A mum has revealed how Rachael Finch’s eyebrow-raising behaviour during her daughter’s recent school cross-country race impacted the other children.
The Miss Universe Australia winner-turned-fitness influencer, 35, triggered backlash when she uploaded a video of herself jogging behind her daughter Violet, 8, and screaming words of encouragement as the young girl competed against her peers.
Now a mum whose daughter was running in the same race has claimed Rachael’s behaviour had a detrimental effect on her child’s performance.
The woman told Outspoken podcast hosts Amy, Kate and Sophie Taeuber her daughter felt ‘intimidated’ by the mummy blogger.
‘My daughter was running directly behind her. She was too intimidated to overtake due to the mum yelling and getting in the way,’ she said.
The podcast hosts also revealed how former My Kitchen Rules star Ash Pollard rushed to Rachael’s defence following the backlash.
They said they shared the video to their Instagram page when Ash tagged Rachael and commented on the post.
Ash accused the podcasters of being ‘mean and cruel’ and told them to remove the ‘opinion piece before they destroyed Rachael’s day’.
Ash also claimed it was ‘pathetic materiel’ and told the the podcasters ‘they weren’t impacting the world in a positive way’.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Rachael Finch for comment.
It comes after Rachael hit back at critics who slammed her for running behind her daughter.
She responded to those who criticised her approach in an Instagram video on Thursday and insisted she was just ‘motivating her child to do her best’.
‘Just a quick message to anyone wanting to criticise or personally attack me for wanting to support, encourage and motivate my child to do the very best that she can do,’ she said.
‘Just a couple of things. One, check your facts. And two, check back in eight or so years when Violet is an adult to see the progress.’
Influencer triplets Amy, Kate and Sophie took aim at the mummy blogger on their Outspoken podcast last week.
‘I first saw people talking about this online before seeing the video, and at first I was like, “Oh, she’s probably just one of those supportive parents”. But this was next level,’ one sister said.
‘I don’t understand how this school let her run behind her child during the race. Surely it would have been really off-putting for the other kids?’ another agreed.
One sister pointed out that there would have been plenty of children running behind Rachael, given that Violet placed 12th out of 100.
‘Can you imagine the other mums there seeing this? [They’d be asking], “Why the hell is she allowed at the school on the course?”,’ another added.
While the triplets commended Rachael for showing interest in her daughter’s school activities, they claimed her behaviour that day ‘seemed a bit odd’.
‘It seems like she’s vicariously living through her child because this seemed to be one of her dreams,’ one podcaster said, as another agreed: ‘Oh, it was very difficult to watch.’
One sister insisted: ‘I would be pretty p**sed off if I was a parent at this school.
‘[Imagine if] I’m very excited for my child to be competing in this race, but I’m thinking, “Well, no wonder my child didn’t do so well when they’ve got the advantage of having their mum there breathing down their neck, telling them to keep going”.’
The sisters said they were ‘surprised’ Rachael put the video on social media, and noted that it seems Violet has ‘a lot of pressure on her to do well’.
However, Rachael has plenty of online followers who are fans of her hands-on approach to teaching her children about health and fitness.
In the video, the former model screamed words of encouragement as her daughter ran.
‘Here we go, it’s the second down hill. Suck in the air. Go, go, go! Watch the rocks! That’s it, Violet, well done,’ she yelled while her daughter ran, captioning the video: ‘Crazy cam.’
She then revealed Violet had come 12th out of 100 girls and had achieved her ‘best time and best performance’.
‘The best I’ve ever seen her try. Ever. She struggled and wanted to walk but overcame it and kept going,’ Rachael said.
‘It’s never about the placing for us. What we care about is the commitment to their work and effort. What you put in is what you get out. So proud of her. Had to hold back a gazillion tears.’
Click here to resize this module