A wealth podcaster has issued a grovelling apology for calling Aussies ‘idiots’ in a public argument over housing affordability.
But She’s On The Money host Victoria Devine’s apology video featured her covered in bling, including pearls, diamond rings and a Rolex watch, leading to questions about whether she truly understood the hurt she had caused.
It all started when real estate company Whitefox advertised on billboards that it had been ‘Making homes more expensive since 2017’.
Marty Fox, the company’s founder and a judge on The Block, defended the slogan as ‘clever marketing,’ despite a massive backlash over housing affordability concerns, with many slamming the billboards out-of-touch.
Then Devine sent a private message to Fox, who is a friend of hers, saying ‘The people talking s*** aren’t your target demographic. They’re idiots. I got it immediately. Brilliant!!’
Fox asked her if he could post that publicly, Devine said yes and then all hell broke loose and she was slammed for not knowing what regular people are going through.
In a video posted to social media, she said she had seen the comments ‘about me being tone deaf and completely out of touch, and I can’t disagree with you.
‘At the end of the day, the comments I made were tone deaf and completely out of touch, and for that, I apologise. I am genuinely really sorry.’
Victoria Devine’s apology video featured her wearing glittering jewelry, including pearls, diamond rings and a Rolex watch (pictured)
Continuing the apology while her jewellery glittered, Devine said she ‘never made comments like this with the hope to make anybody feel less than or make anyone feel stupid or dumb’.
‘There’s no world in which I would want anyone to feel stupid … I wanna be really clear, I was not saying that people who can’t buy property are idiots.
‘I was saying that people who didn’t understand the billboard were idiots.’
She acknowledged that that too ‘is very rude still, that is very unacceptable’.
Devine said some of the comments made about her were ‘really upsetting, but they are also very confronting because some of them… you’re not wrong.
‘I am a little bit out of touch nowadays. I am a little bit unrelatable, but what I want you to know is that, I know you because I was you.’
The podcaster said she too had one time ‘been in mountains of debt, not knowing how I was going to pay it off … where I just didn’t think that property was ever going to be for me.
‘And now I’m in the very fortunate position where I do own property and I am very grateful for that, but, I just want to make sure that the people that are in my community know that I would never think of you as stupid or less than or not worthy of these things.’
Devine sent a private message to Fox, who is a friend of hers, saying ‘The people talking s*** aren’t your target demographic. They’re idiots. I got it immediately. Brilliant!!’
Marty Fox (pictured) defended the slogan as ‘clever marketing,’ despite a massive backlash over housing affordability concerns
Devine said the experience had been ‘a good lesson for me to be a lot more reflective of what I say online and in DMs’.
‘I also want to acknowledge that the housing market and the financial landscape these days is a lot different to when I purchased property and when I was going through my journey. It’s not comparable,’ she said.
‘I think that the world changes so fast, and that by me leaning on my experience, it doesn’t mean it’s super relatable for you.
‘So I think this has also been a really good lesson in teaching me that I need to be a lot more responsive and aware of that in the content that I create moving forward.
‘I’m trying to see the positives in this so that you guys benefit even more.’
She added that she was ‘grateful to have a community that are so wildly passionate that this angers you as well, because if I’m gonna lead this community, I need to be able to take this feedback on and learn from it and grow from it’.
If Devine thought her apology would lead to immediate forgiveness, though, she was mistaken.
‘Says while wearing pearls and diamonds… give me strength,’ one commenter wrote.
‘Wearing $50,000+ worth of jewellery during an apology for being an elitist is INSAAAANNE,’ wrote another.
A third asked: ‘What happened to the scripted “sincere” apology from the kitchen with no makeup, in casual clothing and calm condescending tones?
‘Nope, $50k in jewellery in the podcast studio.
‘Keeping in touch with the normies.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Devine for comment.
