In November 2023, influencer Lilly Sabri‘s picture-perfect life crumbled when she woke up to find thousands of messages from women who believed her fiancé, Alex Tyrwhitt, had cheated on her during his bachelor party. Somehow, listeners of the podcast The Girls Bathroom managed to piece together an anonymous story from a fellow listener, which exposed Alex’s cheating ways.
After finding out what happened, Lilly revealed that she’d called off her engagement with Alex before going dark on social media for 18 months. But as Lilly and Alex had started a successful fitness business together called LEAN and built a social media empire, there were still plenty of questions about what would happen to the business moving forward.
Now, after months of internal hardship, she’s back and ready to talk about what she went through.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Lily shared a snippet of an interview she did with the BBC along with a lengthy, heartfelt statement.
“Hi everyone, I know it’s been a long time, and can’t tell you how happy I am to finally reintroduce myself,” she wrote.
“The last year and a half has been incredibly challenging, and at times, it got dark. I didn’t know how I’d make it through. 18 months ago, I woke to thousands of messages and comments on social media after a podcast went live in the UK. That morning, my world fell apart.
“Everything I had known and trusted blew up in front of millions of people. I will never understand how and why people who had the opportunity to do the right thing, did the opposite and chose to capitalise on an incredibly painful situation — for views.
Lilly revealed that since the podcast went public, she’d been in a legal battle for the company she co-founded with her ex-fiancé.
“The following year was spent fighting for my company, LEAN, which wasn’t a quick or easy process,” she admitted.
“Things had to change, and immediately. I couldn’t afford to keep my team. I had to step into their roles myself, fighting to keep everything afloat. My mental and physical health took a massive hit and I needed time away from the public eye. When I needed support, I lost contracts with brands that I thought and hoped would support me.”
Thankfully, Lilly says that her business is in a really strong place thanks to a whole new team “working together to have a positive impact on the fitness, wellness and tech space”.
She ended her reintroduction with a heartfelt thank you to the audience that has stuck by her during her radio silence on social media.
“Lastly, I want to thank YOU! When I was at my lowest, this amazing community stuck with me, and for that, I will be forever grateful,” she wrote.
“This is just the beginning for a new LEAN, with our community at the forefront. And for the first time in 18 months, I can proudly say we are no longer looking backwards, this is all about our incredibly bright, positive and powerful future.”
In case you need a refresher (because, honestly, who can keep up), here’s how Lilly Sabri’s life got flipped upside down by a podcast and some very online detectives.
Back in November 2023, Lilly woke up to thousands of DMs after listeners of The Girls Bathroom podcast pieced together that her fiancé, Alex, had allegedly cheated on his bucks night. The anonymous story dropped a few too many clues, and the internet did what it does best — figured out it was about Lilly and Alex.
The details were wild: a woman (using the pseudonym “Sarah”) wrote in about her friend falling for a groom-to-be, who she met while he was celebrating his stag do. There were European hotel rooms, secret meet-ups, and even a trip to Australia after the party was over. The hosts tried to keep it vague, but clues like “Dubai-based couple” and “fitness influencer with a massive following” made it pretty easy for internet sleuths to connect the dots back to Lilly and Alex.
Cue the social media explosion. Lilly’s followers, armed with receipts and concern, flooded her inbox to break the news. Just days later, Lilly confirmed the rumours in a gut-wrenching Instagram statement: “It’s heartbreaking to confirm this is true, and discovering it in this way has been devastating. Alex and I have broken up, and I need time to process what feels like an absolute whirlwind and what I can only describe as my world falling apart.”
But in true main character energy, Lilly has come out the other side—battle-tested and ready for the next chapter as the sole owner of LEAN.
And if you’re wondering if she’ll be sharing her next relationship online, don’t hold your breath. In her BBC interview, Lilly made it clear: “I won’t be sharing details about my personal relationships; I’ve been too hurt, and I can’t go through that again.”
Lead image: Instagram
