‘No idea’: Kayla Itsines breaks silence on split from Tobi Pearce

Kayla Itsines has spoken candidly for the first time about her split from former fiance and business partner Tobi Pearce.

Kayla Itsines has spoken candidly for the first time about her split from former fiance and business partner Tobi Pearce.

The fitness queen – arguably Australia’s most famous (and successful) personal trainer – and Pearce were together for eight years. They became engaged in 2018 and welcomed daughter Arna in 2019 before announcing, in August 2020, they had parted ways romantically – news that shocked Itsines’ legions of fans.

Itsines has stayed quiet on what lead to the break-up in the years since, simply saying she and Pearce would “always be family, and remain good friends and devoted parents to Arna”.

But in a wide-ranging new interview with the Australian Financial Review, the 32-year-old reflected she has “no idea” how she and Pearce became a couple at all.

Kayla Itsines has spoken candidly for the first time about her split from former fiance and business partner Tobi Pearce. Picture: Instagram

The 32-year-old said she has ‘no idea’ how the two became a couple at all. Picture: Instagram

‘We are the polar opposite of one another … I still have no idea how it all happened.’ Picture: Instagram

When the two South Australians first met, both were personal trainers. Itsines was flooded with requests for her workouts – so Pearce suggested they sell a fitness program, the Bikini Body Guide. A health and fitness app, SWEAT, followed (which they ultimately sold to US fitness tech company iFIT for a reported $400 million in 2021).

The former couple debuted on the AFR’s Young Rich List in 2016 with a combined wealth of $46 million, aged 24 and 25 respectively. By 2019, they were ranked number 10 on the list, with a fortune of $486 million.

But while Peace was “money-driven, business-minded”, Itsines described herself as “creative” and “there for people”.

“We are the polar opposite of one another. I look back and I think, ‘I have no idea how that all happened’,” she told the AFR.

“I couldn’t have done it without him and he couldn’t have done it without me, but … I still have no idea how it all happened.”

‘Nothing about my previous relationship was easy.’ Picture: Instagram

‘I’m a fixer. I want to make [sure] your day is the best day possible. I want to make sure if you are in my house, you feel warm and comfortable and loved. That’s me.’ Picture: Instagram

She added that “nothing about my previous relationship was easy”.

“I never let it show. It’s not who I am. I am known as a friend, someone who is positive and upbeat …[But] it was always hard. It was always a battle,” Itsines said.

“I really don’t think, stepping back and looking at my years with Tobi, that we were anything alike. I’m a fixer. I want to make [sure] your day is the best day possible. I want to make sure if you are in my house, you feel warm and comfortable and loved. That’s me.

“Tobi came to me with no family, no sense of that. I thought, ‘I can fix you’. He told me, ‘We’re dating. Now we’re starting a business. Now we’re doing this’.”

Itsines is now engaged to Jae Woodroffe. Picture: Instagram

The couple welcomed their first child together in January. Picture: Instagram

Itsines is now engaged to Jae Woodroffe, who she was first linked to in September 2021.

The couple welcomed their first child together, son Jax, in January.

“Words absolutely cannot describe this feeling. We are SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW,” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a string of intimate photos from the delivery room.

“We went into hospital around 6:30am on the 5th of January. He was out in the world by 8:45am weighing 3.5 kgs.

“The most amazing thing, as he was coming out, out of nowhere on a completely random playlist the hospital was playing, Jae’s dad’s funeral song started playing over the speakers. I heard Jae say at the same time, ‘It’s a boy!!!!!’

“I burst into tears, he burst into tears and we got meet our baby BOY Jax Stokes Woodroffe.”

Originally published as ‘No idea’: Kayla Itsines breaks silence on split from Tobi Pearce