Sophie Cachia thought it was a stranger trolling her. She couldn't have been more wrong.

Sophie Cachia was lying in bed, heavily pregnant, trying to soothe her back pain with ice packs, when the notification lit up her phone screen.

At first, it looked like any other comment. The influencer had seen thousands of them over the years: praise, criticism, unsolicited opinions.

But as she opened the message, her stomach tightened. 

"I felt sick," the mum-of-three told Clare Stephens on her new podcast, The Pile On.

Watch: Sophie Cachia on Mamamia's 'No Filter' podcast. Post continues below.

The message had accused her of being a sexual predator, just because of the 10-year age gap between her and her partner, Maddy.

It was a completely false allegation, and one that wasn't meant for Sophie's eyes.

"She had thought she was sending this message to a friend," said Sophie. "To read someone call me such a sickly term… it was repulsive."

The 35-year-old is no stranger to scrutiny. She's been sharing her life publicly for over a decade as a blogger, influencer, entrepreneur and author.

After 13 years in the spotlight, she's copped comments about her body, her parenting, her sexuality and her relationships. Most of it, she's learned to tune out.

But in 2018, it got personal. And it came from somewhere she didn't expect.

Sophie had noticed that intimate details about her private life were somehow ending up on anonymous forums. It wasn't just idle gossip. It was information only people close to her could know.

So, she took matters into her own hands.

"I was standing in my kitchen and I just Googled 'private investigator'," she said.

"It was suffocating me how such personal information was getting on the internet, and obviously, I knew it had to be people I know."

But even though Sophie suspected there were moles in her inner circle, the level of betrayal was "contronting".

"It was uncomfortable because I found quite a few people that I knew, and I'm talking family members, aunties, school teachers," Sophie said.

"It was a wake-up call to how small I needed to keep my circle."

Sophie Cachia. Image: Instagram/@sophiecachia_

For one family member, the betrayal ran deep.

"There's one auntie I've never spoken to again," Sophie admitted. "She would know why. She'd never admit it, but she would know why."

The influencer didn't confront any of her relatives or friends in real life, but she did call them out on social media.

"I posted their names on my story," she said. "Listed 10 names and then said 'I know you're watching'. I don't know if that achieved anything. I would never dare do that now. I wouldn't even give them that satisfaction."

While Sophie felt "hurt" by the betrayal, the hardest part was "fixing the false narratives". Then she conceded that she was fighting a losing battle.

"I realised that is just absolutely pointless," said Sophie. "I actually look back, and I feel really sad knowing what I used to be like in that space and how suffocated I was… I let it consume me."

Now, Sophie has a different mindset when it comes to trolling.

"I'm much more at a place of peace now," she said. "There's a quote I actually read the other day, and it said 'If you're a public figure, if you want any type of privacy, you have to be okay with being misunderstood'. And really sums me up."

Sophie has learnt to accept that she can't control the narrative that is shared about her. But as long as she chooses to stay online, she'll have to drown out the noise.

"I'm at peace with that by choosing to put myself online… Doesn't mean I accept [the trolling]. Doesn't mean I think it's okay. But I'm experienced enough to know that it's going to come."

Listen to the full podcast episode below.

Feature Image: Instagram/@sophiecachia_