Australian swimming legend Lisa Curry has shared a deeply personal insight into the final years of her late daughter Jaimi's life, revealing concerns she still carries nearly six years after her death.
Jaimi Kenny, the eldest daughter of the former Australian swimming champion and Ironman Grant Kenny, died in September 2020 at the age of 33 following a long battle with anorexia and alcohol addiction.
Speaking on The Healthy Her podcast, Curry reflected on the challenges her daughter faced and revealed there were moments that left her questioning whether Jaimi may have been harmed by people around her.
"She sent me every photo. We had this thing going where she would send me a photo of a little flower growing out of the concrete, or she'd send me a beautiful door, or her breakfast, or herself covered in bruises," the mother-of-three said.
"I mean, I've got photos on my phone where a couple of times I've looked at them and I'm thinking 'hang on a minute, what happened here?' Because to me it looks like someone has bashed her."
Curry said those images continue to weigh on her mind: "And I'm not quite a hundred per cent sure that that didn't happen, because of the photos on my phone."
At the time, Jaimi would often explain the injuries as the result of accidental falls or bumping into objects, but Curry admitted she now finds herself revisiting those explanations.
"I knew some of the really dodgy people that were around her, and now when I look at the photos I think, 'you don't get a black eye from [bumping into something like that]'," she said.
"I'm still trying to understand… and it's really hard."
Elsewhere in the interview, the three-time Olympian spoke candidly about her daughter's lengthy health struggles and the heartbreak of watching her battle illness for almost two decades.
"She was really, really unwell, and we couldn't save her," she said.
Curry has continued to honour Jaimi's memory through regular social media tributes and reflections on grief, as well as her involvement as a prominent mental health and eating disorder advocate.
Marking the fifth anniversary of her daughter's death in September last year, she shared a photograph of the pair together alongside an emotional message.
"The grief started before she was gone. Not knowing when or if that awful day would ever come. Living with hope, living in fear," Curry wrote.
"It was all-consuming. The slow and inevitable breaking of our hearts as we watched our baby fade away. And even though she still kept smiling right to the end, we could see the sadness in her eyes and we knew she was slipping away."
"It's been 5 years today, and even though we are still sad inside and always will be, we feel lighter, able to smile, laugh and continue on… and breathe… and as long as we breathe, we will remember our beautiful Jaimi."
During the podcast, Curry also reflected on the lessons she has drawn from grief after losing both her daughter and, a year later, her beloved mother.
She said those experiences have strengthened her desire to support others navigating loss and hardship.
"Every loss is a lesson of some sort, and how can you apply that to your life? And so that's what I've done. I've really tried hard to work out why I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling, what does it mean, where does it come from, and how can I pass it on to other people in a positive way, and help people get through it?"
Curry shares two other adult children with her former husband Grant Kenny. The pair separated in 2009 after 23 years of marriage. The swimming great later married professional Elvis tribute artist Mark Tabone.
