Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce’s $696 million dollar business and personal empire before shock split
Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce were Australia’s glamour couple of fitness. He was homeless before he helped turn her love of exercise into a multimillion-dollar empire. This is what their recent split means.
Entertainment
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They were Australia’s glamour couple of fitness, who built a nearly $700 million empire from their loungeroom and whose break-up stunned fans.
Influential fitness moguls Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce ended their relationship after eight years but will continue to run their lucrative lifestyle and workout business as “business partners”.
So what does the break-up mean for their Instagram-fuelled Adelaide-based empire?
Itsines and Pearce have an estimated joint net worth of $696 million, according to Forbes, spanning their business and personal interests, including their app, SWEAT, that been downloaded more than 30 million times.
Known as “very savvy operators” in the industry, it would be in the former couple’s interests to their relationship breakdown out of their professional partnership, a celebrity branding expert told News Corp.
Prior to their break-up, Itsines, 29, and Pearce, 28, had shared their lives on Instagram.
From VVVIP work trips to New York, to loved up selfies in activewear, a proposal in front of their families, a surprise engagement party and a huge diamond ring.
The ex-couple shot to Instagram-fuelled fame when Itsines’ 28-minute DIY workouts and her e-book, the Bikini Body Guide (aka BBG), went viral in 2014.
While Itsines is the face of the brand, Pearce’s official role at SWEAT is listed as chief executive.
In an interview with Instagram, Pearce compared the now-former couple’s empire to Marvel comic troupe, The Avengers.
“We use The Avengers as a reference point internally,” Pearce told Instagram’s Business blog in May.
“SWEAT is our mother brand (much like the Avengers is the masterbrand), and Kayla is our Captain America. Each of our talented personal trainers such as Kelsey Wells and Chontel Duncan are brands in their own right, much like Ant Man and The Hulk.”
Lawyer Sally Nicholes, managing partner of Nicholes Family Law, said the former couple would need to have the legal terms of their separation documented, given they are still working together.
“Usually one party will take the business and there will be a payout to the other,” Ms Nicholes – who has represented high-net worth individuals in divorce settlements – said.
“Here, they would still want to have it documented commercially and also, in terms of a family law sense,” Ms Nicholes, who does not represent Itsines or Pearce, noted.
“It would have been quite clever to have made all these arrangements while it is still amicable
“It is quite unusual that they are still going to work together, but it shows that they have done the hard work. They are an exception to the rule.”
While many businesses are struggling during COVID-19, Peace revealed SWEAT was more “relevant than ever”.
“People around the world are at home. They’re isolated. There is a need to stay physically active,” he said.
Itsines has a huge Instagram audience of her own (12.6 million at the time of publication), with Hollywood stars like Katherine Heigl and Girls’ Allison Williams among the high-profile fans of her workouts.
“I don’t mind if it’s a celebrity or anyone in this room,” Itsines said during a previous interview with People, at an event in the United States.
“I just like that women are getting on board. And the fact that the community has reached so far that celebrities are using it as well, I just think that’s cool.”
Their followers are heavily invested in their lives. Pearce threw his then-fiance a surprise engagement party in February 2019 after popping the question in April 2018, complete with a wall of flowers and neon lights spelling out “The Pearce Family”.
At the time, Itsines spoke about how she had no idea about the party and “just started crying” tears of joy at the surprise.
“I honestly just started crying! We’ve been so busy, I totally forgot to take a second to celebrate our life,” Itsines said, of the bash thrown for 130 guests.
Posting about the party to her millions of followers, Itsines wrote that the couple had flown “back from Melbourne and (Tobi) was silent in the car”.
“I said, ‘I feel like something is weird’. He smiled and said, ‘ … you have an hour to get ready’. I said ‘WHAT? for what? Where are we going’.
“He didn’t respond. He dropped me off at my friend’s dress shop, there was a make-up artist, hairdresser and 5 dress options on the table.
“I was thinking … what is GOING ON!!?”.
And while their business achievements have been well-documented, it has not been without controversy. In 2016, Pearce escaped conviction for possessing illegal prescription drugs linked to steroid abuse.
Pearce was caught speeding in his Lamborghini and tried to “conceal” a blister pack of four Cabolin prescription pills after being stopped by police in an unmarked car.
The Advertiser reported that Pearce denied consuming the tablets and claimed an unnamed person left them in his black Lamborghini Huracan. He was fined for speeding and copped an additional $150 fine after pleading guilty to “possess a prescription drug”.
Pearce previously opened up about how he turned his life around after leaving home at 16 due to family troubles, and being homeless.
“One day I drove off to school, and never went home,” Pearce revealed in a 2017 Instagram post.
“I kept going to school but slept in my car, on the streets, in public toilets or at friends’ houses when possible.
“Living in a tin shed at 19, I often looked at my life thinking ‘I’m not lucky enough to have certain things; I can barely afford food’.
“This was a very difficult time. We all have or had demons, and I certainly have mine, but I am no longer hiding.”
‘SAVVY OPERATORS’
A celebrity branding expert said Itsines and Pearce were both “very savvy operators” and “wouldn’t destroy their empire because of their personal lives”.
“I think they would be able to separate the two,” he told News Corp today, on the condition of anonymity.
“They would be able to put on different hats, ‘this is our personal, this is our business.’
“It’d be different if it (Sweat) was a start-up … but this is a mature business,” he said.
“They would have plenty of protocols to fall back on relating to the running of the company
He said this would likely mean the former couple’s business-related legal matters would be “iron clad”.
“A business divorce is no different to a personal divorce in that there is never a clear winner,” he said.
“It’s not really worth it (legal battle) if you can keep things at arm’s length.
“It wouldn’t be in their interests for this to get complicated.”
In a statement on Friday, Itsines announced she and Pearce had ended their engagement.
“After eight years together, Tobi and I have come to the difficult decision to separate as a couple,” Istines wrote to her 12.6 million followers.
“Our friendship remains strong as we parent Arna and run SWEAT as business partners.
“We will always be a family, and remain good friends and devoted parents to Arna.”
It was a near-identical statement to the one Pearce posted to his 166,000 followers, perhaps in a show of solidarity.
He also wrote that the pair remained friends and would continue to run SWEAT “as business partners”.
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