Wayne Carey has made a dark prediction over his future, claiming that he ‘only has nine good summers left’ and has called on the world to stop bringing up his chequered past.
The two-time AFL Premiership winner and seven-time All-Australian was excluded from North Melbourne’s 100-year anniversary celebration video released earlier this week.
In a discussion with fellow former Geelong star Sam Newman, Carey, 53, urged people to ‘stop the rot’ and claimed he didn’t want to have to live the rest of his life with people continuing to dig up some of the darker parts of his past.
‘This is me finally saying, “Come on, enough is enough”,’ the Footy great said on Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious Podcast.
Carey, who retired in 2004, added: ‘I’ve probably only got nine good summers left, Sam.
‘Surely I don’t have to live the last years of my life living things that occurred 30-plus, 20-plus years ago.
Former North Melbourne player Wayne Carey, 53, has urged the world to stop bringing up his chequered past
His comments came after the Kangaroos great had seemingly been omitted from the club’s 100-year anniversary video
Carey was speaking on Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast when he made a very dark prediction on his future
‘Surely I’m not that interesting to keep bringing up things that happened that long ago. It’s astounding.’
Carey announced earlier this year that he and model girlfriend Jessica Paulke, 33, were expecting their second child together after they had previously split up. Carey also has a daughter with Sally McMahon and a child with former fiancee Stephanie Edwards.
While he revealed that the constant talk over his past controversies was having an adverse effect on him, he added that it was also taking its toll on his previous partners and his children.
‘They’re driving my kids, their friends… the talk about violence. They are driving the mothers of my children into their graves, that’s what they’re doing,’ he said.
‘The vindictive nature of what continues to happen is just wrong.’
North Melbourne’s decision to omit Carey from the video celebrating the club’s anniversary was hit by criticism from some including Channel Nine’s Tony Jones, who told the Kangaroos to ‘grow up’ while speaking on 3AW radio earlier this week.
The broadcaster added: ‘Surely people deserve a second, third chance, don’t they?’
Corey McKernan was another who called out the Kangaroos, posting on X: ‘FYI North Melbourne, you do know Wayne Carey played for us, don’t you?’
Carey and his partner Jessica Paulke announced earlier this year that they were expecting a child
But Carey said the constant speculation over his past was ‘driving the mothers of my children into their graves’
Carey, who made 244 appearances for North Melbourne, also has a daughter with Sally McMahon (right)
The two-time premiership winner also has a child with Stephanie Edwards (pictured right)
Carey said it was ‘unusual’ he was not included in the video, while Newman added it was a ‘disgrace’. Carey claimed Kangaroos legends, Wayne Schimmelbusch, Denis Pagan, Sam Kekovich and Malcolm Bligh were also not included in the clip.
‘I don’t know what you get for murder, but you don’t get this,’ Carey continued.
‘I spoke to Sonja Hood and I said: ‘Sonja, I just want you to know this has caused a kerfuffle and people are talking about it. I don’t sit there saying why didn’t you include me, but I just have to address this constant talk about these things I’ve [supposedly] done in my life, that I haven’t.
‘I guess it’s for my health to get it off my chest, to actually say how I’m feeling and to be a voice for others and say how they’re feeling. If that’s what makes me feel a bit better then I’m going to do it.
‘I’ve got to a point in my life where I can live with myself and don’t feel guilt about these things anymore. I decided through help and it’s only through help that I’m not going to live with that toxic shame and that guilt anymore about these things that are written and are untrue.
‘I guess the constant storytelling and the constant headlines that get brought up after something as simple as a few people tweeting about me not being in a video and my whole history of things that haven’t happened, that continually get written about that is no fault of my own. It’s just got too far.
‘You look at what Alastair Clarkson has gone through over the last few years. Chris Fagan. Guilty before any presumption of innocence is afforded to them. It’s wrong.
‘I’ve got to a point where I’ve learnt to forgive myself.’
The former North Melbourne star admitted that he had ‘got to a point where I’ve learned to forgive myself’
In 1997, the 53-year-old pleaded guilty to an indecent assault after he was alleged to have grabbed a woman’s breast on a Melbourne street
The former North Melbourne star has made headlines for incidents away from the football field in the past, including his affair with team-mate Anthony Stevens’ wife back in 2002. That is understood to have led to his switch to join the Crows in 2003.
In 1997, the 53-year-old pleaded guilty to an indecent assault after he was alleged to have grabbed a woman’s breast on a Melbourne street. The matter was settled by a civil suit filed by the woman out of court.
Speaking on the matter, Carey told the podcast that he had pleaded guilty after being advised by North Melbourne to do so.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted North Melbourne for comment.
‘I don’t have and never been charged with domestic violence,’ he said.
‘There have been two major incidents in my life, one was over 30 years ago. It was in King St and I got the advice 30-odd years ago from the North Melbourne footy club.
‘I don’t remember what happened that night. It was in the middle of the street, it wasn’t cloke and dagger stuff. I pleaded guilty on the advice of North Melbourne because we were halfway through a year where we thought we had a premiership chance.
‘The charge was that I had grabbed a girl on the boob and said: “Get a bigger set of tits”. I pleaded guilty on the advice of the North Melbourne Football Club.
Carey, pictured next to Kate Neilson, claimed he had ‘never been charged with domestic violence’
‘I categorically don’t remember what happened that night. ‘If I’d known that I had to live with that for the rest of my life, which I have had to do, I would be fighting that today.’
In 2007 the ex-Crows star was arrested in the United States after he had allegedly broken a wine glass in former fiancee Kate Neilson’s face.
Carey also claimed that the allegations made against him were ‘ludicrous’ and not correct.
‘An incident with a girl that I was seeing on and off, I wouldn’t call her a girlfriend… we were overseas in a restaurant and everyone says you glassed someone,’ he said.
‘”You literally glassed your girlfriend.” That is ludicrous, that is not accurate. Yes, the glass did touch her because I was trying to throw wine, I’ve said this before publicly, I was trying to throw a mouthful of wine on her in a packed restaurant. I leaned over and touched her lip. I then threw the glass on the ground and it smashed.
In 2008, police were called to an apartment in Port Melbourne and allegedly used capsicum spray to subdue Carey, after he was alleged to have assaulted the officers.
‘There was one incident in Port Melbourne that I have got a criminal record for,’ Carey said. ‘I called the police to my apartment. When they got there I answered the door and said you’re no longer required.
The ex-footy star had subsequently been dismissed from his jobs with Channel Seven and The Age after he had been ejected from Perth’s Crown Casino last year
‘The police pushed their way into my apartment and then I defended myself inside my own apartment. I then didn’t fight those charges either.
‘They came in and they grabbed me in my apartment. So I resisted arrest, that is my conviction. I didn’t even throw a punch. These are factual things that have occurred.’
Last year, Carey was ejected from Perth’s Crown Casino after a bag containing an unidentified white powder fell out of his pocket while he was on the premises.
He claimed the substance was an anti-inflammatory medication he was using to treat injuries he had suffered on the field.
The ex-footy star had subsequently been dismissed from his jobs with Channel Seven and The Age over the incident. The AFL had also blocked Carey from being honoured at a Hall of Fame ceremony.
