Lilly Sabri was planning her dream wedding when a podcast exposed her fiancé as a cheater.

On November 9, 2023, fitness influencer Lilly Sabri woke up to an influx of messages from her 900,000 Instagram followers.

But rather than responding to her workout videos or food recipes, these messages pointed to a podcast, which they were all pretty sure told the story of Sabri's fiancé cheating on her.

It began with an episode of The Girls Bathroom, a podcast where hosts Cinzia Baylis-Zullo and Sophia Tuxford discuss listener dilemmas. During the show, the women talked about an anonymous message they had received, asking for help about her friend who was in love with an 'engaged man'.

Using fake names, the hosts said the best friend Sarah had met a newly engaged man, Brian, while he was on a week-long bucks trip sailing in Croatia.

After their initial encounter, they spent weeks travelling to multiple locations and stayed in various hotels.

When Sarah returned home to Australia, Brian had even flown out to see her.

Despite the fake names, listeners were quick to draw parallels between 'Brian' and Sabri's real-life fiancé Alex Tyrwhitt, especially thanks to details about their follower counts, the fact the couple lived in Dubai, shared multiple successful businesses and a dog.

Lilly confirmed the story was about her and her fiancé Alex Tyrwhitt. Image: Instagram/lillysabri.

Two weeks after the speculation began, Sabri, 36, shared a statement on Instagram confirming the story was about her and Tyrwhitt.

"I woke up to messages about a podcast episode discussing a relationship involving a newly engaged man, meeting a woman on his stag do, and the subsequent encounters. It's heartbreaking to confirm this is true, and discovering it in this way has been devastating," she wrote.

"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."

She went on to say she had a lot of additional content work commitments to fulfil before the end of the year, which had thankfully already been filmed and would continue to be uploaded by her team while she took some time away.

Sabri and Tyrwhitt met at a fitness expo in 2017 and were engaged in July. They relocated to the United Arab Emirates together in 2018.

A grand return.

The saga saw Sabri take a break from social media for 18 months — and now, she's finally ready to come back.

In April 2025, Sabri shared an Instagram post reflecting on the "incredibly challenging" time.

"The last year and a half has been incredibly challenging, and at times, it got dark," she wrote. "I didn't know how I'd make it through."

Sabri said her life was shattered when she realised it was her relationship being spoken about on the podcast.

"That morning, my world fell apart. Everything I had known and trusted blew up in front of millions of people," she said. "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 took an 18-month break from social media. Image:

In the year since the news went viral, Sabri threw herself into her company to fight for what was hers. It wasn't a quick or easy process, she said.

Sabri couldn't afford to keep her team. She had to step into their roles to keep everything afloat. She left Dubai to move back in with her family in the UK.

While she withdrew from her personal social media profiles, she was now running the business pages. Everywhere she looked, there were comments about her relationship breakup.

"My mental and physical health took a massive hit and I needed time away from the public eye," she said. "When I needed support, I lost contracts with brands who I thought and hoped would support me."

But now, after 18 months away, she's happy to be back.

"I am proud to say that LEAN, the company I founded in 2017 is once again mine. I am the sole Shareholder of LEAN @leanwithlilly @lean.foods and even more importantly, I am a much happier, healthier and better person," she said.

She added: "Now, I'm delighted to be able to say that after the very tough times, LEAN is in a great place. We are an incredibly talented, truly global, female team."

Sabri said her future is looking "incredibly bright" — and we're here for that.

As of 2025, Tyrwhitt's social media page is still private. His Instagram bio still boasts that he "co-founded LEAN" and "built a 5m+ YouTube channel".

This article was published in December 2023 and has been updated.

Feature image: Instagram @lillysabri.