00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torber and coming up on today's show, Tammy Hembrough is labelled disrespectful after hanging out with an ex. Fans turn on Taylor Swift after her album release and our Friday debrief. But first, Ashley Bynes has reignited her feud with Gretty Rose and Sammy Leo. Kate, can you tell us more? Well, it all started when Ashley shared a clip to TikTok from a podcast episode she did where she answered listener dilemmas. And she was asked her thoughts on a friendship breakdown. And during her answer, she revealed that she's been in the exact same situation. She conceded when it comes to friendship, she has an anxious attachment style. Here's more of what she said.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Whoever this is, I've been in this exact situation. And I've I am quite an anxious attachment when it comes to friendships. And I have a wound of being abandoned and rejected. And I like to have closure over things. But I've had a friend that hasn't given me any closure, that won't pick up the phone, that won't FaceTime, that won't reply, and I've just been left. So I totally hear where she's at because it's like, I want to keep this friendship. I don't know what's happened. I'm left over here being like, what the hell? But I got to a point where I was like, I actually have to unplug because there is nothing else I can do.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: You keep just breaking your own heart.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
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Speaker 2: And also, I got to a point too, I think, within Tiana and my friendship, the way Tiana communicates with me and creates a safe place that we can bring anything in, it raised my standard of what I wanted in a friendship. So it made it easier for me to unplug from this other friendship.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: We have spoken on this podcast before, Kate, about how many resources you that Ashley Bynes is throwing into this podcast. Yeah, it's clear she wants to make it very popular. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be having the success yet that she is wanting because she had to cancel a live podcast show. we saw on the charts that it's not doing that well. They don't have a huge fan base listening to this show. In comparison to the amount of people that follow her, which is over a million followers, you would expect a big influencer would be getting a lot of downloads on their podcast. So she has thought to herself, I'm going to get interest by trying to reignite a feud or revisit this feud. Between her former friends, Gretty and Sammy, we often get DMs on the regular saying, please, can you talk about this feud? I'm so invested. Tell me what happened. Yeah. And it seems like Gretty and Sammy have taken the bait because off the back of this video, they shared their own TikTok where they appeared together on screen with texts that said, when your bestie just clocked the same shit as I did. And in the video, they look at each other and laugh. The video was captioned debrief pending and the comments were an interesting read. One person wrote NDA over yet or what? And another said, tell us when the NDA is over. Don't tease us. Now, this is a rumor that has followed Ashley Bynes for quite a long time. She's had a lot of high profile friendship bust ups and people have said none of the friends talk out because they're forced to sign NDAs. She has come out on her podcast and said this is completely untrue. How do you feel about them piggybacking off this though and obviously creating their own content? I mean, it's just the nature of social media. We spoke a couple of weeks ago about how friendship bust ups are the way to stay relevant online. Everyone cares about you when you're feuding with another influencer. So I think it's a smart content strategy, but it is a little bit hypocritical because you're saying, oh, how dare this person call us out, but you're doing the same thing. I think people are growing tired of it because they see a group of women in their 30s who were mothers fighting over something really petty that happened a couple of years ago. It's sort of something that you would expect people in their early 20s to fight about. I don't know how I feel about you age shaming them for fighting in their 30s. I'm definitely not age shaming. I'm just saying that I think people expect more of them more of a maturity level than to get caught up on some crap that happened 10 years ago. It's funny you say that though, because when Indy Clinton got that PI and found out who all her trolls were, they happened to be mums, probably in their thirties. I think it's a time in life where you may be looking after children. So you aren't pouring heaps into yourself and you need strong friendships and you might not get back from those friends what you need and that would cause a fight. And it is a time in your life when some of your friendships do fall apart because you're in different stages and you can't relate to one another. All I'm saying though is that I think the response has been one of people saying this is a bit immature.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: And also a sense of just tell us what happened. Like if you're not going to open up about it, then we don't want to hear you referencing it anymore. Get ready with me.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: I already put on my foundation, but I thought I'll do like a little chit chat catch up.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Tammy Hembrough has been labelled disrespectful after teasing a reunion with her ex-fiancé, Rhys Hawkins. It's not the first time the OG influencer has made it public that she's hanging out with her ex. Kate, can you tell us more? So on Saturday night, Tammy posted an Insta story of her two young daughters hugging at a bowling centre. So at first glance, it looked like just a regular wholesome family night out. That was until Super Sluice spotted the bowling scoreboard that featured at the top of the frame of the Instagram story. It was literally there for a couple of seconds max. It turns out that Tammy was bowling with her three children and her ex-fiancé, Rhys Hawkins. So Rhys is the father of Tammy's two eldest children, Wolf and Saskia. The following night, Tammy then backed the video up by sharing a TikTok of her and Reese at the bowling center. So for those who haven't seen it, Tammy set up her camera and then she moved back into the frame to stand next to Reese. And at that point, she hoisted her jeans up with her tongue poking out and tried to pull Reese into the shot next to her as she pouted and kicked her back leg up. Rhys kind of looked awkward. He looked at her like, what the fuck? And then he kind of playfully pushed the bowling ball towards her. I don't think he's totally innocent. He is clearly in on the videos. He's appearing in it for God's sake. Well, to be fair, she kind of set up the camera as he was picking up his bowling ball. And I think it's kind of that thing where he doesn't know how to react to it. So you don't think he was in on the video? No, I think this was all set up by Tammy and he was kind of an innocent bystander in a sense because You've got to remember the three kids are there. So if he makes a scene, it actually detracts from their whole family night. So I think he just played along in the moment. But then again, he could say, hey, sorry, do you mind not posting that? Because it might be a bit disrespectful to my girlfriend. I'm sure she probably would have respected that. Well, we don't know the conversation that happened. I think that he plays on it as well because they both know that together they're incredibly popular. People are very nostalgic about this relationship. We saw that when we did our Tammy deep dives. There were so many people who were shipping the relationship and they saw the two of them as ultimate couple goals. Well, Tammy certainly got the reaction she was after because the clip went viral on social media. At the time of recording, it's had 3.6 million views. And Tammy stirred the pot further on Tuesday night, sharing an Instagram story of her miming to Taylor Swift's song, The Life of a Showgirl. She then panned across to Reese driving the car with their two kids in the back and he was shaking his head and she captioned the video, not a Swifty. His reaction is the same reaction that most boyfriends have when their girlfriends try to film an Instagram story, just being like, not again. I don't want to be in this, but this is a different one because they're not together. It really seems like Tammy has made a conscious effort since announcing the divorce to include Reese in her content because three weeks after the divorce announcement, she shared a video of her prank calling Reese. Now that TikTok got 1.4 million views. Then a month later, she posted a video of her, Reese and their two kids posing with the caption whole gangs here. That video went absolutely nuts. It had 16.7 million views and it sparked rumours that they were getting back together. The captions have sparked a lot of conversations around where Posey fits into this family because she is Tammy's third daughter. Her father is Matt Paul, which is Tammy's second fiancé. And by saying the whole gang's here and not including her in the video... A lot of people were like, well, how is the whole gang here? Your third daughter is missing. And then in the other video, she said, mom and dad. And Posey was in that video. Yeah. Rhys Hawkins isn't her dad.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: A lot of people thought it was in bad taste. And it seems like Matt Paul kind of responded in his own way on Instagram. So he shared a photo dump from that weekend and someone commented on it saying, glad Posey is with you and not spending the whole time with the other kid's dad. So confusing for all involved. And Matt replied, simply agree. Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that things had gotten that frosty between them because Tammy really prides herself on having a good co-parenting relationship with both Matt and Reese, there were a few rumors that maybe things weren't going well in the background when he did like that post mocking her crying after breaking up with Matt Zukowski. Yeah. Judging by their social media interactions, it seems like things are a little bit tense between Tammy and Matt Paul. I want to talk about where Liv Kelly fits into all of this because she is a Gold Coast Fitness influencer who recently went Instagram official with Reese Hawkins They may live in different countries, but they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Rhys, of course, resides in Bali. It does seem like she is the reason why he's spending a lot of time in Australia as well. I mean, I feel a little bit torn on that because it's nice for his kids, but then it's like, well, why aren't you here visiting your kids rather than your girlfriend? But anyway. Liv Kelly is yet to officially comment on the recent Tammy Reese situation. It's interesting to note, though, that she shared a photo dump from the weekend but didn't include photos of Reese in it, even though he was on the Gold Coast. So do we think they've had a massive argument following some of Tammy's posts? Well, I think so because on Saturday she also shared a video of her miming to a trending sound of Kylie Jenner saying, Dude, I'm getting my personality back though. Like, I'm feeling like myself again. I really was not myself. And someone commented on the video, just end things with Reese so he can be with Tammy. They suit each other so well. Now, another person jumped in and wrote back to the commenter, Tammy treated Reese as a doormat and used the children to punish him. Please just... are their friends in fake accounts? I think they are genuine. I mean, there were a lot of people saying that the situation between Tammy and Rhys is very reminiscent of how she acted when he started dating London Gowan, who ended up being his wife. They have now split up. Well, Liv continued to stoke the fire on Tuesday. She shared a compilation of clips of herself with the trending sound. Just be a little more thoughtful and a little bit kinder because you really don't know what somebody's dealing with or going through. And she captioned that video saying a YouTube video was coming with a full life update. Now, I went and checked the YouTube channel to see if it was out before we recorded. It is not out yet, but I noted that Liv only has 63 subscribers on the platform. So I found it quite interesting because maybe she is also using this as a bit of a content strategy and thinks, oh, well, I'm getting a bit of extra attention from this Tammy situation. I may as well bolster my influencing career.
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Speaker 3: A shockingly offensive thing to say.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. It is not the last album.
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Speaker 3: It's not why people get married.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: No, exactly. So that they can quit their job. Last Friday, Taylor Swift dropped her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, to polarizing reviews. Despite the album breaking streaming and sales records, Taylor is copying Backlash, even from her most diehard fans. Now, Kate, as one of those, I want to know how do you feel about the album? Well, I was personally taken aback by the negative response because I loved the album from the get-go. And that hasn't been something I've experienced since Lover. So I really did like Tortured Poet's Department, but it took me a while to get into it. I mean, there were so many songs released. It was like, you know, 30 different songs. It was a bit of a slow burn. Yeah, it was more of a slow burn. But with this album... From the get go, I'm like, love that, love that. I've got that stuck in my head. Like I can actually listen to the full album and there's no skips for me. Because we're pretty basic. I love anything pop. So this album really speaks to me. And again, because we were listening and we were instantly messaging each other our reaction to each song. Love it. Love that. Love that. Oh my God, this is, it gets even better. So I was pretty shocked to see the reaction online from people. People who I think are almost acting like they're too cool to be a Taylor Swift fan. Well, I think there are two camps because I think it does depend on what albums of Taylor's are your favorite. So for me, I loved 1989. I loved Lover. I loved Reputation. They're probably my top three Taylor Swift albums. And I think that The Life of a Showgirl has that vibe, a mixture of all three of those. It really seems to be the folklore and ever more fans who are struggling with this album release. Yeah. I mean, they are probably my least favorite Taylor Swift albums. I tried really hard to listen to them leading into the Ears tour because I knew that was such a big portion of the tour. And I admit there are some really good songs on there. Like, I love August. But to me, that's not really the type of music I like listening to. But it doesn't mean that I went on social media and absolutely slammed Taylor, which is what has been happening. It seems like a lot of people have just been waiting to have a go at her. Well, it's tall poppy syndrome. A lot of people have labelled the lyrics as cringe. And there's also a lot of hate being directed at her fiancé, Travis Kelsey. They say that he's not a good enough muse. Yeah, I mean, that was the case even when Taylor released Tortured Poets because a couple of the songs on the album were about Travis, so High School and also The Alchemy. And there was a lot of conversations online about how the lyrics were quite juvenile. Again, they were probably two of my favourite songs from Tortured Poets, so I think it just depends on the type of music people like. I think there's been a longstanding fear for quite some time now that when Taylor gets married... that she's suddenly going to become a shit writer and not have any heartbreak to talk about anymore. And I think that people are almost projecting that into this album. Yeah, well, there were a lot of people complaining online that Taylor being happy doesn't generate the same level of penmanship that it does when she is heartbroken. And there were even people saying that they can't wait for the divorce album. Now, this type of commentary led the New Yorker to run with the headline, do we still like Taylor Swift when she's happy? In the article, the journalist Tyler Fogart wrote, The weak lyricism in the Travis Kelsey-inspired songs and the life of a showgirl has led to some of the most virulent and sexist anti-Swift discourse in years. Some have gone so far as to speculate that Allman was ghostwriting Swift songs all along, which is especially devastating given how much time Swift has spent fighting not only to be recognized as a songwriter, but to claim ownership of her own work. It's incredibly unfair that this is being pushed. There's just this general tone of nastiness towards Travis where people are saying, she is dumbing down her writing just to impress him.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just so sexist to say, oh, Joe Olin must have written all of her good lyrics. I mean, yes, he was a co-writer on Folklore and Evermore. But do we not think that potentially it is more about him as a muse? It seems like Taylor was never really that confident in that relationship and she was always trying to work on it. Whereas this album, it reflects that she's in a very happy and healthy relationship with Travis Kelsey. Is that not what we want? And I also think that potentially a lot of the people who don't like the album are in their heartbreak era and that's why it's not resonating with them. Well, in that New Yorker piece, the journalist also explored the notion that Taylor's longest and most intense relationship has been this parasocial one that she has with her fans. So Tyler wrote, Swift's fans feel like they know her and have a deep personal connection with her. They are just as invested in her music as they are in her life. And at least until now, those two things haven't been in conflict. For years, it felt like she wrote songs that spoke to the core of the female experience at its most vulnerable. It felt like she lived and learned in parallel with her listeners, and that feeling is gone. Now, at the end of the article, Tyler also posed the question, Swift is about to marry Kelsey, but it's possible that in Showgirl, she's breaking up with us. Look, I think there's a lot of truth to what Tyler Fogart has written there. I mean, it kind of reminds me of You know, we touched on how as a female, you go through a lot of different life stages and in your early twenties, it does seem like you lose a lot of friends because, you know, you're no longer in high school, you're no longer doing the same things, you drift apart. And then there is that time in life when you get married and you have children and your life may no longer reflect that of your friends. So you kind of move around a bit and it's not about having some massive fire. It's just about you no longer connect on that level anymore. You're not doing the same sort of things. And I think this album about being very happily in love and about to get married is quite polarizing to people that are still in their tortured poets era. I just think this album is just a change of pace. It's about being happy. And she's very happy at the moment. It's the perfect album for us Aussies when we're approaching summer. These songs are going to be so much fun to listen to driving on a summer's day to the beach.
00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: I think this backlash was inevitable though, because Taylor has hit the absolute pinnacle, both professionally and personally. So she's released this album off the back of officially becoming a billionaire from the era's tour. She's of course had the era's tour and has just announced her engagement recently. So To me, it's just a classic case of tall poppy syndrome. People feel this innate sense to take her down a peg or two. But it's also down to social media because everyone is so keen to create a viral video these days. And the only way you're going to do that is by having a controversial take on things. To be fair, though, people are allowed to not like the album. I wasn't a massive fan of Folklore or Evermore. And I think people can respectfully discuss that maybe this wasn't the album for them. But the way people are now ganging up, it just seems like it's an excuse to absolutely rip on Taylor Swift. It's like the cool thing to do is to not like Taylor Swift at the moment. I also think that there's an undercurrent of ageism that's happening. There are a lot of Gen Zers on TikTok who are calling Taylor's lyrics cringe and saying that she's this daggy millennial and she shouldn't be using TikTok references. I think this also has a lot to do with the fact that it's the first time Taylor has actually embarked on a proper press tour to promote an album for six years. So the last time she did a media tour like this was for Lover in 2019. And if you think back, there was no press tour for Folklore or Evermore, which were surprise album drops during the pandemic. As for Midnights and Torture Poets, it was very limited media activity. So For those four albums, Taylor really let the music and fan theories drive the buzz. However, this time she's launched the album off the back of a two-hour sit-down podcast interview with her fiance, Travis Kelsey. She also has a movie out explaining the meaning behind each of the songs. We really haven't seen Taylor Swift do this much media since the 1989 era. Perhaps it's just an oversaturation and there's too much for fans to talk about because previously it's like, okay, all we know are the lyrics, so we have to really dissect them. But Taylor's almost made it too easy for everyone. I also think some of this comes down to her hyping the album up on Travis's podcast, saying that this was one of her best albums and she knows that the fans will love it. Because as soon as someone says that, that's building a lot of anticipation. A lot of people also seem to be confused because it was called The Life of a Showgirl. They're like, oh, there should be more songs about being a showgirl. To me, I'm not interested in that. Like, I thought it was quite apparent from that interview on New Heights that Taylor was going to take you behind the scenes of what was going on in her life while she was a showgirl. It's like the normal moments of her being a 35-year-old woman having a new relationship. It wasn't about her being on stage and what's going on, you know, that she was tired or, you know, fan reactions and stuff. It wasn't ever going to be about that. I mean, essentially that's what I Can Do It With A Broken Heart was about. I think people thought that there would be some similar tracks to that, but she'd already done it. Yeah. Can't do it again. I mean, I wasn't that disappointed because I do like that song, but again, I just want to hear what's going on behind the scenes with her and Travis Kelsey. And that's what she gave us. In terms of this media tour, she did a lot of UK press. So she did a bunch of UK radio interviews. She was also on the Graham Norton show. Did you find that a bit strange? I mean, I suppose the UK is probably the next biggest market. So maybe that was the reason behind it. Or maybe she wanted to get under the skin of some of her... UK exes, who knows? Well, that's what I was thinking. And I actually heard Zara McDonald on Shameless talking about it too. And it validated my feelings because she's like, well, was it a way of getting back at Jo Orwin about how happy she is? And I think at the moment with Taylor and Travis Kelsey, Taylor is very oversaturated in the US at the moment. So it made sense to do interviews in the UK and the US. But The UK interviews were prioritized over the US ones. Like she did the UK interviews the day the album launched. She then did the US ones a couple of days later. Maybe she thought the UK media would be kinder to her. She does have a really strong connection to the UK considering she lived there for quite some time. Now, Taylor has responded to the mixed reviews. She said she welcomes the chaos. Let's throw to some of what she said.
00:21:11
Speaker 3: The rule of show business is if it's the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you're helping. And art, I have a lot of respect for people's subjective opinions on art. I'm not the art police. It's like everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want. And what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror. oftentimes an album is a really, really wild way to look at yourself, right? What you're going through in your life is going to affect whether you relate to the music that I'm putting out at any given moment. And what I often love seeing my fans say is, I used to be someone who didn't like relate to reputation. And now that I've been through some other things in my life, that's my favorite album. Or I used to be a fearless girly. Now I'm obsessed with Evermore. And we're doing this thing for keeps. I have such an eye on legacy when I'm making my music. I know what I made. I know I adore it. And I know that on the theme of what the showgirl is, all of this is part of it.
00:22:27
Speaker 1: I mean, Taylor Swift is the queen of marketing. She knows what gets people talking and she's happy to create the discussion. I know a lot of people are actually labeling her greedy at the moment because of all of these multiple limited edition album drops that she's been doing. She's been doing them for years. It just seems like it's a chance for people to have a go at her again. Well, Taylor's also smart enough to know that this is the reaction just one week after releasing her album. These songs are incredibly catchy and I think that they're going to grow on a lot of Swifties. Yeah, I think so too. I think in a couple of weeks' time a lot of the haters are going to turn into lovers of the album. They're also absolute bangers for TikTok because these are the perfect soundbites for people to create videos around. Yeah, I feel like we need to quickly touch on the whole Charli XCX thing because a lot of people are saying that they're unhappy with Taylor for punching down. She, of course, has released a diss track that everyone thinks is about Charli XCX I didn't really know much about their relationship before this song. What I found most interesting is the fact that Charlie and Taylor both dated guys from the 1975. Of course, Maddie Healy and I actually don't even know who the other guy is. The other guy. That other guy. And then Charlie, of course, released a song called Sympathy is a Knife on her album Brat. And she sung lyrics, don't want to see her backstage at my boyfriend's show. Fingers crossed behind my back. I hope they break up quick. I don't want to share this space. I don't want to force a smile. This one girl taps my insecurities. Don't know if it's real or I'm spiraling because I couldn't even be her if I tried. I'm opposite. I'm on the other side. Now, a lot of people have said, well, Taylor has really bitten back in a harsh way and that Charlie was more talking about her own personal insecurities. I want to remind people we don't actually know what went on behind the scenes. Like the fact that they both dated guys from the same band and Taylor is hearing that Charlie is high-fiving Maddie Healy that they've broken up. Like there's obviously a lot more to this story. But it's also quite clear that this reaction is coming from very new Taylor Swift fans who have jumped on the bandwagon because Taylor Swift has always been petty. Yeah, she's always been petty. And that's what I love about her, her absolute pettiness. I mean, and in terms of punching down, when you're Taylor Swift, I mean, you're always punching down. Who does she punch up to? There's no one above her. No, I mean, was she not punching down to Matt Healy? Yeah, exactly. Which, I mean, her whole album, which was also a punch down to Joe Olin because they had this huge relationship and then the whole breakup album was about Matt Healy. I mean, in terms of any song about Joe Orland, she's punching down because he's not ultra successful either. I mean, no one is as successful as Taylor Swift. I mean, that is enough from us diehard Swifties. No, before we go, what's your favourite track on the album? Oh, we didn't even get into that. I have four. I love Elizabeth Taylor.
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Oh, Polite, Wishlist and Honey. It's so bad because they're all of my favourites too. I was listening to them whilst I was driving to your house and the sun was shining and I was like, this just makes me so happy. How can anyone dislike this? I know this whole segment has probably seemed a little bit biased because we are diehard Swifties, but I'm okay with putting that out there because I'm so sick of hearing recently people going, oh, I am a diehard Taylor Swift fan. I've gone to all the concerts. I've bought all the albums, but, and then they're like, oh, she's greedy. She's punching down like all of these. derogatory comments about her as a person. I mean, it's fair enough to say you don't like the songs, but you don't have to listen. Go and listen to some of the other albums. It's not that deep. It's just a fun pop album of happy songs. We are due for an album like this off the back of tortured poets. But she's also an incredibly talented writer that she doesn't have to be going through heartbreak to necessarily write a good song about heartbreak. I mean, listen to Death by a Thousand Cuts. That's one of my favorite breakup songs. And she wrote that when she was in a happy relationship with Joe Olwen. Let's get into our Friday debrief. And so I've been waiting to talk to you on Mike about this since last weekend. So we were lucky enough to be invited to the opening of Love Athletica's Hot Pilates Room in Norwood. It was a beautiful space and we were so thankful to be invited. It was such a fun day. I haven't exercised since before I had Jack. So it was actually nice to get back into it. It's been like two years. I feel like it was quite ambitious to do a hot Pilates class though. I've done a handful of workouts since having Luca, but this was probably the most intense environment being in the hot studio. Yeah. It was just funny being on the other side of an influencer event because we're very kindly gifted some workout gear. And before the event, they're like, oh, let us know what you feel comfortable wearing. And we're like, oh, okay. Like leggings and a t-shirt. Like we don't really want to wear a crop top. That's not sort of the era that we're in at the moment. And we got there. And we go into the change rooms and change into our outfit. Well, they had these really cute red bags. And as soon as you got on the change, you unzip them to discover what you would be wearing. And I assumed that people would be dressed in all different active wear to showcase this brand. But it turned out that we were the only ones who were dressed in T-shirts and leggings because we pulled out some maroon leggings, a pink top, came out, and then the rest of the people there who were mostly fitness influencers were wearing– red bike shorts with a red crop top. And they all looked incredible. I was like, oh my God, I wish I could get away with wearing that at the moment. Well, the vibe kind of reminded me of what Sarah's day was wearing in her high row commercial. Like it was that type of red. And yeah, I was like, oh my God, I have never felt more old and frumpy in my entire life. And then of course, Amy was also, Amy rocked up late and she was wearing the same thing. And we just looked like the dorks in the back. I got taken back to being a high school PE. And kind of it was like you'd missed the memo on what you were meant to wear. Like, you know, in Jeans for Jeans Day where you're like, okay, I've got my light denim and then you rock up and everyone's in dark denim. That's what it kind of felt like. I mean, I was feeling self-conscious enough knowing that all of the other people there were essentially fitness influencers. I don't know how we got on this invite list. But there was actually one other person. I think there were two other people wearing t-shirts and one was a journo that I used to work with and we had a bit of a laugh saying that we were the t-shirt crew. But it was a fabulous event overall. But yeah, again, I just already felt like a bit of a frumpy new mum. That kind of amplified it. I mean, I felt like it was a rookie error considering it was hot Pilates. I'm like, why the hell do we ask for long leggings? That was just a silly mistake here. Well, on that note, I think that is all we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode. If you have enjoyed it, could you please, please make sure you share where you're listening from. I love seeing it. And leave us a five-star review. And if you do want to hear more content from us, we drop a subscriber-only episode every Thursday. It's available on Spotify and Apple. All the details to subscribe it in our show notes. This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders past and present.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torber and coming up on today's show, Tammy Hembrough is labelled disrespectful after hanging out with an ex. Fans turn on Taylor Swift after her album release and our Friday debrief. But first, Ashley Bynes has reignited her feud with Gretty Rose and Sammy Leo. Kate, can you tell us more? Well, it all started when Ashley shared a clip to TikTok from a podcast episode she did where she answered listener dilemmas. And she was asked her thoughts on a friendship breakdown. And during her answer, she revealed that she's been in the exact same situation. She conceded when it comes to friendship, she has an anxious attachment style. Here's more of what she said.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Whoever this is, I've been in this exact situation. And I've I am quite an anxious attachment when it comes to friendships. And I have a wound of being abandoned and rejected. And I like to have closure over things. But I've had a friend that hasn't given me any closure, that won't pick up the phone, that won't FaceTime, that won't reply, and I've just been left. So I totally hear where she's at because it's like, I want to keep this friendship. I don't know what's happened. I'm left over here being like, what the hell? But I got to a point where I was like, I actually have to unplug because there is nothing else I can do.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: You keep just breaking your own heart.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
00:01:23
Speaker 2: And also, I got to a point too, I think, within Tiana and my friendship, the way Tiana communicates with me and creates a safe place that we can bring anything in, it raised my standard of what I wanted in a friendship. So it made it easier for me to unplug from this other friendship.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: We have spoken on this podcast before, Kate, about how many resources you that Ashley Bynes is throwing into this podcast. Yeah, it's clear she wants to make it very popular. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be having the success yet that she is wanting because she had to cancel a live podcast show. we saw on the charts that it's not doing that well. They don't have a huge fan base listening to this show. In comparison to the amount of people that follow her, which is over a million followers, you would expect a big influencer would be getting a lot of downloads on their podcast. So she has thought to herself, I'm going to get interest by trying to reignite a feud or revisit this feud. Between her former friends, Gretty and Sammy, we often get DMs on the regular saying, please, can you talk about this feud? I'm so invested. Tell me what happened. Yeah. And it seems like Gretty and Sammy have taken the bait because off the back of this video, they shared their own TikTok where they appeared together on screen with texts that said, when your bestie just clocked the same shit as I did. And in the video, they look at each other and laugh. The video was captioned debrief pending and the comments were an interesting read. One person wrote NDA over yet or what? And another said, tell us when the NDA is over. Don't tease us. Now, this is a rumor that has followed Ashley Bynes for quite a long time. She's had a lot of high profile friendship bust ups and people have said none of the friends talk out because they're forced to sign NDAs. She has come out on her podcast and said this is completely untrue. How do you feel about them piggybacking off this though and obviously creating their own content? I mean, it's just the nature of social media. We spoke a couple of weeks ago about how friendship bust ups are the way to stay relevant online. Everyone cares about you when you're feuding with another influencer. So I think it's a smart content strategy, but it is a little bit hypocritical because you're saying, oh, how dare this person call us out, but you're doing the same thing. I think people are growing tired of it because they see a group of women in their 30s who were mothers fighting over something really petty that happened a couple of years ago. It's sort of something that you would expect people in their early 20s to fight about. I don't know how I feel about you age shaming them for fighting in their 30s. I'm definitely not age shaming. I'm just saying that I think people expect more of them more of a maturity level than to get caught up on some crap that happened 10 years ago. It's funny you say that though, because when Indy Clinton got that PI and found out who all her trolls were, they happened to be mums, probably in their thirties. I think it's a time in life where you may be looking after children. So you aren't pouring heaps into yourself and you need strong friendships and you might not get back from those friends what you need and that would cause a fight. And it is a time in your life when some of your friendships do fall apart because you're in different stages and you can't relate to one another. All I'm saying though is that I think the response has been one of people saying this is a bit immature.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: And also a sense of just tell us what happened. Like if you're not going to open up about it, then we don't want to hear you referencing it anymore. Get ready with me.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: I already put on my foundation, but I thought I'll do like a little chit chat catch up.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Tammy Hembrough has been labelled disrespectful after teasing a reunion with her ex-fiancé, Rhys Hawkins. It's not the first time the OG influencer has made it public that she's hanging out with her ex. Kate, can you tell us more? So on Saturday night, Tammy posted an Insta story of her two young daughters hugging at a bowling centre. So at first glance, it looked like just a regular wholesome family night out. That was until Super Sluice spotted the bowling scoreboard that featured at the top of the frame of the Instagram story. It was literally there for a couple of seconds max. It turns out that Tammy was bowling with her three children and her ex-fiancé, Rhys Hawkins. So Rhys is the father of Tammy's two eldest children, Wolf and Saskia. The following night, Tammy then backed the video up by sharing a TikTok of her and Reese at the bowling center. So for those who haven't seen it, Tammy set up her camera and then she moved back into the frame to stand next to Reese. And at that point, she hoisted her jeans up with her tongue poking out and tried to pull Reese into the shot next to her as she pouted and kicked her back leg up. Rhys kind of looked awkward. He looked at her like, what the fuck? And then he kind of playfully pushed the bowling ball towards her. I don't think he's totally innocent. He is clearly in on the videos. He's appearing in it for God's sake. Well, to be fair, she kind of set up the camera as he was picking up his bowling ball. And I think it's kind of that thing where he doesn't know how to react to it. So you don't think he was in on the video? No, I think this was all set up by Tammy and he was kind of an innocent bystander in a sense because You've got to remember the three kids are there. So if he makes a scene, it actually detracts from their whole family night. So I think he just played along in the moment. But then again, he could say, hey, sorry, do you mind not posting that? Because it might be a bit disrespectful to my girlfriend. I'm sure she probably would have respected that. Well, we don't know the conversation that happened. I think that he plays on it as well because they both know that together they're incredibly popular. People are very nostalgic about this relationship. We saw that when we did our Tammy deep dives. There were so many people who were shipping the relationship and they saw the two of them as ultimate couple goals. Well, Tammy certainly got the reaction she was after because the clip went viral on social media. At the time of recording, it's had 3.6 million views. And Tammy stirred the pot further on Tuesday night, sharing an Instagram story of her miming to Taylor Swift's song, The Life of a Showgirl. She then panned across to Reese driving the car with their two kids in the back and he was shaking his head and she captioned the video, not a Swifty. His reaction is the same reaction that most boyfriends have when their girlfriends try to film an Instagram story, just being like, not again. I don't want to be in this, but this is a different one because they're not together. It really seems like Tammy has made a conscious effort since announcing the divorce to include Reese in her content because three weeks after the divorce announcement, she shared a video of her prank calling Reese. Now that TikTok got 1.4 million views. Then a month later, she posted a video of her, Reese and their two kids posing with the caption whole gangs here. That video went absolutely nuts. It had 16.7 million views and it sparked rumours that they were getting back together. The captions have sparked a lot of conversations around where Posey fits into this family because she is Tammy's third daughter. Her father is Matt Paul, which is Tammy's second fiancé. And by saying the whole gang's here and not including her in the video... A lot of people were like, well, how is the whole gang here? Your third daughter is missing. And then in the other video, she said, mom and dad. And Posey was in that video. Yeah. Rhys Hawkins isn't her dad.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: A lot of people thought it was in bad taste. And it seems like Matt Paul kind of responded in his own way on Instagram. So he shared a photo dump from that weekend and someone commented on it saying, glad Posey is with you and not spending the whole time with the other kid's dad. So confusing for all involved. And Matt replied, simply agree. Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that things had gotten that frosty between them because Tammy really prides herself on having a good co-parenting relationship with both Matt and Reese, there were a few rumors that maybe things weren't going well in the background when he did like that post mocking her crying after breaking up with Matt Zukowski. Yeah. Judging by their social media interactions, it seems like things are a little bit tense between Tammy and Matt Paul. I want to talk about where Liv Kelly fits into all of this because she is a Gold Coast Fitness influencer who recently went Instagram official with Reese Hawkins They may live in different countries, but they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Rhys, of course, resides in Bali. It does seem like she is the reason why he's spending a lot of time in Australia as well. I mean, I feel a little bit torn on that because it's nice for his kids, but then it's like, well, why aren't you here visiting your kids rather than your girlfriend? But anyway. Liv Kelly is yet to officially comment on the recent Tammy Reese situation. It's interesting to note, though, that she shared a photo dump from the weekend but didn't include photos of Reese in it, even though he was on the Gold Coast. So do we think they've had a massive argument following some of Tammy's posts? Well, I think so because on Saturday she also shared a video of her miming to a trending sound of Kylie Jenner saying, Dude, I'm getting my personality back though. Like, I'm feeling like myself again. I really was not myself. And someone commented on the video, just end things with Reese so he can be with Tammy. They suit each other so well. Now, another person jumped in and wrote back to the commenter, Tammy treated Reese as a doormat and used the children to punish him. Please just... are their friends in fake accounts? I think they are genuine. I mean, there were a lot of people saying that the situation between Tammy and Rhys is very reminiscent of how she acted when he started dating London Gowan, who ended up being his wife. They have now split up. Well, Liv continued to stoke the fire on Tuesday. She shared a compilation of clips of herself with the trending sound. Just be a little more thoughtful and a little bit kinder because you really don't know what somebody's dealing with or going through. And she captioned that video saying a YouTube video was coming with a full life update. Now, I went and checked the YouTube channel to see if it was out before we recorded. It is not out yet, but I noted that Liv only has 63 subscribers on the platform. So I found it quite interesting because maybe she is also using this as a bit of a content strategy and thinks, oh, well, I'm getting a bit of extra attention from this Tammy situation. I may as well bolster my influencing career.
00:11:11
Speaker 3: A shockingly offensive thing to say.
00:11:13
Speaker 1: Absolutely. It is not the last album.
00:11:16
Speaker 3: It's not why people get married.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: No, exactly. So that they can quit their job. Last Friday, Taylor Swift dropped her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, to polarizing reviews. Despite the album breaking streaming and sales records, Taylor is copying Backlash, even from her most diehard fans. Now, Kate, as one of those, I want to know how do you feel about the album? Well, I was personally taken aback by the negative response because I loved the album from the get-go. And that hasn't been something I've experienced since Lover. So I really did like Tortured Poet's Department, but it took me a while to get into it. I mean, there were so many songs released. It was like, you know, 30 different songs. It was a bit of a slow burn. Yeah, it was more of a slow burn. But with this album... From the get go, I'm like, love that, love that. I've got that stuck in my head. Like I can actually listen to the full album and there's no skips for me. Because we're pretty basic. I love anything pop. So this album really speaks to me. And again, because we were listening and we were instantly messaging each other our reaction to each song. Love it. Love that. Love that. Oh my God, this is, it gets even better. So I was pretty shocked to see the reaction online from people. People who I think are almost acting like they're too cool to be a Taylor Swift fan. Well, I think there are two camps because I think it does depend on what albums of Taylor's are your favorite. So for me, I loved 1989. I loved Lover. I loved Reputation. They're probably my top three Taylor Swift albums. And I think that The Life of a Showgirl has that vibe, a mixture of all three of those. It really seems to be the folklore and ever more fans who are struggling with this album release. Yeah. I mean, they are probably my least favorite Taylor Swift albums. I tried really hard to listen to them leading into the Ears tour because I knew that was such a big portion of the tour. And I admit there are some really good songs on there. Like, I love August. But to me, that's not really the type of music I like listening to. But it doesn't mean that I went on social media and absolutely slammed Taylor, which is what has been happening. It seems like a lot of people have just been waiting to have a go at her. Well, it's tall poppy syndrome. A lot of people have labelled the lyrics as cringe. And there's also a lot of hate being directed at her fiancé, Travis Kelsey. They say that he's not a good enough muse. Yeah, I mean, that was the case even when Taylor released Tortured Poets because a couple of the songs on the album were about Travis, so High School and also The Alchemy. And there was a lot of conversations online about how the lyrics were quite juvenile. Again, they were probably two of my favourite songs from Tortured Poets, so I think it just depends on the type of music people like. I think there's been a longstanding fear for quite some time now that when Taylor gets married... that she's suddenly going to become a shit writer and not have any heartbreak to talk about anymore. And I think that people are almost projecting that into this album. Yeah, well, there were a lot of people complaining online that Taylor being happy doesn't generate the same level of penmanship that it does when she is heartbroken. And there were even people saying that they can't wait for the divorce album. Now, this type of commentary led the New Yorker to run with the headline, do we still like Taylor Swift when she's happy? In the article, the journalist Tyler Fogart wrote, The weak lyricism in the Travis Kelsey-inspired songs and the life of a showgirl has led to some of the most virulent and sexist anti-Swift discourse in years. Some have gone so far as to speculate that Allman was ghostwriting Swift songs all along, which is especially devastating given how much time Swift has spent fighting not only to be recognized as a songwriter, but to claim ownership of her own work. It's incredibly unfair that this is being pushed. There's just this general tone of nastiness towards Travis where people are saying, she is dumbing down her writing just to impress him.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just so sexist to say, oh, Joe Olin must have written all of her good lyrics. I mean, yes, he was a co-writer on Folklore and Evermore. But do we not think that potentially it is more about him as a muse? It seems like Taylor was never really that confident in that relationship and she was always trying to work on it. Whereas this album, it reflects that she's in a very happy and healthy relationship with Travis Kelsey. Is that not what we want? And I also think that potentially a lot of the people who don't like the album are in their heartbreak era and that's why it's not resonating with them. Well, in that New Yorker piece, the journalist also explored the notion that Taylor's longest and most intense relationship has been this parasocial one that she has with her fans. So Tyler wrote, Swift's fans feel like they know her and have a deep personal connection with her. They are just as invested in her music as they are in her life. And at least until now, those two things haven't been in conflict. For years, it felt like she wrote songs that spoke to the core of the female experience at its most vulnerable. It felt like she lived and learned in parallel with her listeners, and that feeling is gone. Now, at the end of the article, Tyler also posed the question, Swift is about to marry Kelsey, but it's possible that in Showgirl, she's breaking up with us. Look, I think there's a lot of truth to what Tyler Fogart has written there. I mean, it kind of reminds me of You know, we touched on how as a female, you go through a lot of different life stages and in your early twenties, it does seem like you lose a lot of friends because, you know, you're no longer in high school, you're no longer doing the same things, you drift apart. And then there is that time in life when you get married and you have children and your life may no longer reflect that of your friends. So you kind of move around a bit and it's not about having some massive fire. It's just about you no longer connect on that level anymore. You're not doing the same sort of things. And I think this album about being very happily in love and about to get married is quite polarizing to people that are still in their tortured poets era. I just think this album is just a change of pace. It's about being happy. And she's very happy at the moment. It's the perfect album for us Aussies when we're approaching summer. These songs are going to be so much fun to listen to driving on a summer's day to the beach.
00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:05
Speaker 1: I think this backlash was inevitable though, because Taylor has hit the absolute pinnacle, both professionally and personally. So she's released this album off the back of officially becoming a billionaire from the era's tour. She's of course had the era's tour and has just announced her engagement recently. So To me, it's just a classic case of tall poppy syndrome. People feel this innate sense to take her down a peg or two. But it's also down to social media because everyone is so keen to create a viral video these days. And the only way you're going to do that is by having a controversial take on things. To be fair, though, people are allowed to not like the album. I wasn't a massive fan of Folklore or Evermore. And I think people can respectfully discuss that maybe this wasn't the album for them. But the way people are now ganging up, it just seems like it's an excuse to absolutely rip on Taylor Swift. It's like the cool thing to do is to not like Taylor Swift at the moment. I also think that there's an undercurrent of ageism that's happening. There are a lot of Gen Zers on TikTok who are calling Taylor's lyrics cringe and saying that she's this daggy millennial and she shouldn't be using TikTok references. I think this also has a lot to do with the fact that it's the first time Taylor has actually embarked on a proper press tour to promote an album for six years. So the last time she did a media tour like this was for Lover in 2019. And if you think back, there was no press tour for Folklore or Evermore, which were surprise album drops during the pandemic. As for Midnights and Torture Poets, it was very limited media activity. So For those four albums, Taylor really let the music and fan theories drive the buzz. However, this time she's launched the album off the back of a two-hour sit-down podcast interview with her fiance, Travis Kelsey. She also has a movie out explaining the meaning behind each of the songs. We really haven't seen Taylor Swift do this much media since the 1989 era. Perhaps it's just an oversaturation and there's too much for fans to talk about because previously it's like, okay, all we know are the lyrics, so we have to really dissect them. But Taylor's almost made it too easy for everyone. I also think some of this comes down to her hyping the album up on Travis's podcast, saying that this was one of her best albums and she knows that the fans will love it. Because as soon as someone says that, that's building a lot of anticipation. A lot of people also seem to be confused because it was called The Life of a Showgirl. They're like, oh, there should be more songs about being a showgirl. To me, I'm not interested in that. Like, I thought it was quite apparent from that interview on New Heights that Taylor was going to take you behind the scenes of what was going on in her life while she was a showgirl. It's like the normal moments of her being a 35-year-old woman having a new relationship. It wasn't about her being on stage and what's going on, you know, that she was tired or, you know, fan reactions and stuff. It wasn't ever going to be about that. I mean, essentially that's what I Can Do It With A Broken Heart was about. I think people thought that there would be some similar tracks to that, but she'd already done it. Yeah. Can't do it again. I mean, I wasn't that disappointed because I do like that song, but again, I just want to hear what's going on behind the scenes with her and Travis Kelsey. And that's what she gave us. In terms of this media tour, she did a lot of UK press. So she did a bunch of UK radio interviews. She was also on the Graham Norton show. Did you find that a bit strange? I mean, I suppose the UK is probably the next biggest market. So maybe that was the reason behind it. Or maybe she wanted to get under the skin of some of her... UK exes, who knows? Well, that's what I was thinking. And I actually heard Zara McDonald on Shameless talking about it too. And it validated my feelings because she's like, well, was it a way of getting back at Jo Orwin about how happy she is? And I think at the moment with Taylor and Travis Kelsey, Taylor is very oversaturated in the US at the moment. So it made sense to do interviews in the UK and the US. But The UK interviews were prioritized over the US ones. Like she did the UK interviews the day the album launched. She then did the US ones a couple of days later. Maybe she thought the UK media would be kinder to her. She does have a really strong connection to the UK considering she lived there for quite some time. Now, Taylor has responded to the mixed reviews. She said she welcomes the chaos. Let's throw to some of what she said.
00:21:11
Speaker 3: The rule of show business is if it's the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you're helping. And art, I have a lot of respect for people's subjective opinions on art. I'm not the art police. It's like everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want. And what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror. oftentimes an album is a really, really wild way to look at yourself, right? What you're going through in your life is going to affect whether you relate to the music that I'm putting out at any given moment. And what I often love seeing my fans say is, I used to be someone who didn't like relate to reputation. And now that I've been through some other things in my life, that's my favorite album. Or I used to be a fearless girly. Now I'm obsessed with Evermore. And we're doing this thing for keeps. I have such an eye on legacy when I'm making my music. I know what I made. I know I adore it. And I know that on the theme of what the showgirl is, all of this is part of it.
00:22:27
Speaker 1: I mean, Taylor Swift is the queen of marketing. She knows what gets people talking and she's happy to create the discussion. I know a lot of people are actually labeling her greedy at the moment because of all of these multiple limited edition album drops that she's been doing. She's been doing them for years. It just seems like it's a chance for people to have a go at her again. Well, Taylor's also smart enough to know that this is the reaction just one week after releasing her album. These songs are incredibly catchy and I think that they're going to grow on a lot of Swifties. Yeah, I think so too. I think in a couple of weeks' time a lot of the haters are going to turn into lovers of the album. They're also absolute bangers for TikTok because these are the perfect soundbites for people to create videos around. Yeah, I feel like we need to quickly touch on the whole Charli XCX thing because a lot of people are saying that they're unhappy with Taylor for punching down. She, of course, has released a diss track that everyone thinks is about Charli XCX I didn't really know much about their relationship before this song. What I found most interesting is the fact that Charlie and Taylor both dated guys from the 1975. Of course, Maddie Healy and I actually don't even know who the other guy is. The other guy. That other guy. And then Charlie, of course, released a song called Sympathy is a Knife on her album Brat. And she sung lyrics, don't want to see her backstage at my boyfriend's show. Fingers crossed behind my back. I hope they break up quick. I don't want to share this space. I don't want to force a smile. This one girl taps my insecurities. Don't know if it's real or I'm spiraling because I couldn't even be her if I tried. I'm opposite. I'm on the other side. Now, a lot of people have said, well, Taylor has really bitten back in a harsh way and that Charlie was more talking about her own personal insecurities. I want to remind people we don't actually know what went on behind the scenes. Like the fact that they both dated guys from the same band and Taylor is hearing that Charlie is high-fiving Maddie Healy that they've broken up. Like there's obviously a lot more to this story. But it's also quite clear that this reaction is coming from very new Taylor Swift fans who have jumped on the bandwagon because Taylor Swift has always been petty. Yeah, she's always been petty. And that's what I love about her, her absolute pettiness. I mean, and in terms of punching down, when you're Taylor Swift, I mean, you're always punching down. Who does she punch up to? There's no one above her. No, I mean, was she not punching down to Matt Healy? Yeah, exactly. Which, I mean, her whole album, which was also a punch down to Joe Olin because they had this huge relationship and then the whole breakup album was about Matt Healy. I mean, in terms of any song about Joe Orland, she's punching down because he's not ultra successful either. I mean, no one is as successful as Taylor Swift. I mean, that is enough from us diehard Swifties. No, before we go, what's your favourite track on the album? Oh, we didn't even get into that. I have four. I love Elizabeth Taylor.
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Oh, Polite, Wishlist and Honey. It's so bad because they're all of my favourites too. I was listening to them whilst I was driving to your house and the sun was shining and I was like, this just makes me so happy. How can anyone dislike this? I know this whole segment has probably seemed a little bit biased because we are diehard Swifties, but I'm okay with putting that out there because I'm so sick of hearing recently people going, oh, I am a diehard Taylor Swift fan. I've gone to all the concerts. I've bought all the albums, but, and then they're like, oh, she's greedy. She's punching down like all of these. derogatory comments about her as a person. I mean, it's fair enough to say you don't like the songs, but you don't have to listen. Go and listen to some of the other albums. It's not that deep. It's just a fun pop album of happy songs. We are due for an album like this off the back of tortured poets. But she's also an incredibly talented writer that she doesn't have to be going through heartbreak to necessarily write a good song about heartbreak. I mean, listen to Death by a Thousand Cuts. That's one of my favorite breakup songs. And she wrote that when she was in a happy relationship with Joe Olwen. Let's get into our Friday debrief. And so I've been waiting to talk to you on Mike about this since last weekend. So we were lucky enough to be invited to the opening of Love Athletica's Hot Pilates Room in Norwood. It was a beautiful space and we were so thankful to be invited. It was such a fun day. I haven't exercised since before I had Jack. So it was actually nice to get back into it. It's been like two years. I feel like it was quite ambitious to do a hot Pilates class though. I've done a handful of workouts since having Luca, but this was probably the most intense environment being in the hot studio. Yeah. It was just funny being on the other side of an influencer event because we're very kindly gifted some workout gear. And before the event, they're like, oh, let us know what you feel comfortable wearing. And we're like, oh, okay. Like leggings and a t-shirt. Like we don't really want to wear a crop top. That's not sort of the era that we're in at the moment. And we got there. And we go into the change rooms and change into our outfit. Well, they had these really cute red bags. And as soon as you got on the change, you unzip them to discover what you would be wearing. And I assumed that people would be dressed in all different active wear to showcase this brand. But it turned out that we were the only ones who were dressed in T-shirts and leggings because we pulled out some maroon leggings, a pink top, came out, and then the rest of the people there who were mostly fitness influencers were wearing– red bike shorts with a red crop top. And they all looked incredible. I was like, oh my God, I wish I could get away with wearing that at the moment. Well, the vibe kind of reminded me of what Sarah's day was wearing in her high row commercial. Like it was that type of red. And yeah, I was like, oh my God, I have never felt more old and frumpy in my entire life. And then of course, Amy was also, Amy rocked up late and she was wearing the same thing. And we just looked like the dorks in the back. I got taken back to being a high school PE. And kind of it was like you'd missed the memo on what you were meant to wear. Like, you know, in Jeans for Jeans Day where you're like, okay, I've got my light denim and then you rock up and everyone's in dark denim. That's what it kind of felt like. I mean, I was feeling self-conscious enough knowing that all of the other people there were essentially fitness influencers. I don't know how we got on this invite list. But there was actually one other person. I think there were two other people wearing t-shirts and one was a journo that I used to work with and we had a bit of a laugh saying that we were the t-shirt crew. But it was a fabulous event overall. But yeah, again, I just already felt like a bit of a frumpy new mum. That kind of amplified it. I mean, I felt like it was a rookie error considering it was hot Pilates. I'm like, why the hell do we ask for long leggings? That was just a silly mistake here. Well, on that note, I think that is all we have time for today. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode. If you have enjoyed it, could you please, please make sure you share where you're listening from. I love seeing it. And leave us a five-star review. And if you do want to hear more content from us, we drop a subscriber-only episode every Thursday. It's available on Spotify and Apple. All the details to subscribe it in our show notes. This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to elders past and present.
