Kate Ritchie’s husband Stuart Webb has been charged with drink driving while his licence was suspended, and could face a possible jail sentence if he is found guilty.
The former NRL star allegedly ran a red light in Randwick, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, on March 26, when he was just a few streets from the family home he shares with his wife and their daughter Mae, 4.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Stuart recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.083, well above the legal limit of 0.05.
When police officers pulled Stuart over, a quick check revealed he was driving with a cancelled licence.
He was charged with driving while his licence was cancelled and mid-range drink-driving.
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Stuart and Kate pictured together in a rare Instagram photo. (Image: @kateritchieofficial/Instagram)
The couple with the family dog. (Image: @kateritchieofficial/Instagram)
If Stuart is convicted, the 38-year-old could be banned from driving for six months, plus be forced to have an electronic breath-testing device attached to his car, which would prevent the car from being able to start until the he presents a breath sample with no blood alcohol.
But driving with a cancelled license carried a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail plus a $3300 fine.
He is set to face a Sydney court next week over the charges and is required to show up.
The case is expected to receive lots of media attention, but it’s unclear whether wife Kate will support her husband and also attend the court appearance.
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kate and her adorable daughter Mae. (Image: @kateritchieofficial/Instagram)
The charges are a blow for Kate and Stuart, who have faced intense speculation about the state of their marriage for months.
They have been unable to escape rumours that they are “on the rocks”, fuelled by Stuart’s absence from Kate’s very popular Instagram feed – she regularly shares photographs of Mae to her 290,000 Instagram followers – and her reluctance to talk about her marriage on air, as she hosts Nova’s drive show Kate, Tim and Marty, with co-hosts Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold.
Kate has previously denied any negative reports about her marriage, telling The Australian Women’s Weekly last October that the rumours are “baseless”.
“Yes, of course it is wrong. Yes, of course it is baseless. But I don’t want to say any more about it because I know that if I do then it will breathe life into it again and I don’t want to do that,” Kate said.
“I have had to learn not to let it affect. So I consciously refuse to let it affect me.”
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The Gold Logie winner and former Home & Away star says she refuses to listen to the gossip.
“Firstly, I think good luck to anybody who thinks that they know what is going on in my life because there are times when I am not sure – and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Kate says.
“What I mean is that I am just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to live my life.
“I have given up letting those things into my life. It’s not just speculation about my marriage, it is about my career or my parenting or anything that I have ever done or been through.
“There comes a time when you must stop responding to deny oxygen to this speculation.”
