Sophie Cachia shares message for her basketball star ex-fiancée Maddie Garrick

Sophie Cachia has shared a warm message for her ex-fiancée Maddie Garrick.  

The 31-year-old mummy blogger insisted on Monday that she wishes her former partner well after their shock split. 

‘While breakups are sad for everyone, I have chosen to have a really positive mindset and I have peace knowing we shared a wonderful few years together and I wish her all the best both personally and professionally overseas,’ she told The Herald Sun. 

Sophie went on to tell the publication that she isn’t sitting around feeling sorry for herself.  

‘Every challenge in life will provide you with a lesson,’ she said. ‘You can either choose to stay the same, or grow from it, and I promised myself I’d never let anyone break me again.

‘I could play the poor me card, or I could look at the life I’ve built — I have two incredible children, a beautiful home and a wonderful career. I really have everything I need.’ 

She admitted however that ‘Christmas unfortunately will look a bit different this year’ as she and her children had to cancel travel plans ‘due to recent circumstances’. 

The breakup between the pair came as a shock to their fans, with little indication things were going wrong behind the scenes. 

Cachia revealed she was ‘counting down the sleeps’ until she could see her fiancé Garrick in Italy in October, only to cut the holiday and relationship short and fly home ‘in tears’.

The author claimed in the three months before her trip she was the happiest she had ever been.

And while she hasn’t officially addressed the reason for her sudden return home or why she’s deleting all traces of the blonde basketballer online, she has alluded to issues around ‘trust’.

Speaking to FEMAIL via her assistant Caitlin, the devastated mum appeared ready to focus on anything but her relationship drama, not wanting to go into the reason behind their split.

Instead she said she wants to ‘concentrate on being the best mum possible’ for her two children who she shares with ex Jaryd Cachia.

Yet up until a few weeks ago those same two children also called Maddie ‘mumma’ and missed her every moment she was away from the home they built together. 

Hours after telling FEMAIL she wanted to focus on her kids the mum was doing just that, posting pictures of her daughter Florence at her orientation day.

But the last few weeks haven’t been easy and in a post on Instagram the mummy blogger admitted she hadn’t been able to be there for her kids as much as she had liked.

So her PA Caitlin had stepped up to fill the void.

In the post Sophie alluded to moving out of the home she and Maddie built, and previously told FEMAIL they hoped to grow their family in.

She also referenced her PA as her housemate, which could mean the family have moved in with the supportive friend. 

‘She’s cried with me, held me, packed up the house for me, stayed awake for sleepless nights with me,’ Sophie said in a post thanking her friend for her support.

Sophie has added fuel to the fire by alluding to not being able to be in a relationship without trust.

Also posting memes expressing her inner turmoil including one which read: Imagine thinking you aren’t good enough when you are actually too good’.

She has also been posting photos with her dogs asking them to be by her side forever. 

Maddie has been less obvious about the breakup and didn’t respond to an interview request after she was contacted about breakdown.

However she did make a reel shortly after the request, revealing she has been through a tough time and planned to keep her head up. 

The pretty blonde is also yet to delete pics and videos of Sophie from her account and has pictures of them exploring Italy together.

‘Thanks for coming and everything you do,’ one post which shows the couple at dinner reads.

‘Bene,’ which is Italian for good is the caption on another which shows Maddie on Sophie’s back in front of the leaning tower of Pisa. 

In one post, shortly after arriving to Europe where she has a contract with an Italian team, Maddie described herself as being on Cloud 9.

Sophie commented with a row of heart-eyes emojis, but hasn’t engaged with Maddie since October 13.

One very emotional video posted on September 11 in honour of Sophie’s birthday where Maddie claims the mummy blogger is the ‘love of her life’.

‘I miss you so much and am sad I can’t be there to celebrate the wonderful person that you are, but no matter the distance, I love you so much! On to the next one and whatever it shall bring,’ she wrote.

And Sophie replied: ‘Heart hurts today missing you. Also, secretly impressed with my basketball move there (if that even is one!?) LOVE YOU. Counting down the sleeps my girl.’

She also posted a picture of herself in bed with her kids, tagging Maddie saying they couldn’t wait for their mama to be back with them. 

The video included a clip of the moment the women became engaged, at the home they built together.

Speaking to FEMAIL at the time the women said they were planning on adding to their family of four and making fresh memories on their own terms in the dream home they shared. 

In the full-length engagement video Sophie explains to her sporty now ex-fiance that her diamond ring contained three stones, one to represent their love and one for each of the kids who had come to adore the basketballer. 

After the breakup Sophie posted a picture of another engagement-style ring on her Instagram story and said it’ about time she spoils herself’  

This isn’t her first experience with heartache, and she has been on the giving a receiving end in her past relationships.

She alluded to this fact in a furious story where she complained she was ‘so sick of needing people’ and having her life fall apart in a moment. 

The couple’s break up comes after they threw a lavish pool-side party on Augusts, in celebration of their plans to get married.

 In May the mummy blogger share a photo with FEMAIL showing herself, Jaryd, both their partners and kids, painting their unusual family situation as ‘perfect’.

The mummy blogger’s relationship breakdown with her husband was more drawn-out but very painful for the AFL star. 

He previously revealed he was contemplating suicide – while she having sex with women and enjoying an ‘amazing’ period of self-discovery in the final months of their marriage. 

The 30-year-old was always supportive of his wife – from the first time she realised she was sexually attracted to females to her first kiss with a female footy player she was totally obsessed with. 

And while they smile in front of the cameras now with their new partners and functional ‘blended family’, both admit the happy ending has been hard won.

‘As happy as I was to support her, I was still not doing well mentally, dealing with my own lack of purpose in life,’ he wrote in the opening chapter of Sophie’s book Then There Was Her.

Jaryd said Sophie’s decision to end their marriage came as a shock to him even though she had been exploring her sexuality for months.

He said they still had a great sex life and things felt ‘almost normal’ but it was he who ended up pushing for an official divorce, noting that while she could easily meet women he was ‘one of the most recognisable husbands in Melbourne’ and couldn’t do the same, even with Sophie’s blessing.

‘Soph knew I was struggling, but I never told her how bad it got – that it got to the point where I thought about taking my own life. 

‘It was always the thought of my kids that kept me going, because I love being a dad so much. But the hatred I had for myself when I looked in the mirror. I couldn’t stand the person I saw looking back at me,’ he wrote.

Sophie, who shares two children with Jaryd, Bobby, eight and Florence, five, told FEMAIL she was shocked to find out he had been struggling so much while she was enjoying one of the happiest periods of her life.

‘It is difficult to read about how much he was hurting at the time, that he was hiding his feelings to protect me,’ she said. 

‘I was not completely naïve to what he was feeling but I was open and transparent and he put on a brave face, it must have been very difficult for him to do that, and it is really beautiful that he has been so open now.’

Sophie said becoming sexually attracted to women at the age of 27 after leading a ‘very straight’ life was also hard for her to process. 

‘It was certainly a shock to the system, I had never been attracted to a woman and never looked at anyone other than my husband romantically for years,’ she said admitting she contemplated ignoring her feelings.

Jaryd said he felt his world was crumbling around him. He had finished his career as a professional athlete, had been rejected from the police force and was watching his wife fall out of love.

‘I’d wake up in the morning and I’d be in a f***ing foul mood for no reason,’ he admitted.

The changing dynamic in the couple’s house as Sophie explored her attraction to women was difficult to cope with. 

‘She’d have her girlfriends from footy over more and more, and some nights when I’d get home from work, I felt like I wasn’t wanted in my own home,’ Jaryd said.

But he hid his pain as he watched the woman he loved buzzing with happiness thanks to her newly discovered bisexuality, thriving career and growth as a mother. 

‘I could have been a real pr**k about it. But I have too much respect for her as the mother of my children and as a woman to not help her and support her,’ he said.

Despite pushing Sophie to ‘scratch the itch’ and work out her sexuality, when she told him their marriage was over after a year of experimenting with women, Jaryd admits he hadn’t ‘seen it coming’. 

In fact neither had Sophie – for a long time, she believed her attraction to women was a phase. But she’s glad she followed her intuition. 

‘I’ve found sex with females for me to be more intimate, more emotional – wild and dirty at times, yes, but also more spiritual,’ she wrote in her book. 

‘Whilst morally and in society’s eyes it would have been much more appropriate to stay in my marriage and live to my vows it went against my true core,’ she told FEMAIL.

‘And while at times it was petrifying and confusing and daunting I knew it was important to follow what I was feeling.’

Sophie said her journey has been ‘really difficult’.  

‘I never intended to fall out of love with Jaryd, and to accept that you are falling out of love when you don’t want to is really hard.

‘But I wasn’t scared about telling Jaryd what was going on, or following my instincts, because I knew we would never lose our connection.

‘I was completely honest – there was never any deception in the process  – and he has supported me through the whole thing which comes down to the high quality human that he is,’ she said.

The couple were faced with rumours following their split and cruel comments on social media, where Sophie has a huge following.

‘I guess the rumours can stop now that I have given Jaryd the opportunity to speak his truth and put the lid on all the stuff people assumed was going on,’ Sophie said.

She said the critical comments from strangers never bothered her.

‘People who see the Sophie from the internet think they are in the position to know about my private life,’ she said, addressing the cruel comments she copped following her breakup.

‘But I barely read them, I lived my truth and I don’t need validation from random people on the internet.’

In fact Sophie, who now describes herself as sexually fluid and attracted to ‘humans’, said she has never ‘come out to her family or friends’.

‘I would just introduce them to women I was seeing,’ she said. 

The mummy blogger said her father, a former AFL coach, has been one of the most supportive people in her life since the breakdown of her marriage to Jaryd.

‘One day dad came over to my house, and a woman I was seeing was there, and he just asked ‘so are you gay now?’,’ she said.

‘I said, ‘well I am dating a woman at the moment, so if you call it that’.

‘It was very sweet, he has always supported me but just wanted that clarification.’

Jaryd and Sophie say they still love each other, but as family, and have been able to maintain their mutual respect.

Both parents say they were focused on their children and developed a good base for them during the emotional rollercoaster.

‘They see mum who had to make some difficult decisions, to do what we are always telling them to do, to do what made her happy,’ Sophie said.

Jaryd is now in a relationship with a woman called Jacinta, who has an eight-year-old son, Max.  

Sophie said this book marks the closing of their chapter together, and the beginning of hers with Madeleine.

‘Watching him fall in love with Jacinta has been really beautiful, I just want him to be happy,’ Sophie said of her ex. 

She said being able to write a book was ‘surreal’ and her life dream – although she never expected it to be this story.

‘Somewhere deep inside there is an excited little girl who has had her dream come true,’ she said.

‘It is amazing to see it in the shelves, but it is also exciting, scary and makes me feel vulnerable.’