‘I’m not sitting around all day posting selfies’: Mia Fevola responds to trolls, dating rumours – and her famous family

Mia Fevola, the stepdaughter of former AFL star Brendan Fevola, responds to trolls, dating speculation – and reveals her big ambitions beyond internet fame.

Mia Fevola on set with Stellar. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

Mia Fevola is well aware of the attention her surname courts but, as she points out, there’s more to her than meets the winged eyeliner. “I don’t really know any different,” she says, when asked how she handles the notoriety.

The 24-year-old’s stepdad is, of course, Brendan Fevola, the former Carlton star-turned-radio host who is one of the AFL’s most celebrated and controversial full-forwards.

Her mother is Alex Fevola, a make-up mogul who founded beauty brand Runway Room in 2012 and was an OG of the WAG era when wives and girlfriends of high-profile sportsmen were in the spotlight almost as much as the players.

Her parents’ relationship has long been of public interest since they met in the early 2000s, and Fevola says she can “recognise the difference between me and my friends and their families” (the couple also share daughters Leni, 17, Lulu, 14, and Tobi, 5).

Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

“The good and the bad have been shared,” Fevola tells Stellar. “It’s not something that really has put a lot of pressure on me. It has definitely brought more blessings, for sure. I’m aware of the opportunities that it has brought for me.”

Having lost her biological father after he passed away suddenly when she was a baby, Fevola says of her stepfather: “He’s my dad. I met him when I was three. For as long as I can remember, that’s been my life. I can’t remember life before him”.

While she has 150k Instagram followers and is regularly the target of paparazzi and speculation over who she’s dating and what she’s wearing, Fevola is focused on her life outside of social media. As well as studying at university, she also works part-time as a make-up artist at Runway Room.

“I never actively pursued doing social media for a job,” Fevola says of her profile. “It really just came to me. It’s not something I’ve ever pushed for. Social media is really fun but it’s not something that I’m trying to make happen. And if it falls through tomorrow, that’s OK with me because I’ve got bigger priorities on my list.”

Those priorities include completing her psychology degree – her second, after graduating with a bachelor of business marketing – and gaining her honours and masters in the field.

“That’s 100 per cent my passion, psychology. On top of that, I’m a make-up artist, [which] has been my job since I was about 17.”

Speaking to Stellar, Alex recalls her daughter being “very timid and quiet” as a child, and says her advice to her as she grows up has been: “Chase your dreams. She’s already achieved so much,” Alex adds. “I’m beyond proud.”

Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

As for guidance from Brendan, the radio star – who co-hosts a Melbourne breakfast show with Fifi Box and Nick Cody – says he has told her: “Do what makes you happy and don’t read the BS.”

Those words have been particularly pertinent when it comes to her dating life – something Fevola admits she’s learnt the hard way to keep private following intense trolling online.

“[There was a time] where I received a lot of negativity, [so] I stepped back from [sharing my personal life]. I am, I think, quite misunderstood. [The trolls] don’t know I’m dedicating myself to my degree – they might think I’m sitting around all day posting selfies.”

At Glamour on the Grid ahead of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix earlier this year. Picture: Mark Stewart

With her boyfriend, Bass Miller. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mia Fevola, far right, with stepdad Brendan Fevola (centre), her mother Alex (second from left) and sisters Leni, Lulu, and Tobi on the night Brenadan was inducted into Carlton’s Hall of Fame. Picture: Supplied

As for being followed by paparazzi around her hometown of Melbourne, she laughs it off. “It’s funny because a lot of the trolls say that we’re paying them to do that. It’s so frustrating – why would I want to look like that online? I’m unaware of it. I never am looking for them, so I never even notice it. It’s quite confronting to know someone was following you and you have no idea.”

On a personal level, Fevola is in a happy place. She has been dating her property developer boyfriend, Bass Miller, for about a year, having met him at school a decade ago.

While she often posted on social media during her 2021 relationship with Western Bulldogs player Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, she’s keeping this relationship more private.

“I learnt a lot from that [experience],” Fevola reflects. “I overshared when I was younger and I learnt the hard way that some things are better left private. [The attention] would have happened with anyone, given I was posting about it so much.

“Any public relationship opens the doors for a lot of negativity,” she adds. “There are always going to be critics out there.”

See the full shoot with Mia Fevola in Stellar today. For more from Stellar, click here.