Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Tess Crosley, the woman at the centre of the explosive Lachie Neale affair scandal, has revealed her surprising link to WA, having lived in Perth for 18 months to serve her Mormon “calling”.
The mother-of-one has broken her silence in a highly anticipated sit-down interview with the Daily Mail, offering her “truth” of the saga that has attracted national attention and public scrutiny.
Crosley was raised in the Mormon church on the Gold Coast, and while she is “not an active member now”, she still respects the religion and “loves its teachings”.
Before her 21st birthday, Crosley had to serve her “Mormon mission”, which is when the church gives each member “a calling” to preach the gospel and help the public through volunteer work.
Crosley served her mission in WA and spent time in Joondalup and Mandurah over 18 months.
“It was really strict; you are devoted to being a full-time missionary”, she told Daily Mail’s The Debrief with Savanna Young.
“When I served my mission, you can’t call your family; you don’t have a phone, you don’t have a laptop; your whole purpose is to serve the church.”
She also said that in order to serve her mission, she put her nursing degree on hold and broke up with her partner, Ben Crosley, who she had been dating since 18-years-old.
They got back together upon her return, and Crosley married Ben at 21-years-old, and in 2023 welcomed their son Beau into the world.
During her time in Perth, she had many people “slam the door” in her face or swear at her, but not everyone was rude.
“A lot of people were really sweet whether they were interested or not,” she said.
“The missionaries offer a lot more than preaching the gospel; they offer service, help people move house and do a lot of projects for people. It’s basically volunteer work.
“The whole purpose of a missionary is to volunteer under the church’s name, so it’s really uplifting; you get to help a lot of people, and I met some incredible people who were going through a really tough time, going over to clean their house or help them with an uplifting quote for the day.
“It was really special, and I think missionaries are quite misunderstood.”
Crosley said that, growing up Mormon, she abided by the no sex before marriage rule and did not drink alcohol, use drugs or gamble.
“I was a very faithful member,” she said.
“The last few years I’ve started to live life a little bit and see what life was like outside the Mormon culture.”
It comes as Crosley addressed her affair with Lachie, the AFL husband of her best friend Jules Neale, saying there were decisions she “deeply regrets”.
The Neale’s marriage breakdown made headlines in December after Jules rejected reports the pair were “working through” issues in their relationship and declared she had been “betrayed in the most unimaginable way”.
Crosley, was subsequently linked to the scandal after a screenshot surfaced of Jules demanding she remove social media pictures featuring Lachie.
On Wednesday, Jules shared her side of the story on the Pretty Sure podcast, claiming her ex-husband and best friend were involved in a four-month affair.
