Lara Worthington, Sam Burgess: Our biggest celebrity cheating scandals
The gilded lifestyle of celebrities hasn’t protected them from the occasional cheating scandal. The Daily Telegraph examines some of the biggest.
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From the outside looking in, celebrities seem to have it all. They live the kind of lifestyle that most people can only dream of. But with wealth and fame often comes temptation and even stars make terrible mistakes. From Lara Worthington to Sam Burgess, here are the celebrities who were rocked by cheating scandals.
Beau Ryan and Lauren Brant
Former NRL star Beau Ryan was embroiled in a scandal that almost ended his marriage in 2015.
Ryan, 36, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with former Hi-5 performer Lauren Brant, 32, after the pair met while working on a stage production, Aladdin and his Wondrous Lamp.
The TV host had been married to his high school sweetheart, Kara Ryan, since 2012 while Brant was engaged to personal trainer Warren Riley.
It was during a romantic holiday in New Zealand before their wedding that Brant’s “affair” with Ryan was exposed, according to Riley.
“She owned up to everything. She said she’d slept with him on two occasions in her hotel after rehearsals,” Riley told Woman’s Day at the time.
The pair called off their engagement and ended the relationship.
Meanwhile, Ryan was temporarily stood down from his co-hosting gig on The NRL Footy Show and also lost a lucrative contract with Woolworths in the wake of backlash over the explosive allegations.
He and Kara fled to Vietnam on a “make or break” trip and decided to work things out.
The pair share two children - Jesse, four, and eight-year-old Remi, who was a toddler at the time.
“It was like my whole world just fell apart,” he previously said. “I was just really upset and embarrassed and all I could think about was my family. I just wanted to make sure they were all right.
“I know Kara was hurt, and I felt so upset about that. So whatever I had to do, whatever Kara wanted me to do, I was willing to do it.”
Brant has since moved on with former AFL star Barry Hall.
The couple share two sons Houston, two, and Miller, four, and they are set to welcome a third child next month.
Sam and Phoebe Burgess
Last week, former NRL star Sam Burgess confessed to cheating on his ex-wife, Phoebe, during a candid admission on SAS Australia.
In 2018, the retired Souths captain was embroiled in a sexting scandal with a Melbourne woman whose identity has never been made public and the affair ultimately ended his marriage.
“I don’t think I was the greatest husband at times,” he said on the show.
“I embarrassed my wife. I had an affair with a girl - a woman in Melbourne. It’s true.
“I was away on tour and regretful that it happened.
“It would’ve been a tough place for Phoebe to be.”
Burgess, 32, and Phoebe, 31, tied the knot in 2015 but split in 2018 after the sexting scandal and three weeks after the birth of their second child.
They briefly reconciled in early 2019 before calling it quits again that same year and their messy split was played out in court.
Brendan Fevola and Lara Worthington
Former AFL star Brendan Fevola was involved in a cheating scandal with model Lara Worthington, which ended his one year marriage to his wife Alex.
In 2007, Worthington, who was 19 at the time, claimed she did not know that Fevola, 40, was married when they began a relationship and only discovered he had a wife when she heard a baby crying in the background during a phone chat.
Worthington, who was based in Sydney at the time, met Fevola on The Footy Show in Melbourne and they enjoyed a five-week romance before she became aware that he had a family.
“We spoke a lot on the phone because he was in Melbourne and I was in Sydney. We were talking one day and I asked: ‘What’s that noise’, and he said: ‘It’s my baby’, and then it all came out,’’ she said at the time.
“I don’t want to blame anyone. A lot of people have been hurt: not just my family, but their family as well. I know I would hate for it to happen if I was married.
“I can’t imagine what [Alex] was going through, or went through, and I don’t really want to add to it.
“In hindsight, it was a big mistake and I think it happened because I was just too trusting.’’
Worthington, 34, later moved on with cricketer Michael Clarke and years later married Hollywood actor Sam Worthington. The couple have three children.
Fevola rekindled his relationship with Alex and the couple are parents to four children.
Roxy Jacenko and Nabil Gazal
PR maven Roxy Jacenko made headlines in 2017 when she was caught in an embrace with her ex-boyfriend while her husband Oliver Curtis was in jail.
The Vaucluse socialite, 41, was pictured kissing property developer Nabil Gazal at his Darling Point penthouse after a boozy dinner with friends at Bar Machiaveli in Rushcutters Bay.
Her wedding ring was noticeably absent during the sneaky rendezvous despite her still being married to Curtis, a former financial trader who had been convicted of insider trading the year prior.
The pair tied the knot in 2012 and share two young children Pixie and Hunter.
Curtis was eight weeks away from being released from his one year prison stint when Jacenko briefly rekindled her romance with Gazal.
The pair were spotted together on multiple occasions and at one point, he gifted her a $50,000 diamond ring for Christmas.
Jacenko previously denied any wrongdoing, telling Nova, “It wasn’t my fault! He chased me.”
Iggy Azalea and Nick Young
When rapper Iggy Azalea flashed her $650,000 engagement ring from NBA star Nick Young in 2015 and said his proposal was the “happiest day” of her life, fans rejoiced for the unlucky-in-love star.
However, less than a year later the wedding was off and the pair had called it quits after Young was caught on tape confessing he had cheated.
The former Los Angeles Lakers player, 36, had been linked to various women while he was engaged to Azalea, 31, including his ex-girlfriend Keonna Green and the Mullumbimby-native aired their dirty laundry on social media.
“I have never even been told by Nick that his baby mother is pregnant,” she tweeted.
“I broke up with Nick because I found out he had brought other women into our home while I was away and caught them on the security footage.
“This is just like a second shot to the chest. And I feel like I don’t even know who the hell it is I’ve been loving all this time.
“People in this world are really f***** up.”
Azalea eventually moved on with rapper Playboi Carti, 25, and the pair welcomed a baby boy named Onyx last year before calling it quits.
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