Ryan Lochte’s fiancée, Molly Gillihan, pushed back on claims by his ex-wife, Kayla Reid, that they were friendly acquaintances when she got together with the retired U.S. Olympic swimmer last April.
After their divorce was finalized last month, Reid claimed in a profile with People that Lochte and Gillihan had a secret rendezvous — and she accused Lochte of substance abuse and infidelity.
Gillihan fired back at Reid’s claims and explained her and Lochte’s relationship timeline in an interview published Thursday with TMZ.
“No [I wasn’t Kayla’s friend] and I’ll take that to my grave,” Gillihan said. “I would never consider Kayla a friend of mine, ever. I would never date a friend’s husband.
“… I did not break up your marriage. I’m not a home-wrecker. Your home was broken when I met Ryan. He was not living in the home. [Reid] filed for divorce. … Reid had kicked him out.
“I understand her being mad and upset, but to lie and make things up about me, I don’t get. I really don’t understand.”
Gillihan said she met Reid when they sat next each other at party at a restaurant in 2021, and they shared stories of their personal lives with each other.
Gillihan, a former preschool teacher, said she told Reid she was fresh out of a “brutal divorce” — and recalled Reid telling her she was “not very much not happy in her marriage with Ryan” at the time.
After that, Gillihan said they never hung out, and she and Reid had spoken “four or fives times in my life.”
Gillihan said her and Lochte’s first date was April 10, 2025.
Reid, who works as a realtor in Gainesville, filed for divorce from Lochte last March.
Gillihan claimed Reid that things got “messy” from April until May of last year.
“It got so messy because she kept coming around she kept being places I was at and she kept talking [negatively] to me about him,” Gillihan said.
“It was messy on my part if I could do it again I would’ve just removed myself from the situation completely.”
Gillihan said she believes Reid is hurt that Lochte lied about reaching out to her in 2019, asking her for a ride home from that airport because his wife was out of town.
“I wrote him back and I said, ‘I’m not into married men, absolutely not.’ And I never talked to him again until April 2025,” she said.
Gillihan explained that she believes Lochte was a “horrible” and “awful” husband to Reid and that “they both would’ve gotten out” of their marriage sooner.
She believes she has a better version of Lochte.
Lochte previously admitted to being unfaithful to Reid and was adamant that his relationship with Gillihan was a non-factor.
Lochte and Gillihan, who got engaged in June, relocated from Gainesville to Missouri after he took a job to coach college swimming.
Reid currently has primary custody of their three children: Caiden, 9, Liv, 7, and 3-year-old Georgia.
In response to Reid, Lochte told People in a statement: “Over the past several years, I’ve taken responsibility for the mistakes I’ve made and have spoken openly about some of the lowest moments in my life. Looking back, I wasn’t ready to be a husband or the man my family deserved at that point in my life.
“That’s on me. I’m incredibly grateful for my children, and they are the greatest gift to come from that chapter of my life.
“I’m not going to engage in a back-and-forth about my divorce or respond to every allegation or characterization.”
