0:03

My name is Caroline de More. I

0:06

grew up in Los Angeles and I've

0:08

been trying to find my way in this

0:10

crazy town ever since

0:12

I was a kid. Maybe you saw

0:15

me on the Hill's New Beginnings a couple of years

0:17

ago. Brodie and I went to high school together.

0:19

Audrina and I did a movie together. I

0:22

even did a bit of modeling back in the day.

0:24

Caroline d Moore, who was in every fashion show

0:26

in the world.

0:27

Now you're known to have the best walk?

0:28

What's the walk?

0:29

I just go with the music. But

0:33

after years of fighting it, I

0:35

finally surrendered to my destiny being

0:38

the pizza girl. This is my new thought. Pizza

0:41

girl. Who knew

0:44

iced tea would be a fan?

0:46

I'm not gonna front it's good.

0:50

But the reason I'm doing this podcast is

0:53

well, I was recently the victim

0:56

of one of the most duplicitous

0:58

con artists working today.

1:00

That was my salary, my.

1:01

Whole salary, going to Texas to

1:04

have a meeting that didn't exist. I got

1:06

scammed by a man who was

1:09

like a father to me.

1:10

This is a lie. Why lie to me?

1:13

A man I thought was helping

1:15

me.

1:15

I want to know.

1:16

Why, But in reality, he

1:18

was just robbing me blind while

1:21

sending me on a wild goose chase.

1:24

Why would you do that to me when

1:26

I thought we were friends.

1:27

We were a friend.

1:29

After uncovering his con, I'm

1:31

not gonna lie. It knocked me down

1:34

hard. The shame and

1:37

embarrassment was just too

1:39

much. I didn't want to live anymore.

1:41

I almost loved everything, everything.

1:46

But I found the strength that I

1:48

never knew. I had to pick myself

1:50

back up and fight. I'm

1:53

not gonna let him get away with what he did to

1:55

me and what he did to hundreds

1:58

of other people, and what he's

2:00

doing right now to dozens

2:03

of unsuspecting marks in Los Angeles.

2:08

I'm putting him on notice.

2:10

Your days are numbered, David. I'm

2:13

coming for you, and things are

2:15

about to get really

2:17

ugly.

2:21

Stop Julie.

2:34

I'm Caroline de Morey and this is

2:36

Once Upon a Con Episode

2:39

one. He thinks I'm

2:42

a Mossieuse.

2:50

I remember when you called me and you were like, should

2:52

I just go fucking public with this? And

2:55

just like run with.

2:55

Dave, I'm hanging out now with

2:57

one of my best friends in the whole wide world,

3:00

Tom Hamilton, we call him Hammy.

3:02

I was like ab absolutely.

3:06

If you can't just get up on your soapbox

3:09

and shout this story

3:11

and protect other people from what you went through,

3:13

well I'll tell you for.

3:14

A little bit. I was scared that

3:16

it was going to discredit me as a businesswoman,

3:18

that it was going to overshadow everything

3:22

that I worked so hard for, and

3:24

that no one else would take me seriously.

3:26

But at the end of the day, I

3:28

will always fight to

3:31

the death for what is right and

3:33

stand up for other people. Hammy's

3:36

known me since I was a kid. We grew

3:38

up in La together.

3:40

I remember when I first saw you, like in middle

3:42

school at Holly Shooter's house, but

3:44

I don't think you remember me. But so here's

3:46

the thing about Carolina, and she was like a celebrity

3:49

before there were celebrities. She was like a celebrity

3:51

in middle school and everybody

3:53

talked about her. And I was like the new kid at school

3:55

that year, and I just

3:57

kept hearing her name everywhere, like Caroline Demore, Caroline

4:00

More and I was like, who the hell is this?

4:01

You know?

4:02

And then I ended up meeting her at Holly Schluter's house.

4:04

It was like a random friend.

4:05

Of ours our school.

4:07

A E.

4:08

Wright Middle was located in the

4:10

Kardashian Capital of the World, Calabasas,

4:13

California, and it was chock

4:15

full of rich kids and spoiled

4:18

children of celebrities, and

4:20

I just never really felt like I belonged. But

4:23

Hammy was convinced that I did.

4:26

Like I remember in theater class, like people

4:28

saying good things or bad things, like it was just

4:30

like that that chatter about someone

4:33

who's like kind of like the it person

4:35

of like the school, you

4:38

know. And I remember one time someone

4:40

said something bad about you in theater class.

4:43

It was the girl who won amazing race, who like

4:45

we're friends with now, the blonde

4:47

girl.

4:47

Oh yeah, Laura Pearson.

4:48

Laura Pearson said something bad about you in

4:50

class and Brittany Hughes slapped her across

4:53

the face. I remember in your defense,

4:55

and you like weren't even around, you know.

4:58

Yeah, I remember it was seventh grade. It

5:00

must have been like nineteen ninety eight or ninety

5:02

nine. Britney Spears hit

5:04

me baby one More Time came out that year.

5:09

How was?

5:09

I said no, And

5:12

it was like a drama. It was such a drama.

5:15

But yeah, I remember, like that was

5:17

my first thing on you. And then you like disappeared

5:20

and went to New York to model or something.

5:22

That was like the rumor.

5:24

That's really funny. It's funny how other

5:26

people's perception of you is so different

5:29

than what you feel,

5:31

you know, in that way.

5:32

And I knew that your mom passed away really

5:34

not even knowing you. Yeah, I knew that. I heard that, like through

5:38

chatter at school, and like the story

5:40

then was toxic

5:42

shock syndrome. Yeah,

5:45

which wasn't the story at all. That was like

5:47

a story that your family came up with or what.

5:50

Yeah, it's what my dad

5:52

kind of hold the kids. Yeah something. Yeah,

5:55

my mom actually died of AIDS

5:57

in nineteen eighty nine, and

6:01

back then it was such

6:03

a terrifying disease with

6:05

no real treatment. There

6:07

was just this big stigma around it. So

6:11

stigma, oh, way bigger.

6:12

Yeah.

6:12

So my dad, well I was really

6:15

mad at him when I found out the truth he

6:17

did. He hid it from us because you know, he didn't want

6:19

us to be the AIDS kids at school.

6:23

I found out through other people, not

6:26

through my dad. I think it

6:28

was Sharon Osborne or someone knew

6:31

the story and told the

6:33

Stewarts, and Kimberly

6:36

Stewart was like really freaked out. Yeah,

6:38

she like dragged me to the doctor, the same.

6:42

Guy, and she's like, what if you gave me AIDS,

6:44

Caroline. It was really

6:46

fucked up, but.

6:49

It was so bad for me to find out

6:51

that way was just really really

6:54

hard. And then I told my

6:56

dad and I was like, yeah, I went and got an

6:58

AIDS test, and he was like, this is why

7:01

I protected you from this, because

7:04

this is how people are when

7:06

it comes to this disease. And it's actually so sad

7:08

because my mother, she she

7:10

did have toxic shock, you

7:13

know, from a tampon back then, but it wasn't

7:16

life and death. She went

7:18

to get

7:21

a precautionary blood

7:23

transfusion that was like, let's just do this

7:25

as an extra, you know, layer

7:28

of protection, and they didn't check the

7:30

blood back then, and she was

7:32

given the AIDS virus through the

7:34

transfusion and that

7:36

set off this whole like anti doctor

7:39

thing in my family, and none

7:41

of us ever went to doctors. My dad

7:44

still doesn't believe in doctors. So, yeah,

7:47

crazy story. My mother's

7:50

death from AIDS when I was just five

7:52

years old forever

7:55

impacted me in ways I'm still trying

7:57

to wrap my head around. I

7:59

learned at five years

8:01

old that life was short and

8:03

that I was just going to live every moment to the

8:05

fullest because I never knew you know, my mom,

8:08

you know, she was only.

8:10

I think thirty six.

8:11

When she died.

8:12

So I knew right out the gate that I was

8:14

going to enjoy this life right. But

8:17

my dad eventually pulled me out of a right

8:19

middle school and it kind of put the brakes

8:22

on my crazy social life in Calabasas.

8:25

I went to Malibu. I went to Malibu

8:28

High and that's how I met some

8:30

of the kids from the Hills. Full

8:32

circle down the road, ended up on that show.

8:34

My dad opened a pizza restaurant on pH

8:37

a tiny little hole.

8:38

In the wall.

8:38

Oh, that's when he opened the Malibu

8:40

store. Yeah.

8:42

To be fair, though, my dad busted

8:44

his ass for the past thirty five

8:47

years and managed to open a bunch of locations,

8:50

and Demore's Pizza is now an

8:53

La staple, and my dad,

8:55

in his own right, is a huge success.

8:58

But back then he was really struggling

9:01

with his first Malibu location, and

9:03

by extension, so was I,

9:06

and so he moved us there, you

9:08

know, and life

9:11

started in Malibu, and I dropped

9:13

out a high school second week of tenth

9:15

grade. And then I went to New York. Okay,

9:18

yeah, hopped on a plane

9:21

and yeah, didn't tell

9:23

my dad.

9:23

It's so brilliant that he moved you out

9:25

of like the lost Virginist

9:28

School eighty right.

9:29

Well that's because he thought I was just going

9:31

down a bad path, you know with all those kids,

9:33

you know.

9:34

Right, And it's not like you got on a better path.

9:37

No, it was way worse, but it was like it was.

9:39

A bad path, but it was like a better bad path.

9:41

You know those kids at eighty right that stayed

9:43

there, Like, I know

9:46

that's terrible, but like I'm just saying, like no one

9:48

went anywhere except for me at

9:50

a back.

9:50

Round, Hammy's

9:53

right for listeners who don't know

9:55

Tom Hammy. Hamilton actually

9:58

went on to become a major

10:00

talent manager for stars like Paula

10:02

Abdul and Paris Jackson and

10:05

so many more. All of that hard

10:07

work is paying off for him.

10:10

He recently just bought his

10:12

first home. By the way, Hammy,

10:15

this house is amazing. Congrats,

10:17

you worked your ass off and bought

10:20

your own Hollywood Hills awesome

10:22

home. I'm proud of you.

10:23

Thank you. Caroly You forgot to tell him

10:25

that I'm a great singer and that I've produced

10:27

TV shows.

10:29

Yeah, you know right, let me just go down the list

10:31

of amazing things.

10:32

And then I was a child actor. You're

10:34

gonna tell him every day.

10:36

Well, there's just not enough time for that,

10:38

Hammy. But for me,

10:41

life in Malibu as a teenager

10:43

trying to fit in was equal parts

10:45

hard and honestly dangerous.

10:49

It was just so much access

10:51

to you know, drugs

10:54

and partying. Malibu

10:56

is there's just so much access because

10:58

what do kids with money? Do they buy drugs?

11:08

Malibu is there's just

11:10

so much access because what do kids with money

11:12

do? They buy drugs?

11:14

And they think they're unstoppable and they think that you

11:17

just do whatever you want and drive

11:19

drunk, get it uig, your parents, get your

11:21

lawyer, like there's just no rules, you

11:23

know.

11:24

So true. And the crazy thing is that I

11:26

was in the mix with these kids, but I was

11:28

the pizza man's daughter, and so

11:31

I didn't have, you know, the

11:33

lawyers or the

11:35

funds to kind of keep up that lifestyle.

11:38

And I think that ultimately it

11:41

was very confusing for me because you

11:43

know, all my friends were loaded, but.

11:45

You're prettier than all of them. And

11:50

then that really is like shakes up

11:52

the cocktail on a whole other level of

11:54

like being really beautiful and

11:57

in a world of access like that

12:00

in a privileged scene,

12:03

but.

12:03

Not actually having the same backing that

12:05

all my friends had. So it would turn out like, you

12:08

know, if I got into trouble or if I crashed

12:10

a car, it was like major, major,

12:13

you know, it was bad.

12:15

So, yeah, it was

12:17

weird.

12:17

You know.

12:18

I travel around with some you

12:20

know, with like Paris Hilton and Go you

12:22

know DJ all of her record

12:24

release parties, live on the road

12:26

in this lavish lifestyle.

12:30

That's crazy.

12:33

And then realized like I can't

12:35

do this, Like I can't literally

12:38

try to keep up with the Kardashians because

12:41

the media and stuff saw me with Paris

12:44

Hilton and Kim Kardashian. They always wanted to

12:46

kind of if they don't have a story about

12:49

you, they're going to create one, right. So I

12:51

remember seeing these articles and they were trying to

12:53

figure out why is this girl here? Right,

12:55

like why is she there?

12:56

Who is she?

12:57

I saw this article and it talked about how I

12:59

was the pizza heiress. Yeah,

13:02

I remember this was the time of the Arrisons,

13:04

and.

13:04

I was like that was the buzzwordizza.

13:08

It was like this is this is crazy. And then there

13:10

was all these things that were like I'm like Wedad, you

13:12

know, he can barely, you know, keep it

13:14

all together with all of us kids in a tiny

13:16

pizza shop, and people were, you know, making

13:20

it out like I was this like rich party girl,

13:22

socialite when really I

13:24

had to deliver pizzas all night

13:27

long, you know, save up enough

13:29

money to go to the club and all of that.

13:31

And then you know, I became kind of known

13:33

in that circle. I mean, to

13:35

this day, people still write articles

13:38

calling me a socialite when

13:41

really my family and I live paycheck

13:43

to paycheck money and

13:46

our lack of it was always something

13:48

I was acutely aware of.

13:50

Do you remember speaking of Keeping Up

13:52

with the Kardashians, because I vividly remember this

13:55

when Kim was like campaigning

13:58

for like a crew of girls to

14:00

do a reality show on before

14:02

Keeping up with the Kardashians, Well.

14:04

Her and I were set to do.

14:05

It was you and her, and

14:07

you guys were like looking it was like I remember that, and

14:10

I was thinking, my I was like, why would she want to do

14:12

a show? With Kim, she just wasn't

14:15

like front and center like you were on Entourage

14:18

and you were like booking great TV

14:20

shows. I remember when you were like it like

14:22

between you and that other girl for Lost, like

14:25

you were like you were like a talent. You were

14:27

like on camera talent and DJing

14:30

like so like, and Kim at that point was

14:32

like she wasn't front and center or

14:34

like even presenting that type of persona.

14:37

I think she like she loved the idea

14:39

of being like rich and famous

14:41

like everyone else in this town.

14:44

And then I remember she sat me down and she was like,

14:47

so I have to do the show with my family,

14:49

and it was kind of like letting me down and I was like, no, you

14:52

got to do what you gotta do.

14:53

And it was like the producers

14:55

were interested in the whole family.

14:56

Yeah.

14:57

Yeah, and then that was keeping.

14:58

Up and then they were super Bowl sent her actually

15:01

reached out to me and asked me to dj on the

15:03

first episode, the very first episode ever

15:05

of the Kardashians. I

15:11

did a whole episode of Courtney and Chloe take

15:13

Miami. So they definitely, like you

15:16

know, reached out from time to time, which is

15:18

really sweet.

15:19

The one thing that always like I

15:22

remember about things

15:24

in your career, was like, you did that movie with Carrie

15:26

Fisher, and I

15:29

was just like, that's Carrie fucking Fisher,

15:31

Like that's so major.

15:34

We don't think.

15:35

I'm afraid of you.

15:36

I run a house with fifty crazy

15:38

bitches.

15:39

What was that movie called again, Sorority

15:42

row? That's right.

15:44

Well, by the way, I know you fucked

15:46

Megan's boyfriend. Pay

15:48

back, such a bitch.

15:50

You're a bitch.

15:51

My only college experience.

15:55

Totally, you got to experience

15:57

being a sorority girl.

15:59

Oh yeah, yeah. Sometimes

16:01

I do regret not following through with

16:03

my acting career. You know, I was on a role

16:06

there for a while with parts and movies

16:08

and TV shows, but I kind

16:10

of gave up on it, largely because

16:13

it would drive any guy I was in a relationship

16:15

with absolutely crazy if

16:18

I'd have to go to set and make out with another

16:20

actor on camera for a scene.

16:23

Ooh.

16:24

I never made the big bucks with acting anyway. That

16:27

made hanging with my celebrity friends

16:30

really challenging. People

16:33

had this assumption of me that

16:35

I was one thing, when really truly

16:37

I you know, I was, It's so

16:39

different. The funniest story ever,

16:42

is that I told Paris Hilton one day, I said, I

16:44

can't go with you anymore. I don't have clothes

16:46

to wear every night, and it was very important that you didn't

16:49

wear the same thing twice back then. She

16:51

was like, well, where whatever you want from my closet and I was

16:53

like, okay, I picked something out. We

16:55

ended up in US Weeklies,

16:58

who were at best and I'm

17:00

wearing her outfit. Yeah, And

17:02

it was like it was so ridiculous.

17:05

I was like, well, thank god I didn't win. I

17:07

remember. I think that same article was like

17:10

I think they called me the jack of all

17:12

trades and a master of none because I had

17:14

done so many different things. But when you grow up in LA

17:17

and someone's like, oh you want a model, Oh

17:19

you want to do a part in my movie,

17:22

or you know, let's DJ and have

17:24

fun, and you know I was. I was making enough

17:26

money to pay my own rent at

17:28

a very young age. You know, I was so young

17:31

when I started DJing. I was being

17:33

snuck in through the kitchen of a lot of clubs.

17:36

Talk about Britney Spears. I was actually DJing

17:38

the night that her and Justin had their dance

17:40

off at Joseph.

17:41

I can't believe you were there for that. I like the

17:44

other milestone where were you and Brittany

17:46

and Justin had their dance off at Joseph.

17:48

I was behind the DJ decks.

17:52

But the truly crazy thing is

17:54

is how I even became a DJ

17:56

in the first place. I

17:59

remember this director from

18:01

this play that I was in called me and was

18:03

like, Hey, do you know any female DJs

18:05

for the show I'm doing at the LA Theater and

18:09

bake it till you make it? I lied and said

18:11

I'm a DJ, and he was like, okay, great, You're

18:13

hired. I spent every dollar

18:15

I could, you know, gather on new

18:17

CDJs and a

18:20

mixer, pioneer mixer, and I

18:22

just started DJing. And honestly, I learned how to be a good

18:24

DJ by being a terrible DJ, Like

18:26

I didn't even know how to mix when I did my first gig,

18:28

and I did

18:31

it, and I remember Questlove

18:33

came up to me and he was like, you know what, You're good,

18:35

He goes because you're confident, and he's like, you have

18:38

this confidence about you now,

18:40

like hone your skills, you know. So I did

18:43

that and then I got signed to the biggest DJ

18:45

agency and was one of the first

18:47

females to really you

18:49

know, to do it on a grand

18:52

scale, you know, with my big

18:54

residency in Vegas.

18:55

I believe it was me who did that deal and

18:57

got you that gig.

18:58

Yes, yeah, yeah, thank you, handy At.

19:03

That was major, by the way, first female

19:06

that a residency in Vegas, way

19:08

before anyone else was doing it.

19:10

Yeah, it was fun, pioneer, It

19:12

was fun. But then it took me down, you know, took

19:15

me down. What comes with being a DJ

19:17

is sobriety or death, and

19:19

that's how I look at it, and I

19:22

was, Yeah, I was on the verge of

19:24

both at different times.

19:27

And living in Las Vegas is amazing

19:30

and horrible for that kind of thing. Amazing

19:33

because you feel like you can do anything

19:35

in that drugs fueled twenty four to seven, Go

19:37

Go Go atmosphere, and

19:39

horrible for the exact same reason. I

19:42

ended up getting married to a drummer

19:45

and even had a beautiful baby. I

19:48

thought I was gonna get pregnant,

19:50

have a baby and then go straight

19:52

back to my life, just put my baby

19:55

on my back and head to the club and DJ.

19:57

But turns out life

19:59

changes drastically and I

20:03

had a really bad night

20:06

where I ended

20:08

up. I had

20:10

already had Bella. You know, I was still traveling.

20:13

I went out djaying. I came home very

20:15

early and I

20:18

odid I did?

20:20

I owed?

20:21

What were you on again?

20:23

What wasn't on? I don't know. I just did a bunch

20:25

of everything in one night. It was very

20:27

scary, and I remember

20:29

I called Bobby. Bobby

20:32

was the drummer that I married, and he

20:34

turned out to be a real life saver. He

20:37

called nine one one

20:39

had to call yeah, and they came and took

20:41

me to the hospital and put me in a room and asked

20:44

me why I was trying to kill myself. And I

20:46

just realized I have to make a big,

20:48

huge

20:53

much.

20:53

I just didn't too much. I just was the opposite.

20:55

I want to live. I didn't live.

20:58

That's the thing. I wasn't a dark partier.

21:00

I was like a fun part of our generation.

21:03

Yeah, was never a dark partier like

21:05

this new crowd of this new like

21:08

gen zers, they like party to like go

21:10

down and they're like like heroin,

21:13

I'm depressed in our day and age.

21:15

Like we partied to like have

21:17

a black and love life,

21:19

and all our friends did, like we didn't smoke

21:21

pot to be sad or like because we hated ourselves

21:24

right, no love, We loved ourselves,

21:26

and the pot just like amplified those

21:29

feelings. And like we partied to get

21:31

high and now this new people party

21:33

to like get low. I'm like,

21:35

guys, cocaine is supposed

21:37

to be fun, Like why do you do it? And you want

21:39

to kill yourself? Like what's going on?

21:42

I definitely did not want to kill

21:44

myself. I remember like praying

21:47

to the porcelain God on several occasions,

21:49

like if you let me live, I will never

21:51

do this again, God, Like, if you let me live, I'll

21:54

never do this again. But that was I really

21:56

needed that.

21:56

I needed that.

21:57

Wake up call. At this point,

21:59

it started dawning on me that my life

22:01

had become a series of close

22:04

calls and dangerous misadventures.

22:06

You see, years before I

22:09

was the victim of diabolical con man David

22:11

Bloom, I was almost the

22:13

victim of another despicable predator,

22:16

a man you all heard about, a

22:19

man who's been in the news, a

22:21

man known as the worst

22:24

serial predator of all time.

22:33

Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein has been

22:35

arrested. He was taken into custody overnight

22:37

at a New Jersey airport.

22:40

I unfortunately crossed

22:42

paths with Jeffrey fucking Epstein,

22:44

but at the time I had

22:46

no idea who he was or

22:49

what he was trying to pull on me.

22:51

He's a con man, basically, right, we call

22:53

him a con man. He was conning for

22:56

whatever sexual things desires.

22:58

That he had recently

23:00

kind of been okay with talking about that

23:02

because I was alone

23:05

in New York City. I was very young. I

23:07

was probably seventeen years old, and

23:10

some girl comes up to me and befriends

23:12

me and says,

23:15

oh, I want to take you you know this audition,

23:18

and da da da. He books all

23:20

these huge, you know, get campaigns,

23:22

everything, big campaigns, and

23:25

I was like okay, And I got like the email

23:27

and all the details, and I was like stoked.

23:29

I show up with this giant brown stone

23:32

on the Upper East Side and I remember

23:34

this butler opens the door. I'll

23:37

never get out of my head. The look of

23:39

almost like sadness that the butler

23:42

gave me was like he knew what was about

23:44

to happen to me and just

23:46

had to like go along with it and

23:49

put me in this little waiting room and I'm in the

23:51

waiting room and I'm looking around and I have my modeling

23:53

book and I really think this is a modeling audition.

23:56

And I see on the walls like photos

23:59

of like pre residence with this man

24:01

and you know, private jets, and it's

24:03

the most crazy thing I've ever seen, so

24:06

many famous people on the walls, and I was

24:08

just like, where am I? And then

24:10

the butler comes against me. He takes me to

24:13

this room. I walked into this

24:15

dark room and I am tripping. I'm like, why am I

24:17

in this?

24:17

What?

24:18

There's a massage table over there. I

24:21

start panicking. This short,

24:25

weird guy comes out of the

24:27

darkness, and

24:30

I vaguely remember a woman, which now I think is

24:32

that woman that you know everybody knows

24:34

of it's in the documentary.

24:36

Today we announced charges against Kallayne

24:39

Maxwell for helping Jeffrey

24:41

Epstein sexually exploit

24:44

and have use multiple minor

24:47

girls.

24:48

And you know, he's laying on the table and I'm like, oh

24:50

my god, he thinks I'm a massuse. So in my

24:53

head, I'm like, what do I do? You

24:55

know? And I just kind of stood

24:57

there frozen, and then I remember

24:59

he kind of kind of like lean

25:01

towards me and went to lift

25:04

my shirt like or go under my shirt.

25:07

And that's the moment where I knew that I'm

25:09

a fighter. I don't

25:11

freeze. I will fuck you up, motherfucker,

25:14

you know. And I remember

25:16

going like, get the fuck off

25:18

me. And I just came out like a like

25:21

a like a dude, like I was

25:23

about to rip his eyeballs

25:25

out, and he jumped off

25:28

of the massage table like panicking,

25:30

and he's like, oh no, no, no, no, oh no no, uh

25:33

uh, you must have had the wrong We got

25:35

this mixed up, and he starts throwing money

25:38

at me, and I go, how the fuck do

25:40

I get out of here? I start running. I see

25:42

the butler, that motherfucker, and

25:45

I go, where's the exit

25:47

and he was like it's right over

25:49

there, and I ran. And I remember running

25:52

all the way from the Upper east Side like

25:54

down to Tribeca like and I never

25:56

looked back, and I was panicked, and I never wanted

25:58

to talk about it again. I excommunicated

26:01

that fucking girl who recruited me, and

26:03

I remember you and I would rack our brains

26:05

and we'd be try to figure out who that was because

26:08

I had this guilt for years

26:10

of not knowing who

26:12

it was and not being able to

26:15

speak about it or prevent other

26:17

girls from ending up in that situation.

26:19

Well those were the days when you didn't talk

26:21

about that stuff.

26:22

But also I had no idea who it

26:24

was and I had no way of finding that out

26:27

come. A couple years ago, my ex boyfriend

26:29

goes he'd heard the story and

26:32

he goes Carolyn. He goes, if you saw

26:34

his face, would you remember it? Because

26:37

he had just watched the documentary and everything

26:39

I said was verbatim. He was like, you

26:41

know, the massage table, the pictures on the

26:43

wall, who was in the pictures

26:46

on the wall, you know all of it, and even

26:48

the location of the Brownstone. And

26:50

when he showed me the documentary, my I

26:53

just was like, oh, I went white.

26:55

I was like, that's him, sure enough,

26:58

Yeah, it was Jeffrey Epstein. And that's

27:00

also a big reason why

27:03

I need to speak up about this David

27:05

Bloom situation, because I

27:08

have so much regret not you

27:10

know, I was only seventeen, so like I

27:12

didn't know to like investigate that motherfucker.

27:15

Hard on yourself, Like how are you supposed

27:17

to be this like Sherlock Homes

27:19

and figure out what see doing this to other

27:21

girls? Or was it really a mistake? You just

27:23

went on to go live your life,

27:26

you know, Like, don't be so hard on yourself for that

27:28

one. But I see what you mean about how like under

27:30

this circumstance, you're not going to

27:33

be quiet for one second, right

27:35

and do whatever you can. Yeah,

27:37

with the power and the platform that you have

27:39

to.

27:40

Spread awareness on this motherfucker.

27:42

Find David Blooms.

27:43

Yeah, David

27:46

bloom did such a number on

27:48

me that by the time it was all over,

27:51

I didn't want to live. He

27:54

was such a monster.

27:57

I don't even remember the first time I met

28:00

even Bloom. I just remembered hearing

28:02

about him, like he

28:05

was so in our inner circle because you

28:07

would mention him and talk about him, like when

28:09

did you actually first meet him? Like where

28:12

did that all begin?

28:14

At the Villa Carlotta, I

28:18

moved into one of the most beautiful

28:21

buildings which you were obsessed with

28:24

in Hollywood, right below

28:26

the Hollywood Sign, and it

28:29

was a place for me to kind of was

28:31

right after my divorce. I

28:33

really needed a place to live so that I could, you know,

28:36

be with my daughter, and it was

28:38

I got super lucky because I

28:40

got in on a COVID rate like during

28:42

COVID and it

28:45

was just like it was just the

28:47

most magical place.

28:50

The Villa Carlato. Again for the non LA listeners,

28:53

is that that's old Hollywood. It's a city

28:55

landmark. Maryon Davies used to live in

28:57

that building.

28:59

That's James, the veteran crime

29:01

journalist who wrote a big investigative

29:04

piece about David Bloom for the La Times.

29:06

He spent a lot of time at the Villa Carlotta

29:09

doing research for his story.

29:11

It was like a little bit of an actor's paradise. So one of the Oranges

29:14

new Black cast members there than the lobby of the day,

29:16

I was there.

29:16

I'm not going to.

29:16

Say which one, because I feel like we shouldn't be outing

29:19

people's home addresses. But one of the characters

29:21

you saw over the course of seven seasons was there. If that's vague

29:23

enough, you know this is a place where people

29:26

work in this industry and you

29:28

know, rely on their reputations to get jobs,

29:30

whether it's acting, consulting, video editing,

29:32

what have you.

29:33

A two bedroom goes for about

29:36

ten thousand dollars a month at the Villa

29:38

Carlata. Luckily, I was

29:40

paying a quarter of that because I

29:43

moved in after divorcing my husband

29:45

of seven years during the

29:47

COVID lockdown in twenty twenty

29:50

when they were having a lot of trouble finding

29:52

new tenants. I gotta say,

29:55

the Villa Carlotta is one of the most

29:57

beautiful buildings I've ever seen,

30:00

dripping with Hollywood glamour and

30:03

history. Even an insider like

30:05

Hammy was totally impressed by

30:07

my new home.

30:09

I remember throughout that whole chapter too,

30:11

Like, was it like Julia

30:13

Roberts was like staying down the hall in one in

30:15

one of the big accommodations. Yeah, the

30:18

whole place was like laced with

30:20

wildly successful people. And

30:22

so it's the executive at the record company,

30:25

and this the other woman was like this

30:27

thirty year old under thirty Forbes girl

30:29

who started that company.

30:31

I remember looking terrible, very

30:34

early in the morning, sweatpants

30:36

on, all disheveled and walking my dog,

30:38

and Sean penn was just walking right by me and

30:40

He's.

30:40

Like hi, and I was like hi.

30:43

My neighbors, Julia Roberts

30:45

and Sean Pennicide. The Villa

30:47

Carlotta just seemed like heaven

30:50

to me. I really found my groove

30:52

at that place, and I loved

30:54

living there, and we had

30:57

piano nights and wine night, and

30:59

the pool was exquisite, and there

31:01

was you know, coffee and breakfast

31:04

in the lobby in the morning, and it

31:06

was it was so magical, and

31:10

we had so many fun experiences

31:12

there, you know, through such a scary time through

31:14

COVID. You know, my daughter

31:16

learned to swim in that pool, like it

31:19

was just like a family for a

31:21

bunch of people that weren't with their family.

31:23

I forget that you were in there through the lockdown.

31:26

Yeah, I was in there through the lock You ended.

31:28

Up becoming really close with everyone down the

31:30

hall. Oh yeah, so and that was your

31:32

that was like your lockdown crew.

31:34

Yeah, that was my lockdown. So everybody at the Villa

31:36

Carlotta. Living

31:38

there was like a dream come true for me. Then

31:41

all of a sudden it became my worst

31:43

nightmare. I just remember I was by

31:45

the pool, which I often was because

31:48

I was working always by the pool. Why wouldn't

31:50

you was gorgeous. You

31:52

hear him laughing from across the pool, like,

31:55

you know, talking to everybody. Seems like he

31:57

knows everybody. He walks over

31:59

to me and if I knew then

32:01

what I know now, I would

32:04

have gotten up and left. I would

32:06

have run the hell out of the villa, Carlata

32:08

screaming at the top of my lungs, stay

32:11

away from this man. He's dangerous.

32:14

I would have called the police. I would have hired

32:16

armed guards. I would have done anything

32:19

to just keep that man away from

32:21

me, and away from my daughter, and

32:23

away from everyone. I knew. But

32:26

I didn't know what he was when I met him.

32:29

He had a kind smile and

32:31

a super friendly demeanor. You

32:34

know, he seemed like a really nice guy.

32:37

And looking back, I

32:39

was like little Red riding Hood being

32:41

courted by the big bad

32:44

wolf. And I didn't stand

32:46

a chance.

32:47

Why would you say that shit to me?

32:50

Why?

32:52

This season on Once Upon a.

32:54

Con, David

32:56

Bloom was so good at what he did. He

32:58

was strategic about it.

33:00

When he first started working for me, he dropped

33:02

so many names. Oh, I'm so connected.

33:04

I know everybody. My wife, she's doing all

33:06

these things politically, she's connected

33:08

to Gavin Newsom.

33:10

Bloom strikes at people largely

33:13

with money, and he goes after people with

33:15

privilege, and you know, it kind of shows that, you

33:17

know, wealth doesn't insulation from that.

33:19

David had a bent late in a show.

33:21

For one time when I was

33:23

with him for dinner and he had

33:26

to take a phone call and he came back

33:28

he said, Oh, it.

33:29

Was just soaping BRUNEI I

33:31

mean, my head was spinning. He was showing me his phone.

33:33

Oh look, I go Adam Schiff's number on speed op.

33:36

David was a genius.

33:39

I was married to David for almost ten years.

33:42

It was insane. The stuff he was doing

33:44

was insane, and I was trying to make

33:46

sense of something that doesn't make any sense,

33:49

or to understand things

33:52

that I could not have thought of in my

33:54

wildest dreams to do.

33:56

He's pathologically He's a psycho

33:59

pat.

33:59

Yeah, like a repe cycle pat.

34:01

And I was barely functioning, and

34:04

I just had this realization

34:06

that he will not stop until

34:09

he kills me.

34:10

That was the start of the cancer that

34:13

David bloom Plant fine

34:17

nights and Austen five

34:20

nights in the

34:23

fucking life. We're gonna change. Oh,

34:25

we're fucking Gord.

34:27

We pre arranged that I would record everything

34:29

on my iPhone.

34:33

David, I want to know the truth.

34:34

You've told

34:36

me a lot of things that are different from the stories I'm hearing from

34:38

these peyopoar.

34:39

I chose to tell a story because a

34:42

different story.

34:44

R Javed Blood

34:46

blows a stammer out

34:49

here.

34:49

David, you know where to hide now.

34:59

This podcast is dedicated to the

35:01

memory of my amazing mother, Bonnie

35:03

Major, who would be super proud

35:06

of me standing up for myself. Once

35:08

Upon a Con is a production of AYR

35:11

Media and thirty two Flavors, hosted

35:13

by Me Caroline de Morey. Executive

35:16

producers Eliza Rosen for AYR

35:19

Media, Alex Baskin for

35:21

thirty two Flavors, and Jonathan Walton

35:24

for Jonathan Walton Productions. Written

35:26

by Jonathan Walton, producer

35:29

Caroline de Morey, Senior associate

35:31

producer Joe Pushesnik Coordinator

35:34

Molena Kroyesky. Sound

35:37

designed by Tim Mulhern, edited

35:39

and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising

35:42

editor Victoria Chang, Mastered

35:44

by Victoria Chang, Engineering

35:47

by Justin Longerbein. Legal

35:49

counsel for AYR Media Gianni

35:52

Douglas. Our theme song,

35:54

Freshly Served, was written and performed

35:56

by the incredibly talented Mattie Noise

35:59

and is a failla ball on her SoundCloud