AFL 2023: Inside the haunted life of Wayne Carey’s girlfriend, Catie O’Neill

AFL great Wayne Carey is reportedly dating Catie O’Neill, a businesswoman, TikTok star and ‘skinfluencer’ from Melbourne.

Their relationship made headlines when the 28-year-old was spotted with the 51-year-old soccer legend last month.

Despite her relatively young age, O’Neill has achieved a lot of success on social media and as a businesswoman in recent years.

O’Neill is the director and co-founder of the skincare brands My Glow 2 and Huxden, along with her best friend Olivia Burrows.

The brand launched in 2019 when the couple created a fake tan removal mitt based on an ancient Turkish bath ritual.

After learning about the exfoliating benefits of the ‘kese mitt’ in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar in June 2019, O’Neill returned to the Yarra Valley, an hour’s drive northeast of Melbourne, to quit his job in marketing and start a skin care company. business.

A kese glove is a delicate glove used to remove dead skin in a Middle Eastern hammam, steam room, and bath. It is specially woven to adapt to dry and sensitive skin.

O’Neill set up an office in his father’s garden shed and traveled back and forth to Turkey, where he found a small textile mill in the northwest of the country to knit 100% silk gloves.

Since the $34.95 ‘My Glow 2’ exfoliating mitt came on the market, the childhood friends have been earning an average of $26,665 a month and billed approximately $320,000 in their first year of operation.

In 2020, Daily Mail Australia verified this figure from the company’s financial statements.

Social media has been the biggest driver of O’Neill’s financial success, primarily TikTok, which she says has generated “exponential” growth.

“It really blew up,” O’Neill previously told Daily Mail Australia.

She later became the co-founder and director of men’s skincare brand Huxden, which launched in 2022 and is described as the “bold and brash brother” to My Glow 2.

With his business partner Burrows, O’Neill turned his attention to men’s hygiene with Huxden after growing tired of the men in their lives stealing their skin care products.

Before founding her own business, O’Neill had previous experience as a Marketing Manager at South Yarra’s luxury club and cocktail bar The Emerson, as well as a Marketing Executive at Prestige Retreats.

With a marketing degree from Monash University under her belt after graduating from the prestigious Mount Lilydale Mercy College Catholic Secondary School in East Melbourne, O’Neill was destined to be a successful businesswoman.

He has also cultivated a large following on social media, with more than 116,000 followers on TikTok and more than 10,600 on Instagram.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Carey had been ‘quietly seeing’ O’Neill after the couple spent a romantic weekend in Bundalong, where she accompanied him on a business trip.

Carey appeared at a local tavern for her event, Evening with Wayne Carey, on January 25, the Herald-Sun reported.

The scheduled appearance was a meet and greet where the captain of the double premier chatted with fans and talked about his life.

He also raised funds for Outside the Locker Room and the Good Bloke Society.

Attendees said the newly minted couple looked “happy and in love” at the event.

It was Carey’s first major public appearance since the white powder scandal.

The former North Melbourne player was banned from the Crown casino in Perth in September last year after he was caught with a zip-lock bag of white powder.

Carey was escorted out of the casino on September 1 after a bag fell out of his pocket while gambling.

After all, the zip-lock bag contained anti-inflammatory medication he took to deal with pain from his football career, Carey contended.

Carey was reportedly slapped with a two-year ban from entering Crown premises, withdrawn from his Triple M radio show, and banned from attending the Channel 7 telecast of the Brownlow Medal.