A mother-of-seven blogger turned viral internet sensation has recently been beset by lengthy court action.
The Perth mother-of-seven, best known for her highly publicised Facebook blog with more than one million followers, was taken to court by Annabel and Jody Olward, who designed her website Queens of Constance.
The case, heard in Western Australia’s District Court and which wrapped up on May 19, revolved around a deal made between Ms Hall and the Olward sisters in 2016, whereby they would create her website for free in exchange for a 50/50 split of its advertising revenue.
Mummy blogger Constance Hall was earlier in May forced to pay her former website developers $15,000 over breach of contract.
Judge Christopher Stevenson found while Ms Hall failed to maintain the agreed-upon frequency of blog posts, neither party fully understood the magnitude of the venture.
Ms Hall was ordered to pay the Olward sisters $15,000 in damages, but the court also heard Ms Hall would receive $5250 in a counterclaim.
But how did it get to this point, and how did a self-professed queen, self-confessed bogan, and at times controversial figure, become something of a household name in Australia?
A couple of years before fame came knocking, Ms Hall was a struggling single mother, taking care of four children under the age of five, including newborn twins, and a separation from then-husband Bill Mahon.
The now-39-year-old turned to Facebook as an outlet, creating a page to blog, firing off a quick post to vent, and going about her day.
Constance initially used her blog as a place to vent, and now uses it to discuss broader women’s issues, matters of equality, and sometimes back to her roots of parenting. Picture: Facebook
Constance — or Con for short — built a sizeable following, and had some experience with posts going viral. But “parent sex” would change everything.
“We had ‘parent sex’ yesterday,” wrote Ms Hall on January 5, 2016.
“You know what parent sex is, it’s that 3.5 minutes you get in between changing nappies and making food.”
Hall goes on to describe the quick lovemaking session, with measures taken to make sure her kids are none-the-wiser.
“It’s a pretty romantic scene really, listening to Iggle Piggle in the background, knowing your days are numbered when you here [sic] the ad break.”
The post resonated with Australian parents due to its honesty, its rawness, and its lack of filter: all descriptors that have been attributed to the Constance Hall blog, which exploded in popularity when the media got a hold of the “parent sex” post.
When “parent sex” was posted, her blog had about 250,000 followers. By the end of that year, it had ballooned to a million. And at the time of writing, it has 1.3m Facebook followers.
It was during this time the website fiasco involving the Olward sisters took place.
But two books, a clothing label, Dancing With The Stars appearance, a TEDx talk, charity ambassadorship, the court case, and another baby and two stepchildren later, and the Constance Hall empire continues to grow.
She still finds time to make regular blog posts; her latest musings, posted on Tuesday, explores the competition between women, societal pressures in a patriarchal world, and how it affects the development of teenage girls.
“For all the teenage girls out there, I need you to know something – you will come across bitchiness a lot in your life, but do you really understand why?” she wrote.
“I’m sure a lot of people have said the words ‘she’s just jealous, ignore it’ but I think it’s a bit more complicated then [sic] that.”
Ms Hall is no stranger to criticism, having spoken out in the past about bullying and how her meteoric rise to fame turned her into a polarising figure.
In a 2019 interview with reporter Allison Langdon on 60 Minutes, Ms Hall said she believed “tall poppy syndrome” was to blame.
“I think it’s probably one of the main reasons that everyone hates me, because the following got so big,” she said, and even confessed her thoughts turned to self-harm at her darkest point.
“There was definitely a time where I was just like, it would just be easier to not even be here.
“It was something that sort of swirled around in my head. I’d never felt like that before. I’d never even considered … like that’s terrifying. How could anyone do that, you know?”
Since her famous “parent sex” post in 2016, Ms Hall has become the target of online trolling and harassment.
Her next venture is podcasting, something she said has been “forever in the making.”
“People when they were commenting on my articles, weren’t so much commenting on the content, they were commenting about me,” Ms Hall told Mamamia’s Keryn Donnelly, also in a 2019 interview.
“It became more about me and less about my content.
“The trolls will do anything they can to completely destroy me. And that gets the jugular, that’s what they go for.”
Looking ahead post legal drama, Ms Hall is focusing her efforts on a new podcast.
“So this is happening,” she wrote on a post on May 16, on both her Facebook and Instagram accounts, announcing her latest venture.
“To be Frank with Constance Hall. The podcast that’s been forever in the making.
“Like everything I’m doing this independently, ok to be completely honest. I did pitch it to a network, but they failed to see its commerciality, thinking sponsors won’t take to the rawness of the content.
“Which is kind of a compliment right?”
It’s shaping up to be full of Ms Hall’s unfiltered style, discussions about life, “and some of the truly tapped shit that I find myself rabbit hole googling in the middle of the night.”
However, she doesn’t reveal which network decided to pass on the show.
It’s also yet to have a release date, but Ms Hall assures her followers, which she calls Queens, she will let them know as soon as it’s confirmed.
NCA NewsWire attempted to contact Constance Hall for this article.
