Geoff ‘Skippy’ Huegill relocates overseas and finds the peace he was looking for

Eight years ago champion swimmer Geoff Huegill hit rock bottom amid a drugs scandal but has fought back and opens up about his new mission in life after leaving Australian shores for Singapore.

Olympian Geoff Huegill has battled his demons in the most public of ways, from the shame of a high profile drug arrest to grappling with his weight and a marriage breakdown.

But eight years after the cocaine scandal that put him back on the front pages for all the wrong reasons, the former world champion swimmer says that he has found peace.

For the first time ever, Huegill speaks openly about the challenges he had to overcome after his divorce and what led to him moving overseas in 2019 to start a new life.

“I never had to leave Australia, I wanted to leave,” Huegill told The Sunday Telegraph.

Former Olympic swimmer Geoff Huegill and his partner Roxan Toll and their baby boy Rafe pictured together in Singapore where they live. Photographer: Erik Magelssen

“I wanted to do something different. I just wanted to get on with it. It is a good place and there are a lot of good opportunities for work and a good opportunity for me to keep my head down.”

The father of three, 42, is one of 17 contestants taking part in the new season of reality show SAS Australia, that premieres on Seven this week.

Huegill’s personal life has been the focus of many headlines since his second retirement from professional swimming, most notably being busted with cocaine in a toilet cubicle at Randwick Racecourse in 2014.

The businessman formally known as “Skippy” says his weight battles, alcohol and drugs were the manifestations of internal struggles, which were sparked in part by the tragic early loss of his father – but also the highs and lows of his swimming career.

Huegill with Rafe. He says living in Singapore has been the change he was looking for. Photographer: Erik Magelssen

When he was 12, Huegill held his father in his arms as he died of a heart attack at the age of 55. He later retired not once but twice from the pool.

After winning a bronze and silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and then placing eighth at the Athens Games four years later, Huegill retired the first time.

He made a spectacular comeback in 2008 when he dropped 45kg after battling obesity and alcohol issues to get in shape for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, at which he won two gold medals and a silver and broke a Commonwealth record and his own personal best, set nine years earlier in the butterfly.

“That is when I finally hung up my Speedos,” he said.

Geoff Huegill returned to the pool after his first retirement and went on to win gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

In following years, Huegill and society publicist Sara Hills were a golden couple around Sydney. They were married in 2011, welcoming their first child together, Mila, in 2012, and another girl, Gisele, in 2014.

But in the background, Huegill was struggling.

“The demons are a lot of different things, a lot in the past in terms of dealing with my father passing away, not knowing what your full identity is, thinking you want more out of life than being tagged as just a swimmer, that whole ‘races’ situation and then that transition out of sport,” Huegill explains.

“When I retired from sport, I was in my early 30s and at that point most people are already in the workforce for 10 or 15 years building pretty solid careers.”

He said transitioning from sport to civilian life “took quite a while”. “Something I learnt in the first retirement is that I will always be remembered as the swimmer guy, Geoff Huegill,” he said.

Huegill and his ex-wife Sara Hills on their way to court after being busted with cocaine at Randwick Racecourse. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

“For a long time it wasn’t that I didn’t like the title but I actually wanted to be remembered for something more than just the swimming.

“As time goes by and I get a little bit older, obviously I appreciate the effort that goes into it … it is not a bad tagline to be associated with or to be reminded of.”

Huegill and Hills separated in 2018 after a series of scandals that saw his then wife charged with stealing leather pants worth $2500. It was a spectacular fall from grace for Hills, a high profile fashion publicist who famously once worked for Roxy Jacenko. The charges were later dropped.

Four years earlier, Huegill and Hills were given six month good behaviour bonds after pleading guilty to cocaine possession in the bathrooms of an exclusive suite at Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Geoff Huegill will be part of SAS Australia 2022.

“I knew it would always be a blip in the radar,” he said when asked if he feared it would taint his legacy.

“We are coming up to eight years ago now, it is quite a long time ago that it is not something that I reflect on often these days.”

Huegill says one of the lessons he learned was to try to keep parts of his life private and his shoot with The Sunday Telegraph marks the first time that he and his new partner, Roxan Toll, have been photographed publicly.

It is also a first for their son and they have no images of each other on social media.

“Roxy is a very private person and I think honestly … we wanted to just be cautious,” he said.

Geoff Huegill after winning bronze at the Sydney Olympics. Picture: AAP Photo/Julian Smith

Geoff Huegill after winning gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Outside of family time and running a successful business, Huegill keeps himself healthy physically and mentally by swimming five times a week.

He sees the pool as an “opportunity to clear my head in an environment I am comfortable in and know” and has formed a close bunch of male friends he shares the passion with that he affectionately refers to as his ‘men’s group’.

Several were also elite swimmers in the ’90s and 2000s including Greg Fasala, Rob Abernathy, Kurt Eldridge and Matt McQuaid.

“I’ve had a lot of counselling,” he said. “And I’ve been really lucky in Singapore over the past couple of years I have had a handful of guys that I swim with and lo and behold we were all part of the Australian team or trained together through the ’90s and the 2000s.

Geoff Huegill says he has found peace living in Singapore with his partner Roxann Toll and baby Rafe. Photographer: Erik Magelssen

“There are half a dozen of us, we have all ended up in Singapore and everyone has their own jobs, families and careers,” he said.

SAS Australia also gave Huegill a nudge to get back into shape after Covid lockdowns.

“In the space of a few weeks, I lost 10 kilos (on SAS),” he said. “It was brutal, but it was good.

“ It was a good kickstart that I needed after a pretty tough 20 months of being locked down.”

Huegill said he has learned to be grateful.

“I’ve done some pretty amazing things in my career, but honestly, I think I’m just an average
guy that’s made every possible mistake you can make in life,” he says.

“Every day I wake up, dust myself off … you just have to laugh about it and move on doing your best.”

WHY SKIPPY SAID NO TO THE BACHELOR

HE’s about to push himself to the edge on SAS Australia, but Geoff Huegill has turned down several reality TV shows in the past.

In 2019, as he sifted through the ashes of his high profile marriage breakdown, he was approached to star in The Bachelor.

Now happily settled into expat life with Roxan Toll, his partner of three years, and their baby son Rafe, Huegill says he felt that as a father it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.

“I got the call up saying they are casting the next season of The Bachelor and would I like to be a part of it,” he says.

Michael Klim and Geoff Huegill swimming in the 100m butterfly final at the Sydney Olympics.

“The money wasn’t (the) issue, we didn’t go that far down to it.

“My only reply was: I’m a father of two beautiful girls and the last thing I wanted to do was go on national television to find a partner to spend the rest of my life with.

“I just didn’t think it was going to be a good fit.”

Huegill said most of his ­issues had been “put to bed” through counselling and with the support of partner Toll, whose family founded transports and logistics company Toll Group.

“I’m very happy with where my life is,” he said.

Huegill is now a father of three, with Roxan, a trained lawyer who works as a tech executive, giving birth to their young son, Rafe, last August.

The pair were introduced by mutual friends not long after Huegill moved to Singapore, where he runs a performance and coaching business based on his time as an elite athlete and will soon launch a Super Swim Series that “will be the first of many based around Asia”.

Geoff Huegill with his daughters Gisele, 8, Mila, 10 and Rafe. 6 months.

“I knew she was a different cat and there was something special about her,” he said of meeting Toll.

“She is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”

Huegill, Toll and their newborn spent Christmas in Tasmania with his ex-wife Sara and daughters Mila and Gigi.

While admitting the divorce was “tough for everyone”, they all get along well now and Huegill said he took inspiration from another Olympic swimmer, Michael Klim and his ex wife Lindy.

“Sara and Roxy, they get along very well,” he said.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”

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