Sophia Cachia left her marriage to explore an attraction to women. Photo / Instagram
Sophia Cachia left her marriage to explore an attraction to women. Photo / Instagram
Famous for her blog The Young Mummy, Sophie Cachia looked like she had it all.
The Melbourne woman was a mother to two kids, had an AFL player husband and hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram who loved her candid posts about motherhood.
But underneath it Sophie was struggling with her "perfect life" after realising that she "wanted more".
The 29-year-old opened up about the "inner turmoil" she kept secret and ending her marriage to pursue her attraction to women on Mamamia's No Filter podcast this week.
Sophie married Jaryd Cachia in 2016. The couple have a 6-year-old son, Bobby, and 3-year-old daughter Florence.
After giving birth to her second child, Sophie began questioning her sexuality and identity, admitting she had felt attracted to another woman in the weeks after giving birth.
"I had a beautiful man in my life, I still do. He's an incredible father and an incredible friend to me but why can't women seek more?" Sophie said.
"That married life I realised wasn't what I wanted. And it wasn't that I realised 'oh I like women now, I'm going to leave my marriage', it wasn't that. I realised I wanted more."
Sophie Cachia was married to former AFL and Norwood player Jaryd Cachia. Photo / Supplied
Sophie is now in a relationship with Matildas soccer player Alanna Kennedy, with the two opting to keep their romance out of the spotlight.
The couple met through work and began their relationship after connecting "straight away", getting to know each other through phone calls and social media.
"In a way, [Alanna] changed my life in the sense that … obviously I dated women and men but she made me realised I can actually see myself in a relationship with a woman long term and I can see myself having a life there," she said.
Sophie, who confirmed her relationship with Alanna on Instagram in March, said she still continues to face comments from her fans demanding to know whether she is a lesbian or not.
"I don't sit here and go 'I am a lesbian'. I sit here and say, 'I have a partner who's a female'," she said.
Sophie is now dating Matildas player Alanna Kennedy. Photo / Instagram
"I haven't put a banner above it saying 'hey! This is my gay girlfriend and me'. I think it's quite self-explanatory really."
But just weeks after going public with her romance with Alanna, Sophie posted a heartbreaking video on her Instagram in which she revealed she felt "'defeated, humiliated and broken".
The video sparked concern from Sophie's fans, with the influencer tearfully explaining that the post had been her "crying out".
"The thing with Alanna was the tip of the iceberg and underneath all that was the past two years of my life that I had not dealt with," Sophie told No Filter.
"And I think that was me almost crying out for help to people … that was me crying out to my family, that was me crying out to my friends.
"That was me crying out to social media that while I looked like I had it all together and I looked like I had separated from my husband and it was fine and we've got such a good relationship, that's all true it doesn't mean that any of it has been easy.
"It doesn't meant that any of the inner turmoil that I have battled for so long inside my head whether that's with my marriage, what I'm going to do to my children's lives, my sexuality. It doesn't mean that battling any of that inside my head was easy."
