Geoff Huegill has revealed how an ADHD diagnosis changed his life after a turbulent decade that saw him hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The 45-year-old swimming champion and his ex-wife, publicist Sara Hills, were infamously arrested with a small amount of cocaine at Royal Randwick racecourse in 2014.
Both pleaded guilty to drug possession and received six-month bonds for good behavior.
Although they avoided prosecution, the scandal was the beginning of the end for the couple, who have two daughters, Gigi and Mila. They announced their separation in 2018.
Reflecting on his turbulent decade, Huegill told the SBS programme: Knowledge On Tuesday he had to take life day by day after hitting rock bottom following the cocaine incident..
“Venturing down the path of sobriety was one of the best things I ever did,” he said on the show, which highlighted the theme of “second chances.”
The former athlete said sobriety put him on the path to “getting an ADHD diagnosis.”
Validating a diagnosis allowed Huegill to fully understand himself and some of the mistakes he had made in the past.
Geoff Huegill made headlines in 2014 after he and his ex-wife Sara were allegedly found in a suite at the Royal Randwick with a small amount of cocaine (the couple are pictured on the day of the drugs raid).
The swimming champion (pictured competing in 2011) has just revealed that he has been diagnosed with ADHD, which was a big step towards achieving sobriety.
He said he always knew he was “unique” in some ways because of his dedication to elite swimming, but one of the challenges of retirement was realizing that while he was very successful in some areas of his life, he had fallen short in others.
And the ADHD diagnosis helped him “make official” what he already knew.
“The wave of emotions I had to go through after the diagnosis… It was the fact of, ‘Why didn’t I look at this sooner?’ because it’s definitely one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life,” she said.
Huegill revealed that the cocaine incident put a huge strain on his relationship with Sara.
Huegill said being diagnosed with ADHD helped him “make official” what he already knew about himself during a television appearance Tuesday night (pictured)
Huegill admits the 2014 cocaine incident put a huge strain on his marriage to Sara (pictured together outside Waverley Local Court), which ended in 2018.
“I lost sponsors, I lost job opportunities. I was creating businesses and I had to close them all,” he said.
‘Even though I was not convicted, it was still a death at the hands of the media.’
Speaking about his relationship with Sara, Huegill added: “Unfortunately, I lost that marriage. There were a lot of other factors that made that marriage not work.
‘It’s not until your life is put in the spotlight that people deal with the pressure in certain ways, and that’s the hard part.
“What I realized, at the end of the day, is that I can only control what I can control.”
After her divorce, Sara reverted to her maiden name Hills and moved to Tasmania.
Huegill began dating attorney Roxy Toll in 2019 and the couple welcomed their first child Rafe in 2021.
The couple, who now live in Singapore, welcomed their second child in 2023.