AFL legend Wayne Carey is set to bare all on his turbulent relationship history when SAS Australia returns to Channel Seven in February.
“I slept with a teammate’s wife. It’s haunted me for 20 years. My integrity will always be questioned. I’m not trying to prove anything to the public – it’s to myself,” the 50-year-old AFL commentator said in an explosive trailer.
“People can change. They evolve. Hopefully this can help me.”
So what exactly when down in Wayne’s marriage, and who was involved in the headline-making affair?
Wayne cheated on his wife Sally McMahon in 2002.
(Image: Getty)
Back in 2002, a year after marrying long-term partner Sally McMahon, Wayne was caught cheating with Kelli Stevens, the wife of his North Melbourne Kangaroos teammate Anthony Stevens.
Anthony and several others caught his wife and Wayne in the bathroom of a birthday party, which prompted the then-30-year-old to leave the club in disgrace and play for the Adelaide Crows instead.
Making the affair all the more shocking, Anthony had played groomsman to Wayne at his wedding to Sally.
Wayne and Sally managed to overcome the affair and stayed together before eventually breaking up in 2006, while Anthony and Kelli also overcame the cheating scandal but ultimately went their separate ways in 2008.
Wayne was caught cheating with his teammate Anthony Stevens’ (pictured) wife Kelli.
(Image: Instagram)The affair sent shockwaves through the Kangaroos for years to come, with current North Melbourne champion Brent Harvey saying it set the club back “four or five years”.
“It put our football club back four or five years,” Brent told the TAB’s Inside 50 podcast last year.
“Not in terms of just Wayne leaving, but just everything. Anthony Stevens became the captain, he didn’t need to be captain with everything going on, there was a big divide with the group.
“My initial thought was it’s not true but once you find out something happened it’s like, ‘Wow’.”
Wayne is now in a relationship with Melbourne model Jessica Paulke.
(Image: Getty)In 2016, Carey revealed that he apologised to his former best mate: “A heartfelt apology. That’s where it started and that’s where it ended,” he said.
“You’ll never forget (the affair) and it’s something that will live with me forever, as I’m sure it will a lot of people, which is still sad and I still live with that, but we can go to the event on Saturday and just have a smile on our faces and laugh and people can feel really good about being there.”
Wayne has since moved on with his love life, and in 2018 was rumoured to have become engaged to his model girlfriend Jessica Paulke after they were spotted shopping for engagement rings.
Though the pair have never tied the knot, it’s believed they are still happily together.
Wayne, 50, has two kids from previous relationships; 15-year-old daughter Ella with his first wife Sally and six-year-old Charlotte Milla with former fiancée Stephanie Edwards.
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