Olympian Ryan Lochte Reportedly Fired Off a Scathing Email to Ex-Wife Kayla Rae Reid

Ryan Lochte drama just cannonballed onto Instagram. His ex, Kayla Rae Reid, says he emailed her a pretty nasty note comparing her parenting to his girlfriend Molly Gillihan's, and she posted a screenshot of it. It is... not subtle.

What Kayla says happened

On Monday, April 13, Reid, 34, shared an Instagram Story (screenshotted by Page Six) that showed what she says is an email from Lochte. She framed it as the kind of thing she deals with all the time and said she had reached out because their 2-year-old had strep throat. She called this the tip of the iceberg, claimed there are many more messages like it, and said she is exhausted by the situation.

Quick refresher on where they are: Lochte, 41, and Reid married in 2018 and have three kids — son Caiden, 8, and daughters Liv, 6, and Georgia, 2. Reid filed for divorce in May 2025.

The alleged email

The screenshot Reid posted shows an email dated March 28. In it, Lochte allegedly tells her his girlfriend is a much better mother and tells Reid to accept an offer he sent to her lawyer. The most aggressive line:

"Look at the offer I just sent to your lawyer and move on with your gold digging life."

Molly speaks up

Gillihan then appeared to respond on her own Instagram Story (again, via screenshots cited by Page Six). She pushed back on Reid's framing, said she doesn't follow Reid on Instagram, and claimed she tries to just focus on the kids when they're with her and Lochte. She also accused Reid of dropping off the 2-year-old while sick and underdressed before heading to a girls weekend in Miami. Gillihan called Reid childish and said she'd keep loving both sets of kids regardless.

She followed with another post that was still live as of Tuesday morning, April 14. In that one, Gillihan said she doesn't play the victim, owns how she responds to what she sees as disrespect, and insisted nothing she does is unprovoked. In her words, she doesn't start messes — she stops the cycle — and she'll stand by her actions.

How we got here (the short version)

• Mar 28: Alleged email from Lochte to Reid is sent, per Reid's screenshot.
• Mon, Apr 13: Reid posts the screenshot on Instagram Stories; Page Six captures it.
• Tue morning, Apr 14: Gillihan's follow-up Story responding to Reid is still live.
• Background: Lochte and Reid married in 2018, share three kids, and she filed for divorce in May 2025.

Where this leaves things

Publicly litigating co-parenting is never a great look, and this is very much a he-said/she-said (and now she-said) playing out via Stories. The only thing clear right now: the temperature here is high, and the kids are stuck in the middle. These posts were surfaced through screenshots; we haven't independently verified the messages beyond what's been shared and attributed to Page Six.