AFL legend Wayne Carey’s wicked past comes back to haunt him

AFL great Wayne Carey hit amazing highs on the field during his legendary career, but he’s just as well known for the lows he reached away from the game.   

Carey’s troubled history can be traced back to the 1990s, when the man known as ‘The King’ admitted to an indecent assault against a woman. 

It was 1996 – the year he captained North Melbourne to victory over Sydney in the AFL Grand Final. 

Carey, who went onto play 271 AFL games with North Melbourne and then the Adelaide Crows, was aged 25 and in his prime. 

Former friends: Carey would leave the Kangaroos after having sex with the wife of his then-teammate Anthony Stevens in a toilet during a party. He and Stevens are pictured together after the AFL grand final in Melbourne in 1996

He pleaded guilty to indecent assault after grabbing a woman’s breast outside a King Street nightclub. 

‘Why don’t you go and get a bigger set of t**s?’ he told her. 

Carey was fortunate not to be convicted and was placed on a good behaviour bond. 

Television shows from that era have been cancelled for lesser crimes, but Carey not only managed to shake it off, he has continued to enjoy a high-paying television career post football to this very day. 

Years later, Carey would tell ABC’s Andrew Denton he wasn’t really sorry for assaulting that teenager. 

An apology had been a condition of a confidential settlement in a subsequent lawsuit by his victim. 

On Tuesday, Carey ignited the fuse of a bombshell that could end his media career when he agreed to spill his guts about some of his past disgraces on Channel Seven’s ratings hit SAS Australia. 

In it, the 50-year-old sensationally opened up about his ‘abusive’ past and addressed his shameful affair with his best mate’s wife in 2002. 

Carey had been caught in a toilet at a party with Kelli Stevens – the then wife of fellow Kangaroo Anthony Stevens.

Up to 100 people had been at the party, with Stevens himself busting the pair. 

Carey had only married his now ex-wife Sally McMahon a year earlier. 

The disgraced ex-footballer told chief instructor Ant Middleton the incident had been the catalyst for years of bad behaviour that followed. 

‘It’s haunted me for over 20 years,’ Carey said.

‘I was in self-destruction mode. You know, I guess my life started to unravel.’

Anthony Stevens with then-wife Kelli at Wayne Carey’s wedding reception in 2001. Carey would cut his best mate’s lunch, which led to his demise at the Kangaroos

Confession time: After failing one of the show’s gruelling challenges, Wayne was later pulled into an interrogation with the show’s instructors, where he spoke about his sordid personal life

King no more: Wayne Carey and coach Dennis Pagan celebrate after North Melbourne won the grand final against the Sydney Swans in 1996. Carey’s life was about to spiral out of control

In reality, Carey had been on the path of a massive downfall for years before then. 

If alarm bells weren’t ringing at AFL headquarters in 1996, they ought to have been just four years later when Carey’s name bobbed up in support of one of Melbourne’s most violent criminals. 

Jason Moran would later be publicly executed at the Cross Keys Reserve in North Essendon while at an AusKick footy clinic.

Moran had been a major player in Melbourne’s gangland war, which was later made into the original, and best, Underbelly television series. 

Carey had provided Moran with a character reference after the crazed thug was embroiled in a savage nightclub attack. 

He later denied ever associating with Moran in a social capacity and said he had no idea Moran’s two-year sentence for affray involved the injury of 13 people. 

It was only his betrayal of Stevens that forced the Kangaroos to dump the champion, with Carey playing out his career in Adelaide. 

Trouble instantly followed him to South Australia in what became known as the ‘Wayne Carey spa party’ controversy. 

In 2003 a 19-year-old Adelaide woman claimed she took a photo of a partying Carey, naked except for a T-shirt, while he was still married to Sally. 

Jason Moran (left) was a violent criminal who was blasted with a shotgun (right) at a footy clinic during Melbourne’s Underbelly War. Wayne Carey had penned him a gushing reference after he was involved in a brutal nightclub brawl

Wayne Carey leaves the Melbourne Magistrate’s court with then partner Kate Neilson in 2009. Carey smashed a glass in her face during a violent outburst in the United States 

Wayne Carey and Sally McMahon after their wedding at St Andrew’s Church in Wagga, NSW, in 2001. He would cheat on her almost instantly with the wife of one of his teammates

A complaint was made to police after friends of Carey took the camera and refused to return it.

The woman claimed Carey had been partying with a 20-year-old woman. 

Carey denied the alleged shenanigans, the Adelaide Crows backed him and police dropped the investigation. 

In 2006, Carey’s atrocious behaviour with women would be cast back into the spotlight after his split with wife Sally. 

The couple had only two months earlier welcomed the arrival of baby Ella when he was caught having an affair with model Kate Neilson. 

It was a doomed relationship, with Carey fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, that ought to have seen ‘The King’ shelved alongside other disgraced former AFL footballers. 

Carey infamously tossed wine in Neilson’s face and glassed her, cutting her mouth and neck, while on a trip to the United States. 

He was arrested and charged by Miami police after they were called to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at around midnight on October 27, 2007. 

Carey had been sound asleep following an all-day bender.

According to the police report, he lashed out upon being woken, kicking one officer in the mouth and elbowing another in the face.   

He was taken to Miami-Dade County jail and charged with assaulting a public servant, resisting an officer with violence and aggravated battery. 

Bad to worse: Following the highly publicised affair, Wayne left North Melbourne and struck up a relationship with model Kate Neilson (pictured together), who he later proposed to – and things turned from bad to worse 

Love and betrayal: Wayne Carey and Kelli Stevens (right, with then husband Anthony at an AFL match in Brisbane in August 2004) had been caught in a bathroom together by teammates and Stevens himself at a birthday party, eventually shattering both men’s marriages

Wayne Carey and ex-wife Sally in 2205. She had stood by her man, but he betrayed her a second time 

He later pleaded guilty to two counts of battery of a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting arrest with violence. 

He agreed to make a $US500 (AUD$694) donation to the Miami police benevolent fund, attend classes on alcohol abuse and anger management, and wrote letters of apology to the police officers involved. 

The incident saw the Nine Network dump Carey’s contract and radio 3AW sacked him. 

In 2008, Carey continued to disgrace himself – this time punching on with police officers at his Port Melbourne apartment.

Officers had actually been responding to Carey’s own call for help when he attacked them. 

Carey had wanted police to remove Neilson and her mate from the property, but when they arrived he wouldn’t let them in. 

He shoved one in the chest and police were forced to subdue him with capsicum spray. 

This time Carey was convicted, but walked from court hand-in-hand with Neilson and a $2000 fine. 

That same year, news leaked that he had allegedly broken a bottle of champagne over his own head in a hotel altercation two years earlier.

US security guard Kyle Banks told A Current Affair that he saw Carey attacking Neilson while working at the exclusive W Hotel in New York City in October 2006.

The security guard claimed he saw Carey hit Neilson over and over again, but she insisted he not report the matter to US police. 

Carey denied the allegations. 

Sold a pup: SAS Australia chief instructor Ant Middleton (pictured) delved into only a fraction of Wayne Carey’s troubled life 

Carey said that the incident with Neilson was ‘one of the biggest regrets of my life’, but insisted the glass had only ‘touched her lip’ 

Interrogation: AFL great Wayne Carey sensationally opened up about his ‘abusive’ past and addressed his infamous affair with his best mate’s wife on SAS Australia on Tuesday night

Despite admitting to crimes that would sink the media career of any mere mortal, ‘The King’ managed to bounce back in 2014 and now regularly appears on Melbourne television and radio, and as a newspaper columnist. 

On Tuesday, Carey stirred up a hornet’s nest when he inexplicably decided to dredge up his shocking past. 

Like years gone by, viewers watched Carey play down the level of violence he was capable of.  

‘You don’t actually have to hit someone to be abusive,’ Carey told Middleton. 

‘In America, I’ve been charged with assaulting police. I got accused of glassing my girlfriend.

‘I went over to throw wine on her in a restaurant, which clearly is wrong. The glass touched her lip, the headlines were that I glassed her.’ 

Seemingly not convinced by Carey’s version of events, Middleton asked him: ‘What the f**k are you playing at? What went through your head?’

Carey claimed the incident was ‘one of the biggest regrets of my life’, but insisted the glass had only ‘touched her lip’. 

‘[It] didn’t break. I wasn’t trying to glass her,’ he said. 

‘All my partners will say I’ve never been physically abusive, but have I been abusive mentally and also, I guess, intimidating? Absolutely.’ 

Charged: Carey was arrested and charged by Miami police during a holiday with Kate Neilson after she alleged he had smashed a wine glass on her face during dinner, cutting her mouth and neck. Pictured with former fiancée Kate Neilson outside court in Miami in October 2008

Not buying it: Seemingly not convinced by Wayne’s version of events, a cynical Middleton asked him: ‘What the f**k are you playing at? What went through your head?’ 

Following the program’s airing, Neilson, who now lives in the United States, suggested Carey continued to lie about what happened that night in Miami. 

Neilson, who is now ‘friends’ with Carey and speaks to him regularly, said she didn’t agree with his ‘downplayed’ version of the incident on Tuesday’s episode.

‘There was a lot of alcohol involved. He was highly intoxicated that night. I, on the other hand, had not been drinking during the day,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I had a glass of wine and dinner, but he had been drinking the whole day. I’m pretty sure my recollection of what happened is a lot clearer.’

Carey told Middleton he now understood that physical violence was unacceptable in modern society. 

‘Actually being physically violent to someone, I saw that every day growing up… Horrific stuff,’ Carey said.

‘And that’s why when people close to me said, “That is unacceptable,” I’d say, “What do you mean? I raised my voice, I stood up. You know, I put my arm on her.”‘

Wayne Carey and partner Jessica Paulke arrive at the Fashion Aid Twilight Beach Polo on February 16, 2018. 

He added: ‘I now know how warped my thinking was. You don’t actually have to hit someone to be abusive.’ 

Carey claimed ‘the penny dropped’ and he eventually changed his problematic behaviour.

‘I spoke to the right people, and that’s not to say that I’m a perfect human now, either. I’m still a work in progress,’ he said. 

He added: ‘I’m not proud of some of the things that I’ve done. But I’ve done a lot of work on myself over the last 10 years and I take ownership of it.’ 

Carey’s media career continues to hang in the balance following his appearance on the reality show. 

Just days ago Channel 7 announced AFLW star Daisy Pearce will replace him on the ratings-leading Friday Night timeslot, with Carey getting bumped over to the Saturday night shift.

Carey is understood to remain attached to Melbourne-based beauty, Jessica Paulke, with whom he shares a child.