Trigger warning: This article mentions disordered eating.
Olympic swimmer Emily Seebohm is one of Australia’s favourite athletes. Showcasing talent in the pool from a young age, Emily has achieved quite a lot in her 30 years, having won a tally of 53 medals so far on the global stage.
WATCH: Get to know Emily Seebohm
Given her favour with the Australian public, curiosity has naturally arisen about her relationship status.
With strict training routines in place, and Olympic games to conquer, it’s a wonder Emily has found time to date at all.
She has had a couple of high-profile relationships, but after they ended in splits after a few years’ duration, she decided to keep her latest relationship pretty tightly under wraps… until now.
The swimmer confirmed her relationship with The Challenge co-star Ryan Gallagher in December 2022.
Posing with her beau for her Instagram, Emily wrote: “Letting you in on a little secret 🤫.”
Since then, the couple have been posting regular snaps together.
Most recently, Emily and Ryan celebrated Christmas and New Year together, even rocking matching pyjamas for the festive season.
As they rung in 2023, the athlete proclaimed “this is just the beginning” alongside a photo of the two of them.
Emily famously dated fellow Australian swimmer, Mitch Larkin, from 2016 to 2018, until the pair suffered a rumour-riddled split.
Allegations that Mitch had cheated on Emily arose in the media, even though he claimed multiple times that he “absolutely did not cheat” on his girlfriend.
Emily first addressed the split publicly on Instagram, in July 2018.
“I would like to take this opportunity before more speculation and rumours are spread. Due to current events that have occurred, Mitch Larkin and I have decided to end our relationship and go our separate ways,” she penned.
“As always, I appreciate your support and ask for your understanding and privacy on this matter.”
A month later, Emily further addressed their breakup in a chat with Courier Mail.
“I just want to get on with my life, move on ad want nothing to do with him and that is the best outcome,” she revealed.
“I feel stronger than ever and ready to put this all behind us and move on with my life,” she confirmed.
Despite this, the breakup took a real toll on Emily’s personal life, and she began to struggle with disordered eating.
Speaking to her fellow campmates on the 2022 season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Emily explained the issues the breakup created for her mentally.
“I was diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia … I don’t say it out loud because it’s not something that I’m really proud of,” she divulged tearily.
“At points it got so bad that I’d cry going to training because I didn’t want to put my togs on in front of people.
“We were weighed on pool deck in front of everyone and told to eat less … I tried to reach out to people and ask for help but it’s really hard…
“I even lost my period for about a year-and-a-half. That’s how bad, like, I was malnourishing my body, really,” she shared.
“At that point, I was just like, this is the bottom. This is the bottom for me, like, I need help. So, I saw the dietitian and that was the best thing I ever did.”
Meanwhile, Emily was also falling in love again. After her 2018 breakup, Emily scrubbed her social media of any sign of Larkin, and soon moved on with a new love, radio host David ‘Luttsy’ Lutteral.
Emily and David took up together in 2019, and soon became a prominent pair on the Brisbane social scene, with David’s career in radio creating quite the profile.
Although they shared a 16-year age gap, with David well into his forties at the time he started dating 28-year-old Emily, they seemed to have a strong relationship, even joking about getting engaged.
“She’s suggesting it’s my move, my move would obviously be to propose,” David said while on radio.
“It’s nice to know that’s where her head’s at,” he added.
However, it wasn’t meant to be, and the pair announced their split in March 2021, citing their different lifestyles had put their relationship under strain.
It was only two months later that her new boyfriend appeared on socials.
Although we’re hoping we might at least get the mystery man’s name some time soon, Emily’s need for privacy after two rounds of public heartbreak is definitely understandable.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call The Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 33 4673 or visit their website.
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