Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe says marriage breakdown left her ‘shell of a human’

Former WAG Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe has spoken about her marriage breakdown to Bulldogs player Lachie Hunter and how she grappled with fertility problems from just 23.

Brave businesswoman and former footy WAG Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe has spoken of her IVF battle, devastating marriage breakdown and how she’s healed her heart.

Sullivan-Thorpe, who has founded Dom St Consulting and hosts a fashion podcast, went through six rounds of IVF and said “it’s a heartache like nothing else”.

Her marriage to long-time partner, Bulldogs player Lachie Hunter, ended in 2023 after less than a year and she’s had to come to terms with the prospect that she may not be able to have children.

“My fertility specialist is one of the most incredible women I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing — she was really honest about what the likelihood of that (sixth) round was,’’ Sullivan-Thorpe told Inherited.

“It didn’t stop at absolutely breaking my heart. I think I was broken hearted going into that and I was crushed finishing it. But I always say doing IVF is being part of a club that no one wants to be a part of and yet it is the most beautiful embodiment of the sisterhood you will ever see. And I am so grateful to every woman who ever reached out to me... who was so generous of spirit. It’s a heartache like nothing else.

Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe. Picture: Instagram

“And I think the challenge for me was I went from trying to have a baby to trying to preverse the idea of having a baby and the opportunity. Motherhood is something I’ve chosen to define very differently as I’ve gotten older and worked through the likelihood for me.

“I’ve done everything I can and will forever be so grateful to the 23 to 27 year-old version of me who gave everything and sacrificed so much to potentially give me the opportunity to be a mum. But I also honour the woman that I will be and what motherhood may look like if that is in the form of maternal love for my friend’s children or egg donors. I think I’m a lot more open now.”

Sullivan-Thorpe started IVF at age 23 and seven years later at age 30 she has found her happiness — she says largely with the support of her friends and her beloved dog George.

“George is really special to me... I got him at a time that was really hard in my life when I was 23,’’ she said.

“Just before turning 24 I had done a round of blood tests and my GP had referred me to a fertility specialist and what unravelled quite quickly in that time was that my ovarian reserve was a little bit more mature than me. When I say a little bit, I mean a lot. Basically in the space of a few weeks I started fertility treatment. I was with a partner at the time and made the decision that we would do egg preservation and that we would also be trying to have a baby within cycles. I went through two cycles back to back.

“That’s the hardest time of my life. I think when I go back and think about 23 year-old me I’m so proud of her but I also feel so sad for her. When I see friends’ little sisters and things like that, I can’t imagine them having to go through that. And I think I felt like such a woman at that time but I think now being a 30 year-old woman I look back and I was just a sweet little baby girl.”

Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe and Lachie Hunter. Pic: Instagram

Sullivan-Thorpe said she was always career focused but had to deal with her fertility prematurely.

“When you’re told that you may not be able to have something that you thought you could maybe do 10-12 years later — I always thought I’d be like a 35, 38 year-old mum,’’ she said.

“And that’s a naivety younger me had in of itself. I don’t know many 23 year-olds are thinking about fertility.

“I actually got George the day before I went in for my third egg retrieval and it was love at first sight. This tiny beautiful thing that needed me and I needed him. I went in and they had not always been great days for me. He was an unintentional Covid dog. Every morning I walk with him. Going through the fertility struggles that I continued with for a few years after that, and then the breakdown of a long-term relationship, it’s very easy to want to lay in bed and pull the cover over your eyes and do all those things and wallow. But when you have a 30kg dog you’ve got to get up. I love that ritual because I have to do something for someone else.”

Sullivan-Thorpe said her body “went through the wringer” and it’s only now she’s starting to feel remotely sexy again.

“What a beautiful thing that my body does for me every day to be able to get up and move and do that for me,’’ she said.

“Because I was so angry at it for such a long time for what it couldn’t do — now I choose to replace that resentment with gratitude for what it can do.

“I did six (IVF rounds) which is a lot. Over about a four year period. I thought I was done at five.

“I treated IVF like a professional sport. The minute I knew I was going to start, I was doing an F45 challenge at the time, I dived into every piece of research, every exercise class I could do. IVF forces you to be pretty selfish because it’s incredibly taxing.

Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe. Pic: Instagram

“If I could go back and say anything to my 23 year-old self I’d just give her the biggest hug and say thank you so much because the opportunities she’s given to me and what she sacrificed, I know she was mourning her 20s at that time, but I knew I’d get here and be so grateful.”

After her marriage ended she grappled with feeling ashamed but picked herself up with friends and a Europe trip with some girlfriends.

“I was a shell of a human. I could not have got through it without them,’’ she said. 

“I think a lot about the way they showed up for me. I was incredibly low and incredibly distressed. It was complex and they were there.

“For so long I thought I’d never feel love again. I’ve never felt more loved, more respected or seen such loyalty in my entire life than I have from my friends. And they would go to war for me and I them. And I wake up just going if I can be half a friend they have been to me that is all I could achieve.

“That (Europe) trip healed my entire heart. They give me a love and they honour me and make me feel special every single day. So often society tells us it is romantic love, and don’t get me wrong it is amazing, I am so looking forward to that season for myself too and it’s a beautiful place to get to knowing that you don’t need it and it could only be a sprinkle on top because your life is full of so much (an) abundance of love. I’ve never felt more loved. I never realised how loved I was until I was single and they rallied the way that they did.

“I remember going this can be a really big chapter or this can be a really small footnote. I felt it growing into a chapter and the only thing I hated more than that pity was the thought of that being a chapter. I was never going to be defined by that.”

Originally published as Maddison Sullivan-Thorpe says marriage breakdown left her ‘shell of a human’