revealed the incident on Monday<\/a>, and chose not to name the parties involved. Cleary\u2019s fiancee, racing.com presenter Kate Watts, shared a post to her Instagram story after an anonymous person on X made the bombshell claim.<\/p>\nCleary apologised for \u201ca terrible error in judgment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy only concern from here is for my fiancee and winning back her trust,\u2019\u2019 Cleary told the Herald Sun. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole incident has been completely unfair on her as well as my family and those closest to me. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s caused incredible stress for my loved ones. It\u2019s not something I ever imagined I would be involved in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am dealing with the consequences privately \u2013 and my family is my focus right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary was overseas last November with the Collingwood staffer \u2014 who is not in the media department \u2014 and some star players when they were part of a celebratory night out at a bar. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood they had only met then for the first time.<\/p>\n
On Instagram, Cleary wrote: \u201cI am sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I have caused for all parties. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe kiss was a terrible error in judgment for which I am incredibly sorry, and I am dealing with the consequences privately with my family and those closest to me. I don\u2019t want to diminish my actions, but most of what has been suggested about the circumstances is not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sources close to Channel 7 said Cleary was remorseful and it happened during private time, and that no further action would be taken against him. <\/p>\n
He will be front and centre of the AFL coverage this September.<\/p>\n
Watts named the staffer who she believed he cheated with, and deleted it after about an hour on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
A Collingwood source said: \u201cA consensual kiss took place during personal time in an off-season trip last year. The staff member regrets the incident and apologises for the impact their actions caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cRumours circulating online stating that the staff member is a member of the media department are completely false.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary and Watts share a daughter who was born in February.<\/p>\n
They got engaged two years ago and have been together for about five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Channel 7\u2019s chief footy reporter Mitch Cleary has spoken of his regret and mission to win back the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[446299,446331,431372,445216,403356,446311,446308,446320,414140,446326,378724,377253,385260,446323,430267,408638,386610,446312,446317,424895,64,63,41407,446303,353,446314,50921,446329,446298,446301,407435,446330,446319,392401,446315,446305,446306,96507,403917,45755,12937,13052,412777,378592,397539,383335,446322,446307,440856,6622,8853,446297,5948,446328,446327,81330,281377,446313,39929,85,446310,446321,446300,395845,446302,406289,446316,386615,446324,382523,377724,369254,438481,392240,396586,446318,446325,388184,446309,391911,446304,381028],"class_list":["post-876508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-terrible-error","tag-s-chief-footy-reporter-mitch-cleary","tag-s-fiancee","tag-s-trust","tag-a-bar","tag-a-celebratory-night","tag-a-collingwood-staffer","tag-a-consensual-kiss","tag-a-daughter","tag-a-magpies-staffer","tag-a-member","tag-a-mission","tag-a-post","tag-a-terrible-error","tag-about-an-hour","tag-about-five-years","tag-all-parties","tag-an-anonymous-person","tag-an-off-season-trip","tag-an-overseas-trip","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-channel-7","tag-channel-7-afl-reporter-mitch-cleary","tag-cheating","tag-cheating-claims","tag-cleary","tag-cleary-and-watts","tag-february-they","tag-front-and-centre","tag-her-instagram-story","tag-her-terrible-stress","tag-her-trust","tag-his-partner","tag-his-pregnant-partner","tag-his-regret-and-mission","tag-incredible-stress","tag-judgment","tag-last-november","tag-last-year","tag-mitch-cleary","tag-monday","tag-my-actions","tag-my-family","tag-my-fiancee","tag-my-focus","tag-my-loved-ones","tag-my-only-concern","tag-no-further-action","tag-part","tag-partner","tag-personal-time","tag-place","tag-private-time","tag-racing-com-presenter-kate-watts","tag-rumours","tag-silence","tag-some-star-players","tag-sources","tag-sports","tag-sunday-night-a-collingwood-source","tag-the-afl-coverage","tag-the-bombshell-claim-cleary","tag-the-circumstances","tag-the-collingwood-staffer","tag-the-consequences","tag-the-first-time-on-instagram","tag-the-herald-sun","tag-the-hurt-and-embarrassment","tag-the-impact","tag-the-incident","tag-the-kiss","tag-the-media-department","tag-the-parties","tag-the-saga","tag-the-staff-member","tag-the-staffer","tag-the-trust","tag-the-whole-incident","tag-their-actions","tag-this-september-watts","tag-two-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876508","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=876508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}