Michelle Bridges Her week from hell
The fitness guru cuts a lonely figure
With her partner away on business, fitness queen Michelle Bridges spent some quality mother-and-son time with her three-year-old Axel in Potts Point, Sydney, last week.
But onlookers couldn’t help but notice the usually vibrant Michelle’s downcast appearance.
The personal trainer, who appeared in sequins and sparkles on Dancing With The Stars earlier this year, looked decidedly tired and glum as she tried to gee herself up to play a game of monster chase with Axel in the playground.
Days earlier Michelle posted a telling and emphatic message on Instagram, writing “I am free!” The post was a reference to The Biggest Loser
star buying her company back in late 2018, and finally getting the control and freedom she had longed for after six months of steering the business away from a “lonely, ugly, closed minded place”.
BUSINESS BREAK-UP
Curiously, Michelle, 48, took down the post, which had some wondering who exactly it was directed at. She has always maintained her relationship with her ex-husband and former business partner Bill Moore – who she met at a Balmain gym – was amicable and they had remained “great friends” after their split.
Michelle and Bill, who has since remarried, were believed to have severed their business partnership 18 months after the marriage breakdown in 2013.
“At the end of last year I personally bought out my own company,” she wrote in the post.
“I now, finally, have full control. In the last 6 months we have become again, who we’ve always been... a force – of love, being real, giving back, empathy... and NO LONGER about the bottom line.”
At its height, the Michelle Bridges business brand grew into a $60 million dollar empire with her ex Bill, the business brains, by her side. By 2015, she was named as one of the top 30 wealthiest women in the country, with the recognisable and influential MB brand appearing on TV, exercise and nutrition books, fitness DVDS, fitness apparel and accessories, equipment, an Xbox game, kitchenware and pre-packaged food.
But the success came at a cost. Michelle has made no secret of what she sacrificed, revealing last year that she knew the marriage was over when she began scheduling business meetings in bed.
ROCKY RELATIONSHIP
Now, with continued reports that her relationship with long-time partner Steve “The Commando” Willis is on rocky ground, friends are worried their various work commitments could be causing strain.
“First Steve did Survivor and was away for months on end in Samoa, and then Michelle did Dancing With The Stars, which is intense,” says a source. “Now Steve is in Albury and is training for an ironman event with his Survivor mate Mat Rogers in Queensland. He and Michelle just need to have a chance to reconnect in the same postcode.”
Last week, Commando posted a cryptic message about change coming from a “place of shame or guilt”.
Despite the rumours, it’s clear Michelle still loves her man, gushing on Instagram how proud she is of him, “What I love about this man is he is his word. He’s not doing anything other than helping people.”
But she did admit the couple are in dire need of a holiday, posting how excited she is that they have one on the horizon.
“This trip will be the first true holiday we’ve had in what seems like forever... Just us,” she wrote.