Jules Neale has strongly hinted at a permanent move back to her home state of Western Australia, following the dramatic and very public breakdown of her marriage to AFL champion Lachie Neale.
A Bandaged Heart and a Journey West
On Tuesday evening, the 35-year-old shared a poignant image on her Instagram Stories. The picture featured Busselton Jetty in Perth, accompanied solely by a bandaged heart emoji. The post is widely interpreted as signalling that the Western Australian-born WAG has gone home to be close to family for Christmas as she attempts to heal.
Jules has been based in Brisbane since 2019, where she lived with the South Australian-born Lions midfielder. However, movers were reportedly seen outside the couple's home in the Brisbane suburb of Seven Hills last week, suggesting an irreversible separation.
The former couple share two young children: four-year-old daughter Piper and one-year-old son Freddie.
Public Fallout and a Friendship Shattered
The marital split has been played out alongside a very public feud with a former friend. Jules launched a remarkable attack on Monday against Tess Crosley, demanding she remove Instagram photos from the Brisbane Lions' grand final celebrations.
"Take these down, you idiot, you're embarrassing yourself," Jules wrote under photos showing Tess with Lachie Neale. The comment was later deleted, and the two women no longer follow each other on social media.
This clash is particularly striking given that photos have now emerged of a final holiday the two couples enjoyed together in November. The images, still visible on Jules's social media earlier in the week, show the group smiling on a coastal getaway, with one picture of the former friends in bikinis on the sand.
Further evidence of their once-close bond includes a TikTok video from June, captioned "Four best friends," where Jules and Tess perform the "hope our husbands like each other" skit, with Lachie and Tess's husband Ben shown arm-in-arm.
'Betrayed in the Most Unimaginable Way'
The current acrimony follows Jules's definitive statement last Friday, which contradicted media reports that the pair were attempting to reconcile. "I want to make it very clear that I am not 'working through' anything," she wrote. "I have been betrayed in the most unimaginable way."
She did not specify the nature of this betrayal, but added, "All I can do now is to heal and do what's best for my children."
Shortly after posting this, Jules systematically deleted every photo of Lachie from her Instagram account, erasing over a decade of shared memories. The arrival of a moving truck at their Brisbane home and her symbolic return to Perth now paint a clear picture of a marriage that has reached its end.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Tess Crosley in the marital breakdown. Neither party has made further public comment on the situation beyond Jules's social media posts.
