracie's profile. And it also
has a lot to do with the motive that the
prosecutors were pushing, because during the trial, the prosecutors alleged
that the reason Andre killed his mond was to get
money to fund the couple's lavish lifestyle, and this was
an angle very much focused on by the media. Well,
(29:06):
I'm not surprised because I watched quite a number of
TV reports about this, and they had the perfect overlay
for all of those claims. So they used a lot
of vision from YouTube of Andre and Gracie on these
extravagant holidays in the mal dives that showed him living
the life, but it perfectly pictured his fall from Grace
as well.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Also the fact that he was.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
A reported cryptocurrency trader, like it just fit into that
profile and that story. The reality of the situation is, yes,
he was doing crypto on the side, but it was
making him no money. He previously was actually a delivery
driver for Coals and he was studying, and in his
final year of study he gave it up to be
Gracie's assistant and also to be the primary caregiver of
(29:49):
their son. So Gracie was the breadwinner in this relationship.
And I think I shocked a lot of people because
his background, you know, working for Coals and studying wasn't
really publicized.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
It was almost like, oh.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
He's this cryptocurrency bro who's very successful. And in the trial,
the prosecutors tried to play up that there was this
power in balance in Andrea and Gracie's relationship. So it
was reported that Gracie was making six figures by twenty twenty,
but the court was told the couple were spending more
than they were actually making. Yeah, And it was at
(30:19):
this point that Gracie's influencing career was taking off. She
had a million followers on Instagram and was making good money. However,
she had to support Andre and their son, And if
you cast your mind back to twenty twenty, everyone was struggling.
Brands were cutting marketing budgets.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Everyone was losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And it was at this point that Grace and Andre
they were renting a house for eight eighty a week.
This was this was before COVID, so that was very
expensive at the time, and they all still expensive and
they also had a big car loan for a Range Rover.
And it's interesting because when you are an influencer with
a million followers on Instagram, it does come with a
certain expectation and an image to uphold. And Gracie is
(30:59):
a lifestyle influencer and her content is about promoting an
enviable lifestyle with a nice home, clothes.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And holidays.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So she did have this image to uphold, and it's
believed that Andre was feeling a lot of pressure about that.
What does make me feel uncomfortable about some of this coverage, though,
is the implication that Gracie was pushing this lifestyle or
that she had anything to do with this murder because it's.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
So far from the truth.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Katie obviously got involved in his own lives, like if
he was making up lives that he's made all of
this money off crypto. There are a lot of skeletons
obviously in his closet. And I think it's really unfair
that Gracie isn't being portrayed as a victim in this case.
She's a young mum who now her partner of eight
years has been found guilty of the worst possible crime,
but her baby daddy as well, and instead of feeling
(31:47):
sorry for her, I feel like the media are trying
to portray her as being part of the problem.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And I think that really speaks a lot to how
society views influences at the moment. We want to believe
the worst in people.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And so women as well.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
And if you think about how the media has covered
this story, you know they've used a lot of photos
of Gracie and it's because the media rely on clicks
and engagement and they know that using an image of
this beautiful girl with this guy and saying he murdered
his mum to fund this lifestyle, people are gonna hate
on her. People are going to write disgusting things when
it didn't even have anything to.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Do with her.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Look On a different level, I do understand why the
media is reporting it in this way from working there
for many years. It's the perfect story for them. It's
got all of the right ingredients to sell papers. Not
saying it's the right thing to do, but I totally
understand it. Before we get into the next topic, we
want to issue a trigger warning as we do touch
on issues surrounding alcohol and drug use, as well as suicide.
(32:44):
Freshman taking out food Creator of the Year at the
TikTok Awards, Michael Finch has opened up about hitting rock
bottom and losing his passion for makeup. In the raw
interview on his best friend Amy Jane Brand's podcast Emotional Content,
Michael spoke about suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. I
found this interview fascinating because a lot of our listeners
will know that we did a deep dive into Michael's
(33:06):
career and also his social media transformation last year, and
this filled a lot of blanks for us about what
was going on in the background.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
He might have to redo that.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, and this was Michael's first ever podcast interview and
a bit sad that it didn't take place on our podcast,
But I think the fact that he did it with
his best friend it really helped him feel comfortable and
also safe to open up, and he really.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Did bear all.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
In this interview, he spoke about gradually losing his passion
for makeup. He said he became hyper aware of the
ingredients going into some makeup brands and no longer felt
comfortable putting on his skin every day. When I first
heard this, my first thought was, I wonder how all
of those makeup brands feel that have worked with him
over the years. It's interesting because a part of his
(33:49):
job was to influence people to buy that makeup, and
if he's worried about what's in it and he's telling
people to buy it as well, I mean ethically, he
might have a bit of a hang up about it.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, Well, that kind of makes more sense why.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
He's deleted a lot of his old videos over the years,
because he's really wiped his YouTube channel, and maybe it's
because he doesn't want to encourage something that he no
longer supports. Wow in influencer actually taking accountability for the
past mistakes that they've made, you know. I mean he's
deemed the mistakes and clearing it off the internet and
not making ad revenue off it.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Wow, that is an absolute shot. Yeah, it's fair on him.
It's very refreshing.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Now, as he started falling out of love with makeup,
Michael said he stopped creating content altogether. Now, this was
around twenty nineteen, and he said he quickly ran out
of money and found himself in debt. So he started
working at a friend's nursery. Now, he ended up working
there for over six months, and then COVID hit. I
specifically remember this period of time and I was thinking, God,
(34:45):
I hope he's okay. Yeah, let's listen to what he
said about that time.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
COVID happened after that, and then I didn't want to
put that shit on my skin anymore. Like, you know,
a lot of people had like where they call it
like an awakening before like COVID happened or whatever. I
guess I kind of had that and just like looked
into a lot of the shit that was in makeup
and just was just like, I don't want to put
this shit on my skin anymore. I learnt a lot.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Michael also said he became totally disillusioned by the industry,
and he was rapidly losing followers and relevance from not
posting content, and he knew that the only way to
get attention was to insert himself into some type of drama.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But this wasn't for him.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
He said, he found it gross and took a further
six month hiatus to try and find himself. Yeah, and
he said during that time he went completely off the
rails and became heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Here's a bit of what he said.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
There was a point where I really hit rock bottom
where I was just like a four blown alcoholic and
I was so addicted to that. I don't know if
anyone knows, but there was like this thing that you
used to be. I'm pretty sure. I don't know if
you can still get it, but I used to get
this weed oil, but it was like fake weed oil,
and it was like one hundred anesthetic, yes, synthetic. It
was like one hundred and ten dollars for like a
little bottle of oil. And used to put it through
a veight that used to get up to two hundred
degrees celsius. And I used to just rip that all day,
(35:59):
every single day. My rock bottom was that smoking that
getting addicted to bricks. You know, bricks are fucking those bricks.
I don't know what the real name is, but I don't.
But wait, but like the pharmaceuticals, like the bricks and
the xanax. Yeah, I don't know bricks. I don't know
if bricks and zannies the same thing. I'm pretty sure
it is. Yeah, I got so addicted to them.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
This actually really shocked me because I know he's tiptoed
around having some sort of issues with alcohol and maybe
dabbled in drugs, but the extent of what he was
going through, I had no idea. And he did reference
one occasion where he thought he might not wake up
from his drug binge. And this was very upsetting for
the host, Amy jayden Brand, because she said that she
(36:39):
and Michael had lost contact at that time. They had
a bit of a falling out, and it was really
upsetting to hear that things had gotten so bad for
Michael like that. It's really sad and it just demonstrates
the lack of support influencers have because like child stars
Michael Finch, Shiny Grimman.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
They're the first lot of child.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Teenage influencers who have had this level of fame and
money given to them at this young age, and it's
clear that it's been very hard for Michael to navigate
that well. In this interview, he went into a lot
of detail how he actually developed anxiety from being followed
around by fans. He said he didn't have a problem
with people asking for photos, but what became a problem
(37:18):
was that feeling of being followed. And this happened a
lot to them at nightclubs as well, because at the time,
Michael said that he was secretly smoking. So he said
that Shanny, his best friend at the time, didn't even
know that he was smoking, but he would try and
have a sneaky cigarette when he was out and about,
and he mentioned that someone tried to snap a photo
of him smoking and his manager at the time. I
(37:40):
don't know if this was me a pleasure, but they
apparently grabbed the fans phone and threw it across the room.
It sounds like maybe something me a plasic would allegedly do.
I mean, I don't know if that would be worse
pr someone a manager smashing someone's phone or a photo
of him smoking. I don't know. I think that just
demonstrates to people who didn't grow up in the ear
of Michael Finch just how big he.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Was at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Now, going back to this really difficult time that Michael
found himself in, he said that things were so dire
that he thought he was going to have to move
back to his hometown with his parents. He said he
had a lot of support, though his parents ended up
loaning him fifty thousand dollars to get back on his feet.
He also said some of his influencer friends loaned him money.
I'm not sure if that were Shiny Grimmond, but interesting
(38:23):
that they were very kind enough.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
To do that. He also said he sold.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
A ton of his designer stuff and all of his furniture,
which at the time sparked a lot of speculation. I
remember talking about it on the podcast. He said it
was so awkward because he's like, everyone's like, why are
you selling it? And he's like, oh, it's a secret.
Like he didn't want to say that he had no money,
and he said that his motivation for getting out of
such a dark place was survival. He said he needed
(38:47):
to make money to keep afloat, and this is really
how he made his grand return with food. He said
it was scary to totally change his content because he
said he'd grown his followers by sharing about superficial content
like makeup and design a gear, and he knew that
he was going to get a lot of his followers
dropping off, but he knew that he needed to try
(39:08):
and get new people in. This just makes it even
better that he has become so successful in that area,
because it's just such an incredible transformation going from a
makeup guru to TikTok's best chef. Yeah, I mean, the
fact that he won the TikTok Creator of the Year
for food is incredible. And he said it's really paid
off making the switch because he's now making more money
(39:28):
from his cooking videos than he ever was with Maybe
that's surprising. And he also has said that he has
resided himself to the fact that he will always be
an addict, whether it's with cigarettes, alcohol, or weed, but
it's just about managing it. That is all we have
time for today, though, thank you so much for joining
us for another episode. If you have enjoyed it, could
you please please please leave us a positive review and
(39:51):
also make sure you are subscribed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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 influenza and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Amy Torber and coming up on today's show, The Kate
Forster and Sarbi Store TikTok blood Bath, Michael Finch opens
up about hitting rock bottom, and Andre Ribello is found
guilty of murdering his mother. But first, Tammy Hembro and
(00:24):
Matt Zakowski have surprised their followers by opting for a
winter honeymoon in Lapland. It looks so Christmasy and magical there.
It is the perfect time of year to go to Lapland.
But I did think that they might go back to
the Maldives, Yeah, because that's where they got engaged. I
think everyone thought that they would opt for a hot honeymoon.
But it sort of makes sense because they're from the
Gold Coast. They travel whenever they want. You know, Tammy's
(00:46):
got the money to do so, so they're probably thinking,
what's something a little bit different. I also think they
wanted to make a bit of a statement with their
choice of honeymoon location. I mean, their whole wedding has
been a statement so far, and the fact that They're
doing something so different is creating a lot of attention
and engagement. Surely there is some kind of sponsorship agreement
going on, even if it was just Lapland's Tourism Commission
(01:09):
sponsoring this holiday. Because there have been so many epic
tiktoks that Tammy has shared, it's made me feel like
I need to go to Lapland. Like the shots they
got of the northern lights at their resort. I also
want to know did they have someone following them around.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Filming these videos.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It's funny you say that, because they actually ended up
getting locked out of their cabin because they wanted to
do a little photo shoot. So Tammy asked Matt to
take some photos of her, and she reminded him to
grab the key card, but he forgot and they ended
up being stranded for quite some time outside.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
They actually had to seek.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Refuge in this half built cabin because it was so cold.
This happened to some friends of mine who were holidaying
in the snow. So they went out to have a
spa and decided to skinny dip and they got locked
out of their chalet. And it was only out of
luck that the person who owned the Airbnb popped by
to see if they're okay.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They're like, we could have died. That is my worst man.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Going back to whether this is a sponsored trip or
there's elements that are gifted, I think it could be
because Tammy has posted the name of the accommodation a
number of times, so they're staying at the Aurora Collection
Laplan Resort, and the Daily Mail is reporting that the
accommodation is costing as much as one thy one hundred
per night, which I actually thought was low balling it
(02:21):
because I definitely think that they're spending a lot more.
I had a look on the accommodation's website and they
offer a four night package, so for four nights is
two nine hundred and sixty five dollars per person, and
with that it includes a lot of the activities that
they're doing. So the activities range from a husky safari,
a reindeer safari, and also Arctic ice karting. I've seen
(02:43):
them do a couple of those activities so far. What
they seem to be spending most of their time doing
is watching Christmas movies, though which I can get around.
It looks so magical. It's quite romantic as well. A
lot of people were calling Tammy and Matt's wedding the
content wedding, and I needed a palate cleanser from them,
and this honey moon has provided the goods. I'm really
enjoying seeing it, but it may get to a point
(03:04):
where I'm sick of it. I think that happens with
when anyone.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Goes on holiday.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Though you enjoyed the first couple of bits of content
and then you're like, can you just get back? It
was getting mass views on TikTok, and it makes me
think that it was a strategy to choose somewhere that
was out of the norm. Like if they went to
the Maule Dives again, everyone would.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Be like yawn.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
But the fact that they've gone somewhere like Finland, which
you don't often hear about it looks so magical. But
surely they're not sitting around saying, oh my god, let's
pick our honeymoon location based.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
On what will shop TikTok. These people are content creators.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
I feel like, yes, it's not their whole reason for
doing so, but I think it would take up some
of their thinking. Matt literally referred to his wedding photography
and videography as content, Like, of course they're thinking what
is going to create the best content, and they have
hit the nail on the head with this one. I
actually think they're winning people over a little bit with
their very cutesy, romantic content because there's been a lot
(03:53):
more positive comments about Matt in particularly see. I actually
kind of found it funny because it looked like they
were getting on each other's nerves because everyone says that
the honeymoon, Like, I'm actually not referencing my honeymoon here
because I did recently get back. But it's funny because
a lot of the time, honeymoons can be actually the
place where a lot of arguments happen, because you know,
all of the hype from the wedding has ended and
(04:13):
it's just the two of you now focusing on maybe
each other's little quirks. And there were instances where I
was wondering, I wonder if they're getting on each other's
nerves because Tammy didn't look too pleased about getting locked
out of the cabin due to me. People are just
surprised that the marriage has lasted to the honeymoon.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Hi, Tim, and welcome to fag town. So what I'm
going to do here is put all the shit up
that I can't put up on fucking TikTok because I
hope are annoying.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
TikTok is divided after author Kate Forster pointed out that
local clothing brand Sabi is following Donald Trump in what's
been described as an internet blood bath. The latest controversy
has sparked death threats, mass reportings, and cancelation. Now, so
before we get into the drama, can you get listeners
up to speed.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
With who Kate Forster is.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
She is an author who has really exploded in popularity
on TikTok this year. In the space of a few months,
she gained ninety five thousand followers on TikTok. And what
really makes her stand out is that she's not afraid
to share her opinion, which I think all of us
have found really refreshing this year because she's so funny.
She doesn't take herself too seriously, and she doesn't play
(05:22):
into a lot of the games that we see influencers
or TikTokers playing into, like you know, those people who
just want to keep their little click happy and try
and say the right thing. I think That's why she
is so divisive and people are so threatened by her
at the moment because she doesn't just fit into this
influencer click that we've come to know, and she doesn't
(05:43):
care who she upsets. Well, yeah, you don't know what's
coming out of her mouth neck, but you know that
what she's saying she has conviction in and actually believes in. Now,
she's also known for sharing fashion reviews and also encouraging
her audience not to be sheep and to support local businesses.
So she's all about encouraging her followers to not just
buy the brands that fashion influencers are promoting and getting
(06:04):
kickbacks from. Yeah, and she gained a massive amount of
traction back in August when she called out the viral
Henny cardigan. So we covered that story in death. But
at the time, the fifty three year old simply question
why young people all want to look the same and
are wearing this specific cult cardigan, which was created by
influencer Nadia Bartel's label Henny Now. This led to Kate
(06:26):
receiving prank calls and even death threats. It also resulted
in her developing an even stronger follower base. I know
I followed her after this drama. Yeah, a lot of
people did. Now let's get into this latest controversy. And
as we touched on, Kate often creates fashion reviews and
she received an influx of messages from followers asking her
(06:46):
to look into a local brand called Sabi. And this
brand is known for selling oversized T shirts with positive
affirmations across them, and it's owned by a husband and
wife team called Jace McDonald and Ashtadu who live in
Queen Now, some of Kate's followers had noticed that a
growing number of Mummy influencers had started wearing Sarb's shirts,
(07:07):
and all of those influences held very far right views.
Now it is unclear if those influences were gifted the
shirts or if they were just organically wearing them, And
this led Kate to do some research into SARB and
she quickly discovered that one of the owners, Jace, was
following Donald Trump on his personal account. Now he was
(07:27):
also following podcaster Joe Rogan, who heavily supported Trump's campaign. Now,
this led Kate to create a TikTok video connecting the dots,
saying it kind of seems like the brand's co owner
is a Trump supporter. She then referenced the problematic Mummy
influencers who were wearing the brand and explained that a
lot of them share anti vax and also anti suncream views. Now,
(07:50):
she didn't blame Sarby for it, but she pointed out
that if Sarb's views don't align with these influences very
far right views, then they should touch with them and
say don't wear ushirt. I don't know if you can
tell someone not to wear your brand if they've purchased it.
I mean you can obviously say, look, if we've gifted
you something and you're going to be spouting our offensive things,
we prefer you not to wear our clothes. I mean
(08:12):
that is very dependent on what the relationship is between
the brand and the influencer. And I think that's why
Kate has used this as an example, because she must
know that this brand has gifted these influences these T shirts,
and she's trying to point out that clearly they all
have the same views and all their views aligned, and
that's why they're wearing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
The T shirt.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Well, yeah, and that's the thing, because if these influencers
have been organic customers and purchased them themselves. I don't
think that the brand necessarily has the right to tell
people that you're not allowed to wear, and it would
be very difficult for a brand to say, actually, don't
wear that, Like what control do they have over people
wearing their items of clothing?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
As always on TikTok, the response was very mixed to
Kate's video, so there were some followers who immediately started
accusing Ash and Jason being Trump supporters and threatening to
boycott the brand. TikTok videos also started surfacing of Sarbi
customers clarifying that whilst they have worn the t shirts
(09:07):
in the past, they have left leaning views. They were
quite funny on the flip side, Kate started receiving an
influx of hate from some Sabi supporters and.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Also death threats.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I just think it's so wild that this woman has
received so many death threats for simply pointing out who
the brand is followed. But I think it's much greater
than that in terms of it's not just about fashion.
This is about politics and how fashion and politics intersect,
and that's.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Why people are so upset.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
It is being alleged that one of the Sabi owners
posted a TikTok in response to Kate's video threatening her.
Now those claims have come from Internet sleuths who say
that the video was quickly taken down, So I want
to reiterate that is just an allegation. There is no
proof of this video still being online. I had actually
never heard of the brand Sabi until this TikTok drama.
(09:57):
But all I could think of was the Sabi and
Soul who were caught up in that Moroccan pillow drama
with Sarah's Dave Rember that a.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Few years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I was like, oh no, these poor bastards. Have they
been dragged into something again. But I can confirm this
is a completely separate business. This is the danger with
TikTok and how quickly things spread. And also when you
like I think I've heard of that brand, I actually
thought of Sabo skirt, which are not in any way
attached to this brand.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Eiough Well.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Sabi have addressed the controversy on their Instagram account, so
they wrote legends we just wanted to quickly address some
things that are currently going on. We really didn't want
to get involved and it goes against everything we stand
for here at Sabi. We would never condone bullying people
or brands online. So this is the one and only
statement we will be making. Our entire brand is built
(10:43):
upon building people up and helping them feel happy and
confident while wearing our brand. These comments and the video
that have been shared by people online are not a
true representation of myself and Jas. It's unfortunate that people
can take things out of context and spread rumors and
missing information about us online. Our little brand means the
world to us and our customers mean the world to us,
(11:05):
and we know there are a lot of you all
standing up for us on these posts.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We appreciate you, but.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Ultimately all we want is for everyone to interact in
a positive way that doesn't tear others down. We just
hope everyone can choose their words wisely as words have
power and our actions are online forever.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Big love, Jace and Ash.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The reason why that statement has been included in full
is because the one thing that stood out to me
is that nowhere did they say we do not politically
align with Donald Trump, and one follower called them out
on the obvious admission, saying, maybe you should make it
clear if you actually support Trump and right wing views
or not now. Sabi responded, saying this, we didn't want
(11:47):
to talk about our political views because we aren't political.
Jace in no way supports his views and values. Back
when he first got into government, he was threatening to
put tariffs on clothing importations to protect the US ACA
Jays had a factory in China with huge US orders,
as if we wouldn't want to know everything and anything
to do with it. Also, he is now sitting there
(12:08):
culling who he follows and who he doesn't years later.
It's absolutely insane that people jump to conclusions. Jace is
pro you and whoever you want to be, and all
about leaving a positive impact on the world. To me,
I think that they originally didn't touch on who they
support because they didn't want to offend any customers who
may support Donald Trump, because they would be ostracizing a
(12:30):
collection of their customers. Well, it's a pretty common thing
not to get political when it comes to business, because
we've seen a lot of companies having to backflip, Like recently,
there was a chain of pubs that came out and
said that they were would not be supporting Australia Day
and not be having any celebrations in their pubs literally
twenty four hours after they had to backflip because they
got so many complaints. So I understand why they didn't
(12:51):
initially put it in the statement. However, the way TikTok
works is that the audience were never going to be
happy with that statement. I actually disagree from a pr perspective.
I think it was incredibly important for the owners of
the brand to refute these claims and say, just because
Jason's following Donald Trump, it doesn't mean that he supports
Donald Trump's policies. Because Donald Trump is obviously known for
(13:15):
not caring about women's rights, He's made homophobic, racist comments
if but no one's here saying that Donald Trump is
a good guy. Like It's obviously not a great brand
move to align, particularly from a female brand, to align
with Donald Trump. But the issue is that I think
a lot of people on TikTok and in the world,
and this is why everyone a lot of people were
shocked by the election result. Is they operate in silos
(13:36):
where people think, oh, Donald Trump is the devil. Of course,
no one would ever want to support him, but I mean,
the guy got voted in. There are a lot of
people that support him and the business wouldn't have wanted
to come out and offend those people that did. Particularly,
it seems like they do a line. But does it
mean now that if you follow somebody on social media
that means you one hundred percent support them. Because Abby
(13:58):
Chatfield has also weighed into this debate, and we will
get into what she has said later, but I remember
Abby had to come out and say, oh my god,
I follow all of these people who I don't actually
support their views, but I followed them because I want
to be up to date on what's happening in the world.
I mean, for example, a lot of journalists would be
following Donald Trump. It doesn't mean that they support him
(14:19):
and believe in his views. It's to keep track of
what he's doing. Well, I went and looked at who
followed Donald Trump from Outspoken's name, and quite a number.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Of high profile people did.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Again, I think that that is something that they should
have touched on in the statement, because you know their
point of view. Saying, oh, Jase's following him because of
the tariffs that he's putting on clothing. That seem like
a pretty fair enough statement. But that's something that should
have been mentioned in the initial statement, not as a
response to someone's question. They just thought, from a pr perspective,
it's best not to actually touch on this controversial part.
(14:49):
I'm always really fascinated to hear what actually goes on
behind the scenes when someone finds themselves in the middle
of an Internet controversy like this. And Ash and Jace
were interviewed by news dot com and they said that
they were shocked when they first learned of the backlash.
So they were sitting at their desk and they got
a call from a Stockers who was like, people are
debating onliner. You guys right wing or left wing? And
(15:10):
the Stockers then said, apparently you guys followed Donald Trump.
And they said they were so confused because Sabi itself
doesn't follow Donald Trump, and Ash's account didn't follow Donald Trump.
And then of course they worked out that Jase has
been following him and had been following him.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
For over a decade.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Ash got really overwhelmed because it got to the point
where people were trawling through their personal Facebook accounts and
looking for clues about their political alignment. And she said
she felt sick all weekend and couldn't eat. Now, this
just really demonstrates the toll that it took on her,
and Jay said he found the backlash ridiculous and couldn't
believe there was discussion around who or who didn't buy
(15:47):
and wear the t shirts. He said, it's hard you're
always offending somebody. Why do people need to know our
political beliefs to buy our clothes? He continued, saying if
he believed in Donald Trump, he'd come out and say
sober in gen he said, I don't care if you
do or not. Now, I do want to point out
that the article did state that the couple do not
support Trump, but there wasn't a direct quote from Jay
(16:09):
saying it. And this controversy has gone viral on TikTok,
with creators weighing in on the drama and picking if
their team Kate or Team Sarby. It's even led to
high profile names in the media and influencer landscape also
weighing in. Yeah, so she's on the money. Podcast host
Victoria Devine shared her views on the controversy, and she
(16:29):
appeared to be shocked that some corners of the internet
were siding with Kate Forster.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I'm so done with people coming in to defend someone
who has made their entire brand snarking other women, like
why are you coming in and being like, oh, well,
she never said that exactly, or no, she never knew
who that person was to begin with, or she never
meant it that way. Didn't you watch her entire five
to ten minute rant, like I'm sorry. That content made
(17:00):
with the intention of bringing other women down. It was
made with the intention of making them feel bad about
what they're wearing or what they're doing, or how that
they are doing it, and calling them sheep or calling them,
you know, copy pastes of other.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
People, like it's actually just ick.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That content wasn't made with the intention of lifting women
up and making them feel good about themselves or helping
them be in a better position. It was literally made
with the intention of making you snarky against other women.
And now you're defending the person who said that.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Victoria continued saying she's not naming names because she can't
be bothered. But if followers were going to draw the
inference about what she's talking about, then the shoe probably fits.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
This isn't the first time Victoria has commented on online
controversies surrounding Kate Forster. So during the viral Henny Cardigan's saga,
Victoria showed her support for a fashion TikToker who came
up against Kate, writing under the post, it's not even
being passive aggressive, she's being a bully. I can't believe
in twenty twenty four so many people are supportive of
(18:04):
her content. I think there has been a bit of
back and forth between the two and they both won't
name one another when talking about one another. Victoria had
a pretty mixed response in her comment section. There were
some people who supported her sentiment, whilst others strongly disagreed.
So one user wrote, I don't agree with this. I
don't think Kate was ever trying to tear women down
at all. She is a critical thinker on TikTok and
(18:26):
I actually quite like her approach to talking about fashion.
I watched her video. It wasn't that deep. She never
tore down an individual person, just had an interesting perspective
on a brand. I think the backlash of the comments
is what's gotten out of hand. Whilst another commented the
irony of a woman ragging on another woman for ragging
on another woman. Come on, ladies, see I thought that
(18:48):
when I was watching it, because I find it a
very lazy argument that whenever a woman critiques or analyzes
another woman's behavior, that people go, oh, shouldn't women be
supporting women? I mean, we cop it a lot, so
that's why I'm a little bit defensive about it. Just
because you're a woman, it doesn't mean you have to
blindly agree with all women, because funnily enough, women all
(19:08):
share different opinions and points of view, and it's actually
unfeminist just to support someone because you're the same gender. Like,
I just find it such an interesting argument. I think
people forget that feminism is about equality, so we can
equally critique men and women if.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
We are a woman.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Now. Abby Chatfield was also asked to weigh in on
the drama, and she strongly threw her support behind Kate Forster,
calling her her very own Julian Assange. Let's listen to
part of what she said.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
It's just interesting that Kate pointing out that someone follows
a political leader is so scary to people because they
know she's.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
An awful person.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They know that it isn't the right thing to do.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
So instead of being like, hmm, maybe me, a commenter
should think about where my morals lie. They instead attack
Kate and get mad at her. Main thing is that
no one should be sending Kate force to death threats
or threats of violence because she pointed out something that
was a fact. She didn't lie, she didn't make anything up.
She just noticed something and she pointed it out. It's
(20:13):
not really fair to shoot the messenger. And if you're
commenting anything abusive to Kate or making videos saying that she's.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
A bully, I really want you to check your internalized misogyny.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
I really want you to maybe look into what activism
is a little bit, and I want you to reevaluate
your own.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Moral coumbas seems extreme, but I want you to reevaluate
your own value system and why you're so angry that
someone pointed out the truth like it's giving persecuting Juliane Massange.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Kate is mine, Julie Massage, you know what I mean.
She's a wiki leaks right now, not her fault that
they did it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I find it very interesting the vitriol that is thrown
at people like Abby Chatfield and Kate Forster, because I
think a lot of people don't know what to do
with them because they don't want to align with a
group of influencers or a group of media personalities. They
don't care who they piss off, and that is very
(21:11):
threatening to a group of people who don't want to
be called out. And there is a click of influencers
that We've spoken about this a lot, you know, Clementine
Ford has spoken about the cool group, whatever you want
to call this group of people. It gets bigger and
bigger to the point where if anyone ever says anything
against these people, they've got a bunch of other high
(21:32):
profile people to back them up.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And that's not what we want either.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, it's interesting because even when you look at the
fact that Kate Forster called out a lot of influencers
for all wearing the Henny cardigan, it seemed like it really.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Hurt their feelings.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, there was a lot of offense, like oh my god,
when in actual fact, what they probably didn't like Kate
pointing out is that they all get kickbacks for promoting
that cardigan constantly through their affiliate leaks. And what I
find funny is people will call Abby or Kate bullies,
but to me, a bullying behavior is when you gang
up on someone and leave people out, and that's what's
(22:09):
been happening online. And there was no bullying or snark
in Kate's post about Sarbi anyway. I hate the way
that the word bullying is being thrown around because all
she did was review a local brand that she was
asked to review, and in this instance, I think her
intention was to help her audience make informed choices about
who they want to support with their funds. And let's
be honest, it wasn't just the fact that this owner
(22:32):
was following Donald Trump. She was connecting the dots of
quite controversial right wing influences suddenly popping up wearing these
positive affirmation tis who most probably were gifted those T
shirts from the brand. Now Abby then offered up some
free pr advice, saying, if Sarbi don't actually support Donald Trump,
then create a TikTok clarifying it.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Here's what she said.
Speaker 6 (22:55):
Who knows if them following Donald Trump means they support him,
It could just mean it follow him because they think
he's so horrific.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
If that is the case, they could do a video.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
If you're watching this, if you don't actually support him,
I reckon do a video and just be like guys,
we follow him because he's so cozy, like just I.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Think that could be cleared up very easily.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
So there is a chance that them following Donald Trump
isn't them supporting him.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I think she's right because they've sort of been tiptoeing
around who they support and who they don't support. Have
seem like they don't want to offend anyone, but at
the same time, being neutral is offending both parties almost,
like I think it looks like they have something to
hide when maybe they don't. That's why it's really dangerous
for brands to be on TikTok if they haven't fully
formulated what they stand for as a brand, if they
(23:41):
don't know their core values inside out, if they're not
picking the right influences, because if you're marketing your product
at young women, then you have to be very careful
because they are expecting more and more from brands. Well,
it's because people find it hypocritical to have these positive
affirmations splashed across a T shirt but then be potentially
supporting some who was so negative. It's crazy as well
(24:02):
that this isn't even a US company, like this is
happening in Australia. It shows you how strongly people feel
about Donald Trump and it just actually has been elected.
But also it is a statement the influencers you choose. Now,
they haven't come out and said whether they hand selected
these influences or if they organically wore the T shirts,
but if it is the case and they have selected them,
that sends a statement of what your core values are.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
It's more complicated these days to have a business now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Following this shit storm, Kate Forster lost every single video
on her TikTok account, so her page was mass reported
in what really seemed like an attempt to silence her. Yeah,
she told her followers that she spoke to the team
at TikTok in length and they informed her that it
was mass fake reporting which lost all of her video
So apparently that triggers every single video to be removed.
(24:52):
It's not like a bot. Then someone's paid for a
bot to report her page. Sounds like it. I really
feel for her because she has spent months and months
creating this content, and she's had so many clever videos
which are either comedic or There's been a lot of
time invested in these reviews, and she's really built a
community by people sending those videos on so many people
(25:12):
are asking her, can you please recreate some of the videos,
but she said there's all this weird copywriting around it,
so if she uploads a video that was similar, it
gets removed. Now she ended up switching her account to
private to stop people from reporting her, and it's unclear
what she's going to do moving forward because this seems
to be a real issue for her. People want to
silence her, and people seems like they don't want women,
(25:35):
particularly older women with a strong opinion. It's actually really
disturbing that there's been this orchestrated effort to silence her,
and now this is going to be an example of
what you can do if you don't agree with someone's opinion.
I mean, people are having a problem with her pointing
out that this brand follows Trump. Isn't the behavior that
you've just exhibited very trumpest.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
From appearing to live a glamorous life to the inside
of a jail cell Andre Rabella is now facing a
life life prison term.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeer Andre Rebello has been found guilty of murdering his mother.
A jury took two days to deliberate after the eight
week trial. Prosecutors say Rebello killed his mother for money
after taking out three life insurance policies in her name
just days earlier. He'll be sentenced in April next year
and is expected to get life in prison. Was anyone
(26:24):
else pretty surprised to hear the news? Like from the onset,
I thought he probably was guilty, but to actually have
confirmation that this man murdered his mother, it just rocked
me to my call that anyone.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Could do that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I wasn't shocked, but I think it really did hit
a nerve to know that this is actually what has happened,
to know for a fact this is what happened, and
more gruesome details have come out about the day. So
it started off as a very normal day for Colleen Rebello.
So she had dropped her son off at work at
ten am and she came home and was visited by
andre So he originally denied his mum on the day
(27:01):
of her death. However, in court he revealed he did
in fact visit her, but he said he just chatted
about Gracie and their son over a coffee. Now prosecutors
say that Andrea murdered his mother during this visit. Now,
Colleen's cause of death was actually ruled inconclusive by the coroner,
but it's alleged that Andre suffocated her with a pillow.
(27:22):
It's then believed he removed his mother's clothes and placed
her body in the shower to make it look like
she'd had a medical episode and died of natural causes.
And the saddest part is that at the time of
her death she was happy and healthy. There was no
animosity between her and her son. Can you imagine how
horrifying her final moments would have been for her and
how scarring this also was for Andre's brother, Fabian, because
(27:45):
his mum was meant to go and pick him up
from work at two pm, and when she didn't arrive,
Fabian then returned home to discover her dead in the shower,
so he called paramedics before calling his three siblings, and
Andre was the last sibling to be called. Now, he
ended up joining his siblings at their mother's home as
police arrived, and at no point did Andre mention that
(28:07):
he had seen his mum alive and well that day.
What really shocked me is that police set up surveillance
on Andre, so they planted a listening device in the
bedroom that he shared with Grace Episcopo and also a
camera with audio in their loundroom, so they were listening
into conversations for over three months.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Apparently these recordings made it very clear that Gracie was
unaware that Andre had murdered Colleen, so that's why she
was ruled out of this investigation. Now, I do want
to talk about the reporting because, as we have previously discussed,
Gracie has been front and center despite having nothing to
do with the murder. And of course a murder trial
of this nature, when a son kills their mother, it's
(28:46):
going to have a bit of interest, but the interest
was next level due to Gracie's profile. And it also
has a lot to do with the motive that the
prosecutors were pushing, because during the trial, the prosecutors alleged
that the reason Andre killed his mond was to get
money to fund the couple's lavish lifestyle, and this was
an angle very much focused on by the media. Well,
(29:06):
I'm not surprised because I watched quite a number of
TV reports about this, and they had the perfect overlay
for all of those claims. So they used a lot
of vision from YouTube of Andre and Gracie on these
extravagant holidays in the mal dives that showed him living
the life, but it perfectly pictured his fall from Grace
as well.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Also the fact that he was.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
A reported cryptocurrency trader, like it just fit into that
profile and that story. The reality of the situation is, yes,
he was doing crypto on the side, but it was
making him no money. He previously was actually a delivery
driver for Coals and he was studying, and in his
final year of study he gave it up to be
Gracie's assistant and also to be the primary caregiver of
(29:49):
their son. So Gracie was the breadwinner in this relationship.
And I think I shocked a lot of people because
his background, you know, working for Coals and studying wasn't
really publicized.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
It was almost like, oh.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
He's this cryptocurrency bro who's very successful. And in the trial,
the prosecutors tried to play up that there was this
power in balance in Andrea and Gracie's relationship. So it
was reported that Gracie was making six figures by twenty twenty,
but the court was told the couple were spending more
than they were actually making. Yeah, And it was at
(30:19):
this point that Gracie's influencing career was taking off. She
had a million followers on Instagram and was making good money. However,
she had to support Andre and their son, And if
you cast your mind back to twenty twenty, everyone was struggling.
Brands were cutting marketing budgets.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Everyone was losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And it was at this point that Grace and Andre
they were renting a house for eight eighty a week.
This was this was before COVID, so that was very
expensive at the time, and they all still expensive and
they also had a big car loan for a Range Rover.
And it's interesting because when you are an influencer with
a million followers on Instagram, it does come with a
certain expectation and an image to uphold. And Gracie is
(30:59):
a lifestyle influencer and her content is about promoting an
enviable lifestyle with a nice home, clothes.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And holidays.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So she did have this image to uphold, and it's
believed that Andre was feeling a lot of pressure about that.
What does make me feel uncomfortable about some of this coverage, though,
is the implication that Gracie was pushing this lifestyle or
that she had anything to do with this murder because it's.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
So far from the truth.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Katie obviously got involved in his own lives, like if
he was making up lives that he's made all of
this money off crypto. There are a lot of skeletons
obviously in his closet. And I think it's really unfair
that Gracie isn't being portrayed as a victim in this case.
She's a young mum who now her partner of eight
years has been found guilty of the worst possible crime,
but her baby daddy as well, and instead of feeling
(31:47):
sorry for her, I feel like the media are trying
to portray her as being part of the problem.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And I think that really speaks a lot to how
society views influences at the moment. We want to believe
the worst in people.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And so women as well.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
And if you think about how the media has covered
this story, you know they've used a lot of photos
of Gracie and it's because the media rely on clicks
and engagement and they know that using an image of
this beautiful girl with this guy and saying he murdered
his mum to fund this lifestyle, people are gonna hate
on her. People are going to write disgusting things when
it didn't even have anything to.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Do with her.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Look On a different level, I do understand why the
media is reporting it in this way from working there
for many years. It's the perfect story for them. It's
got all of the right ingredients to sell papers. Not
saying it's the right thing to do, but I totally
understand it. Before we get into the next topic, we
want to issue a trigger warning as we do touch
on issues surrounding alcohol and drug use, as well as suicide.
(32:44):
Freshman taking out food Creator of the Year at the
TikTok Awards, Michael Finch has opened up about hitting rock
bottom and losing his passion for makeup. In the raw
interview on his best friend Amy Jane Brand's podcast Emotional Content,
Michael spoke about suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. I
found this interview fascinating because a lot of our listeners
will know that we did a deep dive into Michael's
(33:06):
career and also his social media transformation last year, and
this filled a lot of blanks for us about what
was going on in the background.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
He might have to redo that.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, and this was Michael's first ever podcast interview and
a bit sad that it didn't take place on our podcast,
But I think the fact that he did it with
his best friend it really helped him feel comfortable and
also safe to open up, and he really.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Did bear all.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
In this interview, he spoke about gradually losing his passion
for makeup. He said he became hyper aware of the
ingredients going into some makeup brands and no longer felt
comfortable putting on his skin every day. When I first
heard this, my first thought was, I wonder how all
of those makeup brands feel that have worked with him
over the years. It's interesting because a part of his
(33:49):
job was to influence people to buy that makeup, and
if he's worried about what's in it and he's telling
people to buy it as well, I mean ethically, he
might have a bit of a hang up about it.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, Well, that kind of makes more sense why.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
He's deleted a lot of his old videos over the years,
because he's really wiped his YouTube channel, and maybe it's
because he doesn't want to encourage something that he no
longer supports. Wow in influencer actually taking accountability for the
past mistakes that they've made, you know. I mean he's
deemed the mistakes and clearing it off the internet and
not making ad revenue off it.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Wow, that is an absolute shot. Yeah, it's fair on him.
It's very refreshing.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Now, as he started falling out of love with makeup,
Michael said he stopped creating content altogether. Now, this was
around twenty nineteen, and he said he quickly ran out
of money and found himself in debt. So he started
working at a friend's nursery. Now, he ended up working
there for over six months, and then COVID hit. I
specifically remember this period of time and I was thinking, God,
(34:45):
I hope he's okay. Yeah, let's listen to what he
said about that time.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
COVID happened after that, and then I didn't want to
put that shit on my skin anymore. Like, you know,
a lot of people had like where they call it
like an awakening before like COVID happened or whatever. I
guess I kind of had that and just like looked
into a lot of the shit that was in makeup
and just was just like, I don't want to put
this shit on my skin anymore. I learnt a lot.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Michael also said he became totally disillusioned by the industry,
and he was rapidly losing followers and relevance from not
posting content, and he knew that the only way to
get attention was to insert himself into some type of drama.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
But this wasn't for him.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
He said, he found it gross and took a further
six month hiatus to try and find himself. Yeah, and
he said during that time he went completely off the
rails and became heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Here's a bit of what he said.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
There was a point where I really hit rock bottom
where I was just like a four blown alcoholic and
I was so addicted to that. I don't know if
anyone knows, but there was like this thing that you
used to be. I'm pretty sure. I don't know if
you can still get it, but I used to get
this weed oil, but it was like fake weed oil,
and it was like one hundred anesthetic, yes, synthetic. It
was like one hundred and ten dollars for like a
little bottle of oil. And used to put it through
a veight that used to get up to two hundred
degrees celsius. And I used to just rip that all day,
(35:59):
every single day. My rock bottom was that smoking that
getting addicted to bricks. You know, bricks are fucking those bricks.
I don't know what the real name is, but I don't.
But wait, but like the pharmaceuticals, like the bricks and
the xanax. Yeah, I don't know bricks. I don't know
if bricks and zannies the same thing. I'm pretty sure
it is. Yeah, I got so addicted to them.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
This actually really shocked me because I know he's tiptoed
around having some sort of issues with alcohol and maybe
dabbled in drugs, but the extent of what he was
going through, I had no idea. And he did reference
one occasion where he thought he might not wake up
from his drug binge. And this was very upsetting for
the host, Amy jayden Brand, because she said that she
(36:39):
and Michael had lost contact at that time. They had
a bit of a falling out, and it was really
upsetting to hear that things had gotten so bad for
Michael like that. It's really sad and it just demonstrates
the lack of support influencers have because like child stars
Michael Finch, Shiny Grimman.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
They're the first lot of child.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Teenage influencers who have had this level of fame and
money given to them at this young age, and it's
clear that it's been very hard for Michael to navigate
that well. In this interview, he went into a lot
of detail how he actually developed anxiety from being followed
around by fans. He said he didn't have a problem
with people asking for photos, but what became a problem
(37:18):
was that feeling of being followed. And this happened a
lot to them at nightclubs as well, because at the time,
Michael said that he was secretly smoking. So he said
that Shanny, his best friend at the time, didn't even
know that he was smoking, but he would try and
have a sneaky cigarette when he was out and about,
and he mentioned that someone tried to snap a photo
of him smoking and his manager at the time. I
(37:40):
don't know if this was me a pleasure, but they
apparently grabbed the fans phone and threw it across the room.
It sounds like maybe something me a plasic would allegedly do.
I mean, I don't know if that would be worse
pr someone a manager smashing someone's phone or a photo
of him smoking. I don't know. I think that just
demonstrates to people who didn't grow up in the ear
of Michael Finch just how big he.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Was at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Now, going back to this really difficult time that Michael
found himself in, he said that things were so dire
that he thought he was going to have to move
back to his hometown with his parents. He said he
had a lot of support, though his parents ended up
loaning him fifty thousand dollars to get back on his feet.
He also said some of his influencer friends loaned him money.
I'm not sure if that were Shiny Grimmond, but interesting
(38:23):
that they were very kind enough.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
To do that. He also said he sold.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
A ton of his designer stuff and all of his furniture,
which at the time sparked a lot of speculation. I
remember talking about it on the podcast. He said it
was so awkward because he's like, everyone's like, why are
you selling it? And he's like, oh, it's a secret.
Like he didn't want to say that he had no money,
and he said that his motivation for getting out of
such a dark place was survival. He said he needed
(38:47):
to make money to keep afloat, and this is really
how he made his grand return with food. He said
it was scary to totally change his content because he
said he'd grown his followers by sharing about superficial content
like makeup and design a gear, and he knew that
he was going to get a lot of his followers
dropping off, but he knew that he needed to try
(39:08):
and get new people in. This just makes it even
better that he has become so successful in that area,
because it's just such an incredible transformation going from a
makeup guru to TikTok's best chef. Yeah, I mean, the
fact that he won the TikTok Creator of the Year
for food is incredible. And he said it's really paid
off making the switch because he's now making more money
(39:28):
from his cooking videos than he ever was with Maybe
that's surprising. And he also has said that he has
resided himself to the fact that he will always be
an addict, whether it's with cigarettes, alcohol, or weed, but
it's just about managing it. That is all we have
time for today, though, thank you so much for joining
us for another episode. If you have enjoyed it, could
you please please please leave us a positive review and
(39:51):
also make sure you are subscribed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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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