Stephanie Rice has revealed she has taken her husband Mark Lassey’s last name while revealing the next chapter of her life.
The Aussie swimming champ has taken her fans on a rollercoaster since publicly blowing up her life and moving to Dubai “with a one-way ticket” in 2023.
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The 38-year-old on Monday started a new Instagram account under the name Stephanie Lassey where she promotes her Stephanie Lassey business consultant services.
“For the woman who knows she’s capable of more and is sick of starting over,” she writes in her bio.
“I’m rebuilding at 38, but this time, with Jesus at the centre of it all.”
The new account was started with an emotional photo gallery which captured the challenges and triumphs she has experienced in her personal life in recent years.
The three-time Olympic champ and Lassey, a pastor with the Kingdom church, have made a life together in Dubai. They were married in January, 2025.
“Feels like the perfect time to start a fresh account, in my new name, and with a new commitment to sharing the journey God is taking me on,” she posted.
“I pray that my story would give you hope that God has the power to turn lives around, to restore what’s been broken and bless you above what you’ve asked thought or even imagined.
“I would really appreciate you following this new account @stephanie.lassey as I’m beginning to transition across to this account over the next few weeks.
“Probably part crazy to be walking away from 140,000 people, but honestly I’d rather start again knowing the people joining now want to be apart of the story God’s writing, not the one that’s already been written, even if that’s just a small amount.
“I love you all, thank you for your support. May God bless you abundantly.”
Among several revealing messages, the former queen of individual medley swimming shared her life reached a turning point when she knocked back an opportunity to become chief executive of a company because “God asked me to resign”.
“I’ve won Olympic gold. Made millions of dollars. Lost everything. Found Jesus,” she captioned one image which showed her wearing a purple jacket with a gold shoulder bag, gold earings and gold necklaces.
“And now, at 38, I’m rebuilding my career all over again.”
In another image that showed her casually stretching back onto a bed, she wrote: “My life has taken some pretty unexpected turns and I find myself, once again, starting over.
“I’ve experienced some incredible highs. I reached the top of my sport and got the things most people dream about. Fame, money, success, recognition.
“On the outside I had it all. Don’t get me wrong. It was incredible. But somewhere along the way, I started tying my value to my success.
“My confidence went up and down, depending on how I was performing, how much money I was making and what other people thought of me.”
She also shared details about hitting rock bottom as a caption for an image that showed her in tears.
“But the highs didn’t last,” she wrote.
“If I’m honest, I was ready to handle the weight of responsibility I was given at such a young age. And the public scrutiny, hate comments, legal battles and failed businesses kept breaking my faith that the future would get better.
“That’s when I met Jesus. He found me at my lowest, completely exhausted from trying so hard to turn my life around and feeling so behind.
“I surrendered it all to him and we started the most incredible journey together.
“A new journey began. I sold everything. Packed up my life in Australia and bought a one way ticket to Dubai to begin a new journey with God at the centre.
“I had no job. No friends and no plan, yet it felt so right.”
She shared she worked as a director of a company for eight months and was “earning more than I had in years”.
“Eight moths into that role, I was offered to become CEO, my dream position,” she wrote.
“But God asked me to resign. I obeyed.”
“So here I am, starting again at 38. Honestly, I thought my career would be further along by now. I’m 38 and I’m back at zero. It’s been one of the most testing seasons of my life, but I trust God and I’ve learned I can’t force or speed up his plans or when he opens the next door. But I can control what I do in the meantime.”
She finished the post with an image that appears to show her worshipping with her arms out to the side.
“My page is for the woman like me, who knows she’s capable of more, but her life doesn’t reflect it yet,” she wrote.
“You don’t lack dreams or desire, you lack the consistency and system to see it through. I pray we would step into the best version of ourselves and that God would do abundantly more for you that you’ve asked, thought or even imagined.”
In a matter of 18 hours on Monday afternoon, the Stephanie Lassey page has more that 2,300 followers.
Lassey, 48, is the father of three children. He popped the question in September, 2024 and they were married just fourth months later.
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