Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg has revealed that he retired from rugby in an attempt to rescue his marriage — a decision he views as the “biggest mistake of my life”.<\/p>\n
Hogg called time on his career in 2023 at the age of 31 — shortly before the World Cup that same year — but following a tumultuous spell out of the game, resumed playing in 2024 after signing for French club Montpellier.<\/p>\n
The British and Irish Lion in November 2024 admitted to abusing his estranged wife Gillian and was sentenced to a five-year non-harassment order and fined after breaching bail for repeatedly contacting his ex-partner.<\/p>\n
Stuart Hogg earned more than 100 caps for Scotland.\u00a0David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hogg admits that he caused hurt to people around him but has now restored some stability to his life.<\/p>\n
“I missed the buzz, the changing room, the banter. I missed rugby more than I ever realised,” Hogg told The Rugby Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I gave up on my rugby career to try to save my marriage. At the time I didn’t know who I was.<\/p>\n “I was up to my eyeballs in antidepressants. I didn’t know what was going on in life, whether I was making people happy or sad. I used alcohol to escape. I was purely existing.<\/p>\n “The Doddie Aid cycle ride from Scotland to Rome changed everything. For the first time since retiring, I felt part of a team again. I came back and told my dad, ‘I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life.’<\/p>\n – Smith hands Harlequins first win of Prem season, Saracens first loss<\/a> “I’m in a better place mentally than I’ve been in years. I used to think being selfish was strength, but I took that too far. I hurt people.<\/p>\n “Now I’m learning to be selfless for the right reasons — for my kids, my partner, my team. I know I’ll never be the same Stuart Hogg I once was, but I’m OK with it. I’ve found peace.”<\/p>\n Hogg, who won 100 Scotland caps and made two Test appearances for the Lions, underwent Achilles surgery in April and has yet to play for Montpellier this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg has revealed that he retired from rugby in an attempt to rescue his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-210483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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