After days of absolute silence, Aussie influencer Anna Paul has finally addressed the drama sparked by he ex-bestie Mikaela Testa.
ICYMI - Mikaela posted a nearly 10-minute TikTok last week, claiming Anna scams fans into signing up for her OnlyFans via dodgy giveaways, has been “manipulating” and rude behind fans’ backs and has been faking her "broke" upbringing for pitty.
So strap in ‘cause here’s the debrief on the WHOLE sitch.
The allegations Mikaela Testa made against Anna Paul:
The “illegal” lotteries: Mikaela accused Anna of running giveaways where Anna allegedly scams her young audience into signing up to her OnlyFans for $10 for a chance to win $1000 AUD
Rude to fans: Mikaela claimed Anna plays the kind and inclusive “facade” far too well online. She recalled a time met a plus-size fan and later called her “annoying and gross” and Anna didn’t want to hug the fan because she was “fat and sweaty”
Faking poor upbringing: Mikaela accused Anna of faking her claims of growing up “broke”. She said Anna’s Dad was earning triple the average Australian income per week, and had them living in a beautiful house on the water with a built-in pool
Anna’s old Instagram posts feature luxury items: Anna’s Instagram accounts shows a time as a young teen flying first class and flexing a high-end watch
Before addressing the allegations, Anna said she usually avoids public drama, but this situation had blown up too large to ignore.
Anna kicked things off by stating her response was completely unfiltered, with no PR team or script behind the camera.
Unlike Mikaela, who captioned her video: “I speak better when my words are on paper. <3”
Are Anna Paul and Mikaela Testa friends?
“The reason why I’ve taken so long is because this all took me by surprise,” Anna said.
“Somebody that I thought was my friend and that I was close with really hurt me. And two months ago, she was asking me to go to Fiji with her on a girls’ trip.”
Anna also revealed that Mikaela was there for her when Kiwi-born TikToker Veruca Salt spread a rumour about Anna’s dad being homeless and “neglected” did the rounds late last year.
“She was the one helping me through it, sending me voice messages, telling me, ‘Don’t listen to the people online. They’re dumb. Everyone is stupid. Tell Papa it’s going to be okay,” Anna recalled.
“So now this has all come as a very, very big shock and surprise because I thought we were friends.”
Did Anna Paul call a fan “fat” and “gross”?
In Mikaela’s video, Anna was accused of calling a fan “fat and sweaty” and then laughing about it with her brother after said fan had walked away.
In response, Anna said she’d never call a fan fat but admitted that she may have described them as “sweaty” after they hugged - which she feels is a very common comment to make.
“I do not call my fans fat. That is not who I am,” Anna shared. “That’s not what I stand for. That’s not what I’ve ever stood for.
“‘Sweaty’, however, I may have called her sweaty because when somebody is wet, and they touch you and then they leave, and when you’re with your best friend, you are now wet because of them, you may say, ‘I am now wet again’.”
Anna went on to explain that the fan might’ve called her sweaty and that doesn’t make them a bad person.
“That is just a human thing. And of course, you can twist it and make it sound bad in a video, but yeah…” she added.
Did Anna Paul grow up poor?
One of the major allegations made by Mikaela was that Anna lied about growing up broke for “pity” from her audience.
In response to the claim, Anna went on to explain she “felt broke” when her family couldn’t afford school uniforms or when her family had to budget for groceries.
“Now, I do not lie about the fact that I grew up broke. When I say I grew up broke, that is my experience,” Anna began.
“That is how I felt when I can hear my parents talking in the kitchen that the budget for the groceries that week is $30. It makes me feel broke when we can’t afford school uniforms. It makes me feel broke when I’m 11, when I’m 10, and all my friends can afford something and my parents can’t. It makes me feel broke when they say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how we’re going to afford rent next week.’
“That makes me scared. It makes me feel broke.”
“That does not mean that I was the most broke person on earth. There are definitely people in WAY worse situations than me, but that does not mean that I’m lying about the fact that I felt broke during those times.”
Anna Paul admits to faking her old Instagram posts
Anna went on to address her old childhood home and car, explaining that those luxury goods were all obtained when she was an adult, adding that “social media is fake”.
“Social media is fake. It is not real Instagram. It’s all fake, and it can be faked,” she said before claiming that an old photo of her sitting in first class as a teen was just a snippet of when she and Atis were being flown out by her uncle, who initially paid for economy seats.
Anna explained that she was in first class for only the last 20 minutes of the flight because Atis had thrown up on her and the flight attendants were cleaning their original economy seats at the time the pic was snapped.
Other posts mentioned when she uploaded photos of luxury watches, which one she claimed was a watch her dad bought for $2.
“My dad’s job growing up was buying and selling antiques. So it would constantly go to garage sales and markets and stuff like that, and stuff like that, and then sell them on eBay afterwards,” Anna claimed.
“So there’s a photo of a watch that he bought at a garage sale for $2 and it’s a Gucci watch.
“Of course, I’m posting that. That’s cool, and that’s a flex, but that is not real. You cannot determine things from photos. It is crazy.”
Towards the end of her video, Anna admitted that the drama between her and Mikaela had “gotten very, very insane” and that she was thankful that she had a strong support system during the controversy.
We are still yet to hear from Atis who is also caught in the midst of his sister and ex girlfriend's online feud.
Mikaela Testa responds to Anna Paul’s response video
While Mikaela has yet to post her own video response to Anna’s video, the TikToker took to her Instagram Story to claim that her comment under Anna’s statement had been blocked.
“Of course, Anna will block my comments. I guess I’m forced into explaining myself in full,” she wrote alongside a screenshot of her response.
“Anna please do not try and paint me as a liar,” Mikaela’s comment continued.
I will come with receipts. Do not make me come on here with it all. You said what you said in entirety.
"I thought we were friends too," she added. "Until your friends have come to me with everything you’ve been saying about me the entire time. I reached out because I thought we were friends. We weren’t.”
“You are fake and this doesn’t cut it. I care about children and you’re extorting them,” the now-deleted comment finished.
In response to these claims surrounding the age of her fans, Anna replied to another fans comment: “For anyone wondering over 93.8% of my IG audience is 18+.”
Will Mikaela follow up with a response video to the response video? Will Atis chime in to defend his sister? Will we ever see these receipts? I fear this may just be the start…
