Jules Neale has claimed her estranged husband, AFL star Lachie Neale, cheated on her with at least two other women before their marriage collapsed over his affair with her best friend Tess Crosley.
Speaking on influencer Adelle Petropoulos's Pretty Sure podcast, the 37-year-old social media personality opened up about the end of her seven-year marriage to the 33-year-old Brisbane Lions premiership player, describing the discovery of his infidelity as "the worst feeling in the world."
Jules said finding out about the affair in December last year left her questioning everyone around her. "You just question everything," she said. "You're like, 'Who knows about this? Am I the only person that doesn't know? Does everybody else know and did the other players know? Did the other partners know?'"
How the Affair Was Exposed
Jules confirmed she was informed about the alleged affair by a close friend after another AFL player's partner passed the information along. The partner contacted a mutual friend at the club rather than calling Jules directly.
"She's a close friend of mine," Jules revealed. "It came from another partner at the club to her. She called one of my close friends at the club and said, 'This is the information I know and what I've seen. I don't want to have to call Jules and tell her. Can you do it? It would be better coming from you.'
Following the disclosure, the mother of two immediately returned to Perth with the couple's children. Although she initially believed the incident with 30-year-old Tess Crosley was a single kiss, Jules later discovered it was what she described as a secret four-month relationship.
Jules revealed that this was not the first time she had faced allegations of cheating during their relationship. She recalled previously receiving a direct message on social media from another woman accusing Lachie of infidelity, complete with what she described as evidence.
"I got one of those awful 'hey girlie' DMs with receipts. The worst day of my life. I didn't leave bed for four days," she said. "Before that, I would have bet my life that he would have never done that to me ever."
Deciding to Stay for Family
Despite the heartbreak of the earlier incident, Jules chose to remain in the marriage after receiving assurances that the betrayal was a one-off mistake. At the time, the couple already shared a daughter.
"Then I was reassured that that was a one-off thing, it would never happen again, biggest mistake of his life, yada yada yada," she said. "We already had my daughter together, so I decided to stay and try to work on it. If it was a one-off mistake, I didn't want to break up our family because of it. I've got too much at stake here for her."
Reflecting on the decision, Jules noted that both choices carry immense emotional weight. "If something like this happens to you in your relationship, if you get cheated on, betrayed in any way, leaving is so hard and scary, but staying is hard as well," she explained.
Post-Separation Allegations and Rumours
After the couple separated and their split became public, Jules claimed further stories about Lachie's unfaithfulness emerged from multiple people. She alleged that he had cheated with at least two different women prior to the affair with Tess.
"Now people know that we aren't together anymore and he was unfaithful, I've heard a bunch of stories from a bunch of different people," Jules said. "It wasn't the first time for us, which is awful."
She added that while many assumed she ended the marriage instantly upon learning of the affair with Tess, the situation was more complicated. However, the newest revelations convinced her that the marriage could not continue.
"When I did find out this recent thing had happened it was immediately, I was just like, 'We're done,'" she said. "It was immediately apparent that this was going to continue. It wasn't a one-off mistake. If you could do something like this after that, it'll keep happening for the rest of my life."
The couple originally planned to keep their separation private and describe the split publicly as a marital issue. However, that changed when Jules shared a cryptic social media post claiming she had been "betrayed in the most unimaginable way."
"I actually felt a huge weight of relief off my shoulders," Jules said. "It actually felt good to have people know, not exactly what had happened, but just the truth."
Jules also directly shut down rumours suggesting that she and Lachie were involved in an open relationship or swinging arrangement with Tess and her husband Ben. "Definitely not in an open relationship and definitely not swinging," she said. "If we were swinging, I wouldn't have packed up my kids and left over a kiss."
She added that she intends to keep the Neale surname for now so that she shares the same last name as her children.
Life in the Spotlight and What Comes Next
The Australian Football League (AFL) is Australia's premier professional Australian rules football competition, where star players face constant public attention. Discussing life in the AFL spotlight, Jules said professional footballers face unique temptations because of their public profiles.
"They have people throwing themselves at them," she said. "It's definitely on the boys, but they have more opportunity to be unfaithful because the opportunity is just there."
Lachie Neale has not publicly responded to the new allegations made by his estranged wife during the podcast interview.
Meanwhile, Tess Crosley is set to give her first tell-all interview, revealing her side of the story on Daily Mail's The Debrief with Savanna Young this Thursday.
The podcast interview comes after Lachie was back in the headlines after being spotted spending time with his new girlfriend Emma Field, who bears a strong resemblance to Tess. The pair were first seen together at Brisbane Airport earlier this month.
Lachie confirmed the relationship on Friday night when he was spotted kissing Emma at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) after the Brisbane Lions' victory over Collingwood. Emma previously lived in Melbourne and is understood to have strong connections to the city.
