Veruca Salt and Anna Paul’s messy TikTok scandal… The revealing university study into Tattle Life. Chloe Morello’s anti-climactic medical emergency… AND The OG boyfriend of Instagram returns to a 9 to 5.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Coming up on today's show, Verrucas Soult and Anna Poul's
messy TikTok scandal, The Revealing University's study into tattle life,
Chloe Morello's anti climatic medical emergency, and the og Boyfriend
at Instagram returns to a nine to five. Hello, and
welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer
and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Amy Torbert
(00:25):
and Sophie you have finally got your conuppance.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I do believe in karma, and this story really proves
that karma is real, because say, CARMA's your boyfriend, Because
listeners will remember. I think it was last year, maybe
a couple of months ago. I walked in on Amy's
husband Dale on the toilet doing a number two, and
I felt specified last time what he was doing obvious.
(00:50):
I mean I felt really bad for him because we
laughed that I could see his legs because his pants
were literally like down to his ankle. Glad, it's just
his legs, yes, anyway, And so Amy and I were
talking in the bathroom getting ready for this episode, and
Amy was standing in the bathroom and as we do,
we go to the toilet in front of each other.
So I just sat on the toilet. Amy left left
the door open. I didn't know that her husband was home.
(01:12):
He then walks past sees me sitting on the toilet.
But I'm actually kind of glad about it because I
was feeling a bit awkward because I felt like I
had something over him. So now we're both equally embarrassed.
So Karma is the guy in the hallway seeing you
on the toilet, Well, yeah, I mean, and also I
mean maybe I still have a little bit of hand
because I was not doing a number two. I was
just doing a week So I still think it's bad
(01:34):
on his end. Well, your pants pulled right down to
the floor, like Dale's work. They definitely weren't. We were
discussing this. Women do not pull their pants to the floor.
I think it was on years if we had a
debate why do men do it? There's also men that
apparently get nude so they can take a shit, but
they'll also have a shower after they've had a pool
as well. How much time do these men have to
be removing all their clothes and then showering. Yeah, I mean,
(01:56):
it's obviously just an at home thing. I suppose girls
have their quirks of going to the toilet, like a
lot of women don't want to do a pu at work.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I did a question being on Instagram to see
what you guys wanted to see.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Madison Willie has revealed her boyfriend Jonathan Sower has been
forced to return to a full time job outside of
influencing the og boyfriend of Instagram, who famously dated Sharanni
Grimman in her heyday, has returned to work in the
finance world now. The thirty one year old previously worked
as an accountant before leaving his job to become Sharnee
Grimman's manager. Now, since then, he has worked as a
(02:36):
model and an influencer. I see Jonathan everywhere. I've seen
him when I'm walking down my shopping center, a big
photo of him at the barber He's ONKFC ads, all
these fast food ads opsm I think as well, all
these male clothing brands. He's everywhere. So he must have
had some success in modeling, yeah, but not so much
success in the influencing space. Because it hasn't really come
(02:58):
as a surprise to me. Thats been forced to return
to nine to five because he has lost over sixty
six thousand followers since May twenty nineteen. He's now sitting
on ninety nine thousand followers. It's pretty interesting because his girlfriend,
Madison Woolly, currently has seven hundred and thirty eight thousand followers,
and normally influencer relationships attract a lot of followers for
(03:21):
both parties. However, when you take a look at Social Blade,
Madison Woolly has also been losing followers in their thousands.
So since July twenty twenty two, she has lost over
eighty one thousand followers. Something is not quite right though,
because prior to that date she was gaining followers at
a very rapid pace despite not having any life milestones
(03:43):
to actually match that growth. Very fishy. Yeah, So, for example,
in August twenty nineteen, she had an influx of fifty
two thousand followers in one month. So you would have
thought her boyfriend's Instagram account would have captured some of
that overflow in that month, but it did not. Her
large follow account is quite puzzling because it also hasn't
bolstered her brand twenty third in Madison, which is a
(04:06):
clothing brand. Yeah, well, she actually came out on her
podcast and said that she'd been really struggling with the
brand and that she was in debt from it, and
recently she has actually got a new manufacturer in Australia
and has been putting out more drops. However, there does
seem to be something going on here because these follow
accounts don't make sense. Yeah, and also we're going to
(04:27):
be talking about Tattle a bit later, but she doesn't
have a Tattle thread. And if you're a huge influencer
in Australia with nearly a million followers, as awful as
it is, you are going to be on that forum.
It she just doesn't seem to be on people's radars.
Back to Jonathan, he did make the temporary move from
Sydney to Noose with Madison late last year and at
the time she said it helped because they both worked
(04:48):
for themselves, so they had this flexibility to work from wherever. However,
I wonder how this job situation is going to affect
that well, since COVID a lot of business jobs are
remote as well, I wonder if he will have that flexibility. Surely,
his modeling career took a bit of a hit when
he did move to Queensland as well, because there wouldn't
have been as many opportunities as in Sydney.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I actually just wondered if her parents had anything to
do with it, because on a recent episode of her podcast,
she spoke about how Jonathan was best friends now with
her mum and dad, and I kind of feel like
maybe they've pulled some strings and got him a job
in NUSA. I think it makes Jonathan ten times more
attractive that he's actually back at work, and I wonder
if we're going to see a trend of influencers returning
(05:30):
to it. We heard Carti Milana and her podcast talk
about how the influencer space is a lot more competitive. Well,
it would definitely make his content a lot more relatable
to other men, because you know that we see all
of these business bro sort of content out there. And
also personally, I think that there'd be more of him
to film. Yeah, but I don't think he is going
(05:50):
to be filming this content. Well, I don't know, because
I noticed for some reason on my snapchat he is
always popping up as a suggestion, you know how they
are suggesting people to follow, and he is often speaking
to his camera in the car. He seems to be
documenting his health and fitness journey. Maybe Snapchat's paying him
because I know that they are really trying to get
influencers back on their platform. Can you imagine if he
(06:10):
returned to his old workplace and everyone's like, oh, knew
you'd come, ruarreling back back, welcome back.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Batman's daughter is so wealthy.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
A very messy scandal has broken out on TikTok between
Varuka Salt and Anna Paul the key we born. TikToker
has accused Anna of allegedly neglecting her father. Now her dad,
Hans has dubbed the allegations as toxic misinformation. Before we
dive in, Kate, can you bring everyone up to speed
with exactly who Varuka Salt is. I always laugh when
(06:43):
I see her name pop up because I actually didn't
twig that she has taken the name from Charlie and
the Chop Factory, so it only dawned on me the
other day. So her real name is Kimberly Summer Hearty,
and she is now twenty five years old. But back
in twenty nineteen, she sparked a national manhunt when she
disappeared from a Gold Coast wedding. She was actually found
(07:05):
a week later by police working in a Woollongong brothel. Now,
given the extreme publicity at the time, Veruka went public
with the fact that she is a sex worker, and
she actually started a successful OnlyFans account off the back
of it. She now has six hundred and forty three
thousand followers on Instagram. Sadly, Veruka has been in the
(07:26):
news lately as her six week old son Cash tragically
passed away in early February. Now, I don't think Anna
Paul needs much of an introduction. She is TikTok Royalty
with over seven million followers and she has built a
following from sharing her traveler ventures with her family online.
She is also one of Australia's biggest only Fans creators. Now, Sophie,
(07:46):
I could not believe it when you sent rukas video through.
What is going on? Well, she has ignited an absolute
shit storm on TikTok and somehow she has inserted herself
into a story that she readily admits has absolutely nothing
to do with her. Now, her reason for dropping this
bomb is that the information has apparently been keeping her
awake at night and she feels she has to tell
(08:08):
everyone now. Veruka posted a series of TikTok videos making
claims about a popular Australian TikToker at the time. She
did not name Anna, but dropped many clues inferring that
it was her, so her audience instantly guessed that she
was talking about Anna Poul. The video has since been deleted,
but Varuka then went on to confirm on her Instagram
(08:31):
story that the allegations she made were about Anna Paul. Now,
before we get into these claims, I do want to
reiterate that these allegations are merely that they are allegations.
There's no factual evidence to say that this is in
fact true. Now, Varuka claims she has been holding onto
this information for a month. She said her babysitter came
(08:52):
to visit her two days after her son passed away
and dropped that she was dating Anna Paul's father, Hans.
What a small world we live in with influence now,
Varuka described the babysitter as a sweet little old lady
who wouldn't make up shit. Let's throw it to a
snippet of Aruka's claims.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
She's telling me that like he smells bad and he
lives in his van and he can't really shower.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
He doesn't have money for food, and I'm like, what
are you talking about. That man's daughter is so wealthy,
what do you mean he doesn't have money for food.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Veruka then went on to explain that she discussed these
allegations with a group of her friends at her son's funeral.
She claimed that one of her friends of a friend
used to live with the pol family and they backed
up these claims. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
My friend and former associate of this influencer went to
go get some food and they saw those person's dad
in the parking lot. So my friends like, what is
this guy doing in the parking lot? And what is
he doing picking up somebody else's food? Doing door dash?
So former associate who's with my friend says, yeah, no,
he's literally homeless. Like the way that his children treat
(10:03):
him is disgusting.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Is it just me that finds it a little bit
strange that this was the topic of discussion at Varuka's
son's funeral. Yeah, I was thinking about that, but then
I reflected on the discussion that we had at a
funeral recently, and a lot of the time you're almost
trying to take your mind off what you're going through.
But you still have a few lighthearted moments, so maybe
this was her way of dealing with this situation now.
(10:26):
Varuka then went on to propose the real reason that
Hans allegedly doesn't live in the house with Anna and
her family. Here's what she.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Said, And the whole reason the dad doesn't live in
the house is because the mum cheated on him. The
mom's really weird and would say stuff like are you going.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
To buy me this? Or do you love Papa more
than me?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And then the children will say so the dad like, oh,
if you wanted to live in the house, you should
have bought.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Bitcoin when we were kids.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
This man is doing door dash so that he can
afford a gym membership, so he can afford a shower
or his showers at the showers at the beach, and
his daughter is so rich and the worst part is
that she sits on the internet and pretends to be
so caring when this man is basically starving and filthy
because she refuses to do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Aruka then went on to say that what eats her
alive about this situation is that Anna sits on the
Internet and plays gift giver. It's interesting to note that
Veruka's allegations come off the back of Anna Paul recently
publicizing the fact that she gave her ex boyfriend Glenn
Thompson a luxury car that some people are saying is
worth up to two hundred thousand dollars. She also gifted
(11:38):
her mother a BMW in twenty twenty two, so she
has been known to gift a lot of cars. So
people are saying, well, why is her dad driving around
in this crummy old van? And Veraruka finished the video
by saying, there's more rumors about the businesses and the breakups,
but she hasn't come out with the rest of it
because she already feels like it's a situation of people
will shoot the messenger. That's very interesting. I don't know
(12:01):
why she is inserting herself into the narrative, particularly after
the last couple of months that she has had. It's
been a tough time for her emotionally, obviously, with the
very devastating passing of her son, and she has been
copying a lot of heat online about how she's been
dealing with it. She's obviously got some terrible messages that
no mother should receive. So I do find it odd
(12:24):
that she is trying to at this point create this
shit storm between her and Anna Paul. Well, it's interesting
because she's not a stranger to these callout videos. She
did make headlines back in twenty twenty one when she
had a public falling out with Peach. I do remember
that now. I mean, obviously Tiktoker's use it as a
strategy to get more followers, to get better engagement. We
(12:45):
saw a couple of weeks ago how Kat Clark was
using Anna Poul's name to boost her branding of her
new beauty launch. I understand why she's done it, but
I think that the timing is so off considering what's
been going on with Ruka these rumors are true, I
don't understand why Anna Paul is expected to fund her
father's lifestyle. I know she comes across as extremely generous online,
(13:08):
but we don't know the ins and outs of their relationship.
I totally agree Amy. We often see influencers gifting their parents'
luxury items, but when I reflect on that with my parents,
I feel like they would feel deeply uncomfortable to accept
those big items from me. And would rather me save
my money. Also, it was very awkward because Aruka has
(13:28):
since come out and said that she actually sent Anna
paul a DM on Friday about the matter, and Anna
viewed it and never replied. But this message was very
had a really rude tone to it, so the message
that she sent was very confronting. She wrote, I found
out not through the influence of viron. I found out
by happenstance that your dad is borderline homeless and living
(13:48):
in his van doing door dash for some money, and
he's showering at the gym slash beat showers. I heard
that you apparently text him just to be in your
videos with you. It hurts me as a former homeless
person and also a parent. I couldn't deal with the
pain if I was him. If this is true, it
also shatters the version of yourself you have shown to
me and your audience. To be honest, I know that
(14:09):
this lifestyle for him is true, but I was wondering
if you have a side or something about it. It
is just so incredibly awkward because in this screenshot you
can see that Anna actually wrote Veraruka a really nice
message saying have fun Angel in response to her going
to the Taylor Swift concert. It just all seems very
high school. I don't understand why this argument needs to
(14:32):
be playing out online. Surely, if Verruka is as connected
as she is in the influencer industry, she could have
spoken privately with Anna about this. Is she was truly
concerned about it. I feel like Ruka's message to Anna
demonstrates this rationale that a lot of gen Zettas have
They sort of try and center themselves in everyone else's story.
So the fact that she has previously been homeless, she
(14:54):
feels like Anna owes her an explanation about her dad's
very private situation. And when you do look at homelessness
rates a lot of the time it's to do with
very personal issues like mental health or addiction. You don't
know what's going on in someone's life. And to expect
to send out a message like that where you have
laid out so many separate allegations to her and she's
(15:14):
supposed to open up. I mean, if anything, this seemed
like a bit of a fishing exercise, so that then
Anna could write in detail, and then maybe she could
maybe Veraruka could use that in a TikTok. Yeah, I
don't understand why Veruka thinks it's any of her business.
Can you imagine how awkward the baby sitter must feel
in all of this. But she's trying to date Anna
Paul's dad and this is all blown up because of her.
(15:36):
I don't really like the way that Veruka went about
sending this message, because she could have messaged her and said, hey, Anna,
are you free for a chat on the phone. It
seems like very accusatory and as you said, it's kind
of like she's trying to trap her to say something.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It seems quite strategic to me because I think Veruka
has probably thought, hmm, I'm going to do a call
that video, but I want to touch all bases and say, actually,
I can't tact at Anna, and these are the receipts.
To me, it doesn't prove anything. And I don't know
why we're digging around in the personal family life of
Anna Paul. It's her dad's prerogative if he wants to
(16:11):
share whatever his situation is. We don't even know if
this is true. Well, these accusations have led to very
curious followers to go and dig more into Anna Paul's
dad's pass and many quickly discovered on his Instagram that
Hans quite openly posts about his adventures in his van,
and in his bio he actually lists van life as
one of his interests. So in one post, he shared
(16:34):
a photo of his dashboard and wrote, another milestone for
my little van slash home. I could not stop in
traffic to document the round number, but who cares. This
car was only ever meant to be an interim solution,
but it's proven itself to be the perfect compromise. Cheap
to run even as a food delivery van, easy to
park anywhere, and comfortable enough to sit in on a
(16:55):
rainy few days. Here's to another three hundred and forty thousand.
He then shared a photo of him he using his
coffee to his van and wrote, if you live in
a van, you were free and can go anywhere. So
it makes perfect sense if you want to be somewhere
in the morning, to go there the night before and
sleep there, no peak hour traffic to fight. So it
is quite clear that yes, he is actually living in
(17:15):
this van, but it seems to be his choice. I
don't think it proves that he's living full time in
his van. I think it just shows that he does
go on road trips and sleeps in the van. I mean,
I don't understand why just because his daughter has come
into money in the last couple of years, it means
that his whole life would change. He might be someone
that loves traveling, that loves camping, that loves being in
(17:37):
his van. Like it's not necessarily a bad thing. I know,
if Dale and I suddenly came into a lot of money,
it wouldn't necessarily affect the way that some of Dale's
family members live. Like, for example, his grandpa lives on
a property, he loves camping. There's no way that he
would accept money from us. And maybe that's what's happened
with Anna Paul's dad. He might, you know, be happy
to stay at a house, but he probably loves the
(17:58):
lifestyle that he has. I think Aruka has called Anna
out on this because she does really like to show
her family in a certain light. So she speaks a
lot about how her mum and dad, despite being divorced,
get on really well and their partners get on well,
and she kind of betrays them as this perfect family
that everyone would love to be a part of. So
(18:19):
I think that's why a lot of people have been
shocked by this apparent revelation because it's against what Anna
has been putting out online. But we've got to remember
she shares one to two minute tiktoks every now and then, Like,
it's not a shock that things will be going on
privately in the background. Well, you're calling it a revelation,
it's actually a very big accusation by Veraruka. Yeah. It's
(18:42):
quite interesting though because Mikayla Testa, who is Adas Paul's
ex girlfriend. She has since come out because she I
think a lot of people assumed that maybe Michaela was
the friend associated with the family that she was talking about,
because her and Veruka are well known friends. Apparently they've
actually seen it's had a falling out. But Michaela came
out and said, look, she doesn't think that the Rukus
(19:05):
should have called Anna out like this and explained that yes,
Hans actually loves his van. He travels a lot in
his van. He's a very hippie man and even when
they've offered him a bed in the house, he would
rather sleep in his van in his garage. So I
think that this story has been blown up and at
the time of recording, Anna Paul hasn't commented publicly on
(19:25):
the allegations, but Hans has slammed it as toxic misinformation,
so he put out a statement on his Instagram saying,
it has come to my attention that there has been
some toxic misinformation going on about my private life and
my relationship with my family. This is just to set
the record straight. I have been living my dream and
my daughter has been nothing but supportive. If you have
(19:47):
a look at my Instagram feed, you will easily discover
that I've been traveling the world in the last few
years and that I am lacking nothing. I am very
proud of what my daughter Anna has achieved and of
the person she has become. If there is anything that
can be taken from this, it is idle gossip causes
nothing but hurt. Don't participate. Now back to my family holiday.
And it is quite ironic because he is currently in
(20:10):
Miami with Anna and Addis at the moment, which doesn't
really buy into the image that Veruka has been creating.
And even though Hans has put out this comment, it
did lead to one follower saying, are you broke, homeless
and not being financially supported by your daughter and he replied,
that is crazy. I'm in Miami now, my daughter is
the best. Now Veruka has hit back, saying, of course
(20:32):
Anna's dad is going to go along with it, as
he'd rather see his children than go against them for
his own good. She continued, maybe when they get back
from their publicity vacation, he'll be back doing door dash.
I'm just so shocked that Veruka would make these accusations
so publicly, because we know what a huge fan base
Anna Paul has, and she has been copying a lot
(20:53):
of trolling since she came out making these claims. Yeah,
the trolling of Veruka has been quite appalling, particularly because
a lot of people have been bringing in the death
of her son. We won't be going into those comments
because it's just too appalling to give airtime. Anna Paul
has also been copying it though as well, because I
think it's all down to tall poppy syndrome. I have
been noticing this shift towards Anna Paul very recently, ever
(21:16):
since her breakup with Glent Thompson. People seem to just
want to tear her down at the moment, and this
has definitely ignited that. In all of this, I don't
understand why Adas has got off scott free because if anything,
he has put forward in the past couple of years
that he is very wealthy. When he first started on TikTok,
he was living it up on yachts and talking about cryptocurrency,
(21:38):
and I would assume he has a lot of fingers
in different piles of businesses. I think it looks like
he's making a lot of money. So why is it
just up to the female to be supporting her father?
And why does Adas not have a say? He also
lives in this house. Get where you're coming from. But
I think it's because Anna has built a brand on
being really generous and being over the top with her
gift giving to family members, and that's why this story
(22:01):
is at odds with the persona that she's putting out there,
and also because she is the breadwinner of that family.
Adas may be earning money as well, but she definitely
is earning the most cash out of everyone. Do we
think that Varuka felt confident to put these allegations out
there because she thought that she had the truth defense
behind her, because if we do look into what she
actually said, he does live in his van. He drives
(22:24):
his van around but again I suppose the intention was
off though, because it's not a negative intention from it.
It's more of the personal comments that she's made about
Anna Paul's character that are the damaging ones and the
ones that would be defamatory. It sounds like gossip that
should have just been left in that friendship group. I
just think it shows how clicky and gossipy the GC
(22:44):
influencer community is. The fact that this was the hot
topic at a child's funeral, yeah don't sit well with me.
I also think that all of her influencer friends would
have been geeing her up to say something because it
shows how competitive the industry is, and a lot of
luences would be looking on and being very jealous of
what Anna Paul has achieved, and also the grasp that
(23:05):
she has on business and brands. So it just shows
when someone is at the top of their game, there's
always going to be tool poppy syndrome and someone waiting
to bring them down. It's just disappointing that it's someone
who is in both industries that Anna's in, both OnlyFans
and also on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
So I was asking you, guys, hoping that you would
have like a trick.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Beauty influencer Chloe Morello has experienced every contact whereas worst
nightmare late on Saturday night, her contact lens became lodged
in her eye. Concerned followers urged her to call an ambulance,
with Chloe looking distressed and sporting a bulging red eye
on her stories, Sophie, how long did this ordeal go
on for? She told her followers that she had been
(23:49):
attempting to get this contact lens out for over two hours,
and she tried everything from contact tweezers to rubbing her
eyelid and also using lubricating eye drop. And she finished
the Instagram story by asking her followers should I just
sleep in it? Or should I go to the emergency room?
And the overwhelming response from her followers was go to
(24:11):
the emergency room immediately. Really, I've slept in my contact
lenses before and it hasn't really done much, have you?
Because I thought maybe it's an old wife's tale, But
aren't you emu to go blind? Like I know, I've
done my research into it and it actually isn't an overreaction.
It can really damage your eye by sleeping in your
contacts because when you're wearing contacts when you're awake, Apparently
(24:33):
by blinking, you're getting a lot of oxygen back into
the corner. But when you're asleep, because you're not blinking,
it cuts off a lot of oxygen supply and moisture
to your eyes, which then causes these blood vessels to
develop and that starts damaging the corner. So but that
over time it leads to vision line. Yeah, but not
for one night. So I remember freaking out when I
(24:54):
left my contact lenses in overnight and I went to
the optometress and he was like, oh, just wear your
glasses for a couple of days. I do think they
look for any scratches, but I wouldn't be calling an
ambulance if you can't get your contact lens out for
one night. She looked incredibly distressed, and she'd also preface
that she had slept in them before, So I mean,
it can be a serious thing if you're abusing it
(25:15):
and doing it all of the time. Now, she responded
to her followers saying that she didn't want to go
to the ear and was hoping her followers would have
some extra tricks on how she could get the contact
lens out. Here's what she said, everyone's.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Seeing go to the ear. I can't go to the
ear right now because I've been drinking. Sev's been drinking.
I can't drive there. I'm not about to call an ambulance.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
If I sleep in it, is it going to be
the end of the world, Because I've slept in it.
I've slept in my contacts before their dailies, and it
wasn't the end of the world. But I'm scared that
it would get further stuck if I sleep like this
is son.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'm pretty glad She didn't call the ambulance because, in
a dramatic twist, it turned out that the contact lens
wasn't in her eye the whole time, so her partner, Seib,
attempted to remove the contact and kept telling her he
couldn't see anything in her eye, but she was convinced
that she could see it in the corner of her eye.
It wasn't until she put her glasses on that she
(26:23):
realized it must have fallen out, or that she never
put it in in the first place. By this stage,
Chloe's poor eye was looking so sore and puffy. She said,
her poor eyeball got really messed up, and she fingered
it with less tact than a seventeen year old boy. Now, Sophie,
this happened to you on the night before my wedding.
In my defense, i'd only been wearing them for a
(26:44):
week because I specifically started wearing contacts for your wedding, Kate,
and we'd gone to the nail salon that day and
I stupidly opted for square long nail, so that was
making it even more difficult to get them out. And
you wanted to have like a really relaxed lead up
to your wedding and go to bed early. I think
I was up to one trying to get them out.
We were both up to one because I had to
(27:05):
be involved because I've been wearing contact lenses for probably
over ten years, and I kept trying to coach you
into I even got my own fingers into your eye.
It was me that was like, hang on, I don't
think this is even in here. And we found it
on the ground, so it was so funny. It was
actually stuck to the edge of the mirror, like, yeah,
it was so funny. Maybe when I'm in that book,
(27:26):
because everybody likes us and I don't want to be
punished for being well liked as snark sites like tatle
Life and Guru Gossip rising popularity. A UK university has
conducted a study into the phenomenon of anti fans. The
study has aimed to answer why so many young people
have recently turned on once loved influencers now amy What
(27:48):
are the trademark signs of an anti fan? Well, As
the name suggests, anti fans are people who unite around
a shared hatred of a particular influencer, so you see
it all the time. Ons like tattle Life and for
those who haven't visited tattle Life before, it is a
safe place for people to criticize influences, which might sound
like an incredible site if you are a listener of
(28:10):
this podcast, but it does have a very dark side.
So nothing is off limits on this forum, with users
encourage to discuss influencers way appearance, mothering skills, or under
a cloud of anonymity. I actually saw a post go
up a couple of weeks ago in our Facebook group
and someone was in a panic because they said, has
tatle life been taken down? And literally every time tatle
(28:33):
life is mentioned in our Facebook group, everyone's like, can
you send me a referral code, because in order to
actually post on this forum now you need someone who
posts on their regularly to invite you in. It is
interesting because we actually were sent a thread that we
are mentioned in quite a lot because it's about Australian
influencer podcasts, and it is so weird to be on
(28:55):
the other side of it because for years I have
been a lurker on Tattle Life. There are influens the
threads that I dip in and out of. I never
have commented on there. I don't actually have an account,
but it is interesting to put yourself in the shoes
of someone that is commented on there, because I think
it has a time and a place and where people
are actually commenting on people's actions and critiquing things that
(29:15):
they do. When it's critiquing actions, it's fine, but when
it gets to a point where you're talking about people's
appearances and their personal family relationships, it definitely crosses a line.
And what's interesting is the a range of users on
tattle because you would assume, oh, they're high school kids,
but they're not. A lot of their users are women
(29:36):
who have children. They're in their thirties, so they're in
their forties. I think the main issue with it is
the fact that you can be anonymous and you can
say whatever you like, and because, as Amy touched on,
you are this member of this like minded community and
some of the people they're talking about aren't a list celebrities.
They're very like random people. As you say, the fact
(29:57):
that we're a podcast and we've got some thread where
people are tearing into us. We're very small fry, but
people really bond over that, and I think that's why
it goes up a level, because someone will say something
very snarky and then they'll get a laugh and some
reactions out of it, and then someone else says something
to go on top of that and to be even funny.
That's the ironic thing about Tattle is that the people
(30:18):
on there actually really used to love the influencer that
they now focus on, but now they all have this
shared hatred towards that person. Well, it builds that sense
of community amongst them.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Now, this university study is really interesting. It examined two
hundred and ninety seven threads across two different snark sites,
and each of these threads contained over one thousand posts.
It's pretty funny to think about these researchers trolling through
the likes of Tattle and Guru Gossip to get their information.
Can you imagine some of their phases, Oh, it would
(30:49):
have been hilarious. And these researchers, they discovered that the
main reason followers turn on an influencer is due to
the parasocial relationship they have dive with them. So it
usually happens when followers feel like an influencer has started
withdrawing from their channel. So some fans start to feel
as if they're neglected or excluded from the influencer's life.
(31:12):
And I have seen this a lot on Tattle, especially
around Sarah's day. A lot of people fill in the
blanks once they feel like they have been left out
of this person's life. Well, there's a lot of creative
writing that goes into these threads because often they will
start a new thread with one of the members writing
a description that sets the tone of what has recently
happened in that influencer's life. And to be honest, sometimes
(31:35):
I do have a chuckle at some of them. They
are quite funny. Yeah, they've almost created characters out of
the influencers. Yes, Well, the researchers also found that anti
fans felt exploited by influencers, and that was one of
the main reasons why they turned on them, because they
felt like they were being milked for brand deals or
used to fund the influencer's increasingly flashy lifestyle. I think
(31:56):
this is just a development that we've been saying ever
since the pandemic, because I feel like there was a
time where influencers were really idolized and people were willing
to buy into whatever they pushed on their profiles. But
once a pandemic hit and we had more time on
our hands to examine this whole influencer culture, people have
(32:17):
been wising up to the influencers bullshit and they realize
that they are trying to milk this relationship with their
followers in order to better themselves in terms of engagement
and also to get earn more money. That is the
relationship that it might feel like a parasocial relationship, but
an influencer's job is to influence you to buy something well.
(32:37):
US journalist Sarah Maniverz, she wrote this really interesting piece
for The Guardian on the university's findings, and she actually
labeled anti fans as delusional for believing influencers are excluding
them from their life because they were never actually friends
to begin with. She did say, however, that influencers were
somewhat to blame for the anger felt by the anti fans,
(32:59):
and she said this is due to the transactional relationship
they have with their followers. So she wrote, influencers professed
to be the blameless victims of a dynamic that is
almost entirely of their own making. So she went on
to accuse influences of actively trying to intensify a meaningful
bond between their audience to increase engagement and brand deals.
And she also went as far to claim that some
(33:21):
influencers stoke fan theories to encourage obsessive attention. I think
this is so true. Yeah again, Sarah's day comes to
mind because she has been very strategic with the way
that she talks to her followers. She calls them her
sissies and her best friends, and she always says, I've
got to jump on here and give you guys this update,
and often now those updates come with you should buy
(33:42):
this product. I do agree that influencers are stoking these
parasocial relationships because it does benefit their cash flow. But
as influencer culture grows, it's clear that this is a
huge downside for them. Being spoken about on sites like
Tattle is not great for their mental health. It's not
for their mental health, but it is good for their engagement.
(34:03):
Because if you manage to have the willpower not to
look at these sites and block them out, it doesn't
really matter to an influence that if it's positive or
negative engagement. Engagement is big at the end of the day,
and that's what brands look at. I agree. I think
it's actually a positive if you're being spoken about on
these types of forums, because if you're not being spoken about,
(34:24):
it means that you your content is irrelevant. And I
think that a lot of these influences would actually be
smart to keep track of what sort of buttons they're
pushing which is generating these responses. I mean, I definitely
think that Sarah's Day keeps an eye on them because
she does elicit a huge response from people, but I
think it benefits her brand, so she keeps doing these
(34:46):
controversial things. This is a thing. It's a tricky one
because I do think these types of forums do have
a place in that they allow people to hold influences
to account. However, I think things have just gone too
far on them and that there is moderation needed. I
truly don't understand how the site can continue because there
are just so many defamatory comments being made on there,
(35:08):
and obviously the way around it is because these people
are anonymous on there. It's sort of similar, yeah, but
it falls back on who is running the site, and
clearly someone is making money off the site because it
is full of advertisment. I think there's a view though,
that influencers should just griom and bear what people have
to say because they have this lifestyle. They're making so
much money off their followers that people just think, well,
(35:28):
this is the downside to fame, and I do tend
to agree, like, if you do put your life out
there and you share your opinions online, you should expect
some form of criticism and that people are going to
talk about you. But I think this form of criticism
is extreme. I think it is extreme in some circumstances.
But the best thing you can do, and what I
do is I don't read it. I definitely think that
(35:49):
there is space for people to have educated discussions on
influencer culture. And analyze different behavior of things that people do. However,
I just think that this page is becoming dead trum,
mental and downright a site for bullying, and it's really
impacting the mental health of a lot of influences. It
is very toxic. Well, we're going to leave things there,
but if you do love the podcast, please make sure
(36:11):
you are subscribed and leave us a review. Also, if
you want to hear more content from us, we do
drop a subscriber episode every Thursday if you want to
become an Outspoken Plus subscriber. All the details are in
our show notes. This podcast was recorded on the traditional
land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes. We
pay respect to elders past and present.
Coming up on today's show, Verrucas Soult and Anna Poul's
messy TikTok scandal, The Revealing University's study into tattle life,
Chloe Morello's anti climatic medical emergency, and the og Boyfriend
at Instagram returns to a nine to five. Hello, and
welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer
and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Amy Torbert
(00:25):
and Sophie you have finally got your conuppance.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I do believe in karma, and this story really proves
that karma is real, because say, CARMA's your boyfriend, Because
listeners will remember. I think it was last year, maybe
a couple of months ago. I walked in on Amy's
husband Dale on the toilet doing a number two, and
I felt specified last time what he was doing obvious.
(00:50):
I mean I felt really bad for him because we
laughed that I could see his legs because his pants
were literally like down to his ankle. Glad, it's just
his legs, yes, anyway, And so Amy and I were
talking in the bathroom getting ready for this episode, and
Amy was standing in the bathroom and as we do,
we go to the toilet in front of each other.
So I just sat on the toilet. Amy left left
the door open. I didn't know that her husband was home.
(01:12):
He then walks past sees me sitting on the toilet.
But I'm actually kind of glad about it because I
was feeling a bit awkward because I felt like I
had something over him. So now we're both equally embarrassed.
So Karma is the guy in the hallway seeing you
on the toilet, Well, yeah, I mean, and also I
mean maybe I still have a little bit of hand
because I was not doing a number two. I was
just doing a week So I still think it's bad
(01:34):
on his end. Well, your pants pulled right down to
the floor, like Dale's work. They definitely weren't. We were
discussing this. Women do not pull their pants to the floor.
I think it was on years if we had a
debate why do men do it? There's also men that
apparently get nude so they can take a shit, but
they'll also have a shower after they've had a pool
as well. How much time do these men have to
be removing all their clothes and then showering. Yeah, I mean,
(01:56):
it's obviously just an at home thing. I suppose girls
have their quirks of going to the toilet, like a
lot of women don't want to do a pu at work.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I did a question being on Instagram to see
what you guys wanted to see.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Madison Willie has revealed her boyfriend Jonathan Sower has been
forced to return to a full time job outside of
influencing the og boyfriend of Instagram, who famously dated Sharanni
Grimman in her heyday, has returned to work in the
finance world now. The thirty one year old previously worked
as an accountant before leaving his job to become Sharnee
Grimman's manager. Now, since then, he has worked as a
(02:36):
model and an influencer. I see Jonathan everywhere. I've seen
him when I'm walking down my shopping center, a big
photo of him at the barber He's ONKFC ads, all
these fast food ads opsm I think as well, all
these male clothing brands. He's everywhere. So he must have
had some success in modeling, yeah, but not so much
success in the influencing space. Because it hasn't really come
(02:58):
as a surprise to me. Thats been forced to return
to nine to five because he has lost over sixty
six thousand followers since May twenty nineteen. He's now sitting
on ninety nine thousand followers. It's pretty interesting because his girlfriend,
Madison Woolly, currently has seven hundred and thirty eight thousand followers,
and normally influencer relationships attract a lot of followers for
(03:21):
both parties. However, when you take a look at Social Blade,
Madison Woolly has also been losing followers in their thousands.
So since July twenty twenty two, she has lost over
eighty one thousand followers. Something is not quite right though,
because prior to that date she was gaining followers at
a very rapid pace despite not having any life milestones
(03:43):
to actually match that growth. Very fishy. Yeah, So, for example,
in August twenty nineteen, she had an influx of fifty
two thousand followers in one month. So you would have
thought her boyfriend's Instagram account would have captured some of
that overflow in that month, but it did not. Her
large follow account is quite puzzling because it also hasn't
bolstered her brand twenty third in Madison, which is a
(04:06):
clothing brand. Yeah, well, she actually came out on her
podcast and said that she'd been really struggling with the
brand and that she was in debt from it, and
recently she has actually got a new manufacturer in Australia
and has been putting out more drops. However, there does
seem to be something going on here because these follow
accounts don't make sense. Yeah, and also we're going to
(04:27):
be talking about Tattle a bit later, but she doesn't
have a Tattle thread. And if you're a huge influencer
in Australia with nearly a million followers, as awful as
it is, you are going to be on that forum.
It she just doesn't seem to be on people's radars.
Back to Jonathan, he did make the temporary move from
Sydney to Noose with Madison late last year and at
the time she said it helped because they both worked
(04:48):
for themselves, so they had this flexibility to work from wherever. However,
I wonder how this job situation is going to affect
that well, since COVID a lot of business jobs are
remote as well, I wonder if he will have that flexibility. Surely,
his modeling career took a bit of a hit when
he did move to Queensland as well, because there wouldn't
have been as many opportunities as in Sydney.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I actually just wondered if her parents had anything to
do with it, because on a recent episode of her podcast,
she spoke about how Jonathan was best friends now with
her mum and dad, and I kind of feel like
maybe they've pulled some strings and got him a job
in NUSA. I think it makes Jonathan ten times more
attractive that he's actually back at work, and I wonder
if we're going to see a trend of influencers returning
(05:30):
to it. We heard Carti Milana and her podcast talk
about how the influencer space is a lot more competitive. Well,
it would definitely make his content a lot more relatable
to other men, because you know that we see all
of these business bro sort of content out there. And
also personally, I think that there'd be more of him
to film. Yeah, but I don't think he is going
(05:50):
to be filming this content. Well, I don't know, because
I noticed for some reason on my snapchat he is
always popping up as a suggestion, you know how they
are suggesting people to follow, and he is often speaking
to his camera in the car. He seems to be
documenting his health and fitness journey. Maybe Snapchat's paying him
because I know that they are really trying to get
influencers back on their platform. Can you imagine if he
(06:10):
returned to his old workplace and everyone's like, oh, knew
you'd come, ruarreling back back, welcome back.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Batman's daughter is so wealthy.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
A very messy scandal has broken out on TikTok between
Varuka Salt and Anna Paul the key we born. TikToker
has accused Anna of allegedly neglecting her father. Now her dad,
Hans has dubbed the allegations as toxic misinformation. Before we
dive in, Kate, can you bring everyone up to speed
with exactly who Varuka Salt is. I always laugh when
(06:43):
I see her name pop up because I actually didn't
twig that she has taken the name from Charlie and
the Chop Factory, so it only dawned on me the
other day. So her real name is Kimberly Summer Hearty,
and she is now twenty five years old. But back
in twenty nineteen, she sparked a national manhunt when she
disappeared from a Gold Coast wedding. She was actually found
(07:05):
a week later by police working in a Woollongong brothel. Now,
given the extreme publicity at the time, Veruka went public
with the fact that she is a sex worker, and
she actually started a successful OnlyFans account off the back
of it. She now has six hundred and forty three
thousand followers on Instagram. Sadly, Veruka has been in the
(07:26):
news lately as her six week old son Cash tragically
passed away in early February. Now, I don't think Anna
Paul needs much of an introduction. She is TikTok Royalty
with over seven million followers and she has built a
following from sharing her traveler ventures with her family online.
She is also one of Australia's biggest only Fans creators. Now, Sophie,
(07:46):
I could not believe it when you sent rukas video through.
What is going on? Well, she has ignited an absolute
shit storm on TikTok and somehow she has inserted herself
into a story that she readily admits has absolutely nothing
to do with her. Now, her reason for dropping this
bomb is that the information has apparently been keeping her
awake at night and she feels she has to tell
(08:08):
everyone now. Veruka posted a series of TikTok videos making
claims about a popular Australian TikToker at the time. She
did not name Anna, but dropped many clues inferring that
it was her, so her audience instantly guessed that she
was talking about Anna Poul. The video has since been deleted,
but Varuka then went on to confirm on her Instagram
(08:31):
story that the allegations she made were about Anna Paul. Now,
before we get into these claims, I do want to
reiterate that these allegations are merely that they are allegations.
There's no factual evidence to say that this is in
fact true. Now, Varuka claims she has been holding onto
this information for a month. She said her babysitter came
(08:52):
to visit her two days after her son passed away
and dropped that she was dating Anna Paul's father, Hans.
What a small world we live in with influence now,
Varuka described the babysitter as a sweet little old lady
who wouldn't make up shit. Let's throw it to a
snippet of Aruka's claims.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
She's telling me that like he smells bad and he
lives in his van and he can't really shower.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
He doesn't have money for food, and I'm like, what
are you talking about. That man's daughter is so wealthy,
what do you mean he doesn't have money for food.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Veruka then went on to explain that she discussed these
allegations with a group of her friends at her son's funeral.
She claimed that one of her friends of a friend
used to live with the pol family and they backed
up these claims. Here's what she said.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
My friend and former associate of this influencer went to
go get some food and they saw those person's dad
in the parking lot. So my friends like, what is
this guy doing in the parking lot? And what is
he doing picking up somebody else's food? Doing door dash?
So former associate who's with my friend says, yeah, no,
he's literally homeless. Like the way that his children treat
(10:03):
him is disgusting.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Is it just me that finds it a little bit
strange that this was the topic of discussion at Varuka's
son's funeral. Yeah, I was thinking about that, but then
I reflected on the discussion that we had at a
funeral recently, and a lot of the time you're almost
trying to take your mind off what you're going through.
But you still have a few lighthearted moments, so maybe
this was her way of dealing with this situation now.
(10:26):
Varuka then went on to propose the real reason that
Hans allegedly doesn't live in the house with Anna and
her family. Here's what she.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Said, And the whole reason the dad doesn't live in
the house is because the mum cheated on him. The
mom's really weird and would say stuff like are you going.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
To buy me this? Or do you love Papa more
than me?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And then the children will say so the dad like, oh,
if you wanted to live in the house, you should
have bought.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Bitcoin when we were kids.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
This man is doing door dash so that he can
afford a gym membership, so he can afford a shower
or his showers at the showers at the beach, and
his daughter is so rich and the worst part is
that she sits on the internet and pretends to be
so caring when this man is basically starving and filthy
because she refuses to do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Aruka then went on to say that what eats her
alive about this situation is that Anna sits on the
Internet and plays gift giver. It's interesting to note that
Veruka's allegations come off the back of Anna Paul recently
publicizing the fact that she gave her ex boyfriend Glenn
Thompson a luxury car that some people are saying is
worth up to two hundred thousand dollars. She also gifted
(11:38):
her mother a BMW in twenty twenty two, so she
has been known to gift a lot of cars. So
people are saying, well, why is her dad driving around
in this crummy old van? And Veraruka finished the video
by saying, there's more rumors about the businesses and the breakups,
but she hasn't come out with the rest of it
because she already feels like it's a situation of people
will shoot the messenger. That's very interesting. I don't know
(12:01):
why she is inserting herself into the narrative, particularly after
the last couple of months that she has had. It's
been a tough time for her emotionally, obviously, with the
very devastating passing of her son, and she has been
copying a lot of heat online about how she's been
dealing with it. She's obviously got some terrible messages that
no mother should receive. So I do find it odd
(12:24):
that she is trying to at this point create this
shit storm between her and Anna Paul. Well, it's interesting
because she's not a stranger to these callout videos. She
did make headlines back in twenty twenty one when she
had a public falling out with Peach. I do remember
that now. I mean, obviously Tiktoker's use it as a
strategy to get more followers, to get better engagement. We
(12:45):
saw a couple of weeks ago how Kat Clark was
using Anna Poul's name to boost her branding of her
new beauty launch. I understand why she's done it, but
I think that the timing is so off considering what's
been going on with Ruka these rumors are true, I
don't understand why Anna Paul is expected to fund her
father's lifestyle. I know she comes across as extremely generous online,
(13:08):
but we don't know the ins and outs of their relationship.
I totally agree Amy. We often see influencers gifting their parents'
luxury items, but when I reflect on that with my parents,
I feel like they would feel deeply uncomfortable to accept
those big items from me. And would rather me save
my money. Also, it was very awkward because Aruka has
(13:28):
since come out and said that she actually sent Anna
paul a DM on Friday about the matter, and Anna
viewed it and never replied. But this message was very
had a really rude tone to it, so the message
that she sent was very confronting. She wrote, I found
out not through the influence of viron. I found out
by happenstance that your dad is borderline homeless and living
(13:48):
in his van doing door dash for some money, and
he's showering at the gym slash beat showers. I heard
that you apparently text him just to be in your
videos with you. It hurts me as a former homeless
person and also a parent. I couldn't deal with the
pain if I was him. If this is true, it
also shatters the version of yourself you have shown to
me and your audience. To be honest, I know that
(14:09):
this lifestyle for him is true, but I was wondering
if you have a side or something about it. It
is just so incredibly awkward because in this screenshot you
can see that Anna actually wrote Veraruka a really nice
message saying have fun Angel in response to her going
to the Taylor Swift concert. It just all seems very
high school. I don't understand why this argument needs to
(14:32):
be playing out online. Surely, if Verruka is as connected
as she is in the influencer industry, she could have
spoken privately with Anna about this. Is she was truly
concerned about it. I feel like Ruka's message to Anna
demonstrates this rationale that a lot of gen Zettas have
They sort of try and center themselves in everyone else's story.
So the fact that she has previously been homeless, she
(14:54):
feels like Anna owes her an explanation about her dad's
very private situation. And when you do look at homelessness
rates a lot of the time it's to do with
very personal issues like mental health or addiction. You don't
know what's going on in someone's life. And to expect
to send out a message like that where you have
laid out so many separate allegations to her and she's
(15:14):
supposed to open up. I mean, if anything, this seemed
like a bit of a fishing exercise, so that then
Anna could write in detail, and then maybe she could
maybe Veraruka could use that in a TikTok. Yeah, I
don't understand why Veruka thinks it's any of her business.
Can you imagine how awkward the baby sitter must feel
in all of this. But she's trying to date Anna
Paul's dad and this is all blown up because of her.
(15:36):
I don't really like the way that Veruka went about
sending this message, because she could have messaged her and said, hey, Anna,
are you free for a chat on the phone. It
seems like very accusatory and as you said, it's kind
of like she's trying to trap her to say something.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
It seems quite strategic to me because I think Veruka
has probably thought, hmm, I'm going to do a call
that video, but I want to touch all bases and say, actually,
I can't tact at Anna, and these are the receipts.
To me, it doesn't prove anything. And I don't know
why we're digging around in the personal family life of
Anna Paul. It's her dad's prerogative if he wants to
(16:11):
share whatever his situation is. We don't even know if
this is true. Well, these accusations have led to very
curious followers to go and dig more into Anna Paul's
dad's pass and many quickly discovered on his Instagram that
Hans quite openly posts about his adventures in his van,
and in his bio he actually lists van life as
one of his interests. So in one post, he shared
(16:34):
a photo of his dashboard and wrote, another milestone for
my little van slash home. I could not stop in
traffic to document the round number, but who cares. This
car was only ever meant to be an interim solution,
but it's proven itself to be the perfect compromise. Cheap
to run even as a food delivery van, easy to
park anywhere, and comfortable enough to sit in on a
(16:55):
rainy few days. Here's to another three hundred and forty thousand.
He then shared a photo of him he using his
coffee to his van and wrote, if you live in
a van, you were free and can go anywhere. So
it makes perfect sense if you want to be somewhere
in the morning, to go there the night before and
sleep there, no peak hour traffic to fight. So it
is quite clear that yes, he is actually living in
(17:15):
this van, but it seems to be his choice. I
don't think it proves that he's living full time in
his van. I think it just shows that he does
go on road trips and sleeps in the van. I mean,
I don't understand why just because his daughter has come
into money in the last couple of years, it means
that his whole life would change. He might be someone
that loves traveling, that loves camping, that loves being in
(17:37):
his van. Like it's not necessarily a bad thing. I know,
if Dale and I suddenly came into a lot of money,
it wouldn't necessarily affect the way that some of Dale's
family members live. Like, for example, his grandpa lives on
a property, he loves camping. There's no way that he
would accept money from us. And maybe that's what's happened
with Anna Paul's dad. He might, you know, be happy
to stay at a house, but he probably loves the
(17:58):
lifestyle that he has. I think Aruka has called Anna
out on this because she does really like to show
her family in a certain light. So she speaks a
lot about how her mum and dad, despite being divorced,
get on really well and their partners get on well,
and she kind of betrays them as this perfect family
that everyone would love to be a part of. So
(18:19):
I think that's why a lot of people have been
shocked by this apparent revelation because it's against what Anna
has been putting out online. But we've got to remember
she shares one to two minute tiktoks every now and then, Like,
it's not a shock that things will be going on
privately in the background. Well, you're calling it a revelation,
it's actually a very big accusation by Veraruka. Yeah. It's
(18:42):
quite interesting though because Mikayla Testa, who is Adas Paul's
ex girlfriend. She has since come out because she I
think a lot of people assumed that maybe Michaela was
the friend associated with the family that she was talking about,
because her and Veruka are well known friends. Apparently they've
actually seen it's had a falling out. But Michaela came
out and said, look, she doesn't think that the Rukus
(19:05):
should have called Anna out like this and explained that yes,
Hans actually loves his van. He travels a lot in
his van. He's a very hippie man and even when
they've offered him a bed in the house, he would
rather sleep in his van in his garage. So I
think that this story has been blown up and at
the time of recording, Anna Paul hasn't commented publicly on
(19:25):
the allegations, but Hans has slammed it as toxic misinformation,
so he put out a statement on his Instagram saying,
it has come to my attention that there has been
some toxic misinformation going on about my private life and
my relationship with my family. This is just to set
the record straight. I have been living my dream and
my daughter has been nothing but supportive. If you have
(19:47):
a look at my Instagram feed, you will easily discover
that I've been traveling the world in the last few
years and that I am lacking nothing. I am very
proud of what my daughter Anna has achieved and of
the person she has become. If there is anything that
can be taken from this, it is idle gossip causes
nothing but hurt. Don't participate. Now back to my family holiday.
And it is quite ironic because he is currently in
(20:10):
Miami with Anna and Addis at the moment, which doesn't
really buy into the image that Veruka has been creating.
And even though Hans has put out this comment, it
did lead to one follower saying, are you broke, homeless
and not being financially supported by your daughter and he replied,
that is crazy. I'm in Miami now, my daughter is
the best. Now Veruka has hit back, saying, of course
(20:32):
Anna's dad is going to go along with it, as
he'd rather see his children than go against them for
his own good. She continued, maybe when they get back
from their publicity vacation, he'll be back doing door dash.
I'm just so shocked that Veruka would make these accusations
so publicly, because we know what a huge fan base
Anna Paul has, and she has been copying a lot
(20:53):
of trolling since she came out making these claims. Yeah,
the trolling of Veruka has been quite appalling, particularly because
a lot of people have been bringing in the death
of her son. We won't be going into those comments
because it's just too appalling to give airtime. Anna Paul
has also been copying it though as well, because I
think it's all down to tall poppy syndrome. I have
been noticing this shift towards Anna Paul very recently, ever
(21:16):
since her breakup with Glent Thompson. People seem to just
want to tear her down at the moment, and this
has definitely ignited that. In all of this, I don't
understand why Adas has got off scott free because if anything,
he has put forward in the past couple of years
that he is very wealthy. When he first started on TikTok,
he was living it up on yachts and talking about cryptocurrency,
(21:38):
and I would assume he has a lot of fingers
in different piles of businesses. I think it looks like
he's making a lot of money. So why is it
just up to the female to be supporting her father?
And why does Adas not have a say? He also
lives in this house. Get where you're coming from. But
I think it's because Anna has built a brand on
being really generous and being over the top with her
gift giving to family members, and that's why this story
(22:01):
is at odds with the persona that she's putting out there,
and also because she is the breadwinner of that family.
Adas may be earning money as well, but she definitely
is earning the most cash out of everyone. Do we
think that Varuka felt confident to put these allegations out
there because she thought that she had the truth defense
behind her, because if we do look into what she
actually said, he does live in his van. He drives
(22:24):
his van around but again I suppose the intention was
off though, because it's not a negative intention from it.
It's more of the personal comments that she's made about
Anna Paul's character that are the damaging ones and the
ones that would be defamatory. It sounds like gossip that
should have just been left in that friendship group. I
just think it shows how clicky and gossipy the GC
(22:44):
influencer community is. The fact that this was the hot
topic at a child's funeral, yeah don't sit well with me.
I also think that all of her influencer friends would
have been geeing her up to say something because it
shows how competitive the industry is, and a lot of
luences would be looking on and being very jealous of
what Anna Paul has achieved, and also the grasp that
(23:05):
she has on business and brands. So it just shows
when someone is at the top of their game, there's
always going to be tool poppy syndrome and someone waiting
to bring them down. It's just disappointing that it's someone
who is in both industries that Anna's in, both OnlyFans
and also on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
So I was asking you, guys, hoping that you would
have like a trick.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Beauty influencer Chloe Morello has experienced every contact whereas worst
nightmare late on Saturday night, her contact lens became lodged
in her eye. Concerned followers urged her to call an ambulance,
with Chloe looking distressed and sporting a bulging red eye
on her stories, Sophie, how long did this ordeal go
on for? She told her followers that she had been
(23:49):
attempting to get this contact lens out for over two hours,
and she tried everything from contact tweezers to rubbing her
eyelid and also using lubricating eye drop. And she finished
the Instagram story by asking her followers should I just
sleep in it? Or should I go to the emergency room?
And the overwhelming response from her followers was go to
(24:11):
the emergency room immediately. Really, I've slept in my contact
lenses before and it hasn't really done much, have you?
Because I thought maybe it's an old wife's tale, But
aren't you emu to go blind? Like I know, I've
done my research into it and it actually isn't an overreaction.
It can really damage your eye by sleeping in your
contacts because when you're wearing contacts when you're awake, Apparently
(24:33):
by blinking, you're getting a lot of oxygen back into
the corner. But when you're asleep, because you're not blinking,
it cuts off a lot of oxygen supply and moisture
to your eyes, which then causes these blood vessels to
develop and that starts damaging the corner. So but that
over time it leads to vision line. Yeah, but not
for one night. So I remember freaking out when I
(24:54):
left my contact lenses in overnight and I went to
the optometress and he was like, oh, just wear your
glasses for a couple of days. I do think they
look for any scratches, but I wouldn't be calling an
ambulance if you can't get your contact lens out for
one night. She looked incredibly distressed, and she'd also preface
that she had slept in them before, So I mean,
it can be a serious thing if you're abusing it
(25:15):
and doing it all of the time. Now, she responded
to her followers saying that she didn't want to go
to the ear and was hoping her followers would have
some extra tricks on how she could get the contact
lens out. Here's what she said, everyone's.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Seeing go to the ear. I can't go to the
ear right now because I've been drinking. Sev's been drinking.
I can't drive there. I'm not about to call an ambulance.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
If I sleep in it, is it going to be
the end of the world, Because I've slept in it.
I've slept in my contacts before their dailies, and it
wasn't the end of the world. But I'm scared that
it would get further stuck if I sleep like this
is son.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'm pretty glad She didn't call the ambulance because, in
a dramatic twist, it turned out that the contact lens
wasn't in her eye the whole time, so her partner, Seib,
attempted to remove the contact and kept telling her he
couldn't see anything in her eye, but she was convinced
that she could see it in the corner of her eye.
It wasn't until she put her glasses on that she
(26:23):
realized it must have fallen out, or that she never
put it in in the first place. By this stage,
Chloe's poor eye was looking so sore and puffy. She said,
her poor eyeball got really messed up, and she fingered
it with less tact than a seventeen year old boy. Now, Sophie,
this happened to you on the night before my wedding.
In my defense, i'd only been wearing them for a
(26:44):
week because I specifically started wearing contacts for your wedding, Kate,
and we'd gone to the nail salon that day and
I stupidly opted for square long nail, so that was
making it even more difficult to get them out. And
you wanted to have like a really relaxed lead up
to your wedding and go to bed early. I think
I was up to one trying to get them out.
We were both up to one because I had to
(27:05):
be involved because I've been wearing contact lenses for probably
over ten years, and I kept trying to coach you
into I even got my own fingers into your eye.
It was me that was like, hang on, I don't
think this is even in here. And we found it
on the ground, so it was so funny. It was
actually stuck to the edge of the mirror, like, yeah,
it was so funny. Maybe when I'm in that book,
(27:26):
because everybody likes us and I don't want to be
punished for being well liked as snark sites like tatle
Life and Guru Gossip rising popularity. A UK university has
conducted a study into the phenomenon of anti fans. The
study has aimed to answer why so many young people
have recently turned on once loved influencers now amy What
(27:48):
are the trademark signs of an anti fan? Well, As
the name suggests, anti fans are people who unite around
a shared hatred of a particular influencer, so you see
it all the time. Ons like tattle Life and for
those who haven't visited tattle Life before, it is a
safe place for people to criticize influences, which might sound
like an incredible site if you are a listener of
(28:10):
this podcast, but it does have a very dark side.
So nothing is off limits on this forum, with users
encourage to discuss influencers way appearance, mothering skills, or under
a cloud of anonymity. I actually saw a post go
up a couple of weeks ago in our Facebook group
and someone was in a panic because they said, has
tatle life been taken down? And literally every time tatle
(28:33):
life is mentioned in our Facebook group, everyone's like, can
you send me a referral code, because in order to
actually post on this forum now you need someone who
posts on their regularly to invite you in. It is
interesting because we actually were sent a thread that we
are mentioned in quite a lot because it's about Australian
influencer podcasts, and it is so weird to be on
(28:55):
the other side of it because for years I have
been a lurker on Tattle Life. There are influens the
threads that I dip in and out of. I never
have commented on there. I don't actually have an account,
but it is interesting to put yourself in the shoes
of someone that is commented on there, because I think
it has a time and a place and where people
are actually commenting on people's actions and critiquing things that
(29:15):
they do. When it's critiquing actions, it's fine, but when
it gets to a point where you're talking about people's
appearances and their personal family relationships, it definitely crosses a line.
And what's interesting is the a range of users on
tattle because you would assume, oh, they're high school kids,
but they're not. A lot of their users are women
(29:36):
who have children. They're in their thirties, so they're in
their forties. I think the main issue with it is
the fact that you can be anonymous and you can
say whatever you like, and because, as Amy touched on,
you are this member of this like minded community and
some of the people they're talking about aren't a list celebrities.
They're very like random people. As you say, the fact
(29:57):
that we're a podcast and we've got some thread where
people are tearing into us. We're very small fry, but
people really bond over that, and I think that's why
it goes up a level, because someone will say something
very snarky and then they'll get a laugh and some
reactions out of it, and then someone else says something
to go on top of that and to be even funny.
That's the ironic thing about Tattle is that the people
(30:18):
on there actually really used to love the influencer that
they now focus on, but now they all have this
shared hatred towards that person. Well, it builds that sense
of community amongst them.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Now, this university study is really interesting. It examined two
hundred and ninety seven threads across two different snark sites,
and each of these threads contained over one thousand posts.
It's pretty funny to think about these researchers trolling through
the likes of Tattle and Guru Gossip to get their information.
Can you imagine some of their phases, Oh, it would
(30:49):
have been hilarious. And these researchers, they discovered that the
main reason followers turn on an influencer is due to
the parasocial relationship they have dive with them. So it
usually happens when followers feel like an influencer has started
withdrawing from their channel. So some fans start to feel
as if they're neglected or excluded from the influencer's life.
(31:12):
And I have seen this a lot on Tattle, especially
around Sarah's day. A lot of people fill in the
blanks once they feel like they have been left out
of this person's life. Well, there's a lot of creative
writing that goes into these threads because often they will
start a new thread with one of the members writing
a description that sets the tone of what has recently
happened in that influencer's life. And to be honest, sometimes
(31:35):
I do have a chuckle at some of them. They
are quite funny. Yeah, they've almost created characters out of
the influencers. Yes, Well, the researchers also found that anti
fans felt exploited by influencers, and that was one of
the main reasons why they turned on them, because they
felt like they were being milked for brand deals or
used to fund the influencer's increasingly flashy lifestyle. I think
(31:56):
this is just a development that we've been saying ever
since the pandemic, because I feel like there was a
time where influencers were really idolized and people were willing
to buy into whatever they pushed on their profiles. But
once a pandemic hit and we had more time on
our hands to examine this whole influencer culture, people have
(32:17):
been wising up to the influencers bullshit and they realize
that they are trying to milk this relationship with their
followers in order to better themselves in terms of engagement
and also to get earn more money. That is the
relationship that it might feel like a parasocial relationship, but
an influencer's job is to influence you to buy something well.
(32:37):
US journalist Sarah Maniverz, she wrote this really interesting piece
for The Guardian on the university's findings, and she actually
labeled anti fans as delusional for believing influencers are excluding
them from their life because they were never actually friends
to begin with. She did say, however, that influencers were
somewhat to blame for the anger felt by the anti fans,
(32:59):
and she said this is due to the transactional relationship
they have with their followers. So she wrote, influencers professed
to be the blameless victims of a dynamic that is
almost entirely of their own making. So she went on
to accuse influences of actively trying to intensify a meaningful
bond between their audience to increase engagement and brand deals.
And she also went as far to claim that some
(33:21):
influencers stoke fan theories to encourage obsessive attention. I think
this is so true. Yeah again, Sarah's day comes to
mind because she has been very strategic with the way
that she talks to her followers. She calls them her
sissies and her best friends, and she always says, I've
got to jump on here and give you guys this update,
and often now those updates come with you should buy
(33:42):
this product. I do agree that influencers are stoking these
parasocial relationships because it does benefit their cash flow. But
as influencer culture grows, it's clear that this is a
huge downside for them. Being spoken about on sites like
Tattle is not great for their mental health. It's not
for their mental health, but it is good for their engagement.
(34:03):
Because if you manage to have the willpower not to
look at these sites and block them out, it doesn't
really matter to an influence that if it's positive or
negative engagement. Engagement is big at the end of the day,
and that's what brands look at. I agree. I think
it's actually a positive if you're being spoken about on
these types of forums, because if you're not being spoken about,
(34:24):
it means that you your content is irrelevant. And I
think that a lot of these influences would actually be
smart to keep track of what sort of buttons they're
pushing which is generating these responses. I mean, I definitely
think that Sarah's Day keeps an eye on them because
she does elicit a huge response from people, but I
think it benefits her brand, so she keeps doing these
(34:46):
controversial things. This is a thing. It's a tricky one
because I do think these types of forums do have
a place in that they allow people to hold influences
to account. However, I think things have just gone too
far on them and that there is moderation needed. I
truly don't understand how the site can continue because there
are just so many defamatory comments being made on there,
(35:08):
and obviously the way around it is because these people
are anonymous on there. It's sort of similar, yeah, but
it falls back on who is running the site, and
clearly someone is making money off the site because it
is full of advertisment. I think there's a view though,
that influencers should just griom and bear what people have
to say because they have this lifestyle. They're making so
much money off their followers that people just think, well,
(35:28):
this is the downside to fame, and I do tend
to agree, like, if you do put your life out
there and you share your opinions online, you should expect
some form of criticism and that people are going to
talk about you. But I think this form of criticism
is extreme. I think it is extreme in some circumstances.
But the best thing you can do, and what I
do is I don't read it. I definitely think that
(35:49):
there is space for people to have educated discussions on
influencer culture. And analyze different behavior of things that people do. However,
I just think that this page is becoming dead trum,
mental and downright a site for bullying, and it's really
impacting the mental health of a lot of influences. It
is very toxic. Well, we're going to leave things there,
but if you do love the podcast, please make sure
(36:11):
you are subscribed and leave us a review. Also, if
you want to hear more content from us, we do
drop a subscriber episode every Thursday if you want to
become an Outspoken Plus subscriber. All the details are in
our show notes. This podcast 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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