The father of late snowboarding champion Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin has broken his silence on Ellidy Pullin’s engagement to new partner Brock Wadsworth, revealing his fears for the couple’s future and why he believes she will never stop using his son’s surname.
Chris Pullin indicated that he would prefer Ellidy to change her last name to that of her husband-to-be Brock Wadsworth, but he doubted she would do so because it is her “cash cow.”
Ellidy was in a long-term relationship with Chumpy until his accidental death aged 32 in a spearfishing accident in Palm Beach on the Gold Coast in July 2020.
Chumpy blacked out in shallow water and was found unconscious on the ocean floor by a fellow diver.
His devastated girlfriend posthumously harvested his sperm and then changed her surname from Vlug to Pullin via deed poll, despite never having married him.
Ellidy once had the full support of Chris and his wife Sally, but in the years since the birth of Chumpy’s daughter Minnie, now four, the relationship has brutally broken down.
Ellidy announced her engagement to Brock Wadsworth on Wednesday morning
The Gold Coast influencer was left devastated by Chumpy’s sudden death in 2020
Earlier this year, Chris Pullin revealed the shocking row between himself and Ellidy
Chris previously claimed to the Daily Mail that Ellidy, 34, had ‘blocked’ the family on social media and also not contacted him following the death of his wife Sally from central nervous system lymphoma in April 2025.
However, she posted a gushing tribute to Sally weeks after her death, a gesture that remains a sore point for Chris, who says he never received private condolences.
On Wednesday, Ellidy announced her engagement to Gold Coast builder Brock, less than a year after making the relationship public and six years after Chumpy’s death.
“He wants to be stuck with me forever!” she declared.
The engagement news immediately raised questions about whether Ellidy will keep the Pullin name despite her fractured relationship with Chumpy’s father, or adopt Brock’s last name once they get married.
Speaking to the Daily Mail just hours after Ellidy shared her news, Chris, 69, said he believes she will never let go of the Pullin name.
“I don’t think she’ll change her name because it’s her whole personality; it has been her cash cow,” he said, referring to the fact that she has become a high-profile influencer and author since Chumpy’s death.
There was a time when Chris and Ellidy shared an unbreakable bond forged through loss. Photos of the young woman leaning on him during a memorial paddle for Chumpy in Palm Beach resonated across Australia.
Ellidy leaned on Chris during the heartbreaking 2020 paddle-out in memory of Chumpy
Ellidy famously changed her last name from Swift to Pullin after Chumpy’s death
Chris has not only tragically lost his son in recent years, but also his wife Sally
In the days following Chumpy’s death, Ellidy needed Chris and Sally’s permission to posthumously harvest their son’s sperm, to which the devastated parents immediately agreed and signed an affidavit allowing the procedure to go ahead.
Ellidy became pregnant via IVF and gave birth to a girl – Chumpy’s only biological child – in October 2021.
Chris revealed earlier this year that he has only seen his granddaughter, four-year-old Minnie, ‘three or four times’.
In 2022, before their breakup, Ellidy released her memoir Heartstrong: Chumpy, Minnie and Me, with Chris contributing several chapters.
Chris believes their feud started in May 2024, when he emailed the board of the now-defunct Chumpy Pullin Foundation, of which Ellidy was a co-founder, to express his concern that it was straying from its original goal of supporting youth sports.
Instead, the foundation shifted its focus to mental health initiatives, a move that Chris said fueled misconceptions that his son had died by suicide rather than a spearfishing accident, distorting public perception of both his death and his legacy.
Shortly after the email was sent, Chris claims Ellidy blocked the joint phone number he shared with Sally, who at the time was in her third year of battling her lymphoma diagnosis and suffering immensely.
‘Then [email]we found out that we could no longer contact Ellidy. Our calls weren’t going through,” he said during a filmed interview with the Mail at his home in Eden, on the NSW Sapphire Coast, on January 12.
‘It hurt Sally a lot. She was devastated. Her cognitive ability was affected by the lymphoma. But she knew we weren’t talking – or rather, Ellidy wasn’t talking to us,” he added.
‘She also knew we had no contact with Minnie. “I was Sally’s protector… but to see her so hurt by this, and I couldn’t do anything to protect her… It caused a lot of pain.”
Ellidy’s fiancée Brock has become a father figure to four-year-old Minnie
Ellidy once felt it would be ‘Chump and I forever’ but admits she’s happy with her new love
Speaking to the Daily Mail following Ellidy’s engagement this week, Chris said of Ellidy’s continued use of the name Pullin: ‘She’s a Pullin, but she’s not.
‘They weren’t married. I hate it, but what should I do? All I can say is, “What would Chumpy think about that?” It annoys me because we have no control over it.”
‘The Pullin family still exists. We are about 30 people. She doesn’t have a relationship with any of us except my daughter [Chumpy’s sister].’
While there’s no denying that Ellidy has gained fame through the name Pullin, Chris acknowledged that there’s another reason why she’s unlikely to change the name.
He expects that she will want to keep the same name as her daughter, Minnie, who Chris understands bears a striking resemblance to her father.
‘I don’t have a relationship with either of them [Ellidy and Minnie]Chris said from his coastal home, where he is surrounded by photos and artwork of Sally and Chumpy.
‘I can’t see anything because it’s all blocked. I don’t even know where they live.
‘As far as I’m concerned there are millions of people in Australia, and there are two of them. I don’t think that will ever change.
‘But many friends say to me that when Minnie is a young woman, she might come to see me to find out more about her father.
“But the problem is, I’m an old man, so she better hurry… And she’ll never meet Sally.”
Ellidy, who has 375,000 followers on Instagram, first introduced contractor Brock to fans on her popular podcast Darling, Shine! in November.
She told listeners how she had fallen in love with an old friend, but was initially concerned about how the audience would react, admitting she felt a mixture of joy and guilt.
“I’m so happy right now, and I’m really enjoying the feelings and emotions and falling in love with Brock and having this new love,” she said.
“I feel guilty saying that because of course I thought so many times that it would just be Chump and me forever.
Chris, pictured near his home in Eden, NSW, said he does not know where Minnie lives
Chris said Chumpy would feel uncomfortable if his daughter was all over social media
‘That would have been true, but he died… I’m young, I’ll never be alone forever. I didn’t make a hasty decision. I’ve been on this for pretty much a whole year, and I’m very happy with where I am with him now. It’s fucking epic.’
Chris has never felt comfortable with Ellidy putting her and her daughter’s entire life on social media.
“It was never Chumpy’s style. He would hate that,” he said.
Reacting to Ellidy’s engagement news, Chris said: ‘I feel sorry for him [Brock] because it will end badly’.
“But I guess this might create more space between us and her when we talk about Chumpy, because that’s going to be a little difficult when you’re married to someone else.
“So this could be a good thing.”
Ellidy was contacted for comment through her talent agent.
