Kayla Rae Reid claims Ryan Lochte’s new fiancée, Molly Gillihan, used to be in her circle of friends before she allegedly started dating the swimmer “behind my back.”
“Molly’s someone I knew from Gainesville. I’ll use the term ‘friend’ lightly,” Reid, 35, claimed to People in an interview published on Thursday, August 13. “She was wanting to open up a kid’s cafe so I was helping her with some real estate work, and we have a ton of mutual friends. She followed me on every social platform and would often send me encouraging messages and want to hang out.”
According to Reid, Gillian, 37, started dating Lochte, 42, weeks into what became a messy — and public — divorce process.
“It’s honestly quite sick when I think about it,” Reid said, claiming Gillihan was previously “encouraging me [after filing for divorce] that I will find an amazing man and complimenting how beautiful and lucky I was, and how he was a coward and how I deserved so much better.”
Before making her divorce public in June 2025, Reid claimed she “confided in” Gillihan.
“We had an hour and a half conversation on the phone,” the model-turned-real estate agent claimed. “She knew a lot of the struggles that I was dealing with. And she had gone through some similar stuff. … And lo and behold, she was dating my husband.”
In a separate interview with People published on Thursday, Gillihan said Lochte reached out in 2019 when he was still married and she “made it very clear that I wasn’t interested in talking to or pursuing a married man.”
Gillihan said Reid “called me [in 2025] asking whether [Ryan] had been calling, texting or seeing me. I mostly just listened because I know firsthand how painful divorce can be. Looking back, I wish I had never taken that phone call.”
“At the time, I felt for both her and Ryan, and I wanted to be certain their relationship was truly over before I allowed myself to even consider anything,” Gillihan explained. “In hindsight, taking that phone call was the biggest mistake I could have made. Ryan didn’t reach out to me again until he was living independently and the divorce proceedings had already begun.”
Us has reached out to Lochte for comment on Reid’s interview.
In March, Lochte slammed rumors that he cheated on his now ex-wife with Gillihan.
“I absolutely was not unfaithful to my ex-wife,” Lochte said in a statement to People in March. “And I have no excuse but to continue to say I have grown and learned so much from my past and I am working on myself and my character every single day.”
Lochte and Gillihan got engaged in June and currently live in Missouri. Reid is based in Florida and has primary custody of her three number children with Lochte.
Reid, who currently hosts “The Comeback Era” podcast with friend and The Bachelor alum Caroline Lunny, said she is focused on rebuilding her life and “so excited for the future.”
As for Gillihan — who has three children from past relationships — she believes Lochte has become a “stronger, healthier and more honest man.” As a result, she is looking forward to the future she is building with her blended family.
“My focus has never been on the past. It’s on the life Ryan and I are building together, our family and creating a happy, healthy future for all of our children,” she told People. “That’s where my heart is, and that’s where it will remain.
