Annette Sharp: The big questions about Michael Clarke’s bust-up with Jade Yarbrough

It’s been four weeks since video emerged of a very public bust-up between ex-cricketer Michael Clarke and his girlfriend. But questions remain, writes Annette Sharp.

Four weeks after Michael Clarke was set upon by his furious and shrieking girlfriend Jade Yarbrough in a Noosa park, there are still more questions than answers concerning the celebrity fracas.

This week your columnist will attempt to answer some of your most frequently asked questions.

Question 1: What happened to Clarke’s shirt and where is it now?

A: After viewing the footage, one is left with the sense Clarke’s enraged girlfriend Jade ripped the retired cricketer’s shirt from his back after the couple argued in a Noosa restaurant on January 10 about Clarke’s alleged extra-curricular hook-up with ex-girlfriend Pip Edwards on December 17 — a charge Clarke has denied.

But what would possess a woman to rip the shirt from a man’s back during an argument?

Had Jade perhaps discovered the shirt was a gift from the alleged “other woman” Edwards and therefore deemed so offensive it had to be eradicated?

A limping Michael Clarke is seen, mid-barney, wearing shoes and shorts … but no shirt.

The former cricketer is a big fan of a white linen shirt and high-end white T-shirts.

Or had Clarke spilt something on himself earlier at dinner and, having retreated to the men’s bathroom to possibly spot clean some squid ink from his attire (a white linen number would be this column’s best guess as he seems to wear nothing but white linen button-up shirts and high-end T-shirts — and a fashion-savvy Clarke would know a T-shirt is inappropriate restaurant attire), had Jade confronted him at the hand basin, by chance catching him shirtless, before the argument blew-up and proceeded outside?

Michael Clarke and Jade Yarbrough during happier times in their relationship. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Did Clarkey perhaps remove his shirt to wash off some errant squid ink in the restaurant bathroom?

Or perhaps, mourning the end of his latest relationship and his chances of becoming brother-in-law to breakfast TV star Karl “Karlos ya c***” Stefanovic, did the former Australian cricket captain begin tearing off his own clothes, as did Reuben of the Bible (Genesis 37:29): “When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes”?

As to where the shirt currently is, we’re expecting the ripped item to turn up as an auction item at a charity auction close to their hearts later this year.

Question 2: Who shot the footage?

A: Great question. Given its quality, it seems likely shot by an amateur, with the suggestion it was shot either by an opportunistic restaurant patron or a member of the restaurant’s staff.

Some insist the footage was actually shot in two parts and that the first half — the bit showing the removal of Clarke’s shirt and possible footage of a fracas inside the restaurant where the whole incident began — is yet to have been offered for sale.

We can only hope it will be. (My email [e-mail] if the videographer needs to contact me.)

Question 3: What prompted Clarke to tell Stefanovic he is not allowed to punch him?

A: Parties affiliated with the fracas have played down Stefanovic’s involvement, but what to make of Clarke’s outburst recorded on the infamous video?

When he said “Karlos, I can tell you now c***, don’t you f**king look away. She can, she can punch me, but you, you c---”. Was his last word actually “can’t” and not a sound-alike obscenity?

Question 4: What has happened to Clarke’s face and who did it?

A: This column has no idea but it’s a bloody shame.

Clarke and Jade Yarbrough at the Louis Vuitton SEE LV exhibition opening in November. Picture: Getty Images

Question 5: Is Clarke seeing either woman now?

A: It seems Clarke has blown his chances with both Yarbrough and Edwards, the P.E Nation fashion designer he is said to have fallen for while working as a consultant on her fashion collection in New Zealand in early 2020.

In February 2020 Edwards was compelled to deny being the other woman in the breakdown of Clarke’s marriage to wife Kyly Boldy which ended that same month.

“Absolutely unfounded and untrue,” Edwards told media.

Regardless, she helped him through a rough patch and by June they were an item.

Question 6: How is Clarke’s relationship with Stefanovic and one-time bestie Anthony Bell, who seems to have gone to some pains to extricate both himself and Stefanovic from the story?

A: Clarke’s friendship with Stefanovic looks to be history — he did rather spoil Stefanovic’s 2023 Today show relaunch by calling him a rude name on video that has gone viral — something for which he has broadly apologised.

Sources claim his long bromance with Bell has been placed under considerable strain, as the accountant, who has previously served as Stefanovic’s manager and is committed to him, has been sunk deep in the unceasing and maybe impossible media clean-up.

The three amigos no more: Karl Stefanovic (l to r), Clarke and Anthony Bell in 2015. Picture: Richard Dobson

BREUER ART COLLECTION TO GO UNDER HAMMER

The private art collection of late Sydney art dealer Eva Breuer — and furniture from the Bellevue Hill home she shared with her recently deceased husband Tom — will go to auction next week.

Two months after the Breuers’ three-house Bellevue Hill estate was quietly put on the market with expectations of about $50 million, the Lawson’s Auctioneers catalogue reveals the more humble contents of the family home, along with a trove of work by celebrated Australian artists.

Zhong Chen’s portrait of the late Eva Breuer.

Tom Breuer, a property developer and Holocaust survivor, died last year, 12 years after his vibrant and popular wife succumbed to cancer.

Among the 626 lots that will go to auction on February 8 is a work by David Boyd who, it’s said, was behind the “miracle” that provided the finance to launch Breuer’s Woollahra gallery and art-dealing career after she bought Boyd’s picture Blind Isaac for $1200 and sold it for $17,000.

Boyd’s Merrics Wombat and Chook and Chickens is listed with expectations of $15,000 to $25,000.

Also listed are works by Susan Norrie, Norman Lindsay, Judy Cassab, David Olson, Garry Shead, Wendy Sharpe and others, including two portraits of the art dealer, one by Zhong Chen, bidding for which was at $10 on Saturday.

It appears everything contained in the Breuer house is up for grabs — from the couple’s furniture, to family boardgames, women’s and men’s clothing, household plants, ornaments, art books, even the Chubb family safe (current top bid $10).

A collection of pottery works by Nicky McWilliam, the couple’s daughter and wife of media lawyer Bruce, were listed, but by Saturday, McWilliam’s name had disappeared from the catalogue.

CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF DIANA

The funeral of vivacious society fixture and TV panellist Diana “Bubbles” Fisher will be held on Tuesday at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Watsons Bay.

Fisher died on January 26 at St Vincent’s Private Hospital following a two-year battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She was 91.

The eternally upbeat Bubbles emigrated to Australia from England in 1969.

The former BBC researcher became a popular TV talk-show panellist, going on to become one of the nation’s hardest-working royal commentators, in high demand for decades.

Family and friends are invited to the 11.30am service.

A private cremation will follow.

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