Wayne Carey still lives with the stigma of his infamous affair with a married teammate over two decades ago, and now he has offered up his opinion on the latest marriage scandal rocking the AFL.
The former North Melbourne captain recently spoke on the You Can’t Be Serious podcast, hosted by AFL controversy magnet Sam Newman.
Newman could not resist bringing up the allegations of marriage infidelity that Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale is currently wrestling with.
Carey rocked the AFL world with his 2002 affair with Kelli Stevens, the wife of his North Melbourne teammate and best friend, Anthony Stevens, while Carey was married to his then-wife, Sally McMahon.
The scandal triggered Carey’s exit from the team, public condemnation, the collapse of his marriage to Sally, and a lasting rift with Stevens that resurfaced in a heated confrontation years later, despite Carey saying he had apologised.
That explosive – and very public – marriage breakdown has drawn parallels with Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale, who is experiencing his own relationship crisis in a very public forum.
Former AFL star Wayne Carey (right) gave his take on the biggest marriage drama in Aussie footy when he appeared on Sam Newman’s You Can’t Be Serious podcast
Carey spoke about the current allegations of marriage infidelity facing Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale (pictured with his wife Jules)
Carey was at the centre of footy’s greatest marriage scandal after his affair with teammate Anthony Stevens’s wife Kelli (Carey and Stevens are pictured)
Neale and his wife Jules reportedly spent the festive period in separate states as their marriage breakdown continues to play out publicly.
The situation escalated in December after Jules said she had been ‘betrayed in the most unimaginable way’ in a social media post, later calling out a third party, Tess Crosley, who became entangled in the fallout, though there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing on her part.
Jules has since returned to Western Australia to be with family, while Neale is understood to be spending time in South Australia, with neither party issuing a formal public statement.
Newman brought up the allegations made against Neale, and accused the Australian media of treating him differently to Carey.
‘You would be front and square, or I would be, but it seems to just drift on with no real controversy,’ Newman claimed.
‘They treat people with kid gloves if they want to, don’t they?’
‘I look at people’s comments about someone’s personal life, I will say this and I’ve said this a million times, generally people that have the strongest opinion about what someone else does in their personal, private life are doing way worse in their own,’ Carey replied.
‘So for all those people that sit on their ivory tower, Sam, they are generally doing a lot, lot worse than those they are judging.
Carey was married to his first wife Sally McMahon at the time of the affair that tore North Melbourne apart
Stevens, pictured with then-wife Kelli, was best friends with Carey but now there is a deep divide between the pair
‘You know what, what Lachie Neale does in his life with his family, with whoever else, friends, whatever, whose business is that but theirs?’
Newman pressed Carey further, saying, ‘You know very well that if you are in the public eye, it’s everyone’s business.’
‘It shouldn’t be, but it is,’ Carey replied.
‘The sad part about anything that has been in the news – and this is what I have empathy for – I feel for children that get dragged into it.
‘You would prefer those things, like everyone else’s life [when] they go through issues, that they don’t have to be dragged through the media circus that we live in.
‘Unfortunately, Lachie’s kids have to be dragged through this, which is terribly sad.
‘That is something that he will wrestle with over the coming months.
‘It’s their business. Not mine. And I would be a hypocrite if I was to sit here and be judgmental, wouldn’t I?’
Sam Newman suggested that Neale’s marriage issues are not receiving the same attention that Carey got back in 2002 (Neale is pictured with Tess Crosley, left, and wife Jules, right)
Carey attacked those criticising Lachie and Jules (pictured together), saying their private lives must be a lot worse than what the footy star and his wife are going through
Carey has moved on from his past dramas and is now a father of four, after welcoming his second child with girlfriend Jessica Paulke in January.
He also has two daughters from previous relationships: Ella with ex-wife Sally McMahon, and Charlotte with former fiancée Stephanie Edwards.
Jules Neale has unfollowed her husband on Instagram and removed images of the couple together.
She made their marriage issues public recently when she posted a message reading: ‘I want to make it very clear that I am not “working through” anything.’
‘I have been betrayed in the most unimaginable way. All I can do now is try to heal and do what’s best for my children. Thank you for the love and support.’
Neale still follows his wife and has retained their images on social media, including a picture of the two of them celebrating the Brisbane Lions back-to-back premiership win earlier this year.
When Neale won the Brownlow Medal for the first time in 2020, he revealed the sacrifices that Jules had made to accommodate his highly-publicised move from Fremantle to the Lions.
‘My wife Jules, she’s an amazing human being,’ Neale said at the time.
‘Not many people probably know but she owned a salon in Perth before we decided to move to Brisbane. She had to sell that to come over here and follow my dreams.
‘She was doing very well for herself over there but she always puts me ahead of herself when she shouldn’t have to.
‘She’s the most selfless person I know and my biggest support, so thank you very much Jules, I love you.’
When he won the medal again in 2023, he again paid tribute to his wife, calling Jules his ‘rock’.