Life Uncut - Offcuts - Is Your Partner a Plastic Bag?

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Welcome to Offcuts, where we chat about whatever piqued our interest this week in a light, fun little package to send you off on your weekend! We chat: Laura's post-baby hormones are cooked Conservatives are calling Alex Cooper's pregnancy a "gotcha moment"  Kylie Jenner wore a ponytail to a basketball game and TikTok called it a revolutionary new hairstyle The plastic bag partner Neutrogena dropped Hayden Panettiere under a morality clause after she spoke openly about her postnatal depression TIMESTAMPS 0:00  Intro 7:30 Conservatives vs Alex Cooper  18:56 Kylie Jenner's ponytail  25:10 The plastic bag partner 34:20 Neutrogena fired Hayden Panettiere for speaking about her postnatal depression   You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne Produced by Keeshia Pettit Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! XxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura. I'm Brittany. And this is our Off Cuts episode where we bring you all the stuff that we've been talking about in the group chats or just like between us, like the comment that someone left that said that we were trying to make nom happen, like fetch. I don't even know. What did it say, Keish? You need a bit of context. Okay, it's a Spotify comment. The comment says, the nom...is this like trying to make fetch happen, said in a Gretchen voice. And what I would like to say to that... Stop trying to make nom happen. It's not gonna happen. What is the handle who wrote this? It does have a full name, so I don't completely want to out them. No, let's

not call them out. We're just gonna go first. Lauren. Okay, Lauren, what I have to say to that is nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Welcome to our little noms today. And we hope you enjoy the little nom nommies that we have made for you. Nom nom nom nom. Someone called Grace said agree. It's also for you guys. Grace, that's my little side serve for you as well. Grace, nom nom nom. It's actually insane to me

the things that people get angry about. Like we have produced, I don't know, what, 1400 episodes and people are like calling us out for saying nom nom at the start of an episode. That's insane to me. No! I don't think anyone's angry. I think they're right. And to that I would say yes, I am trying to make

nom happen. No, we're not! she's a cool mom not a regular mom can I can I say something though I know a couple weeks ago I was talking no it must have been a couple months ago now evidently I was talking about how I'd gotten my period for the first time post having a baby yeah and I was like I know that this is not a big deal to anyone else unless you've had a baby and then you would be like yeah I get it the first time of not having it for so long it's weird it's a thing well I'm like up to number three now so this is my third one not that we're counting but something has like shifted and I don't know what it is, but my fucking hormones are all over the shop because I am not someone who normally gets

my period and then gets like, I have a little bit of a hormone swing. I usually have like a day of being sad. I remember when we did an episode in PMDD, we talked about a little bit, like having these like really severe mood swings around your period time. Right. So I'm like day four. I have been so sad for two days for absolutely no reason nothing has happened nothing has changed but it is a type of deep depression that even last night Matt was like what is wrong he's like are we okay are you okay I was just sitting in bed crying just having another cry for the second night in a row I don't know what's happened but there is something not normal with my hormones I would like to insert simple plans welcome to my life having no babies but shit this is relatable

I mean we're laughing I don't want you think we're actually laughing at that Laura I do think two things I want to say one it's interesting to me that you say I was sad for no reason like that can't be a thing but that's what I'm not saying you're depressed but that's what that is right like there are so many people that have depression for quote unquote no reason and often you don't need a reason but secondly hormones are fucking insane and I am like you I have never up until probably the last two years I have never been hit that hard emotionally when I get my period but I am now like the last few years and I do think it's an age thing I think your periods change a lot when you get into your sort of mid to late 30s I feel the same as you

I'm beside myself every time it's that time of the month but remember Jules Robinson you guys in an episode with her just a couple of weeks ago I absolutely loved that conversation if you missed it I really recommend going back and listening to it Jules spoke about her PMDD like shifting gears and taking on a whole new level of its own after she had children it makes like hormonally it does make sense yeah it's been a really weird shift and it started last period and I mean obviously I thought a lot about it but I didn't think enough about it to have a conversation on here but this time when I hit day two it was like I had overwhelming anxiety like I couldn't work properly I was just staring through my computer riddled with anxiety the next day and then the

next two consecutive days so like the 48 hours post which is where I'm in now I have just been so down and so sad and I know when you say like obviously that is we know that people can be depressed for no reason I'm not depressed it's not depression I know it's related to my having my period. I'm so conscious that in a few days this is going to go away, but it feels incredibly unreasonable. And even though I'm trying to like reason it away with like, okay, Laura, you know that you're down because you have your period. It's been so long of not having one and not having to deal with this swing of emotions. It just feels really unfair guys. I'm really, I don't, and if you're going to criticize the noms, I might cry at this point. Okay. Sometimes when you're in

that moment as well, when you're like, I know I'm being irrational. I know I actually don't want to blow up my life I don't want to quit my job I don't want to break up with my partner I don't want to take off to another country or maybe you do for a holiday but you can be in it and you can be so aware of it it doesn't change how it feels it still feels the same and so even though you have the logic to be like I know this isn't real I know it will pass sitting in it can be really hard totally and I pendulum swing between I'm just gonna quit everything I'm gonna quit all my jobs Don't quit Life Uncut. Please don't.

I'm going to quit everything and I'm just going to spend more time with my kids. And then the next second I'm like, you know why I'm depressed? Because I'm not achieving enough and I need to do more. And it's like it's every hour. I sat down with Matt and I was like, I don't know if it's because I'm doing too much or not enough. Well, it's definitely not that you're not doing enough.

I was like, but I know it's not you. I know you're fine. We're fine. Unless it could be you and maybe it's you. I was like, but I'm not fine. Everything is not okay. Anyway, so that's where we're at in life. it's going to be a great episode everyone strap on in i do want to say we i didn't this wasn't

like prepped we didn't know laura was going to say that so it's interesting to start off cuts with guys i'm depressed i hate my life and i cry all the time i'm like we really sprung that on us lord sorry i think it's important to let you all know where we're at meet a person where they're at and it ain't good it's not good and that's it for us guys anyway thanks for listening to the have to say hey guys you know tell your dad tell your dog no laws we can't laugh at that we are here if you need anything I do think it's funny you mentioned it in the she did mention it in the group chat when we're prepping like different things yesterday it was just like we were talking about content different articles funny things and then there was one line that Laura said about being

deeply depressed and I missed it and I just kept going on I didn't even comment on it I just kept going and sending all these ridiculous things and jobs to do then I went back and I was like oh my god Laura's like opening up to me about this depression and I just I scooted past it I didn't even touch on it we were sending though we were sending through prep for today's episode to be fair and then my comment was hey guys I'm really sorry I'm not really with it at the moment I'm feeling extremely down but I'll be okay and Britt was like all right so we need to start at 7 45 in the morning and then I was like 10 minutes later I was like wait I missed something I'm sorry anyway I feel as though it is too sharp ass we shall be fine and I won't be talking about this

Live, laugh, love. This too shall pass. Strong people don't. What is it? Bad situations don't last. Strong people do. Wow. That's true.

That's true. Okay, look, let's talk about Alex Cooper. You guys might have seen Alex Cooper. She is the enormous podcaster behind Call Her Daddy, right? The most followed and listened to female podcaster in the world, Alex Cooper. Three days ago, she announced that she is pregnant with her husband, Matt Kaplan. Now, she announced this on Instagram. Everyone is very excited for her.

She's got millions and millions of followers. You know, all her daddy gang are all getting around her. However, there has been quite a bit of backlash that's been happening in the conservative camp in America, which is very strange. Imagine like announcing your pregnancy and then having like conservative commentators be like, gotcha, gotcha moment. You're actually conservative because you're having a baby. So what this is actually about, and there's a few articles on it.

this one in particular, I wanted to read out the headline to you. It says conservatives accuse Alex Cooper of being a fraud over her pregnancy reveal. The reasoning behind this is because conservatives are saying that Alex Cooper has built her brand on single, I guess like women living single lives. And, you know, they use the word promiscuity. I hate that word, but you know, they living your life, dating, single culture, don't tie yourself down. And they're saying that she has built the daddy gang around the lifestyle of being single whilst for the last year and a half and also certainly now that she's pregnant has been living a very traditional-esque lifestyle in terms of getting married and having a baby and they're kind of saying you can't have it both ways

you can't live this and fall into what is a traditional and I don't want to say it's conservative we don't know how she lives her life I'm sure it's not conservative but live I guess by these traditional standards and then build an empire based on like giving blowjob advice and being single and I guess calling women to action to like live a very free and single lifestyle. I actually think that this is insane because probably 1% of me that understands why there might be somebody that is upset by this. But Alex Cooper, who Keisha, this is really interesting. She was born on our birthday, just so you know, August 21. All the best female podcasters. Sorry, Laura. Sorry, Laura. I'm joking. I'm depressed guys,

remember? She was only 23 when she started Call Her Daddy. If you think about it, all that she has done is literally grow up. She's evolved. Like, and I think it's different. There's this real parasocial relationship with people that overly share their life and a level of Alex Cooper, who is the biggest female podcaster in the world. You do feel like, I guess you connect to her for a certain reason. And I'm sure there are a lot of people that connected with her in the early days, much like they did with us in a way, Laura, it's like when you're, not you, sorry, me, but like when you're single and when you're dating and when you're going through the process, like you want to feel less alone. All that Alex Cooper has done in my eyes is just grow

up. And I think two things can be true at once. You can be encouraging people to live their best life, be quote unquote promiscuous, sleep with people if you want, no strings attached. And then also age 10 years and decide that you want to get married and have kids. I think it's really unfair that people are not letting her or thinking that she's ever going to change. And she's stuck in this vortex of being 23 years old. Yeah. I want to read some of the commentary and some of the criticism that she's received. So this is from a political commenter, Link Lauren. This is what she wrote. As I've said, she tells her audience to be promiscuous and to have sex with strangers. Meanwhile, she is living the white picket fence dream with a traditional family.

she needs the young girls who follow her to stay single to stay immature otherwise her entire business model collapses she is simply a fraud somebody else wrote this is isabel brown she shared this to x and it was viewed over 60 000 times genuinely i am so happy for any woman to experience the joy and the purpose of motherhood there is nothing like experiencing that kind of love interesting however to see how many influential women in america today have built multi-million dollar empires encouraging promiscuity abortion and avoiding marriage at all costs because it's somehow beneath women all while falling in love getting married and having babies themselves i think it's the idea like look i agree entirely with what you said brit

i think that two truths can be held at the same time i think you can stand and believe that women can go through whatever version of figuring themselves out and being single and dating and hookup culture and all the things that we never criticize men for doing ever. Like, you know, I don't think you've betrayed your identity or personal brand by living that lifestyle and then meeting someone and being like, Hey, actually of all the dudes I've slept with, you're good enough to marry. Like, I actually think I want to spend time with you. But I think that this idea of a got your moment simply because now she's pregnant is a really gross way of trying to criticize someone for building a multimillion dollar empire that has been built on connection

because other women have been like, yeah, you know what? I'm in a similar phase of life to this. and I feel connected to this too like you're allowed to get married you're allowed to have a baby and I also don't think that the criticism is warranted well that's where I think that their argument falls down because I'm playing real devil's advocate here I can understand where the argument comes from of do as I say not as I do but she's not living a traditional lifestyle she's incredibly financially successful you know and she is a businesswoman first and foremost she owns the entire unwell network like she's bankrolling I don't know what her husband does i would naturally assume that she's probably the breadwinner in their family if she's not they are

doing very very well for themselves congratulations the whole argument of like oh see a traditional life is better for you everything that you've been saying isn't what you've actually been living doesn't actually amount to conservative values well matt caplan actually runs the unwell network so he's her husband and he like runs the infrastructure for it he's actually been in a bit of hot water recently for criticism for like the culture that he's created within the company. That is a totally different conversation, but you are right. She is the person who is by far the financial heavyweight in that relationship. So it isn't a traditional relationship, but also even in that, and even in saying, you know, like the traditional values or

traditional roles, you can still be someone who has been wildly quote unquote promiscuous in your twenties, meet someone, want to settle down. It doesn't negate that. It doesn't mean you're all of a sudden living a conservative or traditional lifestyle. It doesn't mean that you're living a white picket fence and making sourdough on the weekends. You know what I mean? Like it did for me. I also would argue if anyone's listened to Call Her Daddy over the years, I mean, the podcast has been around for quite a while, but like the type of content has changed. I remember Brit when we first started Life Uncut, Call Her Daddy was giving blowjob advice, like how to do an amazing blow job and like it was also just like incredibly sexualized in terms of like the

language that was used had this rule like I don't give a fuck and I'm gonna speak however I want to speak and her audience by and large absolutely loved it it was crass it was like not filtered and there was so much to love about it but she has also evolved as a person and you know I mean I know you mentioned this Brit like but she's changed but like her content's changed she's interviewed Kamala Harris. Like she's doing interviews that aren't like, yeah, we're black jobs and be single and fucking fuck getting married. Like her content has changed enormously over the past 10 years because it's a reflection of where she's at in her life as someone who's gone from being 23 years old to being 33 years old. And I think that like, it was just a very

obvious gotcha moment where conservatives, and especially because there is this big divide between like living a traditional lifestyle abortion conversation in the U S is an incredibly charged conversation and it was their moment to be like got you you were pro this and now you're having a baby so those two things can't be aligned and it's like no you can still be pro-abortion and also be pregnant like those two truths can be held at the same time she also apparently never actually said i don't want to get married and i don't want to have kids what she said and what she's always said and she referenced it in her documentary which came out last year she said she was always cynical of marriage and when she was in her early 20s she said i can't ever imagine

myself being married to somebody and having kids and having that life. But she said she was really cynical because in her eyes, she was always super worried that if she got married, it would affect her independence. And she always wanted to be hyper-independent. Then she met her husband, Matt Kaplan, who encouraged her to grow in business and they went into business together. So they did start the Unwell Network together. He was always and already a very established producer in Hollywood. He had his own money, his own success, his own companies. He produced to all the boys I've loved before on Netflix, like really big things before they met. He actually brought her under his own production company. And I think that that's the whole thing

is right. She was cynical because she's like, okay, well, I don't want anyone to affect it. I don't want to have a traditional quote unquote life. I don't want to be at home looking after the kids. I want to keep working. And then she met somebody in her life that was going to encourage that and take her along for the ride. And they were going to do it together and build this empire together. And so she thought, you know what? Everything I've always thought about it isn't actually true. Why are we so angry to think that that could be the case? That after 10 years of meeting the right person, that we may want to change our mind. It blows my mind that people could be upset about this because she's married with having a baby, but still encouraging younger

people to live their best life if they want to. I think women get trapped and we perceive them to be trapped in the brand that they create. And the thing is with that, like you kind of become siloed to something. I cannot think of a single time when a man has been criticized and maybe I am trying to pit people into two camps here, but I cannot think of a single time where it's like you embodied partyhood and now you embody fatherhood. Like, and we had to create such silos for those two things. Motherhood doesn't need to be holier than thou. She can still be a party girl to some extent she can still represent the wild chaos and be a mom but for some reason it's because she's now pregnant we're putting her into a holier than thou can't we're saying

the white picket fence once again I don't think that that's the conservative lifestyle that she's living by any means but also it is interesting around like when you build your personal brand of your person it has to evolve it has to change over time because you're not going to be the same person for 30 years and appeal to the same people because your audience has also evolved they have also grown with you I can't imagine that she's still only targeting 23 chaotic in their dating lives like she's now targeting people who are 33 and probably figuring out what it is with the fuck that they want to do with their lives I think what you just said about like the sexualization of motherhood though is a really important point and we spoke about it with uh blue-eyed Kayla

Jade she did a guest ask uncut only two weeks ago and you know it was that moment she was a sex worker she had an OnlyFans and it was the moment that people found out she was a mother and it's almost like they couldn't imagine you know that being in the one person I think people have a really big issue with women who are open and very sexual themselves and like feel confident talking about it and perhaps that is a part of their job which is the same case for Alex Cooper also being a mum you know it's like they don't think that that can be in the same category well it's because now she's being compartmentalized and that's why people are like oh you're a fake now because you're pregnant you're a fake none of that existed none of that was real you built

an empire of something that you actually didn't believe in because you did get married and you're a mom which must mean that you don't really like sex i don't know it's a fucking weird take and i think it's interesting to me that like conservatives for any reason would take this as a moment as a got you moment because it does feel like the argument falls flat okay well something that had me in hysterics this week. There is a new hairstyle, a new trend that is going off on TikTok. Everyone's talking about it. It's revolutionary. Now, I don't know if you've seen it, but Kylie Jenner turned up to a basketball game with her boyfriend, Timothee Chalamet, and she always looks hot, right? She's just got jeans on, a white singlet top, looks like a smoke show, but she's

apparently done a revolutionary hairstyle that is called the partless slick back now bear with me if you need to break down what a partless slick back is it's just a ponytail it is literally Kylie Jenner has turned up with a ponytail and TikTok has gone off its tits it just thinks that this is the it thinks that this is the best thing since sliced bread but we stumbled across a video of this woman that has the funniest take she's a creator called raya the last dragon and i want to play it for you have a listen and if for some reason you were wondering what's trending on white woman tiktok they are all obsessed with this ponytail that kylie jenner wore to the next game and they are now calling it the partless slick back you gotta be shitting me i saw those pictures

of kylie jenner and timothy at the next game i was like obsessing over kylie she looks phenomenal phenomenal and i was like why does her slick back look better than mine like what is hers doing that mine's not doing she didn't do a part so i mean obviously i had to copy it a partless look back like groundbreaking that's enough never mind her renaming it that deserves a whole separate video on its own but it's the fact that this girl just called a ponytail revolutionary because kylie jenner is wearing one as if the hairstyle has not existed since the beginning of time and is not one of the most basic hairstyles that women wear and i'm not gonna hold you kylie does look good but it's not because of the partless slick back i'm sorry that verbiage is taking me all the way out

your average cafeteria lunch lady fast food worker has been sporting the partless slick back but y'all don't show them the same amount of love and attention as you're doing kylie jenner right now it's because she's skinny pretty and rich that's literally it it's the same reason why this outfit is making headlines even though it's also very basic and simple like her hairstyle that once again is just a ponytail not a partly click bag it's so funny i did really enjoy this because i really enjoyed the clap back from raya the last dragon but in our defense okay it's really fucking hard to get volume in a ponytail and that's why that's the reason I could never if I walked out to a basketball game wearing a pair of jeans a white singlet and I pulled my hair back into a

tight ponytail I'd look bald okay and it's just white women out there thrilled for her that she's got so much volume Laura's just protesting the partless part because the only hairstyle Laura ever has like 99.9% of the time is the parted. No, no, no. It's because if I brushed my hair right back, I'm bald on the sides guys. Okay. Got like a receding hairline. Any adult, like there is very few adult women who can do a ponytail and do it well. You need to have that many hair extensions. I'm like, I am not the type of person who can do a ponytail. And so I kind of get I kind of get why someone's like weirdly sycophantic about it but at the same time I'm not that base that I'm gonna start or create an entire TikTok video about it I will however

unpack it on a podcast sorry I am that base that is my MO I have been wearing jeans a white top and a slick back partless ponytail my entire life and no one has ever made me gone viral I just think it's that it's Kylie Jenner she's an absolute cultural phenomenon there is nothing that she can't touch she has to be one of the most influential people in the world there's nothing she can't touch that doesn't sell out within a day that doesn't every time she talks about a song she likes it's the most streamed thing the next week we've seen evidence of that i just think it's yes it is because she's skinny rich and white but a lot of skinny rich white people wear ponytails and it doesn't start a new trend and like a conversation online

she's just almost in the world in the realm of taylor swift i reckon she's this cultural phenomenon that i think is worth studying because there's nothing she doesn't touch that doesn't turn to gold yeah but i mean it's the kardashian effect for sure and in particular kylie but i do think i guess the thing that is quite funny about the video in which we just showed is that it highlights the absolute absurdity of it right like it really does when you listen to that and you go oh we're all fucking losers like the fandom is right like we can love the celebrities that we love we can think that they're amazing we can idolize them because they are skinny and perfectly looking assuming and has great skin and great hair and all of these things. But it does mean

that they are glorified for doing very basic and very normal and very human things. And all she did was wear a pair of jeans and a white singlet and a ponytail to a basketball game. And someone who dearly loves her has created an Instagram or a TikTok video talking about how it's a revolutionary hairstyle. You really do have to kind of, you had to have gone down the rabbit hole for this to make any sense to you this week. Unfortunately, we all did go down the rabbit hole. We'll put this photo of what she looks like on socials and like objectively she looks great no one's gonna look at that and think she doesn't but I understand why it seems completely absurd to someone who is just totally outside the Kardashian effect I would also think it's absurd to Kylie and in a

way I'm like the poor thing she she's not trying she's just going about her day she put her hair in a pony and went to the basketball game and she's become this phenomenon again and like the most talked about person i'm sure she's not trying to do that i'm sure she doesn't necessarily want that level and she doesn't care she's a billionaire this is kylie jenner though she turns everything into a business i reckon the next thing we know she's gonna have one of those hair gel slick back things probably she's gonna be like get my ponytail like this no do you know what it's gonna be it's gonna be a ponytail wig one a clip in and we'll buy it i won't it'll be a clip in back extension i'll do it i don't know whether you guys have ever heard this term before but

it is a new it's not a dating term but it's a new term that's being coined to a particular type of partner in particular men because you all know i hate men i'm joking i'm joking i love them i love them but that's the problem that yes i know and that comment sent me and i'll never recover you really haven't it's gonna be up there with the nom nom nom nom it's called a plastic bag partner Have you heard of this? I know you guys have because we've talked about it, but out there to the ether, to you lifers. So there's a reel that's recently gone viral and his name is Alessandro Frasali. He's a relationship coach that put this together and who first coined the term or this idea of a plastic bag relationship, a plastic bag partner. And it's all around

first meeting someone who is super easygoing, who, you know, you ask them where do they want to eat dinner? They're like, I don't mind. They're never really the one to make plans, but they're always happy to partake in whatever plans that you are organizing. It seems as though their easy going nature at the time is like laid back. It's always well received. And it feels, especially if you're someone that comes from like a highly intense or a highly stressful relationship prior, it can be mistaken as being security and comfort. What he goes on to describe is that once you are married to that person and you were in

a committed relationship with that person, how resentful and frustrating it can be when you were in a relationship with someone who is a plastic bag partner, someone who doesn't make plans, someone who doesn't take anything into action, someone who is like not necessarily non-committal, but quite nonchalant. What that means is that you end up in a relationship with someone who dumps the entire mental load on you to carry and to do everything and how what might seem really desirable in the start of a relationship can really be the undoing if this is the type of person that you are investing your time into. When you initially shared this, Luz, and I saw plastic bag partner, I thought, I just naturally was like, oh, someone who never breaks down,

you know, like takes a hundred years to break down. But is it plastic bag? Cause it like, what's the Katy Perry song floating through the wind? It's flimsy. Have a listen to this. Easygoing husbands are safe at the start and after years, damn right exhausting for wives. Here's why. So at the beginning of a marriage, easygoing men, they feel safe to wives who have had shitty boyfriends in the past why because you're flexible you don't argue much you don't make things heavy you won't abuse her you'll be sweet you'll be kind and to her from the beginning that feels so fucking safe there's no friction no volatility no hurt so tell me why a few years into the marriage she's saying things like i don't feel safe around you

anymore what the fuck is that about alessandra so if we take easygoing away and actually look at what the behavioral traits are of easygoing it means that you don't initiate you don't plan things right you just go with the flow and you kind of wait for her to make all the plans in the relationship okay behaviorally you might just say i don't really have an opinion i don't mind what if you want you know like i'll just go with but what that practically feels like to a woman is like living with a man who has the spine of a flaccid plastic bag going down the river right there's nothing really to hold it up it just goes along so what does she do what does she do to compensate for it right so she starts making all the plans herself she doesn't want to live a life

like of a flaccid plastic bag so she does the shit instead and mr plastic bag here you are thinking well i'm just being chill and she's starting from all of the initiating and all of the thinking and all of the doing she's starting to feel overwhelmed and that overwhelm is creeping into her body into her nervous system and how she feels all the time around you. In actual fact, all of your patterns and all the things that you do that contribute to being easygoing start subconsciously pissing her the fuck off. And so what once felt safe in the past all of a sudden feels unsafe because it's not unsafe, so to speak. If we really use the right words, it feels like pressure, overwhelmed. It feels like too much. It just feels like I have to fucking do so much just to even live with this

bloody plastic bag of a man this hits so close to home for me you know I love my husband I love Ben more than life itself but the man is a plastic bag that man is everything that he described in terms of he's so easygoing like I just related to everything he said he's so easygoing that everything's like I'll do whatever you want to do I'll go wherever you want to go like you press go and I'll be there, baby. Which from the outset does seem amazing. You're like, oh, this is so great. Like there's no pushback. There's no fighting. There's nothing. But it is true that when you get a few years deep and Ben and I had this conversation before we decided to prep this, we had this conversation probably four or five days ago where I said, can you just make the

decision? I was like, I don't want to do it anymore. You decide what we're doing. You decide where we're going. You decide where we're turning up to for the holiday. I don't want to do it anymore. I don't even want to book the hotel. I was like, I want you to turn up and do it because as much as it was so hot and a turn on at the start, I'm exhausted. And decision fatigue is a real thing. And to have somebody, it's not that it's a bad trait to have in terms of like, it's not toxic. There's way worse things that a partner could have. Like there's way worse red flags. Ben doesn't have any other red flags, but it is still a big one that when it sort of chips away at you it's not something that you walk home and have this big blow-up fight over one day but

it chips away and chips away and eventually you just have enough and I'm like if you don't book the holiday I've decided I'm not going to go that's the point that Ben and I have got to where I was like make the decision I also think Britt and maybe it's great that you guys are talking about it now and you're so aware of it now but I think that this is something that comes and really creeps up on people if you then decide to have children like it's okay to manage this when you're in a relationship with just one person singularly and like you are the one doing the planning or the organizing but when someone is no so nonchalant and there's also kids in the mix and then you're left with the mental load of doing all the organizing or all the planning or all of like

the forward thinking of your relationship and your family in the direction and then you're also doing all of that for the kids like it's no wonder that resentment creeps in and that people are left feeling in a total state of overwhelm and i guess the thing that with this that i i really liked is like what you can like in the beginning of a relationship or think is stability and think is like the positive quality if you are the only person that's building towards the future of your relationship like if you're the only person that's actually like pushing the relationship further and kind of like has aspirations for where you want it to be there's no wonder that you'll get to a point where you feel like it's completely one-sided great relationships are built on joint

effort they're built on both of you having like an idea of what you want together and building that together not one person coming up with the idea and actioning the idea and the other person just kind of being like all right well I don't mind so I'll just come along for the ride yeah it's like a co-pilot not someone sitting in the back seat asking for a friend how do you get someone to be more plastic baggy though because I kind of have the opposite problem most of the time I'm like you're just too rigid and I think because both of us are a little bit stubborn like and we could probably do with being a little bit more passive but really interesting as to what you said and I completely agree I have had a partner who was like this in the past and I think that it's

the it's the little chipping away and it's why I think you can get years into a relationship and not really know why you're not in love with that person anymore like because they haven't sparked anything they haven't made a plan they haven't followed through with anything they haven't ignited a decision in so long and so you're kind of there like I've just been trucking this relationship along and you know you've just been coming along for the ride and I've kind of been dragging you along at the side and you're happy to be there but I haven't felt any passion this can also happen a lot in introvert and extrovert dynamics like it's not an intentional thing and this is absolutely not me shitting on people who are introverted but if you are a

classic introvert and you were in a relationship with someone who is more extroverted you can sometimes fall into the trap of being the person that is more passive in a relationship because you're like oh they want to go and plan things they want to do it and they want it to be big and so you kind of like give up that I guess responsibility sometimes I mean this is in no way this discussion to be like this is what you do wrong in relationships or this is what you do right but it's a great thing to be aware of because I think what happens with these type of relationship breakdown is that the person who is passive the quote-unquote plastic bag partner arrives at the destination where the relationship's in turmoil and they have no idea what they've done

they do not understand why the relationship broke down because as far as they see it they haven't changed nothing's changed the other person's just become crazy and wants them to be a different person to how they've always been and I think that that we see that sometimes when relationships break down and all of a sudden the guy's like but there were no signs came out of nowhere it came out of nowhere like how is it that we're getting separated and people are like no I've been telling you for years that I needed something more from you there's a conversation happening online at the moment that's making a lot of women really really angry myself included now it is an older interview between actress Hayden Panettiere which I don't know if I said that right and Jay Shetty

now Hayden Panettiere she's from an actress from Heroes and Nashville and she's a beautiful blonde if you don't know the name I think you would recognize her face as soon as you saw her but it sparked a pretty intense conversation about Neutrogena dropping her after a 10-year ambassadorship because she started speaking really openly about her postnatal depression when she had her first child. Have a listen to this. Neutrogena I was with for 10 years and I mean they have morals clauses which was a huge had a huge impact in my my life because I was I was a teenager and I had all the paparazzi around me catching all of these gory moments, every moment, every cigarette that I smoked or bad outfit or, oh, she's looking chunky in a

bathing suit. Oh, she has a fat vagina. I went through, through all of that, but they were there for everything. Neutrogena was a huge part of my, of my life. I had the morals classes. They caught absolutely everything. And of all the things to, that they would fire me over, this was the last thing that I thought they would ever fire me over. And when I actually went out onto stage, it was live with Kelly and Michael. I had no intention of or plan to talk about postpartum depression. It just came up and I was just being honest and never for a second did I think that anyone or care that anyone would have a bad reaction to it. It was my truth. So when I got that call that that Neutrogena wanted to fire me over that and my representative at the time said

that's illegal you can't do that. For anyone who hasn't listened to the interview with Jay Shetty Hayden says that her management fought it they had a year-long contract that she'd been signed to as she said she'd been doing it for 10 years up until that point and her management was like it's illegal you can't bring a morality clause into case for someone saying that they have a mental health problem like that's illegal and so Neutrogena retracted their claim to cancel the contract however they never re-signed her it was the last contract so once it expired they decided that they didn't want her to be a part of it again which may have been for one of the other many reasons this may have been one of those situations where they will argue that it was the straw that

broke the camel's back because at the time there was some very controversial things that were coming out in the media about Hayden but mental health should never be something that is controversial So like the fact that this even became a question or even became something that they hinged their decision making on is what has so many women devastatingly riled up online. The other part of this, though, and I think it's a really important thing that kind of surrounds this conversation, is how much the dial has shifted in the last decade. this happened in 2015 firstly over a decade ago to think that that was a brand's reaction to a woman talking authentically about their mental health struggles and a brand seeing that as being non-commercially viable at the time I do think that we've come a long way in terms of like where we are today with people being able to speak about their myriad of vulnerabilities and this concept

of vulnerability being at the forefront of ambassadorships I don't think that Neutrogena would respond in this way now I think that this is a lens of the landscape and how women were viewed back in 2015. Neutrogena would absolutely not be able to respond this way now. And the fact that they even saw postnatal depression as like a problem with PR. An inconvenience to their brand. Yeah, it's a PR problem to them. That's insane. And I don't think you would see that now. We've progressed a long way and I would almost go so far as to say some people would be hired as ambassadors because they are openly talking about their postnatal depression now. Like it is far more welcomed into the chat. But I do wonder how many brands, as much as they wouldn't publicly

fire somebody or publicly have a problem with it, I do wonder how many people would have a problem with it behind closed doors, if you know what I mean. I think if there would still be companies, big companies, that wouldn't want to touch somebody that might openly be speaking about those issues. And I think that is still a problem. As much as we've had so much growth on the surface I just wonder how much that's penetrated as much as we say 10 years ago was a long time it was a long time but 10 years ago also wasn't that long ago I think that's one of the things that's the most surprising right like 10 years for that to be something that was deemed that she was a pioneer in talking about this space that that was deemed as such a fault

that a brand didn't want to associate themselves with it because it was something that was so untalked about it was so foreign to them that it seemed as though it was a commercial risk that to me is so surprising considering how much change has happened over the past 10 years and like women now talking about miscarriage talking about postnatal depression talking about all of the things that have forever affected women around pregnancies i know what you're saying but i know you're saying that there are brands that would still want to distance themselves but it's a good thing that we can't think of any of those brands off the top of your head do you know i mean like no brand is ever going to be able to come out and say that that's the case and overarchingly now

when you talk about brand collaborations or brands coming forward the thing that they are looking for is authenticity or they are looking for the person to be able to talk about themselves and their lives and show up in a way that's true to them I think that there is a greater question mark and the thing that I think has really outraged people is when Hayden turns around and says they followed me all through my drinking and my partying and they didn't seem to have a problem with that and for anyone who doesn't know Hayden went on to go through rehabilitation for alcohol abuse but the thing they had an issue with was her severe postpartum depression like it is a crazy thing to think and I guess the the backlash that they're receiving now

online is really severe there are so many women who are making TikToks and Instagram videos being like Neutrogena hates women. And I question what the fallout is going to be a decade later from a decision that they made based on something that I would dare say the brand doesn't stand for today. The one thing that stood out to me was that they did it under a morality clause. So, I mean, you can put the two and two together that they said, if you have depression, if you have postnatal depression, you are not as moral. That's the thing to me that is like, wow of all of the things you know like you said of all these the things that they could have actually ripped up her contract for that were kind of problematic and and potentially immoral

being alcohol abuse they actually said that having postnatal depression was and and like you said I don't think that they would make that claim today I don't even think that people associate depression in that same way and it does go to show how far we've come but it's pretty bloody interesting that only what 11 years ago they were saying that if you had postnatal depression you weren't as moral of a person they would think I was terrible I've got all like the the list of mental health conditions you wouldn't be the face of anything yeah but that's the problem right they saw it as a PR problem and it goes to show how greatly misunderstood it was and how little it must have been spoken about because the fact that she was speaking about it their instant reaction

was to go fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck this is unknown territory we don't know how to deal with this we need to like remove ourselves and distance ourselves from this because as a mother you're expected to be a perfect mother. So they'd followed her for 10 years. I mean, she's a child star. Like everyone knows who Hayden was at the time. And she kind of disappeared into a bit of obscurity, but I would dare say that they were like, you know, you represent this to us. And then they had an idea of what motherhood represented to them. Postpartum depression seemed scary and it seemed like they potentially, and I don't want to put words into like how it was perceived 10 or 11 years ago, but I think that there was this correlation between, well,

if you have postpartum depression you can't possibly also be a good mum and so there is judgment that's loaded into it obviously we do not believe that we know that that's not the case we know that so many mums who experience this are desperately trying to be incredible mums and they are out there trying to get help for whatever it is that they're experiencing but I think it's the association that the brand thought was a PR problem and hence why they tried to distance themselves from it have you guys ever had a morality clause put into any ambassadorship you've ever done? No I mean there's things that say that you have to stay in the brand's alignment which is quite broad but it's usually just like pretty obvious things it's not ever specified to

be depression or anything like that it's more like don't say anything too negative about the brand or don't go and get fucking arrested for something or it's they're usually pretty big things like I would be shocked if there's any brand that even has that kind of thing in it anymore. No they definitely are but they're written in a different way so you can't bring the brand into disrepute like you can't do something that would damage the reputation of the brand and also likewise the brand can't do something that would damage the reputation of you so that you can then distance yourself and get yourself out of whatever their ambassadorship is but it's the problem with these clauses is that they are open to interpretation they don't outline well if you do a line of cocaine

in a nightclub and get photographed in the daily mail that's the morality clause it doesn't tell you what actually would or wouldn't suffice I guess and that's probably the exact I would add a guess say that the morality clause in this would be very similar to the ones that are in most ambassadorship contracts however because it's not defined it was up to the brand to decide what they thought impinged on this and P&D is what they thought and yeah and that's just it right P&D is what they thought whereas now there would be a very very different 2026 lens rightly so people are really really angry about it and I think that the question though lies is should a brand be held responsible for the ideas or the I guess the reaction that they had 10 years ago or

11 years ago like should we still be able to hold a brand for account for something that they did 11 years ago in the same way that we have the question when it's a celebrity can we hold them account for their views from 11 years ago I say this because the people who probably made those decisions very well may not be running that company now. The company may be a very, very different company, but should there be some repercussions? And I guess, should we be viewing Neutrogena as a brand that isn't about or doesn't support women, which is what so many of these TikToks are saying based on this now being a conversation that's reached the media 11 years later? I think that it depends on what the brand's response is now. And I think all eyes are on

Neutrogena to see what they do here. And that should be the telltale sign of how we react to the brand as a whole. I think you have to have a bit of leeway when we're talking about 10, 11, 12 years ago with a different time. And I'm not giving them an escape route here. It was despicable, which is why we're talking about it. But I do think sometimes you have to take yourself back to the lens of that time. How they respond now is going to be everything to me. Either way, one in five women suffer from postnatal depression. I think the fact that this conversation is recirculating now is going to be nothing but positive for so many people. I think the big thing on this is that they have to reply. I think that it would be brand suicide to just like ignore it completely. They can, you can ignore it, obviously, like most people and most PR, I guess, roots when something, a controversy comes up is to ignore it because then putting gas on the flames ignites it, makes it worse.

But I actually think in this instance, because it is something that affects so many women, that women care about so deeply, the correct PR way for them to move forward would be to say, we made a mistake and we are not that brand anymore. And we absolutely acknowledge that what she suffered or what we tried to do there was the wrong thing. But my question is, is I don't know whether they can do that or whether that would open up legalities that Hayden would be able to pursue. I really don't know. at the end of the day it's been a very interesting thing to see how it's unfolded online and ultimately 11 years later is what it's taken for Hayden to feel as though it's a safe space for her to have this conversation about this brand 11 years after what it is that she experienced guys well that is it for the off cuts for this week please keep all your ask on

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