The woman at the centre of the former Brisbane Lions captain’s affair scandal spoke out amid ‘unnecessary hostility and cruelty’.

Tess Crosley has quietly made moves on social media in a fresh step amid ongoing scrutiny linked to the fallout from the Lachie Neale marriage breakdown allegations.

She’s deleted her Instagram account and relaunched under her maiden name.

The new account, tess.caesar, has been set to private, unlike her previous public account. It had 59 followers as of Thursday afternoon, including her husband Ben Crosley.

The change has significantly reduced her reach, with Tess previously having thousands of followers before the switch.

Tess said she made the switch because she needed a “back up account because my main account keeps getting hacked” amid the continuing fallout from her alleged role in Jules and Lachie Neale’s marriage breakdown.

While she has changed her Instagram identity, Tess continues to use the surname Crosley on TikTok, where she has almost 55,000 followers.

Last month Tess broke her silence online following renewed attention around her personal life, posting a strongly worded statement.

The controversy first erupted after Jules Neale announced the end of her marriage to Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale over Christmas, later making subtle allegations of a betrayal involving a former friend before relocating from Brisbane to Perth with their children.

Jules’ former friend, 30-year-old mum Tess, who has largely remained tight-lipped about her marriage to Ben Crosley despite months of speculation, has shared a message after being pulled back into public discussion.

Tess’ husband Ben posted a series of photos from a day out at Hamilton Island Golf Club with mates in April, captioned simply: “Closaaah” (a reference to lyrics in Justin Bieber’s Coachella performance and unrelated to the affair allegations).

Among the comments, Tess herself briefly appeared on the post, leaving a pinched-fingers emoji.

One follower then directly questioned her about her relationship, asking: “Did he forgive you? I’m confused, no offence.”

Tess replied bluntly: “Don’t think that’s any of your business.”

Days later, Tess shared a longer statement to her Instagram story addressing the criticism she says she has been facing. She seemingly suggested people have been approaching her in the street.

“I want to make this very clear, It is never acceptable for anyone to approach a stranger in public and make derogatory comments or abuse at them especially when they are simply trying to care for their child’s needs,” she said on Instagram.

“My child does not deserve to be exposed to that kind of behaviour. No child does.

“While I navigate my own personal challenges, my priority remains protecting and shielding my child from unnecessary hostility and cruelty in everyday situations.”

Despite ongoing speculation about her relationship with Ben, neither has publicly confirmed the current status beyond Ben previously indicating she had moved out after she was seen shifting boxes from their Brisbane home in February.

‘Never acceptable’: Tess Crosley breaks silence amid fallout

2 min read

Tess and Lachie at the same venue?

Last month Tess also reignited controversy after sharing a photo of a bar as part of an Instagram carousel, captioned with a love heart and spade emoji.

Observers were quick to point out that the venue appeared to match a bar featured in Neale’s own Instagram posts from around four weeks ago, fuelling chatter about whether the overlap was coincidental.

First, see Tess’ image posted in April:

Prior, this was the image Lachie also posted amongst a range of other photos in a carousel:

The lamps are the same, the artists are seemingly the same, and the venue is therefore likely the same. But as the images are not dated, it’s unclear if the pair were there at the same time.

The bar appears to be Le Royale in Brisbane, where Lachie and Tess are both based.

Despite the speculation, Lachie’s camp has maintained the pair are no longer in contact.

Lachie Neale stepped down as co-captain of the Brisbane Lions earlier this year and addressed the situation publicly in an emotional statement.

“While I will not go into specifics, I can say that I have let my family down and I apologise for my actions, which have hurt those closest to me. For that, I am deeply sorry,” he said at the time.

“I accept this as a consequence of my actions and I need to focus on rebuilding trust with Jules, as the future well-being of our children remains our number one priority.”