At just 23, Charley Hull surprised many when she decided to marry MMA fighter John “Ozzie” Smith, who was 14 years older than her. After spending a year and a half together, marriage felt like the natural next step to them. But that certainty didn’t last. The relationship unraveled almost immediately after the wedding, and Hull chose not to speak about it publicly. Until now.

In an interview with Gabby Herzig, a journalist at The Athletic, the LPGA pro discussed the reason her four-month marriage dissolved.  As she shares, her ex-husband became “controlling and manipulative,” and her sense of what was normal steadily eroded. The relationship tightened around her as her career took off, creating a disorienting contrast between her rising profile and her shrinking personal world. 

“I could go back and say, I wish it never happened, but I actually feel like I’m glad it happened because it makes me the person I am today,” she says. “You’ve got two choices in life, bad things can make you weak, or they can make you stronger. And you definitely want to be stronger.” But the separation that followed was just as draining. 

Hull wanted the divorce completed quickly so she could return to some version of stability, but the emotional toll lingered. On paper, those years were some of her best: top-10 finishes in three majors, a win in Abu Dhabi, nearly $1 million in LPGA earnings, and an undefeated run at the Solheim Cup. But privately, she was barely holding herself together.

 “My best friend Georgia Hall said to me, ‘Charley, I don’t know how you can go out there and play unbelievable golf with the amount of s— you have going on, anyone else would be a mental wreck.’” Hull didn’t disagree. “It was my escape,” she says.

Golf had always been that way for her. She grew up hitting balls into her father’s makeshift net in the garden and carried that early attachment all the way into a multi-million-dollar career. For years, she leaned into a nightlife-heavy social circle, the same version of herself who once went on a four-day bender before flying to Florida and winning the 2016 CME Tour Championship. “I tell these stories and my friends on tour are like, ‘Oh my god, you’ve really done that? … I wish I had your life,’” Hull says. “And I’m like, ‘Trust me, it’s less stressful that way.’”

That lifestyle is gone now. Her world is now built around routines. Morning sessions with her trainer, afternoon rounds with her sister, and quiet evenings without alcohol. She still insists on having a life outside golf, but the chaos that once defined her twenties isn’t something she misses.

Two years after her divorce was finalized, at 27, Hull was diagnosed with ADHD, which added another layer of clarity to what she’d been feeling. Stressful periods triggered bouts of anxiety and sleeplessness, and the constant travel of professional golf only intensified it.

 “They say that when you go through a very stressful situation, it almost triggers my ADHD and anxiety more,” she says. “Before, I was never like this. I was twitchy, I was fast. My brain never used to be a demon.” Medication helped briefly before becoming something she felt herself relying on, so she stopped altogether. The coping mechanisms that followed came in waves. First vaping, then cigarettes. “I’m pretty old school, like my family are,” she says. “Ok cool, you’ve been through a bad time? Just move on, deal with it, deal with it, deal with it.”

But, she hasn’t smoked in months now. Nicotine pouches have replaced cigarettes, and her career has steadied on firmer ground. As Hull’s life has steadied and her career has climbed, another choice she has held firm on says just as much about who she is now as anything she endured: she still refuses to relocate to the United States, despite the logistical advantages nearly every top LPGA player embraces.

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Charley Hull is healing every day

Hull has made it clear that her priorities sit firmly at home. In her interview with Herzig, she explained that she has never considered settling in Florida or Arizona because she wants to stay close to her family and be present for the moments that matter:  birthdays, holidays, baby showers, the ordinary routines that ground her. When she’s on the road, her days are structured around staying connected to them. “Yeah, I eat dinner at 5 p.m. and go to bed at 6 p.m. I just like to communicate and speak to people at home. I get homesick,” she said.

That pull toward home comes from how early her career uprooted her. Hull quit school at 13 when her talent accelerated, and by 16 she was traveling internationally as a professional. Years of nonstop movement built a kind of exhaustion she now recognizes clearly. The idea of stacking three tournaments in the U.S. without returning to England is something she has no desire to repeat. While players like Lydia Ko, Celine Boutier, and Minjee Lee have long relocated for convenience and tax advantages, Hull has stayed where she is because she knows what distance does to her. “I just love being at home so much. I’ve traveled and I’ve been pro since I was a teenager. Do you know what I mean?” she said.

Remaining in England means more flights and more hours in transit, but she accepts that trade-off. What she gains: familiarity, stability, and proximity to her support system, is worth more to her than any logistical benefit the U.S. can offer.

Plus, she’s still in a good place with three wins, major sponsorships, and even a cameo in Happy Gilmore 2. Her world ranking is the highest it’s ever been, and this week she’s teeing it up at the Grant Thornton Invitational alongside PGA Tour rookie Michael Brennan. The one thing missing is the accomplishment she’s chased the longest: a major title. She has four runner-up finishes already, including this past summer’s AIG Women’s Open. That goal sits just ahead of her, not as pressure but as direction. “I just want to win majors,” Hull says. “But I don’t think about it too much. I’ll just keep practicing and nip away at it.”