Retired NRL star Sam Burgess couldn’t hide his emotions as he discussed his failed marriage to ex-wife Phoebe during a bombshell interrogation on SAS Australia.
During Monday night’s launch episode, the former South Sydney Rabbitohs player, 32, confessed he had previously been unfaithful to Phoebe, also 32, and added that he knew he had ’embarrassed’ her during their four-year marriage.
‘I don’t think I was the greatest husband at times,’ he said to the camera. ‘I embarrassed my wife. I’d had an affair with a girl, a woman in Melbourne. That’s true.
Breaking his silence: Retired NRL star Sam Burgess couldn’t hide his emotions as he discussed his failed marriage to ex-wife Phoebe during a bombshell interrogation on SAS Australia
‘I was away on tour, and regretfully that happened. Which would have been… it would have been a tough place for Phoebe to be.’
In 2018, Sam was embroiled in a sexting scandal which involved a Melbourne woman who claimed he had cheated on his wife the year prior.
In the immediate aftermath of the scandal in September 2018, Phoebe, who was then pregnant with her second child, pulled out of a public appearance but was otherwise publicly supportive of her husband in the weeks that followed.
However, the couple ended their marriage shortly after Christmas the same year, three months after he was cleared of any involvement in an NRL ‘sexting’ affair.
Confession: During Monday night’s launch episode, the former South Sydney Rabbitohs player, 32, admitted he had previously been unfaithful to Phoebe, 32, and said he had ’embarrassed’ her during their four-year marriage
Despite reconciling briefly in early 2019, the couple called it quits for good in October the same year.
News of the separation came just days after Sam – who shares daughter Poppy, four, and Billy, two, with Phoebe – announced his retirement from all sporting competitions with immediate effect on October 30, 2019, due to a shoulder injury.
Sam said he ‘couldn’t accept’ hearing the decision from his surgeon, and so tried to go back and play.
‘I was away on tour, and regretfully that happened. Which would have been… would have been a tough place for Phoebe to be,’ he said
‘It was a bit of a knife to the heart,’ he explained on Monday’s episode. ‘I couldn’t accept it. I knew two games in I couldn’t do my job anymore, so I retired. It was s**t.’
Chief instructor Ant Middleton then asked if Sam had then gone on a ‘path of destruction’ following the demise of his marriage and the end of his career, to which he replied: ‘I didn’t know how to manage it.
‘I’m not great with managing emotional. Anything to do with my team, myself, press – I don’t mind about that.
‘When it became emotional stuff with losing my kids, not seeing my kids every day, my marriage breakdown and that put pressure on my ex-wife… I didn’t like that.
Another loss: The separation came two days after Sam announced his retirement from all sporting competitions with immediate effect on October 30, due to a shoulder injury
Response: Chief instructor Ant Middleton asked if Sam had then gone on a ‘path of destruction’ following the demise of his marriage and the end of his career, to which he replied: ‘I didn’t know how to manage it’
‘I hated that I’d caused pain for other people that I couldn’t manage.’
He continued: ‘I turned to drinking, taking drugs – I thought I could manage that. Then got pulled [up on a] DUI with drugs in my system, which was all over the press again, which stopped me seeing my kids again. I just checked myself into rehab.’
In May this year, Sam avoided a conviction despite pleading guilty to three driving charges following a February 22 police traffic stop where he tested positive for cocaine.
It came two months after Sam’s conviction for intimidating his ex-wife Phoebe’s father Mitchell Hooke in the aftermath of the couple’s messy break-up was overturned by a judge.
Children: Sam and Phoebe share two children together; Poppy, four, and son Billy, two
Sam later said that going to a four-week long rehab centre had ‘saved his life’, revealing he had stopped drinking completely in an attempt to change his path for the better.
Following the interrogation, Sam concluded by saying he hoped his time on SAS Australia would help him see ‘a bit deeper inside myself’.
‘I have this theory of life that it’s peaks and valleys, ups and downs. Sometimes you don’t know when the peaks are at the top, and you don’t know how far the valley might go.
‘Maybe this could be the start of me climbing my way out of the valley.’
SAS Australia continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven
Aim: Following the interrogation, Sam concluded by saying he hoped his time on SAS Australia would help him see ‘a bit deeper inside myself’