Geoff and Sara Huegill reveal impact being arrested for cocaine possession had on relationship

EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity couple Geoff and Sara Huegill have opened up about being arrested and the unexpected impact the harrowing experience had on their lives.

08112015. Geoff and Sara Huegill at Beare Park, Elizabeth Bay. Photos: Anthony Johnson

ACCEPT it. Own it. Conquer it.

They are the brand goals for Geoff and Sara Huegill’s new health and wellness business — but, more significantly, the hard-earned moral to their personal story after the scandal of being convicted of cocaine possession 18 months ago.

The celebrity couple — who were arrested at Royal Randwick racecourse on April 26 last year during a police raid which shocked Sydney social circles — admit the experience has been a harrowing one but “galvanised” their marriage and young family in a way they never expected.

The former Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medal swimmer conceded overcoming his drug bust shame to move his life forward has proved his greatest personal challenge since losing his dad Ron to a heart attack when he was just 12.

“I’m not going to lie, last year for me in particular was the hardest year I’ve been through since my father passed away [in 1989]. The biggest lesson I’ve learned ... and I learned many lessons ... is that it’s just not about us any more,” the 38-year-old father of two said.

Forced to retreat from the public stage with daughters Mila 4 and Gigi, 2 and stalling his plans to launch his own high-performance health business in the wake of the drugs drama, Huegill says he drew on the support of his family to rebuild.

“We recognise and realise we’ve got family. We always knew that but the ramifications of our actions affects our family, it affects our business colleagues and it affects our business partners,” he said. “But if you’re looking for a shining light, for us as a family unit, we were able to hold it together.”

United ... Geoff and Sara Huegill’s marriage strengthened after their arrest. Picture: Anthony Johnson

Huegill’s public relations executive wife, who made admissions to police which implicated her in the incident, after a security guard saw the couple come out of a disabled toilet together, said “going through these challenges together” had kept the couple from falling apart.

“Deep down, it never affected our relationship, our love for each other,” she said, “and that’s a nice thing to know.”

While both pleaded guilty to the cocaine charges, Huegill says “the hardest part is actually forgiving yourself. Some days I’m there but it’s part of the journey.”

His wife added: “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself but that’s just the person I am.”

She said: “apart from the fact we did something wrong, I was disappointed in the fickleness of some friends and the media.”

“I think more than anything, I was disappointed by a lot of people in the way they dealt with it or compared us, or judged us,” Sara said, with Huegill confessing: “it brought out the true colours in a lot of people.”

Moving to the Gold Coast until recently, they could call on the support of her family and refocus on HBT (Huegill Bodytech) — drawing on the expertise of Sara’s father, Professor Andrew Hills, a specialist in childhood obesity for the United Nations.

The business offers active wear, vitamins and supplements, while Huegill has already begun using his sporting experiences and life lessons in a corporate wellness consultancy role.

“Have we learned from it? Absolutely. You never want to put yourself in that situation again and go on that journey. We don’t want to venture into that world. It’s about knowing when to remove yourself from those situations before things play out,” Huegill said.

It’s not the first time he has been on the comeback trail, famously shedding 40 kilograms in 2009 to reclaim a place on the Australian swim team and defying the odds to win two Commonwealth Games medals.

He has battled depression and admits his choices haven’t always made him role model material, but the fact he’s “climbed the mountain many times,” he says, puts him in a more realistic position to coach others about personal responsibility.

“I’m never going to be a wellness warrior. I’m not a fitness freak and definitely not going to walk into a place and say,’ hey, don’t do this or don’t eat that.’” he said.

Explaining why adjusting to a “normal” life after the single-minded approach needed in professional sport had been difficult for many of his contemporaries, Huegill said: “you have to juggle family, you’ve got to juggle your job, the politics of work, the politics of life and all the other challenges each normal person goes through ... realising the focus isn’t just on you.”

When his PR wife was overseas on business last week, Huegill spent precious time with his daughters, reading them a letter he’d been sent as a child by his fly-in, fly-out miner dad before his death.

“If anything, because of the situation we’ve been through, it’s allowed me to have more time with my girls and that’s been a blessing in disguise. No one is perfect in life, but I’ve been able to use that time off to spend it with them, be there ... in the end, everything balances out.”

Originally published as Geoff and Sara Huegill reveal impact being arrested for cocaine possession had on relationship