Anna Paul and Mikaela Testa feud: Influencer responds to ‘broke’ claims

The popular Aussie influencer was labelled “out of touch” by Mikaela Testa in a scathing video last week.

Anna Paul has broken down in tears in a video addressing viral claims she lied about “growing up broke” made by her former best friend, describing the backlash she’s received as “insane”.

The popular Australian influencer, who has amassed a huge following of over 10 million people across TikTok and Instagram with her rags to riches lifestyle, was labelled “out of touch” by Mikaela Testa in a scathing video last week.

The bombshell clip set the internet alight after Testa – who was in a relationship with Paul’s brother Atis for two years until their split in May 2023 – accused the popular sex worker of running cash giveaways on Instagram to “lure new customers over” to the costly X-rated platform.

Anna Paul attends The TikTok Awards. Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Now Paul, 25, has publicly addressed a number of different allegations after Testa’s video saw thousands of her own fans turning against her, stating the situation had become “a bit much”.

“The reason I’ve taken so long to respond is because this has all taken me by surprise,” she says in the video, which has been filmed on a living room floor.

“It was a very big shock to me because this is somebody that I thought was my friend and that I was close with, and it really hurt me.”

The Gold-Coast content creator claimed she and Testa had been in touch until very recently and were even planning a “girls trip” to Fiji together – further adding to the “hurt” of the situation when Testa posted her video on the evening of January 28.

“So it’s all come as a surprise, but I am going to address a couple of things… including that I lied about growing up broke. Now, I do not lie about the fact that I grew up broke,” Paul said.

“When I said I grew up broke, that is my experience, 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 am 11 and all my friends can afford something and my parents can’t, that makes me feel broke. When they say, ‘ooh I don’t know how we’re going to afford rent next week’, that makes me scared and makes me feel broke.”

Paul went on to state that while she acknowledges it “does not make me the most broke person on earth” and that she knows there are people in “way worse situations”, she said: “It does not mean that I am lying.”

Mikaela Testa.

Paul’s impassioned response comes after internet sleuths began pouring through her lengthy social media past in the wake of Testa’s claims, sharing images from her teenage years and even a photo of a house “on the water with a built-in pool” that was allegedly her childhood home.

“The internet has gone crazy, pulling up photos from ‘Anna’s childhood home’ that were actually photos from a place I lived in as an adult, somewhere I couldn’t even imagine going into when I was like, 7 years old,” she said.

“I didn’t have social media when I was that young. Did the internet even exist in 2006? But those photos of me [as a child] wouldn’t even be on the internet.”

She also addressed an allegation from Testa’s video that she had called a fan “fat and sweaty” in 2021.

“I do not call my fans ‘fat’, that is not who I am and that is not what I stand for, that is not what I have ever stood for, but you guys know me surely?” Paul shared.

“I may have called her ‘sweaty’, because when someone is wet and they touch you, and they leave, and you’re with your best friend and you’re now wet because of them, you may say ‘I’m not wet’.

“This was four years ago, that may have happened. That does not make me a bad person.”

Paul became visibly emotional when she discussed the backlash she has received as a result of the allegations, labelling it “dangerous”.

Gold Coast OnlyFans creator Mikaela Testa.

“The bullying that has festered and grown from this because it’s a trend is dangerous, and not OK,” she stated.

“Bullying like this kills people, it kills people. You might think it’s funny to set up your phone, and think, ‘ooh, I wonder what is trending right now, I know, I met Anna Paul once, I’ll say something bad, that will get views’. Your views aren’t worth someone’s life.

“I think we can all agree, it’s just gotten insane.”

The furore between the two former best friends had erupted after Testa, who is also a sex worker that sells content on OnlyFans, took to her Instagram Stories on January 16 to blast those who “have to incentivise people to buy your exclusive website by running cash giveaways”.

But later shared a lengthy video on TikTok with her 2.5 million followers in which she named Paul as the influencer, claiming the stunt was purely to “lure new customers over” to the X-rated platform that costs money to access.

“Watching her fans scramble over scraps, fighting each other because they need these funds while she films it, flaunts her designer labels, endless holidays and material excess... this is out of touch,” she claimed.

Gold Coast social media influencer Anna Paul with her fans. Photo: Instagram

Testa also took aim at Paul’s fan base, claiming they are “largely underage”, arguing it was “twisted and weird” to suggest they purchase her pornographic content.

OnlyFans has a strict 18+ policy for both creators and fans, which is “heavily moderated” by both humans and technology to ensure compliance, it states on its website.

It also verifies members’ age and identity with a stringent process that involves providing a selfie while holding a valid photo ID and checking social media account handles.

Australian businesses can run a lottery to promote the sale of goods or services in which the winners must be determined by a drawing or by chance.

The laws and regulations dealing with trade promotions differ between states and territories but generally, if a prize pool for a game of chance giveaway is under $3000, you do not need a permit.

In screenshots of cash transferred to fans shared by Paul, the influencer gave one person $1000, while another received $200.

The pair were close friends, regularly appearing on each other’s social media accounts, and even living together in a Gold Coast mansion, until Testa split from Paul’s brother Atis in May 2023.

Describing the break-up as “hellish” a few months later, she stopped appearing in Paul’s social media content, and moved away to Perth, WA.

“It was seriously hell – like I had never been through something so bad ever,” the TikTok star told the White Fox After Hours podcast shortly after their separation.

She’s since moved on and regularly shares photos with her new boyfriend, Maxwell Krause.

News.com.au has contacted Testa for further comment.

Originally published as Anna Paul and Mikaela Testa feud: Influencer responds to ‘broke’ claims