Olympic great Liesel Jones stunned her fans last year when she announced during her Triple M radio show that her marriage had ended.
And now the 35-year-old swimming champ has revealed intimate details of why she went public with her split from her husband of five years Damon Martin.
The beloved athlete said she made the courageous decision to expose her private life because she wanted to control her own story.
And as public figure she did not want to be forced to ‘lie’ about the split.
Liesel made the frank admission during an interview on the latest episode of Stellar Magazine’s Something to Talk About podcast.
Olympic swimming great Liesel Jones has revealed intimate details of why she went public with her split from her husband of five years Damon Martin in a new interview with Something to Talk About podcast. Pictured: Liesel has posed for the latest edition of Stellar Magazine
‘I made sure I asked Damo [Martin] first, before revealing the news,’ she explained during her chat.
She continued: ‘This was a little bit of time down the track; we had healed a bit. I wasn’t going to share information that he wasn’t comfortable with, and if he had said “no” then I would have respected that.
‘But also, I didn’t want to be lying. It was going to come out sometime, and getting in front of it I was able to control the story and how I told it. It wasn’t a bitter divorce.’
During the interview she paid tribute to her ex as supportive.
Liesel stunned her fans last year when she announced during her Triple M radio show that her marriage had ended. Pictured: Liesel with Damon Martin in 2018
Liesel rose to fame as an Olympic swimmer at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Pictured: Liesel hold her Gold Medal for the 100m Breaststroke she won during the Beijing Olympics in 2008
‘I’m in the public eye and people ask questions and it meant then I could move forward, that I could be open and honest about dating journeys’ she said.
‘Imagine if someone saw that I was on Bumble and they were like, “Hang on, aren’t you married?”‘
In the latest edition of Stellar, the Olympic Gold Medal champ looks glamorous in the magazine as she poses in a blue denim skirt with matching matching shirt.
It comes after Leisel opened up about her dating life and her experience with matchmaking apps during her radio show last month.
Leisel confirmed that she is back on the dating scene and recently lowered her age bracket on matchmaking app Bumble.
Leisel and Martin were married at the luxurious Peppers resort in the NSW country town of Bowral in August 2018, with the ceremony coming less than a year after they got engaged
On Triple M’s The Rush Hour with Leisel Jones, Liam & Dobbo, she explained how she has secured 50 new matches since changing her age range from 35-45 to 25-35.
‘I just changed it yesterday, I already had 50 new people, 50 new matches in that age group,’ she revealed.
‘The dating pool is very difficult it’s very hard to go though people of my age.’
‘I’ve gone from the big deep end in the big pool to the little kids pool!’ she joked.
It comes after Leisel announced the ‘incredibly sad’ news that she split from her husband of five years, Damon last year.
Speaking on her Triple M radio show in November, she told listeners they had called it quits after ‘realising we’re better off going separate ways’.
‘We have separated. It’s incredibly sad news,’ she shared at the time in an emotional announcement.’
Leisel and Martin were married at the luxurious Peppers resort in the NSW country town of Bowral in August 2018, with the ceremony coming less than a year after they got engaged.
‘I can’t cook my chops as well as Damo used to do, and I miss that,’ she went on.
‘I’m conscious I am 38, I am now single, and I don’t have any children and I might have missed that window, so that’s a little frightening.
‘It’s a really big adjustment to do things on your own. Damo is a such a wonderful guy, a great guy. We are both extremely heartbroken.’
Read more in the new issue of Stellar Magazine
