An Australian influencer has been slammed after insensitively comparing her marriage breakdown to her friend’s father’s death.
Queensland-based podcaster Bella Messina, 29, was speaking to her friend Mel on the latest episode of her Up Past Bedtime podcast when the shock incident occurred.
‘I still feel like a child, I think I’ve got 40, 50 years left in me, but the reality is I could have one year left. Losing a parent changes the way you look at everything,’ Mel told Bella.
Bella agreed and said she understood where she was coming from because even though her parents were still alive, she had recently split from her husband Adrian.
‘You and I have had this conversation because we have compared a few things. Obviously, the change I went through was not the loss of a person,’ Bella began.
‘It was the loss of a life I thought I was living. In my early 20s, I thought I was going to be married to this person for the next 40 years.’
Australian influencer Bella Messina has been slammed online after insensitively comparing her marriage breakdown to her friend’s father’s death. Pictured with her ex-husband Adrian
She added she had had much of her life planned out and had to start from scratch upon splitting with her husband.
‘When everything changed in my life, I remember feeling a bit of anger. It was a rude awakening, that “later” is never guaranteed, nothing ever is.
‘When you go through an experience that makes you realise that, you go through a massive shift in the things you want, the person you want to be.’
Shocked listeners took to social media to slam Bella for comparing the death of a parent to a marriage breakup.
‘Bella’s new podcast where she’s got her friend on talking about grief and her dad dying. Bella non-stop interrupting the friend, talking over her and comparing her grief to the break down of her marriage… It is not the same at all!’ one person sniped.
‘The worst kind of friend, she responds and doesn’t genuinely listen,’ a second added.
‘You can very much tell she’s listening to create a response rather than to hear you. And she looks down and away a lot when her guests are speaking. Very disconnected and uninterested,’ a third person added.
Last year, the mother-of-two announced her separation from her husband Adrian, after several years together.
Queensland-based podcaster Bella Messina, 29, was speaking to her friend Mel on the latest episode of her Up Past Bedtime podcast when the shock incident occurred
In December, Bella made headlines after she publicly criticised a popular jewellery brand for mistakenly giving her a $228 locket necklace that contained a picture of her estranged husband.
But the mummy blogger’s efforts to call out the company backfired, with commenters slamming her as ‘entitled’ and telling her to ‘read the room’.
Social media users also claimed the Queenslander ‘contradicted herself’ in posts publicly shaming the jewellery brand when she actually approached them first for freebies – despite her claims to the contrary.
Bella expressed her disappointment regarding the brand collaboration on her Instagram account.
In a series of videos, the mother-of-two told about her shock after receiving a locket that featured a family photo, including her ex-husband, whom she split with four months prior.
‘I have just had a brand do possibly the most distasteful thing I’ve ever experienced,’ she told her followers.
After Bella continued to call out the brand on social media, one of the owners stepped forward and apologised for the incident.
