The Best Of The Pick Up - Rewriting What It Means To Be A 'Cougar'
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This episode was recorded on Camaragal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura. I'm Brittany. And this is our radio show, The Pickup, where we package up all the best bits of the week and we bring it here for you in a tight little sexy morsel. It's Valentine's Day week. Hence why it's a tight little sexy morsel. It doesn't have to be tight little and sexy. No, it could be loose.

I've had two kids. It's not like it used to be. Yeah, well, mine's still gone just fine, thanks. Well, that's because you do pelvic floor exercises, don't you? And I don't have sex because my partner doesn't live here. That's true. It is Valentine's Day. And if you are listening to this on Sunday when this episode comes out, guess where I am going to be? I can guess. South Africa. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

getting laid. No, I'm absolutely not. I don't reckon we're going to straight away. If you don't utilize that situation as someone that would give anything to be in that situation, I'm going to be pissed off. Yeah. But the thing is, is I'm traveling with both kids and we probably are all sleeping in the same room. So I don't reckon it's going to be super fast. It

will be a super fast trip Laura. He's going to take you to O-Town very fast. Wow. Anyway, happy Valentine's Day to me and to you. Well, speaking of partners, I had my dance partner Craig on this week. He called up so that Laura could meet him. So I'm doing Dancing with the Stars in case you missed it. So we got my pro dancer on because I have had a couple of little mishaps. So we just wanted to check in and see how I'm

going. Yeah, and Craig may not be able to have any more children because of Brittany. Or ever dance again. Or ever dance again because she's caused him a fatal injury. It's not fatal. He's still alive. To be honest, he's so nice. Like, I wanted him to be meaner to you. I've met Craig because I did dancing with him two years ago. He's the nicest man. Even if you sucked, he would say how good you are. So I don't trust anything he says. Oh, thanks, Laura, because he said I was doing pretty well. Yeah.

That's what I mean. We also spoke to, you guys might know who she is. Her name is Tara Pavlovich. So Tara was my sister wife on The Bachelor when, you know, we were all vying for Matt. And arguably, I would say that Tara was the fan favorite of our season. She was so loved. She's so funny. She's just like, honestly, such a breath of fresh air. And recently she was on her social media talking about her relationship with her husband, Nick, and how they've been going to couples therapy. And actually,

As we know, couples therapy still has so much stigma around it. And there's like this shame to admitting that you go to couples therapy for fear of people thinking that your relationship's in jeopardy. And being that it was Valentine's Day and us doing a show that was all centered around love, it seemed really fitting to talk about not just the great things about relationships and the great things about love, but also like the challenges that we face. Because I would say that, you know, dealing with conflict

oftentimes is a big part of our long-term relationships. Yeah, and also just because we've really doubled down on relationships, as an ode to Bridget Jones, the new movie that came out, we're talking about age gap relationships but reverse, when the woman's older and she dates down because we're really trying to, me included, really trying to break that stigma. Yeah, and I think for myself, even having that conversation,

It really highlighted the biases that I have, not in terms of other women who do it, but in terms of like the value I put on myself as I age. Well, you can't date down anyway now. You're married. No, I know. I know. But I still... Your limitations are not on an age basis on the fact that you have a husband. I have a husband. I haven't seen him in four weeks. I've kind of forgotten. But no, I think I still have biases towards...

age discrepancy in relationships when like the woman is older and the man is younger. Not for other people who do it, like I said, but if I was to ever do it. And I think it's because I don't see what someone would want in me. There's more to it and you'll hear it all coming up in the show. Did you ever judge me when I was dating someone that was like nearly eight years younger? No, never. Like was it ever like, what is she, not judging, but like, oh, it's not going to end well, which it didn't, but...

All right, skip over that. Don't answer. But it was fun while it lasted. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, guys, it's all coming up on the show. We hope you love it. We had a really fun week. Have a safe trip to Africa. See you next week.

Britt, last night you went to the premiere of the Bridget Jones's Diary, like the new movie that's come out. Number four, thank you. I was about to say season four. Why do I keep referring to it as though it's like a series? Well, it is. It's been on for forever. But it was an amazing premiere. Renee Zellweger was there. Leo Woodall, who's my hall pass, he was there as well. Sad I missed it, to be honest. But the article that came out was something I saw last night when I was doing a bit of prep for the radio show today and I felt like

Genuinely so mad for you, Brett. So the article was, Brittany Hockley risks a wardrobe malfunction with very daring split at Bridget Jones. Mad about the boy premier in Sydney.

This, I mean, look, you looked gorgeous. The wardrobe malfunction, you were wearing quite a high split in your skirt that kind of went up to your upper thigh. It was a choice, yeah. It didn't split when I was walking. I chose that outfit. Yes. It wasn't a malfunction. It was a preferred function. I wanted that function in my dress. It was a function. The issue that I have is, though, so if you haven't seen the images, I kind of don't want people to go looking for them, but you probably will after I describe this. Well, of course they're going to.

There is like the normal picture of you, like the normal lighting, the normal exposure on the image. And then the image that is directly below is a photo of you, Britt, where the exposure has been upped so much. And if you know anything about kind of like editing photos, the more that you up the brightness or the exposure on an image, what it does is it makes any dark areas light as well. It obviously like completely blows your skin out and makes all the light areas so white. So.

So what you could see in the shadows that had been purposely lit was straight into Brit's crotch. So you could see part of your underwear. Let's just...

Yeah. Let's just give this some context. The split, if you're at a very, very specific angle and you have overexposed the photo, you can see about one millimeter, two millimeters of a tan colored undie line, like the tiniest amount. It's not like everything was hanging out. You couldn't see it if the photo wasn't overexposed, but they have purposely overexposed the photo to the point that I look like I have just crawled out of a grave. I look

Like a zombie. But this is the thing. This is what made me so mad.

the effort that they have gone to to edit a photo in order to allow the viewer to see more. It's like had that photo just been posted without the exposure increase, you wouldn't have known that you could see your underline or that you could see up into your skirt. You can't see anything. No, but you can though. That's the thing. No, sorry. On a normal photo, you can't see anything. No one would look twice. But the fact is they've edited it so that you can see more. And I just think it is so unbelievably crass and it's such an invasion of

but it's kind of like akin to upskirting someone. You've purposely taken a photo on an angle where you can see up someone's skirt and you've lightened the photo so that people can see as much as possible. There's something really freaking gross about it. And when I saw this last night, I just, I felt really angry because I was like...

It is so unnecessarily dehumanizing. And like, what is the point of that? To embarrass you? Yeah. You also don't need to do it. You've got the Bianca Sensores. You've got the people that are nude on the red carpet. You don't need to like overexpose my photo so you can see my underline. Also, I probably would have really liked that photo if it didn't look like I was a zombie. But now I can't use it. Like now you have ruined it for me.

But all jokes aside, it's really disappointing to see that that's the effort that you've gone to in that moment is to try and embarrass me. But guess what? I'm not embarrassed. I chose that dress and I loved that dress and I had my Angelina Jolie moment where you poke

poke your leg out. Like I had my whole leg out and I was like, yeah, this is going to be great. And then I saw the photo. I was angry for you and you were fine with it. And I was like, we must riot. And you were like, it's fine. I look hot. I can see your vagina. You're like, it's fine. Let people look. Because you know what the problem is? I was angry, but sometimes you get to a point where you're like, I don't know if I have the energy to be angry because this stuff happens so often and I'm not saying it's okay, but it gets to the point now where I read something like that or I see something like that. And I'm like, well,

I'm not shocked that this is what we're doing now. But I guess it's the thing is like the thing that makes me feel frustrated about it is like that's the lengths that they have to go to for a headline. And like these are the types of articles they get clicked into. It's such low-hanging fruit. Hey, what's low-hanging? Don't.

Hey, be careful what term you're using. It's such low-hanging beige fruit that I don't understand how this is like what is the most clickable thing from the night. The funniest thing is, not intentionally, but I did have my Bridget Jones undies on, you know, like old, big, loose undies. I didn't wear it intentionally because I was going to the Bridget Jones premiere, but that's just what my lingerie is like. So I didn't even have nice undies on show. It was like my old ring. You know what they're like, Laura. They're gross. Anyway, we march at dawn. You can –

We'll put the photo on the pickup. You can all have a look at it. What we've done is lighten it some more. We've just put a photo of Britney's vagina on the pickup. If you want to go and have a look at it, it'll be there. Okay, myself included, but Australia is deep into married at first sight at the moment.

The thing with reality TV is it shoots, then there's a few months in between, and then it goes to air. So we're in that spot at the moment where it's airing. We don't know the finale yet, but all of the contestants have been living their life like normal for a couple of months. Yeah, but you also can't live your life like normal. So, like, you're almost expected to put your life on hold. Mm-hmm.

so that you don't give away the ending. Like if you've broken up with the person, you've got to just like go into kind of like purgatory for the rest of the months until the finale airs. Yeah, you have to sign your life away. Like there are waivers that say I will not be seen in a photograph with another person that's not on the show. Like I remember that from The Bachelor days. Did you ever sign that? Yeah. I don't remember that. I took it so seriously. I didn't leave my house for three months.

Because I was deeply depressed. Yeah, another story for another day. This is not about me. So there's a groom on the show, Adrian. Now, Adrian's a twin.

Adrian has been seen on a date with another woman. He's been photographed by the paparazzi. This woman is not on the show. She's not a maths bride. And it's been leaked, quote unquote, that he didn't make it to the end with his partner or that they've broken up because he's now been seen like getting lovey-dovey with this other woman. So he's broken all the rules and everyone's a bit up in arms saying that,

you've ruined the end of maths. Like you ruined this for us. But he has come up with an incredible excuse. He's blaming the entire thing on his twin. He's saying I was never there. It was all my twin. Yeah, but even if you're an identical twin, if you're an adult, you still kind of look different. Like no, there's no two identical twin adults. No, look at them. I've got photos. They are identical twins.

Actually, they are very similar. Okay. So are they choosing to look that similar or is that just, as I mean this by like, they've got the same facial hair, they've got the same haircut, they've got the same tattoos. It was DNA. That was not their choice, but they have made a conscious choice. He came out and said, you know, we went and got the same haircut and they've groomed themselves the same. Their beard is identical. Like the way that they've gelled their hair back is identical. I think Adrian, the groom, made that choice so that he could go and play up.

And if he gets caught, he blames on his twin. So no one is quite sure what the truth is. I mean, it's the only thing that makes sense though, right? Because if he was still with the girl that he met on maths, why would he need his brother to look the same as him? Like why would he ask his brother to cut his hair or to grow a beard the same length and to like –

act as his body double. I would do that. No, but like, but you wouldn't need to if you were in a happy relationship with the girl from maths. Look, the differences between them, as much as they're identical, what's,

One of them has like two arms worth of tattoos and one of them has one arm of tattoos. And that's a very, very obviously identifying feature, but you could just wear long sleeve shirts. Yeah. Well, there is like a Hawkeye out there that thinks that this is in fact Adrian. So he has added himself as not winning the show, like not leaving with a love of his life. If I was...

was a twin though like I would do this if I was a twin I would be in cahoots with my identical twin to get away with stuff because you could get away with so much otherwise what's the point yeah of having a twin why would they make two of me if it wasn't to deceive people god damn it I reckon people get up to stuff all the time all right we've got Jamie on the line Jamie you're not a twin but your cousin is a twin and has ended up in a bit of trouble what happened

Yes, when we were growing up, one of them had a car accident and used his brother's ID to sort of get out of it, I think, and he ended up doing about a year in jail for that. What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Which brother ended up in jail, the one who didn't do it or the one who faked the ID? Yeah, the good brother's in jail. The one who tried to fake it. Was he put in jail because of, like, mistaken identity, like trying to use another person's ID?

Yeah, I think they call the fraud, yeah. Oh, my goodness. Oh, that's okay because you crashed and you tried to steal an identity. So that's a double whammy. I thought the good twin was in prison and I was like, how come the good twin didn't get out of prison? All right, thank you so much. Thanks, Jamie. Thanks for the call. Claire's called up. Hi, Claire. Hey. Hey. I'm assuming you're a twin, not that you know one. Yes, I'm a twin. What have you done?

When we were little, we used to play tennis and do tennis competitions and I could serve and my sister couldn't. So we would just like I would serve and then it would be her turn to serve because you've got to take turns in doubles. And then we'd kind of just like have a chat, do a bit of a like swirly, loopy thing and then I would just serve again. Oh, you proper cheated. And no one could tell. How did no one notice that you just spun around? Yeah.

So if we like had a chat, like kind of in the middle and then it's like you kind of just like change sides and then you change sides again. Yeah. Then it's like no one's going to be like, hold on. Did your parents notice this? Like were they not watching the tennis and they're like, hold on a second, that's Claire still. Mum knew and she actually thought it was quite clever. I mean, it's not. She was like, whatever. It's not Wimbledon. It's not like anyone's like VAR, we need to check this out. Like they're kids. No one's watching them like a hawk. I think that's brilliant. Well played.

Exactly. Exactly. Have you ever, I've always wanted to know if twins actually do this. Like, do you ever trick your boyfriends and stuff? What are you going to get out of that? I just feel like people do it when they're teenagers. Like one of them wants to kiss the other one's boyfriend. Is that not a thing? So we haven't done it, but boyfriends have done it to us. So it has happened where one of like my sister's boyfriend has been drunk when we were like teenagers and he thought I was her. Okay.

and like grabbed me to like kiss me. And I was like, get away from me. Don't touch me. And sometimes it even happens now. Like if they just like come up from behind and see just like the hair or whatever, then they think that it's the other one. So we've had a few of those experiences.

That would be, yeah. There's nothing worse than having your sister's drunk boyfriend trying to make out with you. That really tops the cake, doesn't it? Exactly. Thanks for the call. You're like you. Oh, I'd love to be a twin. Why? I just think it would be fun. Imagine the mischief you could get up to. Thanks, guys. Thanks. You're the best.

So you guys might've heard the news that Hollywood superstar Renee Zellweger is in town. Bridget Jones number four has just been released on the weekend and I was lucky enough to be able to go to the premiere. You were flashing yourself on the red carpet. That's right. I flashed my undies on the red carpet in true Bridget Jones style. Like I felt like that was an ode to Bridget Jones. I didn't even think of that. You embodied it. Yeah, I really did. But they didn't write that. They just wrote that I flashed my undies. Malfunctioned. Irrelevant. So I want to

talk about the movie itself. I know I mentioned yesterday, if you were listening, that I just loved it. It was about grief and it had all these beautiful aspects to it. But there was a part of the movie that I particularly resonated with. Bridget Jones in this movie is an older woman that gets

gets into a very loving sexual relationship with quite a younger man. Scandalous. Pretty big age gap. It's about 20 years actually. It's also Leo Woodall, so who could blame her? Anyone is going for Leo Woodall. I don't care what age you are. I'm so sorry. This has just become the Leo Woodall fan show. Everyone's like, why are you still talking about him? It's my fault. Me.

That's on the reason.

It's always been okay for men, especially in Hollywood, to date women 10, 20, 30, 40 years younger than them and no one bats an eyelid. I mean, look at Leo DiCaprio, for example. The age of his girlfriends have never changed. I'm pretty sure he was dating 20-year-olds when we were all 20. Is he like late 40s now? I don't even know. He's turned 50. He's turned 50?

50 and he's still dating 20-year-olds. 25 is his cutoff. Nothing against it. Well, actually, I have a few things against it, but like, you know. Well, people have started to talk about that, but this whole narrative is being flipped on its head and we've seen quite a few movies in the last year where they've had relationships between the older woman and the younger man. Like Anne Hathaway did a movie earlier this year as well where she was in a relationship with a guy in his 20s.

I think it's really cool personally because I've always dated younger and I've always made jokes about the fact that I'm a cougar. Now, I'm not dating 20 years younger. Mine are like between five, seven, eight years younger.

But eight years has been my max. What's your absolute max? Yeah, okay. What I would do? Well, I'm getting married now, but my ex was seven years younger than me. And I just remember, I remember the feelings surrounding that from other people, but also the feelings that I had myself. It didn't bother me, but I felt the judgment from other people because when we started dating, I was in my thirties and he was still 25, which is very young. Yeah.

It's interesting to me because like, I know that I have a bias from years of watching, you know, just men who are older date younger women and women always date older men. I personally have never dated anybody that's like significantly younger than me. Funnily enough, my husband is actually the youngest man I've ever dated and he's only a year and a half younger than me. But I've always thought, and this is actually kind of sad, I've always thought

why would someone younger than me, like why would a younger man want to be with me when he could be with a 20 year old? Do you know what I mean? Like, like I put the expiration on myself and I know that that is so backwards and it's almost the antithesis of this, but it shows the conditioning. Like I've never looked at a,

40 year old man and being like, God, what would a 30 year old see in you? I've always just thought that was completely statistically normal. Whereas like for me as someone who is surging towards my forties, if I was single, I would genuinely think what would a 29 year old man see in me? Do you know what I mean? Like, and I, I know that that shouldn't be the case. And I love that there are movies that are platforming the alternate, but I do think that women face so much more judgment for dating younger men than what men do. It's like, I mean, I know I don't think it it's

absolutely just fact. Of course they do, which is why it's so important that these movies are flipping that narrative on its head. It sounds so cliche, but I truly believe that age is just a number. It depends on what the person is. What is that person bringing to the relationship? What are they offering? How do they act? Their emotional maturity, their life experience. And, you know, the 25-year-old that I was dating was so worldly and so mature. The position that he was in, what he did, what he brought, our relationship was absolutely

I didn't look at him like he was younger. I think we forget and we put the limitations on ourselves. Yes, society does, but what you said is true, Laura. Like we say it to ourselves. Yeah, we say it to ourselves though because it's been said so much. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm happily married. I'm not running out there wanting to date a 20-year-old by any means. Except if Leo's listening. But I guess what I mean by this is when I say like I have this judgment about myself or about, you know, it's a fleeting thought when I do see this age disparity in relationships. Yeah.

But the thing is, is like all that does is it reinforces that women must have an expiration date, that they're not as valuable as they get older as what men are because men retain value. They can still date down. But the older you get as a woman, then the expectation is that you don't. And that's something that needs to be looked at for sure. Except...

It's actually perfect because men's sexual peak is in their 20s and women's sexual peaks, they're not peaking to mid to late 30s, even early 40s, some women. So that's really ideal for a younger man that's in his peak that wants someone that's like thriving, experienced, knows what they want. Britney's selling it.

She's like, all the younger men slide into my, no, you're happily engaged now. You're fine. No, I'm fine. But imagine how amazing it would be to be Renee Zellweger when the author and the director brings this to you, right? And they're like, hey, we're going to set you up with a man in his 20s. Take your pick. What actor do you want? And you get to like look around Hollywood and be like, oh my God, I get to pick anyone. Times are changing. They really are, aren't they? Women are in control.

We're talking about Chrissy Teigen because I do feel like every year or six months, like she kind of just comes around and makes people mad again. And it's like the unfortunate for her, like the Chrissy Teigen hate train. I quite like her. Swings back round. I like her. I don't stand by her past decisions, but I feel like, you know, 10 years ago, she stayed pretty clean until now. Well, didn't she?

She got cancelled for a bit. She got cancelled because she was bullying people. Yeah. That's pretty bad. That's what I'm saying. I don't agree with like 15 years ago Chrissy Teigen, but I do believe that people can change if they try. Well, she's learnt some lessons, hey? Well, she posted a photo on Instagram recently which received a lot of backlash.

It made me ask a few questions, but I want to bring it to you, Britt, and see what you think about this. So the photo that she's posted, just to paint a picture for you guys, it's her in a bath with three of her four children. So she's got Miles in there who's six, her daughter Esty two, and then her youngest son who's only 19 months. All of them are in the bath.

They're all nude, but you can't see anything. Everything's covered. Like the water is particularly murky. So everything is quite covered and quite dense. The problem is, is that the people in the comments who are outraged by this, the thing that they seem to have taken issue with is the fact that her oldest son is six years old and he's in the bath naked with his mom. And a lot of people are calling it out as weird or that he's too old to be nude with his mom and that it's

maybe sexualizing him or there's something very, very off about the fact that he's taking a bath with his mom. I think there is something off about people that think that there's something off about him taking a bath. He's six years old. If you have a problem with that, that's your internalized issues that you were putting on that child and that family. Like he's a six year old. He's just gone to school. He's a small child with his mom and his family.

in the bath. I don't have kids. I will say that, but I don't see an issue with that at all. I think the bigger issue is probably around privacy and like posting the photo in that setting in the first place. But people that have an issue with him being six as if like that's a teenager. Yeah, I know. He's been on the earth for six

years. Like literally on this earth for six years. I mean, my daughter's five, Marley. And I was about to say she doesn't know her left from rights, but she does now. She knows her left from rights. I mean, sometimes she's a child genius. Next time she doesn't know her left from rights. I'd still have a bath with her. Like I have no issues having a bath or being nude around my kids at five and four. I don't know what

the age is when the cutoff is. Maybe every child is a little bit different depending on how mature they are or what kind of questions they start asking. But I don't think it's at six, that's for sure. I mean, my kids, not that I'm saying I'm running around naked with them all the time, but I'm definitely like don't see any issue with it now, that's for sure. And I do wonder what the issue is with them seeing naked bodies anyway. Like it's your family members. Like it's not sexualized, you know what I mean? It's just...

the son is not looking at his mum in a weird way and the mum's not looking at his son in a weird way. I don't think it's that though. I think that everyone has a different take on nudity. Like some people grow up in families where like they're used to seeing their mums and dads naked and it's not a big deal. And other people grow up in families where they've never seen their mum or dad naked. Producer Grace just put her hand up.

Do you want to get something off your chest? I was going to say, I stayed at my mum's house last week and I saw her naked then. I had a shower and she just popped in to do something and then... I think it's different, yes. I think it's different. Like if I saw my mum naked now as an adult, not weird. But if I saw my dad naked as an adult, I'm like weird. So I think...

when you think about it, when was the last time you saw your dad naked? It's been a while. I think another, maybe it's seven. Maybe it's only a year away for Chrissy Teigen's son. Like, I feel like the age is coming where it starts, they become more aware of their body and things like that. I don't think six is it, but I don't think it's probably that far off.

off. Let her enjoy it. She does have an older daughter, Luna, who's eight years old. So, you know, only a little bit older than Miles and she wasn't in the bath. So maybe that is the cutoff, Britt. Maybe you're right. Maybe it is eight. I don't know. I think it's a tricky one because if you're going to put that much of your family and your life out on Instagram, when you've got that many followers, you've got to expect people are going to have opinions or thoughts on the way that you parent and the things that you do. And for me, like, I don't care about the fact

that they were having a bath together. I'm impressed that they got a bath big enough to fit four people in it. I mean, it's Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. That's true. But I guess the thing for me is the concern that you had, Brit, is around internet safety. And I probably, and I know that you might put photos up of your kids at the beach or whatever, and there probably isn't that much difference in terms of the amount of skin showing. But I definitely think that there's something more intimate about being in a bath

and all being implied naked than being at the beach or being somewhere else where, you know, you're wearing a bikini or whatever. And maybe this is something we need to unpack more when we've got more time. But I read something just this morning, like within the Australian media, that was saying school photos now, like back to school photos, they're worried are falling into the wrong hands on the internet. And the question is, like, where do we stop? Is the answer that you can't share anything anymore?

Ever? I think school photos are such a scary thing though because you're giving every person out there on the internet access to where your kid goes to school. It's like putting a target on their back. I absolutely think that that's something that parents should be way more conscious about when they're sharing, like, you know, my kid's first day of school photos and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, 100%.

Now we have been having very big chats after last week's announcement from you Britt and that is Dancing With The Stars. Yep I don't know how or why no actually I do know they called me and because they saw my terrible dance videos. We still don't know why though. No I've been doing dance rehearsals with my fiance Ben for our wedding and they have not been going well and I've been putting them on social media and dancing saw that and thought

Well, yesterday they did the announcement and the release of the full cast. Yeah. And you have been telling me that you've been doing seemingly surprisingly well. Like you seem to... I wouldn't say I'm killing it, but I've got, I've put like two feet together and I can do some spins and stuff. And I've seen some of your dance, like you've shown me little bits of like video recordings. And I would say that in some ways you're doing okay. And in other ways there might need to be a little bit more practice, but I thought it might be

good to get like an unbiased and impartial view on how you're actually going and get, you know, a dancing expert here. Someone who you might be familiar with. Yeah. We have Craig Bondley on the line who is actually Brittany's dancing partner. Yeah, I get very, very up close and personal. Craig, welcome to The Pickup. Thank you for having me. Hi, Craig. Okay, honest opinion. How do you think Britt is going? Hurricane Britt. How is Hurricane Britt going? I think she thinks she's signed up for MMA with the Stars. Oh,

I'm a bit rough, aren't I? No, actually, she's doing pretty good. I have to say, she's doing really, really well.

I almost want to challenge that because I've seen a few videos of you guys trying to do lifts where it's just ended with her crutch in your face. And I don't think that that was the desired outcome, believe it or not. Oh, was that not the move, Craig? No, that's definitely not the desired goal. We'll get there eventually, I think. Hopefully in time for the show. Eventually, I think hopefully. There were three terms you just used in one sentence that didn't give me a lot of faith. There was a mishap that did happen in the last couple of days. I did catch it on film.

Craig was trying to lift me in the air. And as I was in the air going up towards his shoulder, something happened. I was like a mermaid flipper dolphin. And I flipped my legs and I kicked him in the testicles and in the air. Now, hang on. Before we feel sorry for Craig. Oh, my God, Craig. He threw me. I was on his shoulder. He threw me to the floor.

to the ground. It was a reaction. As he crumbled to the ground, but I really flipped him in the testicles. You kicked him in the balls. Of course he threw you. Yeah. What was the pain level, Craig, out of one to ten? I mean, I have a three-year-old, so she jumps over me all the time. So I think it's just part of every day now. Wow. That's some discipline. I'd probably give it a seven out of ten. Craig, how many seasons of Dancing with the Star have you done now?

This will be my eighth season. And in terms of it being your eighth season, how do you think Brit ranks against all of your other dance partners? Oh, that's a hard question. To be diplomatic, everyone has been amazing. But I think Brit is definitely up there. I think she's doing really well and I think, yeah, she could surprise a few people. What do you think, thank you firstly, what do you think will be my unravelling? Like what do you think is the thing that I'm having the most trouble with or not nailing? I mean, you do choke me quite a lot. Yeah.

That sounds like a very particular dance move. I don't know if that one's being taught. I think if we can get that under control, I think we'll be okay. I think that needs context. So what happens is I panic a lot and my hand ends up around his throat for stability. And he's like, hand on throat. I was like, sorry. So there's a lot of choking unintentionally. Okay.

He's like, yeah. And since the cast has been released, who do you think is going to be your biggest competition? I feel like there's a few dark horses in the competition. I think I wouldn't be surprised if Trent is not too bad. He's the AFL player? Yeah. And...

Is it Karina, the newsreader? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think she's a dark horse for sure. But you know who he really is? I only found out today. Kyle, who's one of the actors on Home and Away, he's on it. He's a trained contemporary dancer. Trained. Take the mirror ball now, Kyle. Take it. But he's not in your team, so it doesn't matter. Yeah, but he's still in the competition. Yeah.

Oh, that's true. Yeah. Craig, do you not know how this works? Craig's on eight seasons, but he's still learning. Get to the final and then we'll worry about the final. Okay, yeah. Well, we are wishing you all the best luck, Britt. I can't wait to see you guys perform. I can't wait to see you guys compete. And I really hope that there's some dramatic improvement in the next couple of weeks. Yes, so do I. Pray for me, everyone. Thanks, Craig. I'll see you later. We'll dance till 10 p.m. tonight. Sounds good. Okay, bye. Thanks, Craig.

It's time for the investigation that has been brewing for the last couple of days. Britt, you're not aware about what this entails, but it is an investigation into what has been going on here at The Pickup.

I know nothing about this investigation. So you're saying like it's time to put this investigation to bed. I didn't even know it existed. And you were at the center of this. Okay, what have I done? So you know how like when you think of Ghostbusters and sometimes like someone will take a photo and then there's like a mirage or something in the mirror. A ghost? And that's how they know there's a ghost there. Well, there was like a ghost baby the other day. What are you?

What are you actually talking about? So we did our normal pickup show and somewhere in the studio there was a ghost baby. Okay. We even received an email from our bosses saying, why is there a baby in the studio? I mean, there's definitely has not been a baby in the studio. No, there's never been a baby in the studio. Like not that I'm aware of, not that you're aware of, not that producer Grace is aware of. And we all went back through the audio to try and find the ghost baby. And well...

There she was. Have a listen to this. I would want to go and make sure they were okay too. My mum didn't come. My mum sent her mum to come and get me, okay? I remember the time. Wait, let's just have a listen. Oh, my God, what is that? Let's just have a listen to the ghost baby again because, you know, with all the technology that we have here at the show, we've managed to isolate the sound, we've amplified it. We really wanted to have a clear understanding of what this sound was. I remember this.

It sounds like there's a dying cow. It doesn't sound like a baby. It sounds like a little calf has been born. Well, Brittany Hockley, I have some very unfortunate news for you.

That sound is in fact your laugh. That is the start of your laugh. No, it's not. Yes, it is. That is not. That is a cow. That is not me. That noise came out of your microphone. Have we verified that? We have, yes. We checked the footage as well. That's you making that sound. It's on footage as well. Yeah. Please, can we just play it one more time? How is it even humanly possible that? I don't understand. No!

I don't believe it until I see that. I don't. I don't. I don't. I have always stood up for your laugh because it is honestly one of the most joyful parts of this show. But your laugh, I think, evolves as much as your hair does. Like for anyone who doesn't know, Brit changes her hairstyle very frequently. But your laugh, it goes through these many different phases. You're in a snorting phase at the moment. It's pretty manic. I am manic. And now there's like a ghost baby phase. But we just thought everyone might really want to enjoy like –

on. Hang on. Did our boss message and say who's the baby and it was me? Our boss thought that there was a baby in the studio and wanted to know where the baby had come from. And Britt, you were the baby. I'm so embarrassed. I did

Know this about me. You're the baby. But for everyone who hasn't, you know, been able to experience the full breath, the full everything of Brit's laugh, we've created a little compilation just so that you can all experience how absolutely magnificent it is. Turn off now if you want to keep your eardrums. This is for you. Thank you for all the good times.

What the hell is wrong with me? I sound like Marge Simpson. That second one. Play the second one. The second one was Marge. Sorry, Grace. The second one, I sound like Marge Simpson legitimately. Listen to this. I am so mortified that that – I did tell you the other day, didn't I? It's so good. I love your laugh so much. The baby one –

The baby one. I'll wait to see proof after that. I'm not sure that that's me yet. But I did say the other day on a plane someone stopped me down the aisle. Like there were seats away and they popped their head up after I laughed and they were like, I know that laugh. Are you on radio? And that was a low point for me. I was like, wow, if it's that standout that people can hear it down the plane, I have issues. Well, you know, people either love it or they're tuning on to another radio station. No, stay. Stay. Who knows what my laugh will be next week.

Well, speaking of Valentine's Day and since everything on this show is centered around love, this conversation is going to be for anyone who is in a long-term relationship. Maybe you've got kids, maybe you're in the trenches and things just aren't as magical as what once upon a time they were. I feel like it happens to all long-term couples. Not me. Yeah, well, long distance kind of changes things a little bit. But trying to keep like that long-term spark is really, really hard. Yeah.

But it's interesting for me because the woman that we're about to speak to, Tara Pavlovich, once upon a time, I was in competition with her for the heart of a man on a reality TV show. And now I just love watching everything that she puts out in the world on social media. Tara, welcome to the show. Hello, Laura. Hey, Britt. Arguably the fan favorite of whatever season we were of The Bachelor. Look, guys.

look guys, the competition's over. You're both married with kids. Let's leave that one in the six year past. But Tara, it's so cool. I was like reading your post on Instagram, just saying that, hey, let's normalize couples counseling. You know, we're trying to get our connection back and do all these things and it doesn't have to mean that life is over. What made you start going to therapy and what made you want to speak about it?

Yeah, so I think therapy is something that like everyone can benefit from singly or as a couple, even if we went because we needed a lot of help, like things were really bad. But then once I went, I was like, wait a minute, I think I want to do this even now things are good because it really does help the connection because they're so trained in helping couples and they know so many ways to help certain things and to connect.

get you both to understand each other a little bit more. So it's just good to go and have a little refresher and kind of understand each other more because in reality, like you're always going to have little issues and you're never going to completely understand each other. Like when you're married with kids, it's hard. Like stuff changes all

all the time. You're forever evolving. So it's just about going and having a little refresher and finding that connection again. Tara, you and Nick have been together for a while now, and obviously you've got two beautiful children, but did you feel that your relationship just completely shifted after having kids?

oh, it's so hard when you have kids. You just don't have that time to connect anymore. And that's what the therapist helped us with because we're both like, but we don't have time. And she's like, no, but you do. And here's how you can have it, you know? So it's hard with kids because they don't even let you speak. Yeah, I know. Honestly, like...

I'm hiding outside right now, like to speak on the phone because, you know, when Laura, you messaged me, I was like, no, I can't talk to you. You're like, I've got children. They won't let me. It's the same here. Literally, if we even look at each other, they're like, no, you do not. Like, how dare you? We are here.

Like when you talked about wanting to go and see a counsellor or do couples counselling, were either of you apprehensive? Because I think there is still a lot of stigma around it. Like a lot of people interpret that as, oh, well, we must be at doomsday when it comes to our relationship if you want to go and see a counsellor.

I know. It is like that. And that's why I'm so open about it because I want people to know that it's not doom and gloom. I honestly think that the strongest couples go and seek it because it's like, we will do anything for this to work. When we first saw the counsellor, we were like, it was kind of like the last resort type thing. Yeah.

we really needed to go there. But after going, we were like, wait, this is actually like pretty good and so useful. Like, and so then lately when I was like, you know what, I'm feeling disconnected. Let's go back and let's chat with her and just like find some ways to connect again. Yeah.

It's so good because I am with one of my exes. We were doing therapy individually and then I said, hey, I think we need to go together and he refused because I think the next step as a couple was something different for him. You know, he could understand going individually. There was still this stigma for the couples therapy. He refused to go and then he dumped me. Yeah, that was my point, Laura. No, but you talk about

doing the five magical hours. This is like by psychologist, John Gottman. This is what they've told you to do. And we won't go into all of them, but their partings, reunions, admiration and appreciation, affection, and a weekly date. I was wondering the admiration and appreciation. So they say it involves setting aside five minutes a day to express admiration or appreciation for your partner. So I think that's really cool.

But I want to know the rules on that. Do you have to sit down in person and be looking at each other and connected? Can it be a text message throughout the day? Can it be on the phone? It can be anything. So it can just be, and look, sometimes it doesn't take that whole five minutes, but it's really nice to do it when you are connecting and looking at each other. We actually had to practice this one with her. It was really awkward. It felt really hard to kind of

Appreciate each other. Yeah. It was so foreign to us and we were like, we were almost laughing. We were like, oh my God, we really need to practice this because we never do this. It's like to say anything nice to each other. How are you and Nick now? Like after all of this and everything that you guys have weathered with having kids and coming back together, like how do you feel your relationship is now?

Definitely after that therapy session, we've been a lot closer. So it's helped us so much. It was only like a couple of months ago and it's definitely made such a difference. So I'm going to go again and have another refresher and learn some more little things from her because it's really just helped a lot. Like just having the reminder and the conversation with her was, yeah, so helpful. Obviously there's things that we both do every day that we're just like,

Okay, like that's annoying. Go away. Like you're so annoying. Standard. Piss each other off. But, you know, I think it's important to remember that that's completely normal and like what we're seeing on Instagram with couples and everything isn't the whole picture. Like everyone has little bickers every day and you piss each other off and that's normal. Yeah.

Absolutely. Oh, Tara, you're a breath of fresh air. I love watching your Instagram posts. For anyone who hasn't followed Tara, Tara Pavlovich on Instagram, like you're very relatable with all of your very funny updates around parenting and relationships. And I feel like you just say it as it is, which you always have done. Thanks, Laura. I appreciate it. I love watching you and my ex as well. Well, happy Valentine's Day, Tara. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day, guys. I hope it's amazing. See you, Tara.

Bye. We have been talking about everything to do with love, but it would be remiss of us to talk about how sometimes love doesn't go exactly to plan. It never goes to plan. Well, sometimes. Some people get their happy endings and...

For those of you who are single, you'll be well aware if you're in the dating world that it can absolutely be a cesspool at the exact same time. And one thing that we do on our podcast, Life Uncut Podcast, it's kind of become a namesake of the pod, is that we often get in your most embarrassing, hilarious, like worst dating stories when things just go absolutely not to plan. And it's a wild world out there when you're dating. There are a lot of duds. I've had some horrific ones. I remember going on a lunch date with this guy that

It was supposed to be a sandwich and a smoothie. And I took him to this place in my local suburb. He didn't know it. We got there. I went to pay with my bank card and the place was like, oh, sorry, it's cash only. And I didn't have cash. He thought you were being a tight ass, didn't he? Yeah. So I said, oh, sorry, do you have cash? And I don't know why I was paying anyway. He asked me on the date.

He was like, yeah, okay. Are you just taking me to places where you don't have to pay? And I was like, this is so in my head. I was like, this is so weird, bro. It's 25 bucks. Anyway, he made me, he walked me to an ATM and I got a $20 note out from the ATM and had to give it to him to repay him for the sandwich. That's so bad. Then he tried to kiss me and said, we had a connection. Can I see you again? I can you deal? I,

I can. I can. Do you know why? Because I can deal because I, look, I did a lot of dating before meeting my husband. I reckon I dated three quarters of Sydney. You know, when you're on Tinder so aggressively that you're swiping and swiping and it's like, there's no one left in your location. I'm like, how have I gone through all of the men, every single one? And then you expand your radius, you expand your age. When I was like in the throes of dating, like he was a guy I was kind of friends with. I didn't even know it was a date. We were going to uni together and he asked me around and

And I got to his house and it was like he had been watching too many teen rom-com movies or like almost teen comedy movies. He walked out and he brought out literal apple pie that he had made. We watched American Pie. Oh, yeah. It was American Pie, wasn't it? Yes. With whipped cream on the apple pie completely butt-ass naked. And I had zero sexual attraction to this man. It was repulsive to me and it was possibly the most awkward thing

minutes of my life where I was like, oh, I'm so sorry. You've misread the situation. But you haven't really said what he did with the apple pie. He didn't do anything with it. He just brought out apple pie. For me to eat, but he was pantless. So he wanted me to eat something else. You forgot the pantless part of that story. He was completely pantless.

what you just said. Pantless with a boner, like with apple pie. So yeah, it was, it was horrifying. Anyway, you win some, you lose some. Grace, producer Grace, you've got a terrible first date story. Yeah. Back when I was like 18 or 19, I was dating this guy for maybe three or four months. He'd met my family. I'd met his, we were like quite in it. And I was like, I'm going to plan this date. We're going to go to the aquarium. Just look at fish. It's going to be lovely. He never turned up and I never heard from him again. You got ghosted at

at the aquarium. It was the saddest aquarium trip I've ever been on in my life. Did you still go through? I mean, yeah, I'm not an idiot. By yourself? Crying, looking at the fish. All right. Well, we've got some terrible ones from you guys that you've written in. And like I said, we do do this on Life Uncut Podcast. If you want to go have a listen to more there, you can. Here it goes. He spent the whole date telling me how good he is at dating and how he's really proficient at Tinder and that he'd also applied for maths.

Perfect. Well done. A plus. Put that on your resume. Am I allowed to say a sexy one? Yeah, sure. We'll put some beefs in if we can't. We were on the first date. It was going really well and I was really attracted to him. So we decided to take it back to his house. After one pump, it ended everywhere. And he said, I'm so sorry it's not happened. I think it's because I'm in love with you. We'd been on one date. We doubled down.

I don't know what one's worse, the one pump or the love declaration after brunch. This one's also bad. First date, guy goes in for the kiss. I pull away. He says, oh, wow, that was awkward. Then goes in for a second one. Yeah.

Why are they doubling down? Maybe he thought he'd have better luck second time. Okay, I'm a vegetarian, so he took me to KFC. That's terrible. He obviously was just trying to see. He doesn't want to date a vegetarian, and he was trying to see if you would, like, you know, change your ways for him. This is a common theme that's come through. It took me to a steakhouse. I told him I was a vegetarian. Like, why are men doing that? Hmm.

Maybe they just didn't listen very well, didn't read the text. Do they know what vegetarian is? They do. I think they just don't care. He asked me to sit on the other side of the couch so that he could watch the TV. They were at a bar and he wanted to watch the TV that was behind her, so he got her to move. It's actually so grim. Wait, what about this? He had a nosebleed while we were making out and the entire thing just went straight into my mouth. You'd have to really like the guy to present it.

Okay, what about this one that came in from one of our lifers? So she was on this date, like on a walking date along the coast. It was a beautiful coastal walk and they were stopped on a cliff and looking over at the water and they're having this really romantic moment and they went in for like a smooch. It was a gust of wind. Gust of wind. Dirt was everywhere. You want that. You want the wind as your hair blowing, like real movie scene. And then there was like some dirt falling on them and they were like, oh, is some dirt falling off the cliff? Like what's happening? Yeah.

And they looked up and they realized they weren't covered in dirt. Up on the top of the cliff, someone was spreading ashes.

They were covered in the dead person on their romantic first kiss on the date. They were covered in cremation. In Nana and Papa. Just right there. Can you deal like in their mouth, in their hair? Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Nothing's more of a mood killer than a dead person. I'm going to leave you with this one because please take this as a forewarning if you were in the midst of dating. He asked me for my number at the end. I wasn't interested in him and I gave him a fake one. He then called it to check if it was real. Don't do that.

Just be honest. Save yourselves, all of you, the embarrassment. No, don't do the checking. If someone's giving you a number, don't check on the spot and be like, I'll just confirm you gave it to me right. Don't do that. Yeah, but he obviously was a psycho.