SAS Australia: Candice Warner shares pain after Sonny Bill scandal

Candice Warner has detailed her downward spiral after being caught in a toilet cubicle with footballer Sonny Bill Williams in 2007.

Candice Warner has spoken of the extreme pain she carried over the past 13 years that saw the former ironwoman almost take her own life.

The wife of cricketer David Warner said finally being able to move on from her brief encounter with footballer Sonny Bill Williams has been liberating.

“I was almost suicidal. I went through a hell of a lot at such a young age,” Warner explained of the scandal when she was just 22. “I got to the point where I literally couldn’t take it anymore.”

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

Warner, now 35 and a mother to three young daughters, and Williams made national headlines in 2007 after being photographed together in a toilet cubicle at Sydney’s Clovelly Hotel.

She has kept quiet on the incident since, opening up just now as a contestant no reality show, SAS Australia.

“I don’t know if I would have gone through with the action but I felt like I had to get to that point to work out where my life was going,” she said. “I got to the point, do I take my life or do I just take a different path. I am very grateful that I took that other path and that is where I started to turn my life around. It was very tough at a young age to deal with that. People were cruel and very quick to judge, they made assumptions based off a photo.”

Candice Warner poses for a portrait at her home in Maroubra, Sydney. Picture: Brett Costello

Candice Warner on SAS Australia.

Warner made a shock exit from hit reality TV show, SAS Australia on Tuesday night. Where in the past contestants have bowed out of the competition, Warner and actor Firass Dirani were told to leave by SAS chief instructor Ant Middleton after being deemed the weakest links in the group.

It came as a shock as Warner had been tipped as the most likely to be the last person standing at the end of the series.

“I was exhausted but I still think I had plenty to give,” she said. “I was shocked. When you give so much to something and then not really be given an opportunity to find out why, it is a little bit hard to stomach. At the same time, I gave it everything and there wasn’t too much left in the tank. They are the experts and we are on their course and if they think that I haven’t got what it takes, then I have to respect that at the same time.”

David Warner and Candice Warner at the 2020 Australian Cricket Awards in Melbourne. Picture: AAP Image/Scott Barbour

Learning to let her guard down was the overwhelming takeaway for Warner from the experience.

“It is quite refreshing for me,” she said. “I have always had that resilience in me, I just didn’t know how resilient I was. I have definitely done things that I wouldn’t have done previously so I am really proud.

Another major issue for Warner since the show has been her monumental fallout with publicist and manager Roxy Jacenko after the pair went head to head in a boxing bout.

Candice Warner with her daughters Indi, 4, Ivy, 6, and Isla, 16 months. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Warner’s contract with Jacenko expires on November 27 and she is looking forward to spending some down time with her cricketer husband, David Warner, when he returns to Sydney the day before.

“It will be nice come next Friday just to look to the future,” she said, careful with her words.

Originally published as SAS Australia: Candice Warner shares pain after Sonny Bill scandal