Candice Warner: ‘The scars are deep’

Candice Warner has spoken of the lowest point in her life, detailing the emotional scars she still carries today.

Candice Warner has detailed the lowest point in her life, revealing she contemplated suicide and drove to Sydney’s notorious The Gap in the wake of being photographed with a famous footballer in a pub bathroom and the call that saved her.

The wife of top Aussie cricketer David Warner was at the centre of the then scandal at the Clovelly Hotel in 2007.

“I definitely contemplated suicide many times,” the 40-year-old former Ironwoman said in the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.

Candice Warner speaks on the latest episode of the Mental as Anything podcast series. Picture: Christian Gilles

“I remember driving to ‘The Gap’ and pulling over and just thinking there’s no way out. I felt like there was no escape.

The backlash was relentless and brutal, and came at a time where women’s intimate lives were more often considered scandals for public consumption.

Meanwhile, footballer Sonny Bill Williams escaped comparatively unscathed.

“I was ashamed. I was embarrassed. I was publicly humiliated,” she explained.

“I think being the female in that situation in such a public place and it all being played out in the media, I was sort of, I suppose, slut shamed.

“We’ve come a long way since then and we know that that’s just not the right thing to do. I didn't’ have a voice.”

Hard on herself to this day, she continued: “I put my family through hell and I just thought that was never going to end. I thought … if this is what life’s going to be, I don’t want to be here. I pulled over (at The Gap) and you know what, thank goodness for mobile phones, the mobile phone that took the photo of me in that situation, I hate mobile phones, but it saved my life because I called my brother. He sort of talked me, not talked me out of it, but he just definitely said, ‘I’m coming to get you, you know, don’t do anything stupid’.”

Australian Cricket player David Warner at home with wife Candice and their daughters Ivy Mae, Indi Rae, and Isla Rose, in 2022. Picture: Julian Andrews

Warner spoke openly about a range of topics in the Mental As Anyone interview, candidly talking about motherhood, being a wife and her hopes for the future.

She also detailed her fears around social media and her children, something many parents would relate to.

It took Warner a long time to recover and wasn’t until much later that she felt she had reclaimed her voice. Until then, she was understandably guarded.

“The scars are very deep,” she said.

“It is so tiring having that wall up and being guarded, but it was the only way I knew how to protect myself from being hurt or to expose myself to any pain again, because I had suffered so badly from a young age.

“It was SAS that gave me that voice and it also allowed people to see me for who I actually was. But because I had that wall up, no one ever got to really know me and to really see me. So through SAS, just being myself and giving everything a red hot crack, I think people could sort of, they gravitated towards me, but they could also relate to me.”

Warner appeared on SAS Australia in 2020 and four years later I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Candice Warner on SAS Australia in 2020. Picture: Nigel Wright

Over recent years she has established herself as a sports commentator and media personality.

Her memoir – Running Strong – was released in 2023.

“(I’ve been called) everything, every name under the sun, anything that’s derogatory, degrading,” she said.

“People forget that I’m someone’s daughter, I’m a mother, I am someone’s wife, like people forget that. They feel like because I’m in the public eye that they’re allowed to verbally abuse me to embarrass me, to belittle me, but you just don’t do that.”

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* A new episode of Mental As Anyone drops each Tuesday morning.

Originally published as Candice Warner: ‘The scars are deep’