Qld sporting WAGs: Inside their lives and their careers
The wives and girlfriends – or WAGs – are often the first people thanked by our athletes. Meet the unsung heroes behind Queensland’s sporting stars. SPECIAL REPORT
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Meet the unsung heroes behind Queensland’s male sporting stars.
The wives and girlfriends – or WAGs – are often the first people thanked by athletes, usually because they too make tireless sacrifices for their families and careers.
We take a look inside the lives of the WAGs who stand alongside our state’s top male athletes.
Sinead Cronin
Mitch Larkin’s current girlfriend has so far kept a far lower profile than the Olympic swimmer’s previous partner, Emily Seebohm.
Of course Seebohm had her own prominent reputation given her swimming exploits, but her split with Larkin created headlines in 2018.
Since then Larkin has started dating solicitor Cronin, with the pair keeping things private.
“My swimming is open to everyone but my personal life is personal and I’m going to keep like that,” he said in January 2020.
The pair announced their relationship in 2019, posting photos on Instagram of the pair together.
One snap is from a Halloween party, where Larkin dressed up as an astronaut while Cronin sported green hair and face paint.
“Quick trip to space and found myself a ‘Miss Milkyway’ #outofthisworld,” Larkin captioned the photo.
Cronin commented: “Wow ..... you WOULD upload THIS one of all photos. A photo of me with green hair and a blue face …”
Cronin works as a law clerk, and volunteers with a Christian association that feeds the homeless.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Cronin also has a “keen interest in civil aviation” and enjoys marathon running.
Shanel Naoum
Chiropractic physician. Florida native. Cameron Smith’s girlfriend. Mystery woman.
Little is known about Naoum, who was first spotted alongside the Queensland golfer when he won the 2022 Players Championship in March.
However Smith alluded to the 25-year-old’s quirky sense of humour – one the mullet-wearing, loose talking golfer also owns – when answering why he wears an evil eye symbol around his wrist.
“My girlfriend makes me wear it,” Smith said of the good luck charm.
With Naoum a keen fitness trainer, it appears a match made in heaven given 29-year-old Smith’s ascent up the golfing ladder in recent years.
Now with an estimated net worth of $50 million, the world No.4 has called Jacksonville home for the past seven years.
He famously switched to rebel golf league LIV and explained his reasons in November 2022.
Rachel Khawaja (nee McLellan)
“The People’s Champion” has truly met his dream partner.
Test cricketer Usman Khawaja may have become a favourite among punters for his laid-back approach, but the Queensland captain has long hailed his wife as the real hero.
Khawaja, 36, claimed the Australian Test player of the year award at the Allan Border Medal in January 2023 but saved most praise for 27-year-old Rachel.
Armed with a marketing degree and more than 90,000 Instagram followers, Rachel has made a habit of stealing the show with bold dress choices, and had already turned heads earlier that night for her stunning blue gown.
“For my wife, Rachel – you are the rock. You know how much I love you,” he said in his acceptance speech.
“You love Usman Khawaja the person, not Usman Khawaja the cricketer – and for that, I’m truly indebted to you. Without you, I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
The couple, who he met through a friend in 2015, were engaged in 2016 when Usman popped the question during a horse and cart ride on Rachel’s 21st birthday.
They married on the Sunshine Coast in April 2018 and have since welcomed daughters Aisha and Ayla – described as “feisty”.
“Can’t believe we now have two beautiful daughters,” Rachel wrote in May 2022 after welcoming Ayla.
“Feeling unbelievably blessed and deep in that newborn love bubble at the moment.”
A Pakistani-born Muslim, Usman is the first of his religion to wear the baggy green cap, and Rachel was raised a Catholic Australian in Brisbane along with her two siblings.
In 2017 she converted to Islam, knowing how much Usman wanted to raise a family in the Islamic faith.
“That’s the only reason. I could have married Rachel as she was, as a Catholic,” Usman said.
“I always said to her that, ‘I want our kids to have parents that are going in the same direction’. That’s why we probably talked about it really early because I needed to suss this out.”
Usman has previously credited his settled family life and becoming a father for his recent batting form and successes for Australia.
“Having Aisha around, I come home and it’s a bit of fun and it takes you away from the game, which is really nice,” Usman told Qweekend in February 2022.
In 2021 the couple revealed all their favourite parts of Brisbane, including best coffee shop and the perfect date night.
Ellidy Vlug
The widow of late Olympic snowboarder Alex “Chumpy” Pullin has been on a crusade to keep the 32-year-old’s legacy alive.
The former world champion drowned on the Gold Coast in July 2020 after suffering a shallow-water blackout when trying to hold his breath for too long.
Less than two days after the accident, Vlug made the decision to harvest his sperm posthumously.
Within 15 months “miracle” Minnie was born.
However it was always going to be a bittersweet feeling.
“My grief is for Chump, he’s missing out on being a dad. I see dads with their babies knowing how good he would have been,” she told the Darling, Shine! podcast.
“Every day I go to the beach and I see guys walking along the beach with their chicks and the guy is carrying the baby in the carrier on his chest and the girl’s got the dog.
“When I see a dad with a baby it f***ing kills me, and I am so happy for that person, it’s not a pity party here.”
Vlug has since written a book about her journey called Heartstrong: Chumpy, Minnie and Me.
“I wrote to my baby before she was born,” she wrote.
“In her baby book, I wrote: ‘You are so lucky, you’ve got the best dad in the whole world.
“He’s the biggest legend.
“I will show you everything he is – and was – but he’s not here. And he won’t be here.
“But you’re so lucky that he’s your dad’.”
The couple met on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where Ellidy grew up.
Her parents – Peter Vlug, a police sergeant turned actor and model, and Karen, also a cop who became a seamstress and fashion designer – split after a tumultuous relationship when Ellidy was one and her brother Dave was three.
Ellidy and Dave went to live with their mum at Narrabeen, spending every second weekend at their dad’s at nearby Warriewood.
Margaux Parker (nee Higgin)
The mother-of-four has made her own name in recent years.
Husband Corey Parker is a Broncos, Queensland and Australia rugby league great who bowed out in 2016 with 347 NRL games.
While Corey now features on Fox Sports’ league coverage, with more than 20,000 Instagram followers Margaux has gone from strength to strength in her radio career.
In January 2019 she joined Luke Bradman for Gold 92.5’s The Rush Hour on the Gold Coast airwaves.
However within eight months she had earned a role with Triple M Brisbane’s The Big Breakfast show, replacing Robin Bailey.
“We are extremely proud of Margaux’s growth and can’t wait to hear her smash it in Brisbane. It’s a very well deserved position,” Gold 92.5 Content Director Corey Kay said at the time.
After years of weight fluctuations, on the eve of her 35th birthday in January 2020 Margaux penned a letter to the 11-year-old version of herself.
“It’s totally OK to be any size you want to be,” she wrote.
“You’ll go through times where the world thinks the perfect woman is a size 8.
“Don’t listen, and don’t go down that rabbit hole of chasing shallow “perfection”. It’s just that, shallow.
“I want you to own your body, be proud of it, because as a women it will change many times. Love yourself, babe.”
Months later she continued her campaign against body-shamers.
“They had noticed I have gotten ‘bigger & bigger’ and that I should ‘put down the food’ you ‘fat mole’’,” Parker said.
“Clearly this is their issue not mine but still why are they so focused on how I look as opposed to how happy I am or how I chose to live my life … free from the skewed ideals of what beauty is.”
Married in 2008, Margaux and Corey have four children: Memphis, Wylei, Jagger and River.
In his autobiography Iron Man, released in 2018, Corey revealed how the couple met.
“There was something about a girl I spied on the road outside of my house that compelled me to meet her,” he wrote.
After inviting her to a barbecue, the couple enjoyed a billy cart challenge that sealed the deal.
“I thought it was awesome this chick would go out of her comfort zone and do that,” he wrote.
Julie Neale (nee Clark)
These days he’s spearheading Brisbane’s AFL premiership hopes but Lachie Neale’s move to the Lions can be traced back to the sacrifice of wife Julie.
A hair stylist for more than 15 years, Julie made the tough decision to close her business in Fremantle when Lachie got the opportunity to switch to Brisbane in 2019.
“It was a lot of work to build that business up and it was a big thing to leave behind,” she said.
“I kind of knew (Brisbane) was the right move for Lachie and footy and it was a decision I decided to make myself. He didn’t pressure me. He said ‘We’ll stay here’. He felt Perth was home. He said ‘It is completely up to you’.
“After meeting people in the club (the Lions), I just knew this was where he needed to be. I felt they were going places and we wanted to be a part of that. I felt he knew that.”
Julie expressed why she was so emotional in 2019 when Lachie claimed the AFL’s highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal.
“It’s been a tough year away from family and friends. We left a lot to move here. It was a big decision for us and for me to leave the business I had. I’ve never lived away from my family,” she said.
“The success the team had this year and the Brownlow, it makes it all worth it, to see everything we sacrificed pay off and him achieving his goals.”
“I’m in awe of him.”
The couple, who married in November 2017 and welcomed daughter Piper Rose in September 2021, first met in a nightclub when Julie was 21 and Lachie was just 18.
“I was like ‘way too young’. He had a Harry Styles haircut at the time,” she laughed.
“We were both young and had a lot of learning and growing to do. We reconnected in our mid 20s and things were a little different. We moved in together after three months and were engaged nine months after that.”
Erin Holland
With more than 500,000 followers on Instagram and a spot as a Channel 7 cricket presenter, model Holland is a star in her own right.
Married to former Australia limited overs cricketer Ben Cutting, the 2013 Miss World Australia had to twice overcome Covid postponements before finally tying the knot in Byron Bay in 2022.
Later that year she opened up about her challenges trying to grow the family.
“Last year, we found out the only real option to have a baby for me is IVF,” she posted on Instagram.
“As someone who went in just wanting to freeze embryos until the time was ‘right’, I’ve grappled with the confusing feelings of the loss of any ‘normality’ of this process, feeling like the universe was telling me I’m not meant to be a mother, the guilt of letting Ben down, but am I even ready, feeling physically broken Etc”.
The couple spent a lot of time apart during Covid, leading 33-year-old Holland to reveal just how tough life can be.
“It’s really not easy. I have a huge amount of respect for the WAG contingent. There are a lot of misconceptions; it’s absolutely not the glamorous lifestyle that people might think it is,” she told Stellar in February 2022.
Holland proved her mettle when appearing on SAS Australia in 2021.
“THE AFTERMATH,” she wrote on Instagram, showing off her bruises.
“A raw look at what a few days of selection looked like (plus a sore back from 90+ kilos on it),” she added, referring to the moment she was forced to carry actor Dan Ewing on her shoulders by the tough-talking instructors.
“@sasaustralia is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It’s 24/7 – so many tasks that can’t possibly all make it to air! SO much respect for my fellow recruits still toughing it out in there – it only gets wilder from here..,” she said.
Cairns-born, Holland received a music scholarship from The Women’s College, University of Sydney and is an ambassador for the International Beauty with a Purpose Charity.
Rachel Baynes (nee Adekponya)
The wife of former NBA player and Brisbane Bullets star Aron Baynes likes to keep a low profile.
The high school sweethearts were engaged in 2018 and married two years later. They have since had three children
While Far North Queensland product Aron, 36, has shifted around America during his time in the NBA, in 2017 he highlighted how crucial family was in any decision.
“At the end of the day its more about, within the city how will the family be once you determine those other things, and for us, Boston is such a great city as soon as we came here we fell in love in with it,” Baynes told ESPN after his move to the Celtics.
He further gushed over his wife as the family was uprooted during the chaos of Covid in 2020.
“It’s been fun to navigate and full credit to (Rachel),” Baynes told the azcentral website.
“She’s being amazing as always. Just proves she’s my better half and tougher than me every single day.”
The family is known for their love of travel and while less is known about Rachel’s past, she has always had strong links to basketball given her brother, Matthew Adekponya, was also a professional player.
Natalia Holmes (nee O’Toole)
The Townsville personal trainer, who has almost 17,000 Instagram followers, runs First Base Gym with sister Brianna, meaning husband Valentine isn’t the only fitness gun in the family.
The school sweethearts were married in 2019 before moving to the US as Valentine switched the NRL for NFL.
While the move ultimately didn’t pan out, Natalia opened up about why she was so keen to follow her husband.
“Given there are so many uncertainties over there it is hard to move my whole life over,” she said at the time.
“We just decided that I am 23 and may as well embrace the move while opportunity is there.
“I want to be there to support him and amongst the craziness of the NFL world, give him some normality.”
“I am moving over there with an open mind and no expectations.”
The couple returned to Australia and moved into their dream home in 2020 – a stunning three-bedroom Queenslander with panoramic views across Townsville.
In November 2021 things got even better for the Cowboys flyer and his wife, welcoming son Billy and sharing photos.
Natalia has previously opened up about the pair’s devotion to each other.
“He is so supportive of me with my own endeavours and I will always do the same for him,” she said.
“We rely on each other a bit.”
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