{"id":195397,"date":"2025-10-07T13:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195397\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:01:26","slug":"see-the-powerful-moment-reece-walsh-reunites-with-his-ex-at-the-nrl-grand-final-after-they-had-a-baby-when-he-was-just-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195397\/","title":{"rendered":"See the powerful moment Reece Walsh reunites with his ex at the NRL grand final after they had a baby when he was just 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reece Walsh was reunited with his ex-partner Freda Puru in heartwarming scenes with their daughter after he spearheaded the Broncos’ remarkable comeback win in the NRL<\/a> grand final.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the fullback won the Clive Churchill Medal as the best player on the ground, the former couple were pictured embracing their daughter Leila in a photo Puru posted on her Instagram.<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail exclusively broke the news of their split<\/a> in May 2023, revealing Walsh had unfollowed her and wiped all photos of her from his account.<\/p>\n

It’s possible they had split up to a year before our story, with Puru becoming noticeably absent from\u00a0Walsh’s family events and posts following their daughter’s first birthday.<\/p>\n

She still doesn’t feature on his Instagram, but she and Walsh were all smiles after he triumphed in the biggest match of his life.<\/p>\n

Shortly before kickoff in the grand final, Walsh’s father Rodney opened up about how his son broke the news that he and Puru were expecting a baby when he was just 18 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured: <\/p>\n

Pictured: The moment Reece Walsh reunited with his ex Freda Puru as they shared a heartwarming moment with their daughter Leila<\/p>\n

\"Puru <\/p>\n

Puru and Walsh (pictured together with Leila) had their split revealed exclusively by the Daily Mail in May 2023<\/p>\n

\"Walsh <\/p>\n

Walsh had a touching moment on the field with his daughter after he brought her up onto the stage while he received his premiership ring<\/p>\n

Rodney – who also detailed how the NRL superstar rose above the trauma of his mum’s drug addiction<\/a>\u00a0– recalled how nervous Reece Walsh when he made the big reveal.<\/p>\n

‘He was a bit worried to tell us he was having a kid,’ Rodney told News Corp<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The way I reacted, I was calm.<\/p>\n

‘He said, “Far out, Dad, I thought you would be way worse than that.”<\/p>\n

‘But I had kids when I was young, too, there’s not a lot you can do about it.<\/p>\n

‘But once it’s done, it’s done, you just move on and give her the best life we can.’<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh is well-known for doting on Leila, who is a regular at his games and Broncos training sessions.<\/p>\n

He brought her up on stage with him when he collected his premiership ring after the 26-22 win over the Broncos on Sunday night, then placed his diamond-encrusted memento on Leila\u2019s index finger as the pair sat down in a pile of confetti and soaked up the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"Walsh <\/p>\n

Walsh turned in what many good judges believe to be the greatest individual performance in grand final history<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was given a toilet by a Broncos fan after the win over the Storm in a nod to a controversial video that surfaced in early September<\/p>\n

After the match, Walsh said his desire to be tough for his Brisbane ‘brothers’ helped inspire one of the greatest grand final performances in the game’s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Walsh spent his time drinking out of toilet bowl-shaped cups and live-streaming Brisbane’s festivities, critics were weighing up where his extraordinary performance ranked among the great grand final efforts by an individual.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary’s famous 2023 performance to sink the Broncos is widely regarded as the finest Clive Churchill Medal effort, with Walsh on the losing end that time.<\/p>\n

Luke Priddis’ masterclass in 2003, Cooper Cronk’s showing in 2012 and Billy Slater’s blitz in 2017 regularly rank among the other top ones.<\/p>\n

But while recency bias can be a factor, the likes of Johnathan Thurston, Darren Lockyer and Phil Gould have all ranked Walsh’s effort on Sunday night as No.1.<\/p>\n

Always known as an electric attacking player, Walsh’s epic 30-metre try when he beat five men was an instant grand final classic in the first half.<\/p>\n

He also set up three tries, but it was the three try-saving plays he made in the second half that ultimately proved just as vital.<\/p>\n

‘I am not known for the tough stuff but I did all of that for them tonight,’ Walsh said.<\/p>\n

‘They are my brothers. I play for them and I will do anything for them. I have so much respect for all of them and I will do whatever it takes.<\/p>\n

‘I am blessed to be part of the team.<\/p>\n

‘As a four-year-old kid all I wanted to do was play for the club.<\/p>\n

‘When I think about all the greats, I feel honoured.<\/p>\n

‘I feel like this is a bit of redemption for the 2015 and 2023 teams and for every single person that lives and bleeds for this club. We did it for them.<\/p>\n

‘It’s been 19 years and we’ve just etched our names in history.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh was reunited with his ex-partner Freda Puru in heartwarming scenes with their daughter after he spearheaded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,651,100,1202,761,762,158,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brisbane","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-instagram","13":"tag-national-rugby-league","14":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}