Natalie Barr’s brutal question to Candice Warner about her infamous ‘toilet tryst’ with Sonny Bill Williams: ‘This was 16 years ago’
- Candice Warner said times have changed since 2007
- Was pictured in the bathrooms with Sonny Bill Williams
- Stated the media circus was due to women not ‘having a voice’
Former ironwoman Candice Warner has taken a stand against the way she was treated following her infamous ‘toilet tryst’ with Sonny Bill Williams.
In an interview on Sunrise on Wednesday while doing publicity rounds for her memoir, Ms Warner was asked by host Natalie Barr if she had ‘thought about coming out straight away’ when the scandal broke.
Ms Warner said the media attention and subsequent apology she had to issue was due to women not having a ‘voice’ at the time.
The 2007 incident blew up after a photo was taken of the pair in the men’s bathroom at the Clovelly Hotel, in Sydney’s east.
Although she was single at the time and claimed the pair only shared a kiss, Ms Warner revealed the media circus had caused her mental anguish to the point she considered suicide.
The incident has has hounded both her and her husband, cricketer David Warner whom she married in 2015.
The opening batsman was notably mocked about the incident during Australia’s cricket tour of South Africa in 2018.
Explaining how women were treated at the time of the incident, Ms Warner said ‘We lived in a society where we didn’t have the voice, women didn’t have the voice that we do now’.
‘This was 16 years ago,’ Ms Warner said.
‘I was forced to apologise, I was single, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nowadays that just wouldn’t happen…
‘Our society has changed, it still has a long way to go but I feel like as a woman, I have the confidence to be able to tell my side of the story and be heard.’
She said she wrote her memoir, Running Strong, in part for her three daughters ‘who in time will be able to read the book’.
‘I wanted them to get a better understanding of my story without any interferences or judgement from outside.’
Former ironwoman and wife of David Warner, Candice Warner (pictured), has hit back at a question about her now infamous ‘toilet tryst’ in 2007
Ms Warner was pictured in the male bathrooms with former rugby league and rugby union player, Sonny Bill Williams (pictured), and was later forced to apologise despite being single at the time
On a previous stop on her publicity tour, Ms Warner opened up to The Sunday Project on the incident.
‘I just thought, “This is it.” I just couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take the headlines. I couldn’t take disappointing my parents. I couldn’t take it all. It was all too much,’ she said.
‘It still blows my mind to this day how I was forced to apologise for a pash that I had – a drunken pash that I had on a night out.’
David Warner was involved in a row while on tour in South Africa in 2018 after South African opponent Quinton De Kock allegedly made ‘vile’ comments about his wife.
The pair almost came to blows in a staircase at the Kingsmead Stadium, in Durban, before fellow Australian cricketer, Usman Khawaja, held Warner back.
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