Back in 2023, like many young women, the first thing Lilly Sabri did every morning was check her phone.
As a fitness influencer with more than six million followers on YouTube and her million-pound health company Lean, she was used to waking up to dozens of messages from fans who followed her Pilates workouts and healthy recipes.
But, on November 9 that year, the physiotherapist woke up to more notifications than normal – ‘thousands’ of messages from friends, family and people she didn’t know.
Because, while she was sleeping, a popular gossip podcast had released a new episode about a man who had allegedly cheated on his well-known fiancee – with enough clues to suggest that the person was Lilly’s then-partner.
Giggling to each other, the hosts of The Girls Bathroom podcast, Sophia Tuxford and Cinzia Baylis Zullo, discussed the unnamed couple’s dog, their house in Dubai, recent engagement and even hinted at Lilly’s business ventures.
And, with more than one million followers per episode, the episode and the mystery surrounding the couple’s identity quickly exploded on social media.
‘I didn’t know what had happened,’ Lilly, now 35, tells the Mail. ‘I opened Instagram, and there were thousands and thousands of messages with a link to a podcast.
‘People were alluding that something had happened, but I had to hear it myself.
‘Everything I knew and trusted felt like it had exploded. I was in disbelief, and it felt like I was in a reality TV show, but it was my own life, and I had zero control over it. I hadn’t asked for this.’
‘I didn’t know what had happened,’ Lilly, now 35, tells the Mail
‘I was in disbelief, and it felt like I was in a reality TV show, but it was my own life,’ Lilly says
Mortified, Lilly says she watched the episode at least ten times that day. But it wasn’t until two weeks after the podcast was released, as social media ‘sleuths’ speculated on Lilly’s relationship, that she released a statement confirming the story was indeed about her ex-fiance.
‘On Thursday 9th November, I woke up to messages about a podcast episode discussing a relationship involving a newly engaged man, meeting a woman on his stag-do, and subsequent encounters,’ she wrote on Instagram. ‘It’s heartbreaking to confirm this is true and discovering it in this way has been devastating.’
She had previously updated her social media multiple times a day. But that statement marked her final post for the following 18 months.
‘I just wanted to disappear, I couldn’t get away from it,’ she tells me now.
A qualified physiotherapist, Lilly started her career in the NHS before she began volunteering at Watford Football Club as a Pilates instructor in 2017
‘I literally couldn’t look in a mirror for about nine months afterwards, because I was picking myself apart.
‘What happened affected my family too. It should never have happened.
‘Millions of people found out what had happened in my personal life before I did. It’s humiliating. It was so humiliating for me.’
She says she checked her social media only to see if the podcast hosts had reached out to apologise. But, a year and half on, she still hasn’t ‘heard anything’.
In that time, she says her physical and mental health suffered and she had to pull herself out of ‘dark places’.
Now, however, she is finally ready to make a return.
‘It’s obviously been a long time away, a difficult time, but through that time, I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like I’m in a good place,’ she says.
‘Mentally I wasn’t in a place to show up on social media, and that then turned physical as well. I needed to put my mental health first.
‘If you’d asked me a year ago, I wouldn’t say I’d be able to do this right now. But finally I feel ready.’
A qualified physiotherapist, Lilly started her career in the NHS before she began volunteering at Watford Football Club as a Pilates instructor in 2017. It was there that she developed her now-famous ‘Lean’ method – which she describes as ‘the basic principles of Pilates with a more athletic twist’.
She adds: ‘That was when the businesswomen in me started thinking, ‘let’s bring this to the masses’.’
Lilly rented a local community hall for £25 an hour and started hosting in-person classes before she began building up her social media following.
Since then her popularity has exploded with more than one million Instagram followers and four million ‘likes’ on TikTok.
In 2021, she took her ‘Lean’ method mainstream with the launch of her fitness app of the same name and a range of nutritional products.
After 18 months away from social media, Lilly says she is hoping to build some of the mental health strategies she’s learned into her business
Will she be sharing her dating life on social media again? Definitely not, she says
Now, after 18 months away from social media, she says she is hoping to build some of the mental health strategies she’s learned into her business.
‘I’ve met some incredible people who have helped me along the way, and I have done different practices which have really helped me – breath work, meditation, mindfulness, therapy,’ she says.
‘Without all of that, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have got through that. I can’t tell you how much it saved me.
‘This is a big part of my new purpose. It’s wellness, its mental health, it’s helping people. Whether it’s a mental health crisis, it’s anxiety, its depression, it’s being overwhelmed. I want to be able to help people with the skills that I’ve learned and do it through kindness.
like many young women, the first thing Lilly did every morning was check her phone
Lilly says: ‘I have obviously been scarred, but I feel really excited now about my future’
‘And that kind of feels like the new purpose for Lean.’
And, despite what has happened in the past 18 months, Lilly still hopes that her Mr Right is out there.
‘I want all the stuff that you would expect in fairytale books,’ she tells me.
‘I have obviously been scarred, but I feel really excited now about my future.
‘When I look at core people around me and how happy they are in their personal relationships, I do believe that it is out there, and I believe that it’s achievable, and it’s certainly something that I really want for myself.’
Will she be sharing her dating life on social media again? Definitely not, she tells me, but adds: ‘It doesn’t mean that I am not excited to have a very happy personal life as well.’
