08-05-2025
Alex ‘Chumpy' Pullin's widow devastated again as mother-in-law Sally dies
Ellidy Pullin is heartbroken again five years after she lost the love her life, Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin.
'Chumpy' — a two-time snowboard cross world champion and three-time Winter Olympian — tragically drowned in 2020 while spearfishing at a Gold Coast beach. He was just 32 years of age.
Now, Ellidy, a high-profile influencer, has sadly revealed that the much-loved Aussie's mother, Sally, has also passed away.
The grieving widow went public with the sad news on Thursday with a heartbreaking message to her 350,000 followers on Instagram.
'This first photo (see below) is how I'll forever picture Sal 🤍 Reunited with her boy Chump!! Together forever now, walking on the clouds, somewhere up there…,' Ellidy wrote.
'To remember this beautiful woman is to picture that warm, beaming smile and hear her cheeky giggle. I'll forever cherish her special family lasagne recipe, and when she'd grab her ukulele of an afternoon and sing Chumpy's song Four Babies over and over. We'd never get tired of that joyful voice.
'I love you Sal. I'll miss sailing with you, sun baking and sipping rum with you, nibbling cheese and listening to you identify every kind of bird species that exists in this world and imitating how each one chirps.
'I wish you could run me through Chumpy's favourite cheesecake just one more time because no one can ever nail it quite like you!
'I will never stop talking about you and showing your beautiful granddaughter Minnie photos and videos of your amazing-ness. You're loved and adored by so many Sal - a real angel on earth, and now you're one in the sky—reunited with your boy.
'I know he's holding you forever tight.'
Details around Sally's death were not released at the time of writing.
Condolences poured in from Ellidy's friends and followers, with people such as DJ Fisher, Kellie Finlayson and Aussie surfer Laura Enever all sending love to the mum of one.
As well as snowboarding, Chumpy was also a keen musician and surfer, and had just started spearfishing.
The day he died, the three-time Winter Olympian was weighing up whether to go out spearfishing or for a surf in a decision that would ultimately decide his life.
Ellidy is the mother to a little girl named Minnie who was conceived after she and Sally agreed to retrieve Chumpy's sperm following his death.
'The doctor was like, 'This probably won't work, this is a very slim chance', because (the sperm) dies after 40-something hours, and (we got it) just before the cutoff. There were lots of dead sperms, but some were really alive and really strong and healthy looking ones,' Ellidy said in 2023.
'We had three embryos that were looking really good. The first one didn't work, the second one was Minnie.
'It's a weird thing as well, because she's so him, and if he was here, I know we'd have a kid, but it would be some other kid — how weird is that?'
