AFL reporter slams Jules Neale and Tess Crosley for airing their dirty laundry in podcast interviews: ‘I cannot understand why’
Veteran AFL reporter Caroline Wilson has taken aim at Jules Neale and Tess Crosley for publicly discussing the bitter fallout from the Lachie Neale saga in separate podcast interviews.
Speaking on Channel Seven’s Agenda Setters on Monday, Wilson said she was baffled by the decision of both women to publicly reveal such intimate details about their private lives.
Jules, 36, broke her silence in a tell-all interview with influencer Adelle Petropoulos on her Pretty Sure podcast last Wednesday, detailing the devastating discovery that her husband had been having a four-month affair with her former best friend, Tess.
Tess, 30, subsequently gave her first direct interview about the scandal on Daily Mail Australia podcast The Debrief with Savanna Young where she discussed the affair, the breakdown of her friendship with Jules and the intense scrutiny she had faced.
‘Jules Neale and Tess Crosley both gave so-called tell-all interviews last week on the eve of the AFL finals campaign – a campaign in which Jules Neale’s estranged husband Lachie is expected to feature heavily,’ Wilson said during her regular ‘Caro’s Call’ segment.
‘For the purposes of this ‘call’ I watched, read, listened to both of these interviews and I cannot understand why either woman chose to do it, who is advising them and what they thought it would achieve.’
Veteran sports journalist Caroline Wilson (pictured) has taken aim at Jules Neale and Tess Crosley for publicly discussing the bitter fallout from the Lachie Neale saga in separate podcast interviews
Speaking on Channel Seven’s Agenda Setters on Monday, Wilson said she was baffled by the decision of both women to publicly reveal such intimate details about their private lives.(Left: Jules talking on the Pretty Sure podcast. Right: Tess talking on The Debrief with Savanna Young podcast)
Wilson was careful to stress that she was not passing judgement on the women’s claims.
‘I make absolutely no comment on the deeply private details that went so very public last week with all that extraordinary influencing detail,’ she said.
‘Nor do I have any clue on whether this will affect Lachie Neale or whether I care whether it affects Brisbane’s finals campaign. Nor do I have any particular sympathy for Lachie Neale at this stage. Nor am I taking sides in any way at all,’ she added.
But Wilson returned to the central question she said had been troubling her – why Jules and Tess had chosen to discuss their private lives publicly.
‘But I say again to these two women, who by increments last summer broke the story themselves on social media of this big marriage break-up – why, in an era where social media and their hits reign supreme, why they chose to communicate their private lives in this way.’
In her interview with The Debrief, Tess addressed a number of persistent rumours including allegations that the friendship group had been involved in a secret swinging arrangement.
While stopping short of revealing intimate details, Tess suggested there was more to the swingers rumours than has previously been made public.
‘There was a lot of context that people don’t know… it was a friendship that just got way too close,’ she said.
‘For the purposes of this ‘call’ I watched, read, listened to both of these interviews and I cannot understand why either woman chose to do it, who is advising them and what they thought it would achieve,’ Wilson said
‘Out of respect for the other people involved, I obviously can’t talk about their private lives.’
The mother-of-one also challenged another widely held belief about the scandal, revealing she and Jules were not lifelong best friends as many had assumed.
Instead, Tess said their friendship had only existed for around a year before the affair detonated and sent shockwaves through both families.
However, it was one particularly cruel rumour that ultimately convinced her to speak out.
For months, speculation swirled online that Neale was secretly the father of her son, Beau, a claim Tess says crossed a line.
While accepting responsibility for her role in the affair, she vehemently denied the allegation.
‘I just had a point where I was like, ‘Don’t bring my child into this. That is 100 per cent a rumour,” she said, adding: ‘There’s no truth to it at all.’
Elsewhere, Tess claimed that she was ‘lovebombed’ by Lachie during their affair, and that she ‘deeply regretted’ some of her decisions.
In her interview with The Debrief, Tess addressed a number of persistent rumours including allegations that the friendship group had been involved in a secret swinging arrangement
While stopping short of revealing intimate details, Tess suggested there was more to the swingers rumours than has previously been made public. ‘There was a lot of context that people don’t know… it was a friendship that just got way too close,’ she said
Meanwhile, Jules told the Pretty Sure podcast that Lachie had cheated on her with multiple women.
‘You kind of question your trust with everything and everyone at that point. It’s not a good feeling,’ she said.
Jules also revealed there had originally been plans to keep the separation private and publicly characterise the split as a marital issue.
But she said that changed when she 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,’ she said.
‘It actually felt good to have people know, not exactly what had happened, but just the truth.’
The Debrief with Savanna Young is now available on the Daily Mail’s YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with new episodes dropping weekly.
