Nicky Brownless on life after her marriage breakdown: ‘We are a happy, blended family’

It’s said that time heals all wounds. But seven years ago, that would have seemed an impossible task to Nicky Brownless. Her marriage to former AFL great Billy Brownless had fallen apart and it emerged that she was in a relationship with his best friend, Garry Lyon. To complicate matters, the men were co-hosts of the popular Footy Show and their wives had been best friends. The scandal made front-page news for weeks on end, putting a very private matter into the public eye.

Today, a relaxed and happy Nicky, 54, confirms to Sunday Life that she remains in a relationship with Lyon. Remarkably, she and her ex-husband Billy are not only on speaking terms, but all three have gathered with the extended Brownless clan for the last few Christmases.

“Billy and I have always had a great friendship, which I am grateful for –and that was always the case,” says Nicky. “We are a happy, blended family, but you have to want to get to that point.

“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.”

Looking back on the breakdown of her marriage, she says, “I met Billy when I was 17. We were young and just grew apart over time.”

In the aftermath of the family upheaval, Nicky and her daughters Lucy, 27, and Ruby, 25, (she also has sons Oscar, 23, and Max, 18) turned to wellness retreats to find peace. From ashrams in India to a meditation boot camp in New Zealand run by former model Rachel Hunter, the Brownless trio embraced them.

There were spooky moments. Years earlier, while on a trip to Paris in 2015, Nicky had torn out an article in a French magazine and brought it home. It contained an image of three hanging chairs, which she kept pinned to her wall. In 2017, while taking a last-minute trip to Mykonos with her daughters, they arrived at the only hotel that still had rooms available.

Nicky walked into the foyer of the San Giorgio Hotel, now known as Soho Roc House, saw the three hanging chairs and realised it was the location featured in that image. “I don’t want to sound crazy, but it’s one of those things that did happen and it was weird,” she says.

It was during another holiday, this time in New York, that Nicky and her daughters had the lightbulb moment to one day launch their own business. Called Bless – an abbreviation of their family name, Brownless – they’re pitching it as a quiet corner for self-improvement alongside a small fashion range.

Instead of spruiking health products and remedies, as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop does, the Brownless women are starting with a range of sustainable singlets, shopping bags and head scarves. They also sell moon cycle calendars – thought to help a woman understand her daily ebbs and flows by following the lunar phases – and there’s a blog that keeps followers updated on their journeys of mental and physical wellbeing.

“Meditation taught me and the girls that our nervous system can relax and you can go within to find the answers.”

Nicky Brownless

The mother-and-daughters combo practise daily meditation and yoga, and “staying in the moment” is their modus operandi.

Nicky started taking yoga classes while she was pregnant with Lucy. It was her first foray into self-care and it’s a ritual she tries to maintain. It’s also the reason she wanted to start Bless – to encourage others to slow down and breathe.

“I often remind myself to pull over and give myself time,” she says. “If you’re overwhelmed with life or a situation, take time for clarity. In that moment when things are hectic, nothing feels right – you enter flight-or-fight mode. Meditation taught me and the girls that our nervous system can relax and you can go within to find the answers.”

Yoga allowed her to take time out for herself, to “pause and fill my cup” while she dealt with the demands of motherhood. “I had three children under four, and then my youngest son Max came along,” she says. “You can’t give from an empty cup, and we can often slip into old habits and forget to do things for our health.”

Nicky splits her time between her home in Melbourne and a farm in Main Ridge she owns with Lyon; the couple plan to build their forever home on the Mornington Peninsula property. “Lots of kangaroos around and a chance to disconnect from the city,” she notes.

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She’s very close to her 78-year-old mother, Jan Smith, called Mazzie by her family. “I get my strength from my mum, that’s for sure,” says Nicky. “She has always been there for me and the kids; through the good and bad times.

“We often travel together and she’s a big influence in all of our lives. She is wise and has a beautiful spirit, and has been a guiding light for me, from my marriage to starting a business with my daughters. Mum is always the one who reminds us that this too shall pass – whatever it is.”

Ruby, who graduated from Whitehouse Institute of Design in 2019, helps style the Bless photo shoots. She’s engaged to Western Bulldogs player Josh Wallis and works at Mecca while building her business, making sure it’s sailing smoothly and reining in ambitious plans to grow their range by adding more products and collaborations.

“I do see us expanding into diaries, I see stickers. It’s something I’d love to do day-to-day. But mostly for now I am the one keeping the other two on track and focused,” she says, laughing.

Lucy is a model who became a yoga teacher in 2019. She’s also a lifestyle influencer on the rise – but less WAG-red-carpet, more hippie-come-lately.

“I do see us expanding into diaries, I see stickers. But mostly for now I am the one keeping the other two on track and focused.”

Ruby Brownless

Surviving a family split had a major impact on the sisters, but both are quick to add that their parents did a great job at making sure matters remained as amicable as possible. “We have always been close to both Mum and Dad,” says Lucy, who’s been in a relationship for the last six years with Sydney Swans player Patrick McCartin, who was a friend of hers in high school (she moved from Melbourne to Sydney in March 2022 to be with him).

The sisters credit their mum for their adventurous spirit. Nicky is known to encourage her daughters to pack their bags for a spontaneous trip abroad – from Mykonos to Mexico, they travel together to plug into breath workshops and purge in sauna hot rooms.

With Nicky’s youngest son Max taking a gap year and Oscar drafted to play for Geelong (as his father once did), she says she feels it’s a great time to not only travel but focus on her own career ambitions.

“With all the kids grown up it made sense to launch a business, to do something local with plans to expand,” she says. “I have support from Billy and Garry, which is so encouraging.”

Says Ruby, “Dad has always been business-savvy and taught us a few things as we jumped into this together. He shared lots of advice.”

Lucy adds, “Dad told us the biggest thing he took away from his football career is that it’s always a team game and you’re a team player. He reminded Ruby, Mum and me to have that value in the front of our minds.”

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Another tip the trio have taken from Billy is to make time for themselves. Nicky says it goes back to a technique Billy would defer to at the peak of his fame.

“When the kids were little, Billy would write ‘something on’ on our calendar every Friday,” recalls Nicky. “It was his way of carving time and placing boundaries. If anyone rang to ask him out, he would say, ‘No, I can’t do that, I have something on.’

“It’s something I have learnt to do, and it’s a reminder you don’t have to feel bad about saying no to others and yes to yourself.”

Lessons Lucy and Ruby have taken from their mother include learning to observe the moon’s key phases to help them live their best life, a ritual they have done together for years.

“Every full moon or new moon, I get the girls to write things they’d like to do or achieve, and often we sit down when we get together and read over them and see how things have turned out,” says Nicky. “It’s like a rebirth.”

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