‘Dean will always have a soft spot in my heart and who knows?’ she answers.
‘The way me and Dean ended things, you never say never. Some couples can take a break and have some space and come back.
‘I’m ready and I know what I want.’
As for the breakdown of her relationship with Sean, 35, Perth mum Tracey reveals she ended things on Monday last week after things had been ‘quite strained’.
‘There’s a multitude of reasons and we both could see the writing on the wall for the last couple of weeks,’ the author and blogger explains.
‘I think we’ve both been in denial, wanting it to work so badly, but it’s just not.
‘You just build up that resentment and ill feelings towards each other because you want things to change, but they’re not going to.
‘I just had to call it because I’d rather leave on good terms and still be amicable rather than it turn nasty and bitter.’
Tracey blames their lifestyle differences for causing fractures in her relationship.
‘Because he’s FIFO, he’s not always here and with that lifestyle there’s no stability,’ she reasons.
‘My core needs in a relationship are commitment, stability and security, and Sean can’t give that to me.
‘That’s why I can’t move to Melbourne with him, I need my friends and my support around me. I’m not ready to move.’
After copping extreme backlash for their relationship, which was revealed on the final episodes of Married At First Sight, Tracey admits,
‘It’s a miracle me and Sean have made it this far, to be honest.
‘I was prepared for the criticism of what was on TV with Dean, but what I wasn’t prepared for was my personal criticism,’ she continues.
‘Luckily, he hadn’t moved in yet, we hadn’t finalised anything moving forward in the next chapter of our lives.’
The 35-year-old brunette dumped Sean at the airport after picking him up from a week working away at the mines.
‘It was brutal,’ she admits. ‘Because he works away and I’ve been away a lot, I had to wait until when I picked him up from the airport and I just told him straight away.
‘I couldn’t even wait for him to get into the frigging car.’
Tracey – who will next month go on a publicity tour with her new book This Goddess Means Business – reveals she wanted to release the news of her break-up herself because she ‘can’t fake it’.
‘The problem is that you have to get it out there because you can’t keep pretending,’ she says. ‘I’d rather get my words out about the real reason rather than gossip and he said, she said and all that rubbish that goes with it because I don’t have a bad word to say about Sean and that’s why I’m doing this.
‘It’s not nasty and I don’t want it to get to the point where it’s nasty either, which is why I called it.’
Under the guidance of a counsellor, Tracey made the difficult decision that she needs to remain in Perth, close to her 10-year-old daughter. It wasn’t a decision she made lightly.
‘I’ve been seeing someone on a regular basis and I’m feeling a lot better for that,’ she says.
‘That’s who recommended me not to move to Melbourne and to create routine and not make too many changes in my life at this point in time.’
So has Tracey told her daughter about her break-up with Sean?
‘No, I haven’t,’ she says.
‘I will, after Mother’s Day. Everyone has an opinion about me abandoning her.
‘I realised that Sean can’t give me what I need right now and sometimes you just need to look after yourself.’
For the full interview see this weeks issue of New Idea - out now!