The Australian Women\'s Weekly - June 2018

70 The Australian Women’s Weekly | JUNE 2018

Exclusive

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CandiceWarner

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ALANA LANDSBERRY

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tripped bare, broken,

humiliated, Candice Warner

stares at the big screen and

doubts there could be a more

gut-wrenchingly low point in

her life. It was March 10, and before a

sell-out crowd of 19,000 and a global

TV audience of millions, the former

ironwoman champion and wife of

Australian cricketer Dave Warner felt her

knees buckle, terriied she might collapse.

Live coverage from day one of the

second Test between Australia and

South Africa in Port Elizabeth had

shifted its focus to a rowdy bunch of

fans wearing masks of New Zealand

rugby legend, Sonny Bill Williams. For

the heartless pranksters, it was just a

cheap shot, a bit of fun. Normally

resilient, the mum-of-two didn’t see

the funny side. Candice describes the

moment when she crumbled, crushed

by their cruel attempt to publicly

disgrace her for that infamous bathroom

encounter with Williams back in 2007.

She was a champion ironwoman who

married Australia’s most divisive cricketer,

now branded a cheat. Candice Warner

tells Lizzie Wilson about past mistakes

and how, just when she thought she’d hit

rock bottom, life sent another blow.

“I felt like a dirty, horrible person – it

was like I cracked in half. It was a

deliberate and very personal attack and

I felt so ashamed of my past. People

were staring and pointing at me, but I

had to put on a brave face for our girls.

“I was completely exposed. I’d

become an unwanted distraction. I

saw myself on the big screen, the

victim of a sick prank, and without

notice, rock bottom hit me like a

brick. Nothing could have prepared

me for what was about to happen.”

In this exclusive and often intimate

interview, Candice, 33, speaks openly

about the moment she learnt of the

infamous ball-tampering incident, about

what really went on behind the scenes,

and for the irst time, she reveals her

heartbreaking news: that the Warners

suffered a tragic miscarriage in the

aftermath of cricket’s cheating scandal.

“I don’t think either of us realised

how much we longed for this baby. We

had been trying since last July and I did

a test when we irst got to Cape Town.

I’ve had robust pregnancies with both

our girls, and the timing was perfect –

Ivy Mae is three and Indi Rae just

turned two – we were over the moon.”

What came next no one saw coming

• least of all Candice. Her rock, the
  father of her children, the man who
  serves and protects her every day, was
  about to bring the very game he loves
  and lives for into the deepest disrepute.
  Shockingly, the already polarising,
  hard-hitting cricketer was about to
  become one of the most hated men in
  Australian sport. Pinned as the chief
  instigator in the ball-tampering scandal,
  Warner and his two co-conspirators,
  disgraced captain Steve Smith and
  budding rookie Cameron Bancroft,
  were all sent packing.
  “I was feeling so happy that day,”
  Candice remembers. “I hoped the
  terrible stuff was behind us. We love
  Cape Town and it’s where Dave
  proposed to me in 2014. I was →

the ultimate

STYLING BY REBECCA RAC. HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY NORMAN GONZALES.