‘Struggled with aggression’: Ant’s tell-all on Warnie’s boy and violence
SAS Australia’s Ant Middleton has appeared on the Mental As Anyone podcast, speaking of all things from violence, life after the military and his friendship with Jackson Warne.
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Ant Middleton has shown his soft side, opening up on the familial bond he shares with the son of late cricketing legend Shane Warne.
The hardened SAS Australia Chief Instructor met the now-25-year-old Jackson Warne as a contestant on the first season of the brutal reality show back in 2020.
“I talk to Jackson a hell of a lot,” We’ve had some good heart to hearts. Jackson is a man of few words, he is more introvert than he is extrovert,” Middleton said.
“We’ve built up a special relationship and you know, it’s one that … we’re definitely going to grow old together so yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
The 43-year-old and Warne attended the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne together in March.
Shane Warne died in 2022 at the age of just 52, and Middleton has been one of Warne Jr’s supporters through the toughest of times.
“This is why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people, people … that just make you feel better about yourself, that make you a better person, that give you that energy or that comfort,” Middleton said.
“Jackson has got a lovely calming aura around him, he’s super positive.”
The former British Special Forces soldier has a tough exterior and hard-guy reputation, but Middleton wants people to know there is more to him than that.
Currently competing on Dancing With The Stars on Seven, he opened up on a wide range of topics in a candid interview on the new Mental As Anyone podcast — from his 18-year marriage to beloved wife Emilie, his tough-as-nails TV persona, and the psychological impact of leaving the military.
“People see this disciplinarian sort of chief instructor drill sergeant screaming, shouting … in people’s faces for entertainment,” Middleton says.
“There’s a whole bigger picture to it — the ‘breaking down to build back up’ procedure to ultimately make the individual realise what they’re capable of.
“But in order to go deep into their headspace and into their emotions, you have to strip everything down, all the armour, hypothetically. that we wear.
“Ultimately, all I’m trying to do is make people realise what they’re capable of, make people function at their optimum capabilities and performance.”
Middleton served in the British Army for 13 years.
HOW JAIL CHANGED HIM
A four-month stint in prison forced Middleton to retrain his brain after years in the military, when he was convicted of the unlawful wounding of one police officer and common assault upon a second police officer in 2013 for a nightclub blow up.
“I struggled with the aggression, I struggled with the violence,” he said.
“I just thought it was a natural reaction to behave that way and it’s not, and then all of a sudden, I was like, ‘right, I need to cut violence out of my life. Full stop. Zero tolerance to violence. You can take my limbs, you can lock me up, there’s one thing you can’t do is take away the way I think, and I find that the most liberating thing in the world’.
“If you are in charge of your thought process and you’re in charge of your mind, then that’s freedom in itself.
“If someone is aggressive to me, use your brain, be smarter, because ultimately, you’re going to end up in an extremely hot water if you don’t.”
Sadly, at least one veteran takes their own life every week in Australia. More than 1600 current and ex serving veterans have died by suicide since 2001.
More broadly speaking about mental health and the military, Middleton said governments need to prepare personnel for life after serving.
“You’re so ingrained, and finetuned in a sense that you’re ultimately there to protect the country and to fight wars,” he said.
“I’m there to be let out and go into conflict zones and battlefields to rectify a problem, it’s as simple as that.
“When people leave (military life) and they don’t have the correct mentor, or the correct ways of learning to dive into a brand new world, which you’re doing, then you’re going to have psychological implications, you’re going to have emotional implications, the effects are going to be negative.”
He continued: “There’s zero tolerance to violence in civvy street (civilian life)”.
“In the military, you’re trained to counter violence with extreme violence. If someone is violent to me on the battlefield, in order to counter that I need to be more violent. Same with aggression. That’s the do-or-die mentality that is trained into us on the battlefield.
“All of a sudden, you’re leaving the military … you’ve got this mentality that is completely not accepted in society. There needs to be some kind of training program where you are trained … to fit (back) into society. That doesn’t exist.
“There needs to be a more in-depth process on how to deal and the rules and regulations and how to become a civilian like you do when you join the military.”
On the personal front, Middleton and his wife Emilie have been married since 2006 and the pair are parents to five
“She’s definitely my stabiliser in life,” he said.
“She’s my sounding board. She’s very good at bringing me back down to earth and being honest with me. Without her, I wouldn’t have the self-belief to be able to go and do what I do and the confidence to go and do what I do.”
The Mental As Anyone series explores how individuals across the spectrum of fame and success manage their mental health, with each episode offering practical tips as to how guests deal with life’s struggles. Future episodes will feature the likes of Isaac Humphries, Ben Gillies and Michael Clarke.
* A new episode of Mental As Anyone drops every Tuesday morning at 6am.
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