By Jimmy Briggs For Daily Mail Australia
07:30 14 May 2023, updated 09:19 14 May 2023
Nicky Brownless opened up on Sunday about her life with AFL star Garry Lyon and her children following her public split from ex-husband Billy in 2015.
The blonde beauty, 54, revealed she is still very close to her ex Billy, 56, and has a strong co-parenting relationship with the former Geelong Cats star.
‘Billy and I always had a great friendship, which I am grateful for, and that was always the case. We are a happy, blended family,’ she told The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘We have a family chat group on our phones and are across all the kids. With four of them, there is always someone who needs something.’
Nicky insisted no one was to blame in her very public split with her ex-husband Billy in 2015, in which she left him for his best mate and Footy Show co-host Garry Lyon, whom she is still with.
‘I met Billy when I was 17. We were young and just grew apart over time.’
Nicky said she turned to wellness retreats with her daughters to help find inner peace following the controversy her split caused in the media.
‘Meditation taught me and my girls that our nervous system can relax and you can go within to find the answers,’ she said.
Garry controversially went public with Nicky, who is the ex-wife of his close friend and former AFL Footy Show co-host Billy, in 2016.
Following the initial flurry of negative headlines, the pair kept a relatively low profile and are rarely pictured out and about together.
Garry blindsided Billy by starting a relationship with his wife of 18 years, just 12 months after they separated.
A month after the scandal made headlines, the Geelong legend revealed how the affair had impacted his family, saying ‘a good mate wouldn’t do that’.
Billy also sensationally confessed that Garry and Nicky’s secret relationship could have been going on for years.
‘I couldn’t believe it. I found out three or four months ago. I asked Garry and Nicky earlier on what is going on and they said they were just good friends. That’s what hurts the most,’ he said on The AFL Footy Show at the time.
Nicky shares four children with Billy, daughters Lucy and Ruby and sons Oscar and Max.