Inside Nadia Bartel’s life, career and divorce from AFL’s Jimmy Bartel
She shot to fame after marrying AFL star Jimmy Bartel but since their marriage breakdown, influencer Nadia Bartel has faced some difficulties. But the former WAG still has a cult following.
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Influencer, fashion designer and former WAG Nadia Bartel went through a very public break-up when her marriage to AFL superstar Jimmy Bartel ended in 2019.
Bartel — a successful businesswoman in her own right — has worked hard to be known as more than the former wife of an AFL player but in the past couple of years has dealt with her own ordeals, including a white powder snorting scandal which rocked the Melbourne community.
But the mother of two young sons still lives a glamorous life — and is happy to showcase that to her more than 500K Instagram followers where she is considered one of Australia’s most successful influencers. We take a look back at her personal and professional history.
Family life
Nadia Coppolino’s life was drawn into the spotlight when she started dating Geelong’s Jimmy Bartel in 2008. After dating for many years, Jimmy proposed to her on a private beach in Mexico and they got married two years later in a lavish ceremony.
They welcomed their first child Aston in 2015 and three years later had another son Henley.
Their private life was often on display as Jimmy was a high-profile triple-premiership player whose career spanned over 14 years, with a Brownlow Medal win in 2007.
He retired from professional sport in 2016 but their relationship still garnered interest, often fuelled by Nadia’s social media posts. She even created her own personal blog website Chronicles of Nadia in 2012 where she blogged about her personal life, as well as spruiking beauty, lifestyle and fashion products.
But their ‘fairytale’ marriage broke down in August 2019 and the reasons behind it were fuelled with speculation as Jimmy was quickly linked to another woman.
After the very public split, Nadia spoke to the Herald Sun in an exclusive interview saying: “Although I’m heartbroken, I don’t want to comment specifically on what’s been reported about Jim’s trip to the UK as I don’t think that is in anyone’s interests,” she said.
“My single focus now is to continue to protect, care and provide for my two beautiful boys as this is a personal matter.
“I am so thankful for my very supportive family and friends.”
In an interview with Stellar magazine in 2020, she was still reluctant to name any particular reasons for the demise of their marriage, simply admitting “every day is tough” and said “this is never what I thought would happen”.
Nadia was forced to publicly defend keeping the Bartel surname long after her split with former Cats player, saying she wants to have the same surname as her sons.
After their split, the couple sold their St Kilda West family home in 2020 for $3.915m.
She then bought a property in February 2021 in Melbourne’s south east and kept her social media followers updated on the renovations, realestate.com.au revealed.
Relationships
Jimmy was linked with Lauren Mand after his split with Nadia in 2019. It is understood Lauren and Jimmy split in August 2021 and he later went public with his new girlfriend Amelia Shepperd during a trip to Sydney in December of that same year.
While Nadia has kept a low profile in the dating department, she has been linked to two men since her marriage breakdown.
She was rumoured have dated personal coach Nathan Brodie towards the end of 2020 but never confirmed the relationship. Since then she has been linked with former footballer turned model Peter Dugmore.
In August 2022, she went ‘Insta-official’ with Dugmore, posting a picture of the fitness trainer on social media, and then in December the couple was snapped kissing and cuddling in Byron Bay.
Her friendship group remains strong especially with her WAG friends including Australia’s number one WAG Rebecca Judd.
Career
Nadia completed a business administration, public relations and applied communication degree at La Trobe University and was working as a promotional model when she met Jimmy.
She went on to work as an advertising account manager for Pacific Magazines at titles such as InStyle and marie claire before she followed her own creative pursuits.
She started her blog and created an Instagram account in 2012 at a time when both were considered novelties — and they both paid off.
While she stopped actively blogging in 2020, she is still uses Instagram prolifically and is involved in a number of lucrative sponsorship deals.
In 2015 she launched an online store The Con-Nection with her sister Michelle Ring but closed it a couple of years later to concentrate on her new fashion line Henne, which she also launched with her sister, in 2019.
Henne – the Swedish word for “her” – has gone from strength to strength, with each piece “designed to be loved and worn for longer than just one season”, according to its website.
In 2022, her brand was featured in the Afterpay Australian Fashion Week in Sydney for the first time.
“It is incredibly exciting and a very proud moment for us to be partnering with the festival to showcase a collection that is made for her, a collection that can be intermixed and worn anywhere, any time,” she told the Herald Sun at the time.
She was joined by Gemma Ward, Bec Judd, Olivia Molly Rogers and Simone Holtznagel in the front row for the big milestone event.
Nadia also announced Henne’s first boutique, which opened in Melbourne’s Greville St in June 2022.
Nadia is also the co-owner of Spray Aus, a self tanning company, along with Bec Judd, Emily McKay and Ellie Pearson.
Controversies
From revealing she shaved her legs and did a fake tan before going to hospital to give birth to her first son to being embroiled in a white powder snorting incident, Nadia has faced years of public scrutiny.
Nadia was filmed snorting white powder from a $3 Kmart plate at a gathering during Victoria’s lockdowns in September 2021 and it was accidentally shown live online via her friend Ellie Pearson’s Instagram account.
She was fined $5452 for breaching the state’s strict Covid-19 restrictions at the time but Victoria Police said she would not face criminal charges as officers had been “unable to determine what the substance on the plate was”.
She quickly issued an apology on Instagram, saying she was “embarrassed and remorseful” about the incident.
“I have let you all down by my actions,” she wrote at the time.
“I take full responsibility and I am committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure I make better choices in future.”
A number of brands dropped Bartel in the wake of the scandal, however, she returned to Instagram promoting her label Henne just six weeks later.
In March 2022 she faced court for driving with a suspended licence and failing to update her residential address after she was pulled over by police officers in August 2021.
Police alleged her licence was suspended because she had lost all of her demerit points. She told the Herald Sun she was “not aware of the suspension as communication had been sent to my previous residential address which I didn’t receive”.
She was fined $1100 after pleading guilty to driving while her licence was suspended, with the socialite blaming her mistake on her marriage breakdown, citing her struggles balancing single-mum life as the cause of her oversight for not updating her residential address.
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Originally published as Inside Nadia Bartel’s life, career and divorce from AFL’s Jimmy Bartel
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