Bra Boy fiancé of Braith Anasta's ex Rachael Lee opens up about 'having words' with the footy great, life in the notorious surf gang, drug addiction and doing time in prison

Evan Faulks was labelled a 'high-ranking member' of the infamous Bra Boys and accused of directing a $12.6million meth and cocaine operation. Now the pro surfer has completely turned his life around.

During an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Faulks, 41, opened up about his 20-year battle with prescription drug addiction, what life was really like hanging out with the notorious Maroubra surfing gang, and how a nine-month stint in prison helped him rebuild from the ground up. 

Best known in the media as the fiancé of Braith Anasta's ex-partner Rachael Lee, Faulks was on track to become a big Aussie name in his own right as he pursued professional surfing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and even made appearances as a lifeguard on Bondi Rescue. 

But an innocent decision in his twenties led him down a dark path of drug and gambling addictions until he was ultimately arrested in March 2023 and extradited from Queensland following an 18-month investigation into drug consignments intercepted by US authorities. 

Police accused Faulks of being a ringleader of the Bra Boys and of running a criminal operation which imported and distributed drugs worth $12.6million around Sydney.

However, all charges brought against him were withdrawn in February this year - on the same day he and Lee, 39, welcomed their baby daughter Ocean - ending his two-year bail following a nine-month stint in Clarence Correctional Centre in 2023.

Faulks says there were plenty of decisions he made in life that led to his 'rock bottom' moment, but the one he regrets most is his decision not to pursue a professional MMA career in his 20s. 

He recalls his best friend Richard Vaculik, now a UFC fighter, once tried to convince him to pursue professional fighting as a career, but Faulks declined, saying he wanted to spend his time partying instead of dedicating himself to pro-level training.

'When we were kids growing up, me and Richie, we did everything together. We surfed some of the biggest waves in the world. We travelled to competitions together,' Faulks recalls.

'We competed in Jiu-Jitsu competitions together. We trained Jiu-Jitsu every day. We always had a healthy rivalry, me and Rich.

'So it got to the time when we were in about our early 20s, and I was living my life, partying a lot, still training, still surfing. 

It was actually kind of when I started partying a lot more, and this is when I was actually starting to use [prescription drugs].

'And then Richie, he's like, "I think I'm going to give this MMA a bit of a start and we should do it together. This would be great."

'And I was like, "Rich, I would love to. I just don't think I have the discipline to train as a full-time fighter. Like I'm training, I'm partying, I'm having too much fun in the life that I'm pursuing at the moment."

'And then, yeah, Rich went on to have an amazing career. He surfed some of the biggest waves in the world. He became a UFC fighter. He had some great fights. He became a fight analyst. 

'He did amazing things, and I'm super proud of him for those things. And me, on the other hand, I went down a completely different route. I hung around gangsters, I hung around drug dealers. I ended up being a drug addict.

'So it's wild. We were both on the same trajectory and one decision, one or two decisions led me to where I went and led Richie to where he went.

'It only takes one decision to get life altered completely in the wrong direction. That's just one of many that I chose to alter my life.'

From there, Faulks says his life careened into one of hard partying, crime, and a prescription drug addiction that lasted for 20 years before he finally decided to get sober while in prison. 

'I had a long-standing addiction to prescription drugs; that was probably my downfall,' he says.

'At first, it was kind of general use. I was out partying when I was younger in my 20s and it kind of led from there to be dependent on Xanax and Valium just to get through my day-to-day life. 

'At the height of my addiction I was probably consuming somewhere between 20 and 40 pills a day. 

'I was quite a functioning addict. I functioned and could get through my day-to-day tasks. But if I didn't have my pills, I would get withdrawals.'

He went on to say he tried several times to get sober over the course of 20 years, but continuously relapsed. 

'I just wasn't ready to. So every time I would try and get sober, I'd relapse and I'd relapse and I'd relapse. But the turning point for me was in prison,' he says. 

'And the last day that I used was the day that I was arrested. And I haven't used since.'

Faulks was arrested on the Gold Coast and extradited from Queensland in 2023 following an 18-month investigation into drug consignments intercepted by US authorities.

Faulks, who police alleged was a 'high-ranking member' of the Bra Boys, was originally accused of running a criminal operation which imported and distributed drugs worth $12.6million around Sydney.

In March 2024, police withdrew a charge that Faulks had knowingly directed the activities of a criminal group, and another that he knowingly dealt with the proceeds of crime with intent to conceal.

He pleaded not guilty to dealing with property worth $266,954 which was suspected to be the proceeds of a crime between September 2016 and May 2017. 

On February 23, by mutual agreement with prosecutors, that last charge was withdrawn and dismissed at a brief hearing not attended by Faulks, who was preparing with Lee to welcome their first child together.

Faulks' lawyer Greg Gould revealed the news to the Daily Mail and said his client was very happy with the outcome.

During his time in prison, Faulks says he became very ill when he went through withdrawals after deciding to kick his addiction to prescription pills. 

'Withdrawing from Xanax is quite similar to withdrawing from heroin,' he explains.

'It's a physical withdrawal. You actually get sick. I couldn't see or stand. I couldn't see for about a week. Shaking. I lost about 10kg. Throwing up. And that lasted for about six weeks.'

It was also during his time in prison that Faulks realised his abuse of drugs had also led to a gambling addiction that he never fully recognised until he was forced to face the 'huge' amount of money he had bet over the course of six years. 

'I was using drugs a lot, and when I was using a lot of drugs, I didn't really recognise that I was gambling that much. It didn't really cross my mind. Like, I was gambling over a period of six years,' he says.

'I gambled $1.2million. It's a huge amount of money. I was thinking that I was winning big. I was having huge wins. Like, I'd have $200,000 wins. I'd have $100,000 wins. I thought I was winning. Mind you, I was off my head every day. 

'So, I think, "Oh man, I'm making big money. Like, I just won $200,000." I didn't take into account that I actually probably spent about $200,000 throughout those months to try to win that $200,000. 

'I was betting big, and then I didn't think much of it until I got charged with it. I had to prove that it was in the realms of legal gambling.'

Faulks says the amount he gambled was so large that police were convinced he was laundering the proceeds of drug-related crimes. However, those charges were also withdrawn. 

'I finally took accountability for everything in prison. Took a long, hard look at myself and I thought about where my life was heading. And I said I'm done. I'm done with this,' Faulks says. 

'So I made the conscious effort to get clean and sober and stay clean and sober from that point. I think a lot of people thought I'd go the other way in prison. 

'Because I kind of was at my rock bottom in jail and I was like, you know what, I'm done, whatever. I'll do it. I'll take it. I'll take it in my stride and I'll be sober doing it. Whatever happens in the future.'

Despite hitting 'rock bottom' in prison, Faulks says he thankfully didn't run into any trouble with other inmates, admitting he 'had it as good as you could get' during his nine-month stint at Clarence Correctional Centre in NSW.

'I think people have ideas that there's dramas and there's that, which there is. Prison is a very dangerous place,' he says.

'From what I gathered in prison, the dramas are drug-related dramas. So if you're using in jail and you're using drugs, you could potentially get [into trouble].

'I was quite aware of that off the bat, so I made the decision that I didn't want to use any more. I made that decision to not have anything to do with it.'

He goes on to say: 'I didn't have a hard time in jail. I had as good as you could get it. I was the gym sweeper, I was looked after, I had my own cell, I had it pretty good.

'It's jail at the end of the day, but as bad as you could get it, I didn't experience that... In saying that, I didn't do that much jail time. I only did nine months. 

'So I can sit here and say that I didn't have any dramas in jail and it was a piece of cake, but the reality was I wasn't in there for that long. By the grace of God, I wasn't.'

Faulks says there was very little to do in jail, adding that he spent much of his time working out in the gym.

He recalls that inmates would have breakfast in their cells - coffee and oats - then went through a headcount (called a 'muster') before they were let out into the common area at around 8:30am to 9am.

Faulks says he 'would train to lunchtime every day' before he had to go through another headcount ahead of lunch. 

'Then they'd let us out around 2:00pm again for the afternoon, and we'd train in the afternoon. So I'd train myself silly. I'd train between three to five hours a day and basically that was it,' he explains.

'I would read, I would eat, I would stretch, and I would try and meditate. It just came naturally to me. There's nothing else to do in jail, absolutely nothing else to do, so everybody's training.'

Faulks said he wanted to 'upskill' as much as possible while he was locked up, but claims he struggled to get accepted into any of the programs on offer. 

'They say that they offer all these programs. They don't offer anything. They offer absolutely nothing. I applied for every program that was on offer, and I kept getting hit with roadblock after roadblock, you know, there was red tape, everything,' he says.

Around the same time, Faulks was writing down his life story, something he was advised to do in preparation for sentencing. 

'I had to write down my story in prison because on the charges that I was doing, you have to write to the judge when you're about to get sentenced. Now, I never had to get sentenced, because all my charges got withdrawn,' he recalls.

'So I started writing everything down, and I was in there, and I was like, man, my life's been quite wild. I never really thought that I had a story.'

It was here Faulks says he began to develop the seeds of an idea he calls From Chaos to Clarity, a program he is developing to help guide young people, inmates, and those battling with addiction down a new path in life. 

He says the lack of access he had to educational programs in prison gave him the idea to turn his life story into a lesson for others who may be following the same path he once walked.

Faulks says the idea developed further when he got out of prison and shared his story with Fabricio Itte, a former MMA coach who once trained UFC star Robert Whittaker.  

'He was like, "I think we should use your story as a platform to try and turn it into something,"' Faulks says. 

'[We want to] go around to the jails, to schools, to rehabilitation centres, and offer boys in predicaments, structured courses, so that when they leave a minimum security prison, or they leave a rehab, they've got a better chance of not re-offending, or turning to criminal activity, or turning to drugs.'

'I was trying to do all these courses, and I kept getting hit with roadblock after roadblock. So I thought, f***, why don't I try and develop my own, and turn it into a course so that boys can actually get qualified when they leave these facilities.'

Faulks has since managed to receive a training and assessment qualification at AHMRC Training in Little Bay, and has organised his first free educational From Chaos to Clarity workshop. 

It will take place on Saturday, August 15 at 11:30am at Gracie Botany Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.  

'Short-term, we want to do some educational workshops where we can just go and talk basically, and just be open and honest with everybody. I can tell my story, I can tell the youth and basically just anybody,' Faulks explains.

'Just telling my story, what I've had to go through, adversity, turning my life around, hitting rock bottom, getting gifted a second chance, and basically just open the floor up for some open, honest conversations if people want to get help.'

Elsewhere in our interview with Faulks, he also discussed his experiences hanging out with the infamous Bra Boys, a surfing gang based in Maroubra who have garnered a reputation for alleged links to organised crime.

However, Faulks says the group's reputation couldn't be further from the truth. 

'All it is, is a surfing community. I mean, through the media, they tried to label me as a high-ranking Bra Boy, that it was a criminal network, that it was structured. That's all rubbish,' he says. 

'I mean, there's a few bad seeds down there. I'm living proof, I'm one of them. But it's not a gang. It's not a structured gang. It's just a bunch of boys that surf together, that hang out together, that cause a bit of a ruckus. 

'As far as a criminal organisation, it couldn't be further from it. When I was a kid, it was just a bunch of boys that banded together, that looked after their beach. That just got together, always surfing together. 

'And I think it sort of, I don't know. It just went on a bit of a circuit. It was like any beach. If you go to any beach around the country, you'll have groups that go together and hang out. 

'And for some reason, we just got the notoriety. I guess we got a bit more noticed. It just morphed into something bigger than what it was.'

Faulks says he was good friends with Koby Abberton and Mark Matthews, professional surfers and prominent figures associated with the Bra Boys.

'I was mates with Koby growing up, obviously. Koby was, I think, 10 years older than me. So me and Rich [Richard Vaculik] were long surfers. We all looked up to Mark Mathews and Koby Abberton,' he recalls.

'These guys were good surfers growing up. We all travelled together. We all surfed together. Mark Matthews is an amazing human. He's done a lot of great work. Actually does a lot of like TED Talk-type speeches.

'I think Koby's living in Bali. I haven't spoken with Koby for a long time. I think he's touched base with me on Instagram, just to say hello. But I haven't seen Koby in a long time.' 

Nowadays, Faulks spends much of his time working on From Chaos To Clarity while being a present fiancé to Lee and a father to their daughter Ocean. 

He explains he and Lee, who is the ex-fiancée of former rugby player Braith Anasta, met on Boxing Day in December 2023, just six weeks after he was let out of prison on bail.

The pair ran into each other at a pool in the Crowne Plaza in Coogee while they were each staying there with their children. 

Faulks shares daughters Montana, 12, and Lily, eight, with a former partner while Lee shares daughter Gigi, eight, with Anasta, 44, and has a 15-year-old son, named Addison, from a prior relationship. 

'I was playing with the kids in the pool, just throwing them into the pool and [Lee] walked into the pool with her daughter. And we had an instant connection straight away,' Faulks explains.

'I didn't think much of it. I was like, oh, you know, maybe I'm just spinning out. I'm fresh out of jail, but I think there's a connection.'

Faulks explains their first connection was so strong after meeting that Lee instantly contacted her mother and told her she was 'going to marry' Faulks.

However, the pair both faced some pushback from their loved ones, with some people warning Lee to 'stay away' from Faulks because of his reputation in the media, while Faulks' sister advised him not to jump into a relationship right out of jail. 

But he says their connection just felt right, and so they decided to pursue a relationship together despite what their loved ones thought at the time.  

'Love has its way of doing things, right?' he says. 'She's the most amazing human, like she's beautiful on the outside, but her inside is something else. I've never had a human that uplifts me, that is positive. That is like wanting the best for me. 

'I was very open and honest with her off the get-go. She obviously did her research and found out that I just got out on bail. I just got out of prison. 

'[I said to her,] "Listen, I need to tell you something. I'm out on bail. I'm a little bit on eggshells still." When you get out of prison, it's very confronting. 

'So I was open and honest with her and she was great with everything. She's like, "No, I appreciate you telling me." I said, "Listen, I just need you to know that chapter in my life is over and you will never have anything to worry about that side of things."' 

Now the pair share a five-month-old daughter together, named Ocean, who they welcomed to the world in February on the same day Faulks discovered all his criminal charges had been withdrawn. 

'I've always been a good father, no matter what... because I only was living for my kids. The only thing that mattered to me were my children. Yeah, I was a drug addict. But when it came to my kids, nothing else mattered,' Faulks says.

'So I was a 24/7 dad. I would make their lunches. I would take them to their sporting school. I picked them up from school. Fatherhood for me was all I was living for. 

'Now I'm 100 per cent present, working full time, trying to juggle work, relationships, children. I'm loving it. It's a lot harder because I'm a lot older. I hadn't changed nappies or done that kind of stuff in years. But I'm loving it. Rachael's amazing.'

As for co-parenting with Anasta, Faulks says he has little contact with the sports presenter, saying that Lee handles all of their communication regarding their daughter Gigi.

However, he admits he 'had words' with Anasta early on in his relationship with Lee, saying he assured the footy star that Gigi would always be safe with him.  

'I spoke to him when I first started seeing Rachael and then we had words,' Faulks says.

'I said all you need to know from me is that when Gigi's with me, I'll treat her like she's my own. He goes, "Oh, that's good to know."' 

Anasta and Lee confirmed their separation in November 2022 after people noticed they had stopped following each other on Instagram and that she was no longer wearing her engagement ring.

A month later, Lee debuted her romance with Blake Hillen, a bricklayer and amateur boxer from the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south.

At the time, Lee posted a picture on Instagram of herself at the beach with Hillen as they shared a bottle of wine and watched the sunset.

A source told Daily Mail in 2023 that Lee and Hillen were 'inseparable', but the relationship ended soon after.

Lee and Faulks' romance was then revealed in March 2024 and, three years after her split from Anasta, the couple announced their engagement.

The first free From Chaos To Clarity workshop will be held by Faulks on Saturday, August 15 at 11:30am at Gracie Botany Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.