Arabella Del Busso’s journey charts a dramatic fall from fame to infamy from faking pregnancies & facing jail for theft to rebuilding her life through boxing & social media reinvention. Once Australia’s most controversial WAG, she now fights to reclaim her name, image & future in the public eye.
The Return Nobody Expected
When Arabella Del Busso stepped back into public view after five months in prison, Australia paused. Once the glamorous face of a rugby-league romance, then the subject of televised confession & courtroom shame, she reemerged in 2025 with boxing gloves, stilettos & an Instagram slogan: The Queen Returns.
Behind the glossy photos sat a story of deceit, despair and determination a narrative so dramatic that even her harshest critics admit it feels cinematic.
A Life Rewritten-From Donna Preusker to Arabella
Born Donna Preusker in Victoria in the early 1990s, she grew up fascinated by glamour and reinvention. By her twenties she had become Arabella Del Busso model, influencer & fixture on the Sydney social scene.
Moving between Melbourne & Sydney, she worked as a lingerie & glamour model. Her striking looks & confidence brought minor celebrity status & soon she crossed paths with high-profile athletes. What followed would alter both her name & her legacy.
The Scandal That Shook Rugby League
In 2018 she began dating NRL star Josh Reynolds. Within months she claimed she was pregnant with twins the first of three alleged pregnancies in less than a year.
Each claim ended in tragedy, she said. Each miscarriage left Reynolds shattered. But none of it was true.
She fabricated ultrasound images, told him she had placenta accreta, even claimed her mother had died. When her deception was exposed, Reynolds described it as “worse than anything you could write for Netflix.”
The relationship imploded. She accused him of assault; the charges were later dismissed. Ten other men would eventually contact Reynolds with eerily similar stories.
Reality TV Redemption Gone Wrong
Rather than retreat, Arabella sought a rebrand. In 2020 she joined SAS Australia, hoping to recast herself as resilient & misunderstood.
Instead, the show amplified the scandal. Confronted by the directing staff, she admitted faking the pregnancy scan but dismissed it as “a little white lie.”
The comment triggered outrage. Viewers condemned the network; social media called her “Australia’s most notorious ex.” She quit the show within 24 hours, in tears her public image seemingly beyond repair.
Behind Closed Doors-The Theft That Ended Her Career
While her name dominated gossip columns, her professional life unravelled. Working as a receptionist at Rheumatology Specialist Care (formerly Integrated Specialist Medical Care) between September 2019 and February 2020, she began skimming cash payments from patients.
With her manager away, she texted clients:
“Unfortunately our EFTPOS facilities are down so it will be a cash transaction today of $170.”
By the time an audit was ordered, $52,350 was missing $35,785 from Kogarah, $16,565 from Randwick.
Convicted of theft in February 2024, she received 20 months in prison. Judge John Pickering called the crime “brazen and self-serving,” adding that her deception “reflected the same pattern seen in her personal life.”
Inside Dillwynia-Five Months of Fear & Survival
Her first night in custody was spent in the mental-health unit at Silverwater, where she listened to inmates attempting suicide. Later transferred to Dillwynia Women’s Correctional Centre, she became an immediate target.
“They knew who I was. I was threatened with a shiv if I complained,” she later wrote.
Strip-searched regularly — “lift your bra, bend over, spread your cheeks” she described the process as degrading. Other inmates called her “delicious” and asked if she “swung that way.”
Nicknamed “Jail Barbie,” she channelled anxiety into routine: scrubbing floors for $36 a week, leading impromptu boxing sessions with water bottles as makeshift pads.
“It wasn’t about money. It was about feeling useful,” she said later.
The Letter From Prison
In a handwritten appeal letter, she confessed:
“I feel broken, defeated and helpless. The experience has traumatised me, but I’ve learnt how strong I can be.”
Diagnosed with anxiety and depression, she told the court her fame made her a target & that strip searches left her “violated.”
Her appeal succeeded in April 2024; her sentence was reduced to five months. On 12 July 2024, she walked free.
Love After Lock-Up
Waiting beyond the gates was James Warwick, a Melbourne builder & former amateur Aussie Rules player. They had met before her arrest & maintained a relationship through fortnightly visits at a cost of about $220 per trip.
In a statement supporting her appeal, Warwick wrote:
“People don’t know the real Arabella. The Bella I love is kind, selfless and genuine.”
After her release, they relocated to Melbourne’s CBD, where he helped her rebuild confidence and manage lingering trauma.
The Reinvention-From Inmate to ‘Lil Bellsy’
Determined to start again, Del Busso re-emerged under a new identity: Lil Bellsy a blend of glamour and grit.
Her planned 2021 debut against Kate McLaren on Paul Gallen’s undercard was cancelled after backlash and a seven-kilogram weight difference. “Boxing Australia wouldn’t have accepted it,” she later said.
In 2022 she finally fought in Melbourne, then at Wembley Arena (2023), where she defeated Lil Kymchii while being carried to the ring on a golden chair. Critics called it “theatre.” Former world champion Ebanie Bridges said it “looked more WWE than boxing.”
She lost to Andrea-Jane Bunker later that year but returned in 2025, crashing the ring at Misfits 22 in Manchester after Carla Jade’s fight, shouting:
“I’m the champ! You’re next, b**ch! Fight someone for real!”
Security dragged her out; the clip went viral. Soon after, she confirmed her next match against Monique Bovino — a Sydney presenter and amateur boxer with a 3-2 record.
The Digital Comeback
Her Instagram account became the stage for her post-prison persona.
In October 2024, she posted: “This is my world … and you’re just living in it.” The image showed her in sheer black lingerie on her Melbourne balcony.
In November, she posed nude on a white throne, covering herself with championship belts and $1,395 Christian Louboutin heels, captioned: “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”
By April 2025, another balcony video — black bra, suspender belt, sheer robe — sent social media into a frenzy. Office workers in nearby towers filmed as she waved and smiled.
Her posts now oscillate between athletic and provocative, tagged #QueenReturns and #LilBellsy — a deliberate fusion of sport, sexuality and self-promotion.
Rebuilding the Body & the Brand
Fitness, she says, became her foundation. She trains twice daily and plans to fight professionally by late 2026.
In September 2024, she teased new breast-implant surgery, posting silicone models online. She previously revealed she had 560 cc implants inserted a decade earlier.
“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it,” she captioned one gym photo.
Inside the Mind of Arabella Del Busso
In a 2024 podcast interview, she offered rare candour:
“I’ve proven I’m strong. No matter what’s thrown at me, I can get through it.”
She spoke of communal showers, constant propositions and “seeing things you can’t unsee.” Yet she described the experience as eye-opening.
Now she’s planning a memoir & a clothing label, hoping to translate notoriety into reinvention.
“I’ve got goals. Nothing can stop me now.”
The Long Road to Redemption
To supporters, Arabella represents resilience; to critics, manipulation. She argues that boxing offers a path to forgiveness:
“I want to move forward and continue my boxing career where people forgive, are inspired and look up to me.”
She insists the discipline of training saved her mental health-a claim even detractors concede may be true.
Public Opinion-A Nation Still Watching
Australia’s fascination persists. Some see her as a mirror for the modern age-a woman defined as much by media as by her own actions. Others see exploitation: scandal repackaged as entertainment.
Boxing insiders remain divided. Ebanie Bridges called her events “unreal,” while promoters argue her star power keeps influencer boxing alive.
Whether admired or criticised, she commands attention – the true currency of contemporary fame.
Epilogue-The Woman Who Refused to Disappear
From fake pregnancies to court convictions, strip-searches to golden-chair entrances, Arabella Del Busso’s story reads like a parable of modern celebrity-a cycle of exposure, collapse and comeback.
At 35, she now trains daily, lives in a Melbourne apartment overlooking the skyline, and dreams of a boxing title & a published memoir.
Whether history remembers her as a manipulator or a survivor, one fact is clear-Arabella Del Busso has turned her name-once synonymous with shame-into an enduring, if uneasy, brand.
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