{"id":850075,"date":"2026-08-10T09:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850075\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T09:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:02:17","slug":"ashleigh-gardners-ex-wife-calls-for-aussie-womens-cricket-star-to-lose-leadership-over-alleged-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850075\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashleigh Gardner\u2019s ex-wife calls for Aussie women\u2019s cricket star to lose leadership over alleged affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ashleigh Gardner\u2019s ex-wife has demanded the women\u2019s cricket vice-captain be stripped of her leadership credentials in the wake of her alleged affair with a younger Australian teammate.<\/p>\n

Monica Wright, 30, was married to Gardener, 29, for seven months, with allegations concerning their messy split made public in July 2026 after Wright wrote on social media her wife had \u201ccheated on me\u201d with 22-year-old Georgia Voll.<\/p>\n

The former pair wed in April 2025 in a secluded Blue Mountains ceremony, before tensions reportedly emerged late last year when the environmental scientist flew to India to join her wife for the ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the couple had a conversation during this trip which left Wright \u201cdistraught\u201d and ended their marriage, with the Sydney Sixers captain believed to have moved out of their shared home when she returned to Sydney after the tournament.<\/p>\n

Neither Voll nor Gardener have spoken publicly on the speculation.<\/p>\n

Ms Wright has now questioned why Cricket Australia has allowed her ex to retain a leadership position in the sport despite the governing body being aware of the accusations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you\u2019re privileged enough to represent your country and be seen as a role model, there\u2019s a responsibility to hold yourself to a high moral standard,\u2019 Wright told The Daily Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can\u2019t understand is why Cricket Australia hasn\u2019t said anything publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes their silence mean they support the actions of Ashleigh and Georgia?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Wright \u2014 who is currently in the UK on holiday \u2014 suggested an imbalance of power between Gardener and her supposed lover was cause for the vice-captain to be penalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have an affair with a junior member of staff, especially when there\u2019s a clear power imbalance, and then remain in a position of leadership,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\"MonicaCamera IconMonica Wright’s posts on her instagram story on 13 July. Credit: little.bit.of.monicaa\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptains are expected to set the standard, and that kind of conduct falls well short of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wright argued women cricketers should be treated the same as men in regards to off-field indiscretions.<\/p>\n

She claimed accountability in this case was lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s cricket wants to be held to the same standard as the men\u2019s game, and it should be,\u201d Ms Wright said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes the same level of accountability when something like this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar sequences of events have resulted in sanctions within the men\u2019s game this century, with Shane Warne stripped of his vice-captaincy after 2000 reports emerged he had sent racy text messages to a British nurse.<\/p>\n

In 2021, former test captain Tim Paine sensationally resigned after admitting he had sent explicit text messages to a female former colleague in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"FormerCamera IconFormer test captain Tim Paine. Credit: Steve Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, Paine\u2019s decision was not forced upon him by Cricket Australia, with an integrity unit investigation clearing him of breaching Cricket Australia\u2019s code of conduct.<\/p>\n

The cricketing body offered a statement in response to Ms Wright\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cCricket Australia ensures all relationships within our workforce comply with our Respect at Work policy,\u201d the statement began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes putting appropriate conflict-of-interest management arrangements in place to support leadership responsibilities and maintain the integrity of team processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, we consider this to be a personal and private matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is believed Gardener and Voll are now a couple, and have continued to avoid speaking on their alleged affair.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the women\u2019s vice-captain and Ms Wright are in the throes of divorce proceedings, with November being the earliest any documentation can be finalised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashleigh Gardner\u2019s ex-wife has demanded the women\u2019s cricket vice-captain be stripped of her leadership credentials in the wake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":["post-850075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850075","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=850075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}