A woman who blamed the Barefoot Investor and his financial advice for ruining her marriage has been slammed after leaving out a key detail.
Charlotte Ree, 32, appeared on SBS Insight on Tuesday in an episode titled ‘Advice: Take It or Leave It?’
The segment discussed what motivates people to follow or discard advice and the subsequent ramifications.
On the program, Ms Ree explained how her husband took the advice of The Barefoot Investor, also known as Scott Pape, to the extreme, insisting both their salaries go into a single account and they each get a strict $100 allowance after expenses.
She claimed her husband had become obsessed and financially controlling after buying his book and his newly adopted habits ultimately ruined her marriage.
Several viewers pointed out the show failed to mention an important detail during Ms Ree’s outburst – namely that she held a prominent position at a rival publisher.
Charlotte Ree appeared as a guest on the SBS talk show Insight explaining how her husband’s obsession with the Barefoot Investor’s advice damaged their relationship
Scott Pape’s book The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You’ll Ever Need is the best-selling book ever in Australia with more than two million copies sold
Mr Pape’s books have been published by Harper Collins and Wiley, while Ms Ree is the head of marketing at Pan MacMillan.
She is also the author of a memoir and cookbook titled Heartbake, which explores how she rebuilt her life following the collapse of her marriage through her love of baking.
One viewer accused SBS of failing to disclose the detail.
‘Most of the guests had a poignant story to share that was both inspiring and humbling, but this segment seemed strange,’ they wrote on Twitter.
Other viewers agreed that Ms Ree’s appearance ‘subtly promoting’ her own book, published by Allen & Unwin, while criticising Mr Pape’s seemed to be a ‘conflict of interest’ that wasn’t brought up on the show.
‘I had this on in the background while I was eating lunch… it does appear cookbooks form part of her career now so it does feel a bit like a lie by omission,’ one person said.
However, others said they didn’t see a problem considering their books weren’t in direct competition.
‘One author criticising another author is not particularly sinister. If she had of pretended she didn’t have a book then that’s deceptive, but I don’t see how her other vocation is important, the information is hardly hidden,’ one said.
Ms Ree explained on the program that her mother had given her advice to keep her money separate from her now ex-husband before she got married to avoid potential arguments.
But she said she ignored her mother’s wisdom because she was ‘blind in love’ and just ‘went into it’ by setting up a joint account.
Ms Ree said her now ex-husband insisted her larger salary be pooled with his in a joint account and they keep to a strict and frugal spending budget, which caused regular arguments
She and her husband were then gifted a copy of Scott Pape’s book The Barefoot Investor, which holds the record of Australia’s best-selling book with more than two million copies sold.
‘My husband took that like a gospel,’ she said.
‘There was no sort of negotiation with him on deviating from that plan. That book has absolutely changed lives, but it changed mine for the worse.’
She said they never fought before her husband took a very strict approach to the advice, but afterwards arguments over money became constant.
‘I had a joint bank account with him that my monthly pay got paid into, his pay also got paid into that, although they were very different amounts,’ she explained.
‘From that came all our joint expenses like rent, food, phone bills, electricity, internet. And separate to that I was paid $100 a week as an allowance, which he also got.
‘If I wanted to go out for dinner with my girlfriends, if I wanted to take an Uber home, if I wanted to buy a bottle of wine, it all had to come from that $100.’
Ms Ree did have access to the money and could move it, but chose not to believing it would be better for their marriage.
SBS viewers pointed out the program seemed to ignore the fact Ms Ree works in marketing for a rival publisher to The Barefoot Investor, and seem to be ‘subtly promoting her own book while criticising his’
Ms Ree’s cookbook and memoir is published by Allen & Unwin while Mr Pape has books published by Pan MacMillan and Wiley
Nevertheless, she explained that for the newly married couple the bickering and resentment about money sapped the romance from their relationship.
‘We inevitably fought about sex, because that was my way of getting some sort of control back,’ she said.
The two eventually walked through the doors of a relationship counsellor but after 12 months of sessions decided they’d be unable to compromise enough to meet in the middle and their marriage ended.
‘He’s a glorious human being who I do still love and will always love… It was ultimately two people who wanted very different things,’ she said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Ree, Mr Pape, their publishers and SBS for comment.
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