Amie Rohan reveals days after split with husband Gary were worse than losing her baby
Amie Rohan has laid bare her pain after splitting with Cats star Gary, saying it was harder than coping with their daughter’s death.
Fiona Byrne
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Former WAG Amie Rohan has revealed further details of the emotional pain she experienced last year following her marriage split, as her ex-husband, Gary Rohan confirmed his new relationship.
Amie and Gary endured great tragedy when they lost their daughter, Willow, just five hours after her birth in 2018.
But Amie said even that enormous loss was overshadowed by the end of her marriage.
“The days after my marriage breakdown were some of the hardest days of my life, harder than when we lost Willow,” Amie said.
The comments come after Gary confirmed he was in a relationship with physiotherapist Madi Bennett, who briefly worked for the Geelong Football Club, posting a photo on social media of himself and Bennett with his daughters on Easter Saturday.
“Last year was hard for me and every single day I showed up for my girls,” she told the Move Your Mind podcast hosted by Nick Bracks.
“Every single day I got out of bed and faced the day ahead of me.
“The days after my marriage breakdown were some of the hardest days of my life, harder than when we lost Willow.
“But I still got out of bed every day and faced whatever the day brought.”
Amie said she was in more control of her life now.
“(It is about) being comfortable with who you are as a person and not trying to let any other person or life experience try and manipulate you into not feeling what you are feeling,” she said.
“I have found myself over the last couple of years trying to fit into … what other people want me to be, or how other people wanted me to deal with certain things.
“And since I have finally stripped it back and gone, ‘no, this is how I feel and this is how I am dealing with it, this is me and this is the way I am going to deal with it,’ I think that has been the best thing.”
Childhood sweethearts, Gary and Amie became parents to twin daughters, Bella and Willow, on April 12, 2018.
Tragically, Willow, who suffered from a fatal neural tube defect with no cure known as anencephaly, passed away after just five hours.
The football and wider community rallied around the young parents who bravely shared their heartbreaking loss.
That same community celebrated the safe arrival of Sadie on March 30, 2020.
Unfortunately the couple’s marriage did not last and they split a matter of months later.
Late last year, rumours surfaced that Rohan had found support with physiotherapist Bennett.
“My marriage broke down midway through last year and I spoke to one of my close girlfriends …. and I said being dealt a trauma on top of a trauma that I thought I had completely healed from is something that I have really struggled with,” Amie told the podcast.
“And she turned around and said, ‘Amie, you have lost a child. You are never, ever going to completely heal from that, ever’.
“And when she said that to me I was like, ‘I never truly will,’ but as long as I am getting up every day, I am acknowledging how I am feeling, I am seeking the help, which I have, and I am continually checking in with the people to help me be the better version of me every day; that is the healing, isn’t it.
“It is a constant process and you need to continually do it. There isn’t an end point.”