Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Just a day after Jules Neale broke her silence on the cheating scandal that ended her marriage to Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale, the woman at the centre of the alleged infidelity claims has given her side of the highly-publicised story.
DailyMail had earlier this week teased a tell-all with Queensland-based Tess Crosley, who too was yet to speak on the events that led to the demise of the Neale household, and her own separation from husband Ben Crosley.
On Wednesday, Jules shed light on the betrayal she experienced late last year that sparked her return to Perth.
“I guess it was an ongoing, four-month affair with my best friend behind my back,” she told the Pretty Sure podcast.
Sadly for those expecting Tess to come out swinging, the now-very public figure did not offer any direct insights into the cheating claims or rumours that had piqued public interest.
Instead, what listeners got was a series of legally informed, rehearsed responses that hinted at taking accountability, while not owning up to any particular actions.
“I have made some bad decisions I deeply regret, but I believe that I’m not a bad person,” Tess said on several occasions, speaking via The Debrief Podcast.
She repeatedly said she wished not to delve into private matters out of respect for the families involved.
Describing the moment the scandal broke as the “lowest point in my life”, Tess admitted to experiencing “suicidal ideation” and deep depression, subject to thousands of hateful messages daily, and had even been accosted on the street with her young son present.
“I had death threats from not only people in the world, I had a few death threats from people in the group as well,” she said.
Of rumours the two couples were “swingers”, she did not deny the allegations like Jules had, but instead hinted at abnormal attention she received before the relationships became fractured.
Without naming names, Tess described her experience as a “friendship that got way too close, and I think I experienced love bombing which definitely changes your brain chemicals”.
The mother-of-one said that version of herself “was not me” and said she feels the events leading up to the saga being made public were a shock to her.
Advised not to comment publicly at the time, she was taken by surprise when Jules — who she said had been her good friend for a year — shared that she had been “betrayed” on social media, with followers quickly connecting the dots to Tess.
Soon Jules was demanding Tess remove photos on Instagram featuring her and Lachie together, with Tess claiming she received “multiple comments from her (Jules) and her friends bullying me”, ultimately blocking their profiles.
“It was really hard seeing it, because I thought we made the unanimous decision not to make any comments publicly at all,” Tess said.
Later, Tess said she learned there had been information fed to the media by parties involved that had wafted the public’s scrutiny in her direction.
“It almost did feel like a betrayal hearing that people who wanted to keep things quiet weren’t keeping things quiet, by doing things anonymously,” she said.
Tess imagined the public would be surprised to learn the father of her child had stuck by her side through much of the backlash.
Admitting both are healing in their own way, she said the young family continue to spend time together, and that she hasn’t ruled out getting back together with Ben in the future.
The business director met Tess when she was 18, with both raised in the Mormon church and becoming missionaries.
Tess was sent to WA for 18 months after high school, door-knocking in Mandurah and Joondalup where she preached the church’s gospel, and offered volunteer services in many forms.
They married upon her return when she was 21 in 2017, with their son Beau born in 2023, though Tess admitted their relationship was not perfect.
“We had a great marriage but certain things have happened in the past that I won’t go into,” she said.
For much of her life, the Queenslander said she lived by strict Mormon values of no sex before marriage, no drinking, drugs, or gambling, but admitted those tenets had not shaped her moral compass in recent years.
“It was only in the last few years that I started to live life a little bit and to see what life was like outside the Mormon world and culture,” she revealed.
Tess said her upbringing did not afford her the opportunity to “experiment” like teens do, and that she probably took more recent behaviours “too far”.
Despite the curious timing of the interview, she said her decision to speak more than eight months after the story broke was due to her personal healing journey, and to set the record straight for her son’s benefit.
“I’m not trying to play the victim,” she declared.
Tess said she did not feel the need to re-connect with parties involved in the saga out of respect for their peace, though revealed she has spoken with them behind closed doors.
“I’ve apologised to the people who deserve apologies, and I did that privately,” she said.
