Dolphin Jarrod Wallace reports trolls to police after social media backlash over ‘inside joke’

NRL star Jarrod Wallace has reported trolls to police after an “inside joke” about his fiance resulted in significant online backlash over claims of sexism.

Dolphins player Jarrod Wallace with his fiance Shani Well to Instagram on Sunday evening.

Dolphins star Jarrod Wallace has reported threats made toward him to police after an ‘innocent inside joke’ he made caused significant backlash.

Wallace, who joined the Dolphins after stints with the Gold Coast Titans and Brisbane Broncos, posted an Instagram story apologising to anyone offended by the caption that originally accompanied a picture with his fiance Shani Well on Sunday.

“The misinterpretation of an inside joke does not give strangers persimmon to send threatening messages to either myself or Shannon, threatening the wellbeing of our daughters or unborn child,” the 31-year-old wrote.

“Those matters will be dealt with legally and will be investigated by police.”

Dolphins player Jarrod Wallace said on Monday that any threats made to him or his family would be dealt with by the police.

The original post said ‘You look real good cooking our little boy, but even better when you’re washing my clothes’, which he explained as part of an ongoing joke between the couple.

After apologising, Mr Wallace said he would better elaborate any posts with intended humour in future as he does not want to be considered a sexist or promoting sexism as a public figure.

“It was not my intention … I am a proud dad and stepdad to four beautiful little girls and the most empowering of my beautiful fiance,” he wrote.

“My fiance is the heart of our home and goes above for me and the girls, I love and respect her more than you can imagine.”

Jarrod Wallace’s fiance Shani Well responded to a comment which said “sometimes (it) is best to keep an inside joke inside” to defend her fiance.

Soon after the original post Mr Wallace edited the caption to say “Take 2 – My beautiful fiance looking gorgeous while cooking our baby boy. Also for anyone concerned about my first post, it was an inside joke between us”.

His fiance commented on the post and said “well thankfully you do the washing honey, along with everything else while I‘m nauseous”.

Despite the playful interaction between the couple, many of the 24,500 people following Mr Wallace reacted critically.

A screenshot of the caption was posted to Facebook groups with one commenter, Shai Powe, saying “it’s called cultural violence”.

Ms Wells responded to a comment which said “sometimes (it) is best to keep an inside joke inside”.

“It was about laundry. It’s not that sinister. For clarity, I don’t do our laundry, Jarrod insists on doing it. Along with everything else so I can rest,” said Ms Wells.