Kangaroos halfback Nathan Cleary is ‘looking forward’ to catching up with Mary Fowler in Liverpool, but says an ‘unfortunate’ scheduling situation might delay the star couple’s reunion. Cleary is with the Australian squad in England, where they’re preparing for the second Ashes Test at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday morning (Aussie time).
The venue is only around an hour’s drive from where Fowler’s Manchester City will be hosting West Ham in the Women’s Super League on the same day. Fowler won’t be featuring for City as she recovers from an ACL injury but the Matildas star is planning to watch her English club, before heading to Liverpool to cheer on Cleary and the Kangaroos.
Nathan Cleary says it’s unfortunate his Kangaroos schedule will clash with Mary Fowler’s at Manchester City while he’s over in England. Pic: Mary Fowler/Getty
The only problem is, City’s game kicks off just two-and-a-half hours before Australia’s second Ashes Test. It means by the time City’s game wraps up in Manchester, it will leave Fowler facing a mad scramble to make kick-off for the Kangaroos Test, and delay the reunion with her NRL star boyfriend.
“I should be able to see her when we get to Liverpool,” Cleary told 7NEWS after Australia’s first Test victory over England at Wembley. “So I’m looking forward to that and hopefully she can come to the games.”
But the four-time premiership-winning Panthers ace admits it’s a shame that their respective team’s matches are on the same day in England. “It’s unfortunate but I’ll be able to see her so that’s the important thing,” Cleary added.
Nathan Cleary discusses Mary Fowler’s popularity in Europe
The Aussie Test star admits it’s been incredible witnessing first-hand how popular Fowler has become in football-mad Europe. Evidence of that was highlighted recently when Fowler became the first professional footballer to walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week, and she is certainly a bigger deal than Cleary outside of Australia.
The NRL star told Australian media last week that he was taken aback when asked by a UK journalist if he was ‘Mary’s boyfriend’ while in England with the Kangaroos. “Someone said that to me today as well,” he told Seven. “Like ‘oh, nice to meet you, just letting you know I love your girlfriend more’. And I was like ‘yeah, same’.”
Public interest in Nathan Cleary and Mary Fowler’s relationship has continued to grow since they started dating in 2023. Image: Mary Fowler/Getty
The Panthers ace admitted that he ‘felt sorry’ for how quickly Fowler has become a household name after opening up about the public interest in their relationship. “(Our relationship) was interesting at the start because it was new territory for both of us. We are quite private people,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“I felt sorry for her a lot of the time. Her shoot to stardom happened so quickly after the World Cup (in 2023) and that’s when her private life came into it. Sometimes it’s a little bit weird with the paparazzi stuff, it can be hard to wrap your head around, but we have an agreement that we wouldn’t let it affect us or our relationship and that we would still live our lives.”
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The Kangaroos halfback also echoed Fowler’s sentiment about one day starting a family. He described it as ‘probably my biggest goal in life, to one day be a father’, but said for now the pair are fully focused on their sporting careers.
“It’s just probably not meant to be at the moment and there are still things that have to fall into place,” he added. “We’re both in the middle of our sporting journeys and enjoying that. So when the day comes, I would absolutely love that.”