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