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It’s been a decade since Olympic swimmer Michael Klim and his wife Lindy split, with the break-up of their 10-year marriage generating no shortage of headlines at the time.
But a decade on, Lindy has re-opened old wounds by getting candid about her take on what led to their marriage breakdown – and she alleges it involved “some kind of infidelity” on Michael’s part, a claim he has previously denied.
Speaking on an episode of The Parenthood podcast in September, Lindy – an Indonesian-Australian model and entrepreneur who shares three children with Michael – told how she has now gone through two relationship break-ups.
The first was with Michael – and the second most recent break-up happened in 2024 when Lindy split with husband Adam Ellis, the father of her fourth child.
Lindy described the separations as “very different scenarios”.
“So the first one kind of happened really quickly, in the sense that there was some kind of infidelity that happened, and so my whole world kind of came crashing down,” she shared of her split with Michael.
“So that was really a big moment for me because I was like, okay, well, I can’t stay anymore. I have to leave, and so that was a really difficult decision.
“So going through that hurt and everything, and then having to navigate divorce, separation, divorce… It was just awful.”
In the aftermath of her split with the Olympian Lindy was, she said, “very sad”.
“It all happened very quickly, and it was a horrible, horrible time,” she shared.
“I was probably depressed to be honest, but I didn’t have that luxury of staying in bed. You know, you have to get up, you’ve got to make school lunches, you have to continue, you have to.
“And in a sense, I’m grateful for [my children] because if I didn’t have them, I could have just wallowed in my own self pity and stayed in bed and had a mental breakdown, but you couldn’t,” she explained.
“You can’t usually as a mum you don’t get that luxury because children naturally want to be with their mum.”
It’s not the first time that Lindy has spoken about the difficult break-up with Michael. In a 2016 interview with Stellar she alleged she had found out her ex had got a new girlfriend on social media, saying she felt “very let down”.
In a response at the time, Michael denied the claims saying, “It’s hurtful when there are stories and rumours that aren’t true written about you… especially when both Lindy and I were making an effort to salvage something.”
Of course, history shows that the former couple weren’t able to salvage their relationship, although in more recent years they have appeared amicable.
In comments to the Daily Mail about Lindy’s latest interview, the former swimming star reportedly sounded “resigned”.
“This is something she chose to talk about. I’m not commenting on anything in our private lives that happened,” he said.
Lindy’s comments come at a somewhat awkward time for Michael who – on September 23 – appeared on former Sunrise star Mark Beretta’s new podcast Beretts’ Best.
In that chat, the star told more about the difficult time before he was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) – a rare autoimmune disorder where the body attacks the covering of its own nerves.
Michael had only recently met his now-partner Michelle Owen at a bar in Bali in 2019 when he collapsed at an airport in Kuala Lumpur.
“I wasn’t able to get to immigration,” he said candidly. “My legs gave way a couple of minutes into the walk through the airport, and I end up sitting down on the ground, and bawled my eyes out.”
It was then he called Michelle – and the phone call ended up being a turning point.
“It was a really really hard time because I was really in denial because it had happened before, but not to that degree. It happened at home in Bali, where my legs used to give way, and I had some other ailments that I was blaming for my condition, like a bad ankle and a bad back.
“But I never took it seriously, but that moment where there’s no matter how much motivation and will you’ve got, and your legs just don’t do what you want them to do.
“That was a tough, tough half an hour to be honest, being alone as well.
“That was probably the first time that I realised how important connection and the people that you’ve got around you are,” he admitted.
“Because I reached for the phone. I needed to speak to just hear voices of people that care and love me.”
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