Wayne Carey’s infamous affair with his former teammate and best friend’s wife saw his reputation irreparably damaged.
His affair with Kelli Stevens, the wife of his Kangaroos teammate and friend, Anthony Stevens, while Carey was married to his then-wife, Sally McMahon, saw him kicked out of the club.
What transpired more than two decades ago has seen him become somewhat of an AFL outcast, and to this day he is still despised by many.
So he may be the last person you’d expect to speak on the Lachlan Neale situation, with the Brisbane star having seen his life ripped apart following a very public and brutal marriage breakdown.
But after the former North Melbourne captain was a guest on the controversial You Can’t Be Serious podcast, hosted by AFL bad boy Sam Newman, it would come as no surprise that he was drawn into the saga.
You can see Wayne Carey’s full comments in the player above.
Neale’s marriage with Jules Neale appears all but over with the popular hairstylist revealing she had been “betrayed in the most unimaginable way” last week, before again clarifying that she had no desire to work through things with her 32-year-old husband.
Jules has since wiped the two-time Brownlow Medal winner from her Instagram page, with all photos of the pair deleted.
She also called out a third party, the couple’s former friend Tess Crosley.
Crosley quickly became entangled in the fallout, though there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing on her part.
Speaking about the off-field saga, Newman said the Australian media had gone easy on the Brisbane superstar.
“You (Wayne Carey) would be front and square, or I would be, but it seems to just drift on with no real controversy”,’ Newman said on his podcast.
“They treat people with kid gloves if they want to, don’t they?”
To which Carey replied: “For all those people that sit on their ivory tower, Sam, they are generally doing a lot, lot worse than those they are judging.
“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 then added: “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?’”
Carey has since moved on from his Kangaroos saga and is now a father of four, welcoming his second child with girlfriend Jessica Paulke in January.
He also shares two daughters from previous relationships: Ella with ex-wife Sally McMahon, and Charlotte with former fiancee Stephanie Edwards.