Mick joined by his wife Karissa Dalton on the red carpet of GQ’s Men of the Year awards. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
We already knew Mick Fanning suffered one of the toughest roller coaster years ever in 2015. When a July encounter with a shark at J-Bay made the 3-time world champ a household name you could have chalked that up to enough turmoil for one person to endure. Watching him get right back in the water and into the thick of the WSL’s ‘CT title race and wearing the yellow jersey heading into Pipe was already one of the most wild stories surfing has ever seen. And then, when his brother suddenly passed away during the Pipe Masters, Mick endured heart break and battled his way to a semifinal appearance. Unfortunately for Fanning and his fans that semifinal appearance surfed with a heavy heart left Mick just over 3,000 points short of a fourth world title. All this went down under speculation that his marriage was also enduring hardship.
Well, Fanning finally announced, via his Facebook page, that he and wife Karissa Dalton have not only split, but the turmoil in their marriage started with a split before the WSL’s first event of 2015:
“I have nothing but love and respect for this woman. Karissa has stood by me since we first met in 2004. We have shared plenty of great times but more importantly she has helped me through some of the toughest moments in my life, especially this past year,” wrote Mick.
“There has been some speculation about our marriage coming to an end over the past six months. We refuted those claims because we were both committed to working things out since we separated last February. After giving it our all though, late last year we made the tough mutual decision to move on separately.”
“It feels weird to put our personal life out there like this but we want to eliminate any speculation about this decision. We’re still close and there’s a lot of love there.”
Fanning stated the social media announcement would be his only commenting on the matter, but fans of the WSL and Mick alike won’t help but wonder if the absence of a heavy heart could have made the difference in earning that fourth world title. In the grand scheme of things that world title pales in comparison to the personal challenges the Aussie endured in 2015. So here’s to wishing Mick the best of luck and well wishes for 2016 in all his endeavors both in and out of the water.
