Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee has publicly denounced a false and \u201cnasty\u201d rumour about his personal life, calling it completely “untrue” and \u201cout of hand”.<\/p>\n
Rozee addressed the claims during an interview with SEN describing the gossip as \u201chorrific\u201d and \u201cnot OK” .<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old skipper said he was shocked by how quickly the falsehood circulated and how easily damaging content could be shared online.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty disappointing to know that some people can stoop that low and have that sort of character,\u201d Rozee said.<\/p>\n
He continued to talk about the baseless speculation causing unnecessary distress to his wife and family, despite their relationship being \u201camazing\u201d and stronger than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really disappointing to see people I know spread it to their families and friends, some players from other clubs,\u201d he said, while noting that such behaviour goes far beyond the boundaries of acceptable banter in sport.<\/p>\n
Although the rumour did not originate from anyone within the football community, Rozee emphasised that family members should never be dragged into unfounded gossip.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything to do with family shouldn\u2019t even be considered . . . these things are not funny, because they truly impact people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rozee also confirmed the AFL\u2019s integrity unit is investigating the matter to determine its source and said he would like the individual responsible to be identified and hold accountable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to know who made it up . . . and hold them accountable,\u201d he said, adding that the league had been supportive throughout this tough circumstances.<\/p>\n
He also used the moment to speak about the broader issue of online abuse and misinformation, pointing out that fake social media accounts make it easy for individuals to spread lies without consequence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough . . . with people able to make fake accounts and say pretty much whatever they want behind the keyboard,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee has publicly denounced a false and \u201cnasty\u201d rumour about his personal life, calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[638,64,63,23515,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-71762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-connor-rozee","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71762","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=71762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}