Fury at Barry's Bootcamp over trainer's cocaine past after Ash Ruscoe hire sparks backlash... Plus, what's really behind Fayshell skin clinic founder's sudden sell-off: THE GROUP CHAT

Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia's most trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip before it makes the news

Everything must go 

Sydney nepo baby Katelin Gregg, the sometimes business owner of members-only skin clinic Fayshell, has quietly found a buyer for her eastern suburbs apartment.

The 30-year-old sold her two-bedroom Art Deco pad in leafy Woollahra at auction last week after previously boasting of bagging an eastern suburbs apartment for 'under a million' in 2024 with the help of a buyer's agent.

The apartment price wasn't disclosed, though estimates suggest its value would have risen to just shy of $1.4million in the two years since she bought it.

And given the whispers around Sydney about Gregg's seemingly endless appetite for international travel, it's hardly surprising she's looking to lighten the load.

'I left my engagement, looking to bring on partners, my car and apartment are up for sale, it's pretty safe to say it's been a hell of a year,' she recently said on TikTok.

With more time spent jet-setting abroad than at home, perhaps Gregg is preparing for a more permanent change of scenery. Either way, she appears to be selling off her assets one by one.

In August, The Group Chat revealed Fayshell had been discreetly listed on a commercial real estate website for $1.65million - a tidy sum for a clinic boasting $700,000 in designer fit-outs, ambitious plans for a third location and a proposed expansion into cosmetic injectables.

The agent handling the sale confirmed the business was on the market before hastily asking yours truly to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A little late for that!

Gregg's apparent search for business partners is also an interesting development, given she launched Fayshell in 2022 with her then-best friend, Ella James.

The friendship soon appeared to cool, with James disappearing from media appearances and brand partnerships, leaving Gregg firmly in the spotlight - a position she has never seemed particularly keen to share.

Insiders say Gregg, the daughter of Mondeal Aesthetics founder Rob Gregg, always saw herself as the CEO, while James was the creative brains behind the brand.

Barry's backlash grows 

Another day, another headache at cult gym Barry's Bootcamp.

Last week, the Mail revealed the elite fitness chain had hired controversial boxer and influencer Ash Ruscoe, the former girlfriend of Olympic boxing champion Harry Garside, as it grapples with a growing exodus of instructors.

The latest gossip among Barry's clients now centres on founding Sydney instructor Alicia Beveridge, who managed to keep her job despite being caught with cocaine and alcohol in her system while driving to work in December 2022.

In the end, Beveridge was fined $750 and disqualified from driving for three months - after receiving a dressing-down from the immortal Magistrate Ross Hudson for her 'selfish' behaviour.

Beveridge's blip wasn't as bad, of course, as Ruscoe's brush with the law. 

Ruscoe previously pleaded guilty to domestic violence-related offences, including assault and stalking or intimidation. She received a conditional release order without conviction and is subject to a two-year apprehended domestic violence order.

Some clients have questioned whether a male trainer with a similar history would have received the same welcome as Ruscoe - or if a man would have kept his job after doing the 'walk of shame' at Waverley Local Court like Beveridge did.

Meanwhile, Ruscoe's appointment to the Sydney team has raised eyebrows among long-time staff, with concerns said to have been expressed about the decision.

It comes after two of Barry's best-known Sydney instructors have announced their departures in quick succession - one citing concerns about the company's culture, the other blaming 'management and business needs' for the end of his seven-year run teaching Saturday classes.

A Barry's insider told the Mail the departures were linked to Ruscoe's appointment, which is understood to have unsettled some trainers.

'It's gob-smacking that they've hired Ash Ruscoe given she pleaded guilty to offences such as stalking and intimidation. Imagine if this was a male trainer - there would be outrage. So hypocritical,' one long-time Barry's client said.

'A few of us reckon it's because of her Instagram following, given all the upheaval with staff. There are other great female trainers there who deserve those shifts.'

Testosterone tales 

Luke Calpis has certainly bulked up since his days orbiting Sydney's social set - but it seems the pursuit of peak masculinity has come at a cost.

The 44-year-old, once a fixture on the eastern suburbs circuit as the former brother-in-law of Oliver Curtis and Roxy Jacenko, has undergone a Dan Bilzerian-style makeover, transitioning from real estate to launching the macho telehealth platform Primal Zone.

But in a recent appearance on ABC's State of Man docu-series, Calpis offered a candid insight into the side effects of his eight-year journey with testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

The father-of-two told journalist Mark Fennell he'd never been in better shape, mentally or physically, since starting the treatment.

The catch? His testicles have shrunk by about 30 per cent, while sensitive nipples and becoming 'a little bit emotional' also feature in his discussion of the potential side effects - oh, the things we do to look and feel our best!

As Fennell put it: 'There are two kinds of drugs in this world: drugs that don't work, and drugs that have side effects.'

While capitalising on the boom in testosterone therapy and the quest for male optimisation through Primal Zone, Calpis's ambitions have never been confined to the wellness industry.

In 2002, he appeared on Million Dollar Island, the Ant Middleton-hosted reality show that pitted 100 everyday Australians against one another for a shot at $1million.

The following year, he filed a lawsuit against production company Eureka Productions.

A source claimed he'd walked into a '(sawn-off) tree' during one of the challenges.

And according to someone close to Calpis, his reality TV ambitions stretch back further: he previously applied for The Bachelor, made it to the interview stage, and then failed to get a rose of his own.

Calpis was previously married to Sophie Curtis, from one of Sydney's better-connected families.

In January, The Group Chat revealed he was back dating New York-based Australian model Kristen Apollos.

Sources say he even travelled to the US 'around Thanksgiving' last year in a bid to win her back.

Whether he succeeded is another matter. The romance appears to have fizzled since.

Clara's comeback 

The most talked-about woman in the west, Clara Hurst, has flown into Sydney to relaunch her skincare brand, The Secret, alongside business partner Dr Deb Cohen.

The pair hosted a string of influencer beauty treatments in Double Bay - where else? Among those pampered were Hurst's hometown pal, businessman and AFR Young Rich Lister Grant Schaffer, influencer and Aussie Home Loans heiress Deb Symond O'Neill, fashion-turned-homewares entrepreneur Alyce Tran, and mummy influencer-turned-radio host Amy Gerard.

But Hurst's latest networking among east coast tastemakers comes with less glamorous baggage.

The mother-of-two made headlines in WA following the sudden death of her husband, dentist Dr David Hurst, at Crown Perth in December 2024. He was 43.

Afterwards, it emerged that more than $7million had been withdrawn from his dental business, leaving the clinic in liquidation and over 130 patients out of pocket for work that was either incomplete or never started.

Some 156 patients were among 223 unsecured creditors owed nearly $4.4million by the collapsed business, with prepayments for implants and other expensive procedures found missing after Dr Hurst's death. The shortfall only surfaced in late February 2025.

It was then revealed that Dr Hurst had been allowed to practise in Australia despite a previous fraud conviction in the UK.

In the 18 months before his death, Dr Hurst allegedly spent $209,000 of company funds on international travel, while the business also borrowed $223,320 to buy a Porsche Cayenne.

He also transferred over $1.5million from the company's bank account into a mortgage offset account, just months after he and his wife splashed $6.5million on a Claremont mansion - alongside expensive cars, lavish overseas holidays and designer clothes.

Several former patients complained they were left with defective, incomplete dental work that caused severe pain.

Dr Hurst's deceased estate was declared bankrupt in August 2025, while law firm Slater and Gordon is preparing a legal case on behalf of 48 former patients.

And while those patients continue to chase answers - and the money they say they are owed - Hurst has raised eyebrows by maintaining a high-profile lifestyle and returning to the Sydney beauty scene.

Social Siberia 

Hell hath no fury like a grifter clawing her way back into Sydney society's good graces.

Whether Kashaya Williams' latest social-climbing attempts are working remains to be seen. Last week, she was spotted on the arm of elusive businessman and fringe socialite Raymond 'Ray Ray' Xiu, alongside Sydney identity Amira Ross, at Royal Randwick for TAB Everest Day.

But word is, relations between Ross and Williams have since soured - and perhaps that race day photo was just for show, with Williams notably absent from Ross's recent birthday festivities.

Ross hosted her celebrations at Bondi Icebergs earlier this month, though the guest list was hardly a Who's Who of society - apart from failed pub baron Jon Adgemis.

According to a well-placed guest, the disgraced mother-of-two was left off the invite list. Instead, she's said to spend much of her time third-wheeling millennial influencer Elle Salagaras and her investment banker husband, Lucas.

It's quite the circle, given Williams's own well-documented legal history. 

She was banished to social Siberia after the NSW Supreme Court found in 2023 that she had used a forged letter to gain ownership of her late grandfather's home during a bitter inheritance dispute.

Adding to her woes, the former wedding planner also filed for bankruptcy, had a traffic whoopsie and was rumoured to have been booted from her Double Bay home over the alleged non-payment of rent.

Still, that hasn't dulled Williams's taste for the finer things, clearly.