Rachael Finch suffers devastating family tragedy: ‘My heart is broken and it hurts’

Rachael Finch has revealed the sad news that her adorable dog Simba has passed away.

The 35-year-old model and TV personality shared a video of the dog on Instagram and captioned it with some heartbreaking words.

‘No one prepares you for this. You may see it, and even have it explained to you as a child, but the reality is cruel. My heart is broken and it hurts,” she began.

‘Simba has been a member of our family for 15 wonderful years. After a rapid decline over the past six months, it is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye and send him to a peaceful place.”

‘We love you more than anything and will always remember every beautiful day we spent with you.’

Rachael continued, “Never complaining, always there, endless love. You taught us well, angel.”

Many of the model’s followers quickly took to the comments section to offer her their condolences.

‘So sad. I’m very sorry. Crossed the rainbow bridge to dog heaven. I hope he is at peace now,” one person wrote.

“Sending love and strength – the hardest thing to do is say goodbye to our fur babies,” another commented.

‘I send you all lots of love, lots of strength for your loss. Forever a very sweet boy,” said a third.

Rachael and her husband Michael Miziner adopted Simba in 2010.

The couple met on the 2010 season of Dancing With The Stars – he was her dance partner and she was a contestant.

The couple, who married in 2013, now combines parenthood with a growing fitness empire.

They share daughter Violet, 11, and son Dominic, seven.

The model and TV personality shared a video of the dog on Instagram and captioned it with some heartbreaking words

‘Simba has been a member of our family for 15 wonderful years. After a rapid decline over the past six months, it is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye and send him to a peaceful place,” she wrote

Rachael is known as a fitness fanatic and often gives her fans insight into her and her family’s workout regimes.

On Christmas Day, she shared a video on Instagram of her and her family all exercising at a local playground, as they weren’t taking time off from their active lifestyle.

In the video, Rachael led her family through an intense supervised training session on Christmas morning as they all did pyramid jumps together.

“Come on, Violet. We can’t give up now!’ Rachael said in the video, motivating her daughter to complete the morning workout.

It appeared that Dominic had also hit a wall during his training, prompting Michael to turn around and say, “Don’t sit down, come on!”

Rachael also shared a photo of her family posing happily after their post-Christmas workout, with her children Violet and Dominic beaming next to Michael.

The family often stay fit and train together but have divided fans on social media, with Rachael regularly targeted for their very active lifestyle.

Rachael doesn’t shy away from attacking online trolls and earlier this year shared an impassioned post labeling her as an ‘almond mum’.

Many of the model’s followers quickly took to the comments section to offer her their condolences

She was wildly accused of ‘endangering’ her children after sharing a video of herself making them ‘naked burgers’ using lettuce cups instead of buns.

“Almond mother” is a pejorative term for a mother who imposes disordered and unhealthy eating habits on her children.

It is often used to refer to parents who are ‘obsessed’ with nutrition.

An excited Rachael quickly responded to the baseless accusation, which she found ‘hilarious’.

“This was because I made naked burgers for dinner (meat patties and veggies wrapped in a lettuce cup),” she wrote on Instagram.

“While it’s downright nasty, it’s also absurdly hilarious. I have now become a professional at responding emotionally to these comments.”