{"id":62679,"date":"2025-08-12T13:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62679\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T13:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:56:18","slug":"aussie-superstar-kaylee-mckeown-hard-launches-new-relationship-with-former-afl-player-declan-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62679\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie superstar Kaylee McKeown hard launches new relationship with former AFL player Declan Watson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian superstar swimmer<\/a> Kaylee McKeown and former AFL<\/a> player Declan Watson have gone public with their budding relationship.<\/p>\n

McKeown, who won another two world titles in Singapore earlier this month, is enjoying a well-deserved break after the world championships.<\/p>\n

She shared a series of photos of her trip to Uluru, including two snaps with new boyfriend Watson.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

\"WatsonWatson and McKeown enjoying the stunning backdrop at Uluru. Credit: Instagram<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how long the pair have been together but it\u2019s the first time they have posted each other on social media.<\/p>\n

McKeown was previously in a relationship with fellow Aussie swimmer Brendan Smith. They were together for about four years but split up earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Despite the split, the 24-year-old continued her domination in the backstroke at the world championships.<\/p>\n

She won the 100m and 200m events, adding to her Olympic gold medals in the same events.<\/p>\n

And she did it just weeks after suffering a dislocated shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have got a really flexible stroke and it\u2019s my benefit when I swim my backstrokes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut sometimes it can cause me to dislocate my shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been quite irritated but I have got a good medical team and physiotherapists to help me get through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really really proud. It\u2019s a little bit emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKeown now has a staggering five Olympic gold and six world championship gold medals, as well as four Commonwealth Games gold medals to undoubtedly be one Australia\u2019s best ever swimmers.<\/p>\n

Watson had a brief AFL career at North Melbourne but never played a game due to a series of injuries.<\/p>\n

Taken with pick No.34 in the 2016 draft, Watson impressed in the VFL during his first season but suffered an ACL injury in 2017.<\/p>\n

Another knee injury in 2019 ultimately ended his AFL career with the Kangaroos delisting him at the end of that season.<\/p>\n

He has since returned home to Brisbane where he works as a lawyer.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian superstar swimmer Kaylee McKeown and former AFL player Declan Watson have gone public with their budding relationship.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,1625,3863,588,85,15997],"class_list":{"0":"post-62679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-sponsored-content","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-swimming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62679","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=62679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}