- Just six weeks after welcoming her second daughter with her AFL player fiancé Jake Stringer last year, Abby Gilmore received a text message that would change her life.
It was from a 17-year-old schoolgirl who told Gilmore, now 24, that she had been having sex with Stringer for months.
The revelation came just a day after her fiancé had done an interview about Gilmore and his young family, telling Herald Sun how important his family was to him.
“I was just chilling with [Jake’s teammate Jason Johannisen] when I got this message and just went pale,” Gilmore told Herald Sun journalist Alice Coster this week.
“I showed Jason. We both had no idea.”
After calling the schoolgirl, Gilmore learned the pair had been sleeping together for more than four months - while she was pregnant with their second daughter, Arlo - with Jake visiting the girl's family home sometimes three times a week.
"Her parents were diehard Bulldogs supporters, they gave their blessing to this homewrecker," Gilmore said.
Soon, a long line of other women came forward alleging they had also slept with Stringer. Some even sent nude photos of her fiancé as proof.
"I immediately thought I must be doing something wrong. I think that is what so many women first feel, I'm not good enough," Gilmore told the Herald Sun, adding she felt "so ashamed" that her 'perfect life' had come "crumbing down".
"I had just done an article on how beautiful my family was and the very next day I got this message and my life crumpled to pieces," she said.
"The worst part for me was all these girls knew I existed, they knew I was pregnant with a child and it's just wrong."
Despite projecting an image of the 'perfect family', Gilmore said her partner's gambling addiction had reached "fever pitch" in the months before the arrival of their second daughter, Arlo.
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Stringer - whose addiction started when he was just 16 - had already gambled away six figures of the family's life savings.
"The environment at a football club is concerning," Gilmore said.
"Everything around footy is dictated on betting. How do you stop something when all you are surrounded by is gambling?
"In hindsight I realised I played a role in his gambling. I should have spoken out more to get him help rather than passively enabling his actions."
The revelations come just weeks after Stringer's club, the Western Bulldogs, announced they were planning to part ways with the notorious party boy forward.
During his time at the club, Stringer has won a 2016 premiership, as well as an All Australian Team spot in 2015.
It has taken Gilmore a year to speak publicly about Stringer's infidelity and alleged addiction - an action she knows she may get backlash for - but she wants women to know they are "allowed to have a voice".
"I realised I was lowering my self worth by being in this relationship. I was showing my girls that you put up with whatever to have a roof over your head and nice things," she said.
"But I want my girls to know I would rather struggle and be happy than be in a toxic relationship".
"No one talks about it, but so many women go through it. I just want to have a voice for that."
Gilmore is mother to daughters Milla, three, and Arlo, one, and says she's now dating a “good bloke who doesn’t play football”.
Have you ever spoken publicly about your ex partner's infidelity? Let us know in the comments.
Top Comments
It's disappointing a website such as mamamia includes the line "home wrecker" irrespective of the quote by Abby. It's a derogatory term only used to describe women in affairs and a kick to both women and feminism.
There is more to the story. Jake Stringer is a VERY talented AFL player. His contract has not been renewed at Western Bulldogs and it appears no other club wants him on their team. Someone must have known about the gambling and sex addictions. He's on the brink of losing everything. Who is offering him support and who will be responsible for knowing this information and ignoring the warning signs?
Sex addiction?? LOL. No one has mentioned a sex addiction. Him cheating multiple times doesn't mean he's a sex addict, it means he's a selfish arsehole. Her story is about how his actions affected her. He broke up their marriage, which means she no longer has to worry about who is 'supporting' him. He's an adult in a very successful job with a family around him - he can worry about finding his own support.