Before we get into the show, we want to point out we recorded this episode yesterday afternoon, just before Anna Paul released her response to Mikayla Tester's allegations on TikTok. We will be delving into Anna's response in more detail on Friday's show. It's important to point out that Anna has denied body shaming a fan. She also said stories about her family's wealth have been greatly exaggerated and has called on social media users to end the hate and bullying,
saying it's all Internet fun until someone dies. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torba and on today's show, we're going to be diving into the Anna pol and Mikayla testers scandal. But first, Kate, you're back in the studio following your snake drama. Everyone wants a bit of an update. What's been a week
and the snake still has not emerged. So we have had a net setup over the retaining wall that it went into, and we were told that it should be out within twenty four to four hours, but to give it a week just in case. So we're at the stage where we're like, do we take the snake net?
That snake is long gone? Okay?
Does he come back and get the net? Is that just he gives it away for free? Well, we did pay one hundred and eighty dollars for the snake catcher to come and not catch any snake, so I suppose it's for free. You've been sending me these hilarious snapchats of our mum going over to help you out with Jack and she's out hanging your laundry. But she's got a whistle in her mouth. She's been like hoping the vibrations of the whistle will keep any snakes away from her.
It was so funny because I thought she was just gonna blow the whistle once and then go outside. However, she blew it the whole time she was outside continuously. Yeah, she looked like Terry Cruz from White Cheeks, you know that SCENEA in the nightclub and he's got that whistle in his mouth. A day for the Australians. Let's go, Mikayla Testa and Nepaul, We're on. This is our James Charles,
Jeffrey Star, Tati Westbrook, moment. All right, this is drama getting Bogan version Australia's big US influencer scandal is playing out in real time. Beloved TikToker and Only Fans creator Anna Poul's reputation is in tatters following explosive claims made in an eight minute video by her former friend and fellow creator Mikayla Tester.
The bust up has.
Been dominating Millennial and jen Zetters for You pages, with the level of the scandal being compared to the twenty nineteen Taddy Westbrook and James Charles drama. Now, before we get into the scandal, Kate, can you bring listeners up to speed on who Anna and Mikayla are and how they're connected.
Yeah.
So we have spoken a lot about Anna Paul on this podcast, but for new listeners, she is one of Australia's biggest influencers. She has over seven million followers on TikTok and two million on Instagram. Well she did she used to? Yeah, now to give you an insight into just how big she is. In twenty twenty two, she shut down Perth CBD when she did a meet and greet and at the end of twenty twenty three, she launched her own skincare brand, Pauli's Skin, which sold out instantly.
Now her fan base is predominantly young females who follow her daily vlogs where she spreads messages about kindness and body positivity. Ironically, there is a large portion of her followers who are completely unaware that she also runs a very successful OnlyFans account where she shares explicit content. And I think a lot of their parents are unaware. Yeah, she does also share any fans content. Also, when you say that her audience is predominantly young females, I have
to point out they're mostly schoolgirls. Yeah, And if you read Anna's comments on TikTok, there are a lot of people that are completely surprised when they find out she has an OnlyFans account, in saying that she is one of the nation's top earners on the platform. Before she launched her skincare range, the AFR estimated she earned two hundred and twenty thousand dollars a month on OnlyFans. As for Mikayla Tester, she is also a top earner on OnlyFans.
Is estimated she earns around one hundred and sixty thousand dollars a month on the platform, so slightly less than Anna Paul. She also has close to nine hundred followers on Instagram and two point four million on TikTok. Now, Mikayla and Anna have been friends for years, and they became particularly close when Michayla started dating Anna's brother Adis in twenty nineteen. Now they ended up breaking up in June twenty twenty two, but Mikayla and Anna continue to
publicly stay friends. They left a lot of supportive messages on each other's social media accounts and everything seemed okay between them. Yeah, and when Mikayla was dating Addis, the pol family really took her in as one of their own, and Anna even referred to Michayla as her sister. And I remember when they broke up, Mikayla was particularly upset because she was no longer a member of the family.
It wasn't just all about Addis, and I think that's because Michayla has been very open about her fractured relationship with her own family. They disowned her when she started only fans when she was a teenager pretty much, so the Pole family has been a second family to her and just recently in December, Michayla shared a video where she said her family had failed her in the worst
way you could possibly imagine. So she alleged that she was abused by two much older male family members when she was a child, which is just horrific to hear, and it kind of gives you an insight into her mindset at the moment. She clearly is looking to open up about a lot of things that have gone on in her life. Allegedly. It seemed like for quite a number of years that Mikhayla Tessa really wanted to get
back together with Adams Pole. She created a lot of content around it, but last year she actually made a new guy. They have since gone on to get engaged. She's an American body builder called Maxwell Krause. He also
has quite a large following on social media. She seems very happy with him, and I think Mikayla being in this happy relationship has a lot to do with the timing of why these allegations are coming out, because it's clear that she is at a place now where she feels comfortable enough to start speaking on this topic and safe and supported clearly too. So now that we are
up to speed. Let's get into this scandal. So the drama kicked off last weekend after Anna Paul told her followers she would be randomly gifting new subscribers to her Only Fans account cash rewards. Now, this isn't something new, so Anna has used similar incentives for her followers to promote her skin care line poorly and also her Only Fans account in the past.
Anna went on to.
Share screenshots from various followers who she'd ended up sending two hundred to one thousand dollars to as a cashback reward. Now. Last Monday, Mikayla Tester weighed in, writing on her Instagram story, if you have to incentivize people to buy your exclusive website by running cash giveaways on there and then posting screenshots of your Instagram so your underage followers spend ten dollars to hopefully win one thousand, you're basically running an
illegal lottery and taking advantage of children. Its growth. While she didn't initially name Anna, it was pretty clear who she was talking about, and eight hours later she decided to go one step further and name Anna, writing I'm speaking on this because it's not only horrible. But every time Anna pulls one of these cash giveaway money grabs, my dms are filled with hundreds of people asking me for funds, slash help with all sorts of devastating things
because they're at a loss for her. If your OnlyFans isn't selling and you need to pull cash grabs just to get subs or sell your skincare, then you need to reevaluate. Stop using and manipulating less fortunate people into sending their last ten dollars because you're promising the chance at more. I've had enough and I wish more people called a spade for a spade.
This is exploitation. I was really shocked.
When I saw this pop up because I was under the impression that Mikayla and Anna were still friends. Well I think Anna was under that impression because Anna actually commented on Mikayla's recent photo, which was uploaded on the Monday, saying sexy. Anna must have been unaware because that same day, Mikayla had unfollowed her on Instagram. Anna still does follow
her and follows her to this day. Well, Anna didn't respond to Mikayla's call out, but she ended up deleting Instagram stories which related to the giveaway, and she said in her daily vlog on TikTok, this.
Thinks in my room that make me happy when I'm sad.
Anna looked visibly upset in this log. And this is the last log that she has posted on TikTok since this scandal. Yeah, so, on Wednesday, things escalated even further when Michayla uploaded an explosive eight minute expose on Anna to TikTok. My jaw dropped when I saw this video. The way Michayla began the video was so sensationalized, and the allegations just went on and on. It almost felt like something we shouldn't be watching. Let's have a listen to how Michayla began the video.
There's a lot of things wrong with Anna Paul. It's way easier to hate me for calling her out when she's wrong than accepting that the Anna you guys love and idolize so much she never existed.
You don't know her. You don't know her like I know her.
You have never met her, and if you have, it's nothing more than a five second sulfie. These people that watch her don't know the another I know they know the other Anna, the one she wears when the camera starts rolling.
The opening line line of this video has become a trending sound on TikTok. It shows what a savvy TikTok creator Mikayla is. Though she knew exactly which notes to hit with that well, she was clearly reading a written statement as well. It's not like she just jumped on her stories and said whatever she felt like and clicked up load. And I think that's why people took it so seriously, because this was obviously something that was very considered.
It's very different to the other video she has put out there, and she made some very big accusations against not only Anna, but Anna's brother Adams Paul, who is Mikayla's ex boyfriend. The allegations level to Addis Paul are extremely serious in nature, and due to legal reasons, we
will not be delving into those. We will be discussing the allegations leveled at Anna to do with her public persona though, and we do want to reiterate that the allegations Mickayla made are unfounded and are yet to be proven to be true. So we're not saying that they are true, but we're just simply reporting on what Michayla has alleged.
Now.
In the eight minute video, Michayla spoke in more depth about Anna's cash giveaway, and she likened the giveaways entry mechanism to that of a lottery. She also alleged that it was unethical for Anna to direct her underage fan base to her only fans platform in order to enter the giveaway. Here's more of what she said.
Anna's performative generosity like hiding money in cities or dishing out giveaways behind a pay wall reek of superiority, watching her fans scramble over scraps, fighting each other because they need these funds while she films it, flaunt her designer labels, endless holidays, and material excess. This is dystopian and out of touch. Anna is praying on the vulnerability and desperation of impressionable young fans for her profit under the disguise
of self love, empowerment, and giving back. Ana may give back to the odd few people who she can post on an Instagram story for more promotion, and but everyone else falls short. Anna, if you truly wanted to give back to your fans, you would use a free platform such as your giant Instagram page with over two point four million followers, or if you truly wanted to give back to your ofs subscribers, you would do it privately
within that platform. By posting ig stories advertising that you're sending money to subscribers, you are directly trying to lure new customers over to your page, a page which costs sixteen dollars to access. This sixteen dollars is essentially a lottery ticket.
I was interested to know more about the legalities of Anna's cash giveaway.
And what I found was it really is a great area.
So from what I can establish, it depends whether Anna's giveaway fits under the category of a cash back offer or a lottery.
And because Anna.
Didn't specifically sell tickets, or organize dates or even set rules for her giveaway, by definition, it doesn't technically fit into the category of a lottery. What it does fit into is the a Triple c's definition of a cash back offer. So from what I can gauge, it doesn't appear that Anna has broken any rules. However, moving forward, I think a lot of influencers are going to be really careful about doing online giveaways because it is such
a great area. Well, we have seen recently Adrian Portelli, who's known as the Lambeau guy or that guy that buys all the properties on the blog. He also actually dated Mikayla Tester for a short period of time during her breakup with Adams Paul I totally forgot about that. Well. He was recently charged with conducting an unlawful lottery in
South Australia in December last year. So essentially the way his business works is people sign up to a membership to receive shopping discounts and as part of the membership offering, members are also granted entry into monthly draws for cash and prizes. And the law states that any lottery that is not licensed in the state is unlawful and organizes
face a maximum penalty of ten thousand dollars. So the bow you're trying to draw here is that Adrian has been asking his audience to basically subscribe and become members to a shopping discount page which is totally unrelated to the lottery, which is somewhat similar to Anna asking her followers to sign up and become members of her OnlyFans account in order to win money.
That is totally.
Uncommon entry mechanism. You just got to dot the i's and cross the t's and make sure your teas and seeds match up with what you do. The issue is Anna didn't have any terms in conditions, and I think
this is why so many consumers might have felt misled. Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of influencers taking note and making sure that they actually have te's and ce's moving forward, because I think social media is a little bit of a wild West with competitions, and people don't generally think that they're going to be cracked down on or even Aside from the legalities, I think Mikhayla also raised an important question around the ethics and
appropriateness of marketing OnlyFans accounts to underage followers, because this is essentially what Anna was doing, and she has made it very clear that a large percentage of her audience are under eighteen, and if you look at her TikTok content, it very much appeals to an underage audience. I mean, there's been a lot of discussion on TikTok since this scandal hit that Anna speaks quite often in a baby voice in her videos, and you know she lives with
her mum and dad. She calls the mamma and Papa. It's all quite I don't say juvenile, but it is very childlike the way she acts on that. Yeah, and she has been accused of glamorizing sex work to her underage followers and one really popular sex worker on TikTok, Kayla Jade, she wad into it, and she didn't specifically name Anna, but she told her followers it's important for sex workers to be mindful of the content they create
so there's no confusion around it. She said, there's nothing morally wrong with being a sex worker and wanting to promote it online, but there is a problem when it's exposed to the wrong audience. So she likened this to horror movies. She said, there's nothing wrong with enjoying horror movies, but would you show Texas chainsaw massacre to a room
full of preschool kids. Kayla also made a really great point about the need for creators to be mindful and consistent across all platforms so their audiences are aware of what they're consuming.
Let's have a listen to what she said.
The majority of my audience is twenty five to thirty five because it's clear exactly what I do and I'm not trying to target a younger audience. Your audience is constantly under the age of eighteen and you're in SW have to reassess what you're doing, and it is your responsibility to fix it. Can neither change your content to be more appropriate for a younger audience, you stop promoting SW content on all platforms, or make the changes necessary
to ensure your marketing to an adult audience. Parents also, should we be leaving their kids on supervised online because just like the engineer, they're going to see some shit they probably shouldn't. There are so many people in my space that do things that are crossing a line and don't sit right with me, and it can be frustrating because it brings negative attention to the whole industry.
There's been so many people weighing into the Anna Pole situation, and in this case, I think it's really important to hear the perspective of someone who not only works as a sex worker as well, but works in the TikTok space, so to hear that she has a direct strategy with the content that she's putting out making sure that it is appropriate for her target demographic. I think is really interesting.
I think the big difference between Kayla and Anna's content is that Anna puts out a very glamorous view of being a sex worker. So if you look at her tiktoks, it's all about her jetting around the world, which's eating in glamorous restaurants, driving luxury cars. Money clearly isn't an issue for her, and her fan base is predominantly teenagers who would be lapping up this type of content. They want to live the life that Anna Paul lives. But when you look at Kayla's content, she's done a really
good job of not romanticizing sex work. I mean, she has said that she believes it's important to also show the unflattering.
Side, and she does that.
She tells some pretty full on stories, which makes it not the most appealing job to have. However, you would see being a sex worker as the most glamorous thing ever long. Anna's one thing that Kayla does do is she does often count words of cash that she's made from the night before to start her videos. But then you hear the reality of how she has got that money,
and as you said, Amy some of these stories. I mean, the reason she's so popular is because these stories have you on the edge of your seat.
But it doesn't glamorize it. It just portrays the reality.
When you look at Kayla's content, it is clearly aimed at eighteen plus. She is pretty consistent with the type of content she shares. You would look at Anna's TikTok and be unaware that she actually was on OnlyFans. But is that because the algorithm punishes creators who do try
and push people from Instagram or TikTok to OnlyFans? Because I've noticed that a lot of OnlyFans creators they have to use specific language like oh spicy content and really play around with it to suggest people to go onto their part. But also, because Anna is a sex worker, does that mean that she doesn't have another life? Like, does this mean that she has She isn't allowed to travel and have a glamorous life, and she isn't allowed to be a nice person.
She is breaking down the stigma that.
A sex worker has particular personality. Actually, at all of the characters, I agree, she's doing a really good job at breaking down the stigma. But she can't be relying on her underage audience to bump up her OnlyFans earnings, and if you look at OnlyFans as rules, it states that users must agree they are eighteen years or older before they're able to purchase any explicit content. I feel like the word that they must agree is important because.
This site is not fool proof.
Miners are lying about their age and falsifying their age in order to gain access to it. It's pretty similar to social media platforms where kids are pretending that they're older in order to get them. Now, let's get back into Mikayla's allegations. So she really hit Anna wear her? She alleged that Anna doesn't care about her fans and that the way she presents herself publicly is very different to the real Anna. This is some of what she said.
Everything Anna does is calculated, but she masks the manipulation extremely well with an innocent, sweet girl facade. Your fans mean nothing to you, just like the animals you buy and palm off to others watching you be praised online for being kind and caring, But behind the facade.
Lived an evil person.
All while I'm receiving hate because I didn't create content like you everything people accuse me of being is exactly who you are. That was just the beginning of the pot that started boiling within me.
I find it really interesting that Mikayla has brought up Anna's pets. We all know that Anna travels the world, yet her pets have become a huge part of her personal brand. So she has a number of hairless cats who remain at home for most of the time. There is a bit of a question mark over who actually
looks after these pets whilst they're traveling all year. And to say that your fans and also your animals mean nothing to you is a really big thing to say to someone like Anna Paul who has based this online brand about being kind. And you know, if someone can't be kind to animals, that does say a lot more about them. It just shows how much this video went there because literally every aspect of Anna was being put
onto the microscope and criticized. Well, she really did go for the jugular, particularly when she started talking about Anna's messaging around body positivity and saying that essentially she was virtue signaling and doing it for clout. She then recounted a time Anna met a fan saying.
This Anna, Remember about god awful trend of people posting photos of influencers that they would and wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a bikini around. Remember those slide shows people would make with everyone in the family of all of you being labeled as safe and my photo was at the and marked as I would never feel safe in a
bikinia around Michaela. Meanwhile, right before these videos were trending, in twenty twenty one, on the South Bank Bridge, when you were peak body positivity, love yourself version of Anna, a plus sized fan came up to you and asked for a hug in a picture.
You smiled at her. You told her that you loved her. She told you how.
Your words online have helped her be more comfortable in her body. The moment she walked away, you told Adis that she was annoying and gross and you didn't want to agree to the hug because she was fat and sweaty Adis laughed.
These were your words, Anna, I heard them. Things like this were a common occurrence.
It was really sad because after Mickayla made these claims, there were a number of women on tik tok who created videos where they shared their fan photos with Anna and they were saying, oh my god, I hope that this wasn't about me, and they then retold their story of meeting her. And as I said earlier, it's clear how strategic Michayla has been with this messaging because it kind of reminds me of me and girls when Caddie Harring hits were you in George where it hurts you
know her man Candy and hers like. It's literally she's gone body positivity, her fans, her pets, like everything that we like about Anna she's saying is not true. And this is how I'm going to show you it's not true and prove it. Because a lot of people want to meet Anna Paul. She's shut down Perth CBD. And it's an experience that you always remember and you think, oh my god, it was so great. When I met her,
she was just like she is on TikTok. But then to hear the conversation that occurs will allegedly occurred after she met a fan, it just hits you viscerally because you're like, I cannot imagine having such a positive experience but then having it completely altered. Hearing the reality of what happened afterwards. Well, on the Mean Girl's comparison, somebody said it reminds them of when Regina George would compliment someone on their tartan skirt or their bracelet and then
be like, that's the fuggliest thing I've ever seen. An accusation that's been gaining a lot of traction on TikTok Is around Anna's upbringing. So Mikayla alleged that Anna lied about it. So she has spoken in depth on her social media channels about supposedly growing up poor, and I think that this has been a big part of her appeal.
This Rags to Rich's story because it's kept her relatable because even though we see her documenting this very lavish lifestyle online, we're reminded by the fact that this is the first time she's experiencing it because she grew up with no Christmas presents and her family lived in a
very humble house. People feel happy for her that she's able to gain this success, particularly when she gives her parents very lavish things that she positions that they couldn't afford and that she wants to spoil them.
Well.
According to Mikayla, she says that Anna allegedly grew up in an upper middle class family. Here's some of what she said.
Their dad, making triple the average Australian income per week had them living in a beautiful house on the water with a built in pool. I've seen the house in person. It's beautiful. Being upper middle class is not being poor, Anna, Your exaggerated stories for the Internet has always made your dad upset and me well, just angry, real victim of the system and poverty like you portrayed yourself online.
Remember that time when he called you out in the living room.
He didn't understand why you would post such things and he called them liars. But you need the story faking your poverty so people excuse your schemes and wealth and feel bad for you. Every calculated story is serving such an important role in supporting the other lies this web you're weaving to entrapt these people's pity.
These allegations have led to a lot of people going back and doing their own research. I've seen some TikTokers finding real estate dot Com listings of the house that Anna allegedly grew up in, showing that.
It was a beautiful house on the water front, two.
Million dollar house. Somebody has alleged these are allegations. We don't know how true they are. Everyone's turned into detectives, haven't they had? So many of Anna Paul's supposed primary school and high school friends have come out of the woodwork given their viewer what she was like. And there's
been also a lot of people trolling back through. I'm gonna say her papa, I can't remember his name, but his his Instagram count to prove that he had a number of nice cars whilst they were growing up, because there was. Anna did make a claim that her parents had to be given a car because they couldn't afford one. And I'm seeing a lot of people clipping up content that Anna has previously shared as a teenager and then
showing her completely contradicting herself in more recent vlogs. Well, it does play into the allegations that Verukas Salt made back in March last year. So she accused Anna of
allegedly neglecting her father, Hans. So she claimed that her babysitter was dating Anna's dad and that she told her Hans lived in his van and didn't have money for food, and Ruka went on to say that she shared a mutual friend with the Pools, who backed up the babysitters claims and allegedly the way Anna and Adas treated their dad was quote disgusting. Now. Anna's dad later came out
and said that the allegations were toxic misinformation. Interestingly, at the time, Mikayla Tester weighed into the argument, saying that Veruka's comments were not true, but did say that Hans was a hippie and he was known for sleeping in his van. We're getting two very different pictures here because Varuka's allegations are centered around the fact that the Paul kids didn't support their father to the point where he's having to live in a caravan and he needed support,
is what she's saying exactly. Then, from Mikayla, we are been given the impression the Hans has been very upset about the way that Anna has portrayed her childhood because he worked hard to provide for his family and from all accounts it sounds like they grew up in a very nice household. Yeah, well, the claims don't really match up.
I mean in saying that it is possible for people's financial situations to change throughout their lifestyle and a lot of people were waiting for Ruka to weigh in on Mikayla's recent claims, and she didn't disappoint, so she came out swinging, labeling An a manipulative and a compulsive liar. She wrote, she allowed the Internet to rip me a new one while she sat in a room on a cruise ship screaming at her dad to tell her what he said to my son's abysitter in Brackets partner. She
knows everything I said was true. She was more than happy to sit in silence and let her fans bully me when I had pure intentions and told no lies only one month after my son's death. Now, among her allegations, she accused Anna of cosplaying, being poor, and stealing pieces of Michayla's life story and presenting them as her own. Ruka also alleged that Anna purposely set up Mikayla with Adas so he could get a cut of her OnlyFans earnings. She ended up writing this story took me five minutes
to write and post because it's factual. I know Anna is sitting in her room talking to Addis and plotting her response to Mikayla. That's why it's taking so long. If Anna was who she says she is, she could open her camera talk click post. She has to plan her words carefully because it's going to be bullshit. This
may just be my algorithm. But one thing I've been quite surprised about is the number of large creators who were siding with Michayla and who were quite happy for Anna Paul to be receiving this negativity.
Now.
I don't know whether it comes down to jealousy within the industry, because Anna really has become TikTok sweetheart. Anything she touches previously has turned to gold. She's incredibly popular, and maybe some creators I'm not saying Varuka here, but maybe there are some creators who are seeing this as an opportunity to take her position. Well. People are definitely
taking joy out of it. There seems to have been this mass pilon and to me, it kind of seems that everyone's been waiting for that gotcha moment with Anna Paul and now it's come. I am really not surprised that this has happened. I actually predicted that Anna Paul would be canceled this year, and it's not something that I am joyous in getting right because it's horrible to see anyone get canceled, no matter what the allegations are
against them. And in saying that, I mean, as we say, we can't get into it legally, but it does annoy me that people are piling on Anna when there have been a lot of worse things said about her brother.
That is what is so confusing about the situation.
Does it come down to the fact that we expect a lot less from Attis and that's why we're not really shocked by these claims. That's not such a big deal because when he first came to prominence in twenty twenty, I think all of our initial opinions of him were quite low. If you reflect on the stories that we were covering in twenty twenty, it was around him trying to sell cryptocurrency to his impressionable audience. He had this real dickhead persona. He boasted about his fast cars and
his boats. In saying that, since twenty twenty two, he's gone through this real transformation. That was after he broke up with Mikayla Tester, he started to present himself completely differently. He grew his hair, he wore more feminine clothes. He also took himself offline, so he doesn't actually post content anymore. He only appears in Anna's content. It also looked like he was living a simpler lifestyle, like, yes, he was going on these holidays, but he was in touch with
his feelings, journaling, he was painting. I more think it's because the mainstream media can't actually report on what's been said about Yeah, but that's not stopping people on TikTok. On TikTok, people don't seem to understand the legal ramifications, and that's why I'm confused that there is not more being directed at Adas Pole.
Well.
It also has something to do with the fact that Anna's got a much larger profile and he no longer is online. He only appears in the background. I think it's also because Anna hasn't come out and said anything, so everyone's been almost creating their own narrative on TikTok, and it's become a sport to.
Have a go at Anna. Paul No.
I think it also comes down to the fact that people feel cheated. They're like, you've told us that you're one way, and then apparently behind closed doors you're another. You do make a really good point, because it seems like Anna Poul's biggest crime at the moment is that she isn't a nice person as she presents herself on TikTok. It reminds me of the cancelation of Ellen DeGeneres. It was like, oh my god, what she's not exactly the
same when the cameras aren't rolling anymore. I also think it's a gendered thing and as a society we seem to have this thing where we love to tear women down and it's almost a bit of a case of tool poppy.
Again.
We can't get into the allegations made against Adams pol but they are far worse than the allegations that have been made against Anna Paul. There is no comparison.
Now.
We did hold off ondiscussing this scandal until show because we were hoping that Anna Paul would have had an opportunity to reply to the allegations at the time of recording, though she has not, and this has despite it nearly being a full week since Mikayla made the allegations, and this has been very detrimental to her So far, she's lost over four hundred thousand followers on TikTok and fifty nine thousand on Instagram. Her skincare brand, Paulie, has also
lost over thirteen thousand followers. On the contrary, though Mikayla has done well out of this situation. She has gained over two hundred thousand followers on TikTok and forty five thousand on Instagram. It seems like a lot of people have left Anna's page to go and follow Mikayla. I'm not entirely surprised that Anna hasn't said anything yet, because she used the same strategy of staying quiet when varukas
Sault made the allegations against her dad. At the time, her dad did come out and label it as toxic misinformation. I didn't really agree with Varukasault saying, oh, she should just jump on her stories and say something and quickly post it, because these are really serious allegations that have huge reputational damage for Anna paul. I think, though, what she was saying was if she's so real and raw, she should be able to explain away these comments. Obviously
there's a lot more brewing behind the scenes. What Mikayla Tester has said is extremely serious and I'm quite certain that they are currently in talks with their lawyers. That's why they need to be really careful with what they say moving forward, because anything that they do say will be used in evidence in that court case. Well, from a PR perspective, I've been thinking about if I was managing Anna Paul and how I'd actually respond to this,
and it's a really difficult one. We have to remember that this only really happened a week or so ago, which is a lifetime on TikTok. Yeah. I think Anna and her team wanted to wait to see what the
response was like and analyze it from there. Good well, Michayla, because Michaela has come out and made claims about Adams Paul in the past, which she herself said were unfounded and she actually made up previously just around their breakup and petty things in that maybe they were hoping that there might be a level of distrust towards world this would all blow over, and think that they I don't think that they thought people would take what Mikayla said
as seriously and as verbatim as they had. I think that that is why they've left it brewing for a little bit.
I also think that they.
Didn't want to comment on anything straight away because there was a couple of days where the mainstream media wasn't reporting on this story.
And if Anna was my client, I would.
Say, don't comment on it yet, because the second that you comment on this story, that is when they can start running it. I would argue that the backlash on TikTok is more damaging to her than what's actually in the mainstream media, particularly because the mainstream media are being really careful with how they reported considering all the allegations that have been made against Adams Paul. Mikayla Tester has
seemingly gone quiet on her own platform. When you go over to her TikTok, she hasn't posted any new videos since that video On Wednesday, she has been reposting a lot of content about Anna.
Pol It Speaks.
Volumes that this video is still live on Mikayla's TikTok account, because quite often when scandals like this erupt, the video only lasts a few days before the other person's legal team has issued them a cease and desist and ask them to take it down immediately. It actually worries me a lot, because, as we said, presumably the Polls have engaged a lawyer, and when it comes to defamation, they do take into consideration how many views a video has.
That video is aging towards twenty million views. That is a lot of reputational damage to the Polls. I did find it interesting that at no point Mikhayla used the word allegedly, and at one stage when she was talking about addis, she referenced that her points would stand up in a court of law. Do you think she has had legal advice? Yes, I definitely think she has because this video was very different to other videos she's put
out there. She read from a script. It's clear there was a lot of thought put into what was said. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole script was approved by a lawyer that she worked with, or she formulated it with maybe a PR expert.
To hit all of the right spots.
I think the reason this video is still up is because Anna and Michayla are on pretty level playing fields. They both make a lot of money, so it's not as if Anna is reaching out to a smaller creator and threatening her. David doesn't have all the power in this situation, and it is really hard to actually launch a successful defamation case. A lot of the claims that Michayla's brought up, the Pauls would not want these going to court because she might actually have some proof.
This is where things get really messy.
I totally understand Amy where you're coming from with the claims about Adas. What has sort of shocked me, though, is because Anna Paul does have such a loyal following, I'm surprised that we haven't seen many people defending her online.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's just my algorithm, but I've seen no one coming to anarticularly because some of the comments that Mikayla has made about Anna, you could put them down to being pure here say, I understand that Michayla was in the inner sanctum, but when you look at her motive, she's a scorned lover, you know what I mean? But she doesn't want to go well for the pol. But the consensus is and most people think this.
People believe her people, But is it because we want to believe that someone isn't that nice?
Like?
Why do we want to jump on that. The thing that's really sad about this is that these are two very young girls. They're both in their mid twenties. This scandal has gone international. We're seeing a lot of American creators and UK creators commenting on it. It's going to be detrimental for Anna Poul's brand and career on a bigger scale. She doesn't come out and say something soon. I think it's because Mikayla chose her timing very wisely. She didn't just do it after she broke up with Addis.
You know, it's been years since they were a couple. She looks like she's moved on, she's engaged, she's happy. Yeah, And when you look at what's been going down with Anna Pole, her popularity has been on the decline ever since she broke up with her long term boyfriend Glenn and when she launched her skincare brand poorly, because before she never used to do brand deals. She used to give people content and there didn't seem to be any sort of transaction going on unless you were over on
her OnlyFans account. But for most people who consumed her content and TikTok, she just put out content for free and she never pushed any brand deals. Now she's got a skincare brand that she's spooked. She's broken up with Glenn, who everyone loved in her videos, and there's a lot of rumors going on about her new boyfriend, Amrik. I mean, she hasn't actually officially said that he's her boyfriends. A lot of people are upset. They feel like they've been
let out of her life. They don't know what's going on. They say, well, what else is true? Yeah, exactly. And she's also done at a time where people are reflecting on the attention that we give sex workers like Bonnie Blue. Do you guys think that Anna can come back from this.
I think she.
Can come back from this, but it's going to be very difficult. We need to hear from her soon, and we need a convincing response because the longer the radio silence goes, the longer the anger grows, and the more narratives people start making up about her.
That rhyme Sophie I did it.
Yeah.
I think that she probably will bounce back from this because the way the internet works, it's so rapid pace. I mean, a week of this scandal feels like forever. Everyone's like, I can't believe she hasn't spoken, But in a month or two time, people are probably going to forget pretty quick.
I also will forget about it.
But what's crazy is that normally when a big scandal like this happens, people don't tend to lose as many followers. People actually gain more followers because people are interested in all of the drama. Yeah, one hundred thousand followers, regardless of if you started with seven million, is a lot of people to have just discarded. Yeah, we saw Matilda Jeff when her scandal happens, she actually gained followers. I think Anna could maybe gain some of those back when
she does put out and explain a video. But is that just the way TikTok works? Because even if you unfollow Anna poll, you're probably still going to get her content back in your algorithm. Like I find when I follow people, they usually see less of their content. So I don't know if it's going to affect her that much. A lot of the time, these big scandals actually end up bolstering both parties careers, and I think that this
was always going to happen to Anna Paul. There was always going to be a scandal that threatened to cancel her because that's the way we are, particularly in Australia with tall poppy syndrome.
Whatever goes up has to come down.
Well that's where we're going to leave things today. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Outspoken. If you did enjoy the episode, we would love if you could leave us a five star review as it really helps the podcast. This episode was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders past and present.