*Apple Original Podcast “Unicorn Girl” debuted on August 18 and immediately shot to #1 on the True Crime charts and #2 overall.
The nine-episode investigative series from award-winning journalist Charlie Webster explores the tangled life of Candace Rivera, an influencer and entrepreneur whose seemingly perfect world masked a web of lies. Each twist raises the ultimate question: Was Candace a visionary, or a master of deception?
Produced by Seven Hills, the series is available on Apple Podcasts. Apple TV+ subscribers can connect their subscription to access all nine episodes now, while nonsubscribers can stream the first two episodes, with new episodes dropping weekly on Mondays through the September 29 finale. Listen and follow here.
Episode 3: As the World Turns, with Candace
The latest installment, As the World Turns, with Candace, takes listeners inside her growing ambition. “Candace is going to change the world, but she needs a team of people to help her do it. Her new nonprofit holds its first fancy gala, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic. But first—let’s hear from the infamous ex-husband,” reads the official synopsis.
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Why Charlie Webster Had to Tell This Story
“I started to look into Candace, actually, from a book group,” Webster recalls. “So this was before things unfolded from maybe what you’ve seen online. And whatever you’ve seen online, let me tell you that is not the story of Candace Rivera. I quickly realized that the potential headlines that you might see is not a unicorn girl. It is so much deeper than that.”
What began as curiosity turned into a two-year investigation. “I remember sitting there for days reading everything Candace was writing about. She used the book group like a diary, like a personal diary, but she also posted live videos… And I don’t know, after making Scamanda, I really wanted to bring another… messy, emotional, complex story that had women at the heart of it. And Candace just intrigued me so much,” Webster explains.
The Challenge of Balancing Facts and Chaos
“…every single day for the last two years, I have been in the nuance and minutiae of this. And every single thing you listen to is fully fact… It’s fully evidence and it’s fully facts. But then you’ve got this other side, where it’s people’s lives. It is people’s emotions. And also it’s so twisty.” Webster says.
She describes the process as “frenetic, manic, fast paced,” filled with “10 million rabbit holes.”
“And to create that balance, I definitely had to constantly check every single thing, even the things that you would assume were real or weren’t real. I had to check everything because of how wild this story is. A lot of what Candace did was based in truth. And that’s what makes it so complex.”
The Most Shocking Revelations
“Layers, layers, layers. There’s so many layers. I don’t know if I’ve even got to the core of it,” Webster says when asked about the most surprising findings. “I spent a lot of time with people that were exploited by Candace and I felt their pain… But the depth, I think that Candace went to exploit people that had already been exploited… Was it calculated, or did she believe her own rhetoric? I don’t know.”
One particular discovery left Webster shaken: “There’s a story to do with Afghanistan. I think when I found out the real conclusion of that, it made me cry… I had to deliver the news and tell some of the people that were involved and close to Candace. And I found that upsetting and shocking.”
Visionary or Master of Deception?
Webster admits this is the question that drove the series: “Something really important to me at the very, very end is to ask the people that knew Candace the best what they thought. And it was mixed… There’s people that were in so much pain that she literally tore their lives apart that said, ‘Oh, I hate to say it, but I think she did do good. ‘”
As for her own view? Wenster said, “My own personal opinion, master manipulator. I’m gonna say it. That’s my own personal opinion. It’s not a judgment. It is just, in my opinion, from knowing everything that this woman did. And honestly, I could have made about five series of this show. That’s how much she did.”
Listen to “Unicorn Girl” on Apple Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday, with the finale airing September 29.
Watch our full conversation with Charlie Webster via the clip below.
