Daryl Maguire tells friends he still loves Premier Gladys Berejiklian

Disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire is telling friends he still loves Gladys Berejiklian, with sources saying he is devastated the Premier would not quit her job to be with him.

Disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire has thrown himself into his horse business to get over the break-up of his secret relationship with Premier Gladys Berejiklian, telling friends he is heartbroken.

Sources said the former Member for Wagga Wagga was devastated the Premier would not quit her job to be with him after the ICAC investigation into his activities.

Daryl Maguire faces the media at ICAC. Picture: Dylan Robinson

The former Wagga Wagga MP has become an invisible figure in the electorate he represented before he became the subject of the corruption investigation.

Now living alone in his luxury $2.6 million four-bedroom home on his acreage in north Wagga Wagga, Mr ­Maguire has instead turned his attention to expanding his horse agistment business, where he has been leasing paddocks to local equestrians and pony clubbers.

A shiny new sign advertising the business hangs on the gate of his property, with the ex-MP answering each of the calls.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she had not talked to Mr Maguire since she gave evidence at ICAC. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Sources close to Mr ­Maguire claim he was clinging to hope he could rekindle his relationship with Ms ­Berejiklian, despite the Premier telling the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing on October 12 that she “ceased all contact” once she was asked to “support this inquiry”.

Sources said Mr Maguire had told friends he had wanted to ­organise a secret meet-up at his property in Ivanhoe, in ­remote NSW, in December.

There was no meeting.

In fact, a spokeswoman for Ms Berejiklian yesterday said there had been “absolutely no contact with Mr Maguire since before the public hearings.”

Not long after, Mr Maguire began telling friends that the relationship was over.

Mr Maguire’s Wagga Wagga Horse agistment business.

Asked if Mr Maguire still loved the Premier, the source replied: “Shit yeah”.

Another source said Mr Maguire had been in a downward spiral since the ICAC hearings.

The revelations come as the investigation into allegations Mr Maguire misused his time in office to gain a benefit continues.

Ms Berejiklian, Mr Mag­uire and other key witnesses were to have learned the findings from the counsel assisting the commission in early December, only for the corruption watchdog to declare it would be delaying its draft submissions “pending the completion of some further investigative steps”.

The Saturday Telegraph can reveal a Department of Premier and Cabinet officer took a bundle of documents in a parliamentary car from the government offices in Martin Place to the corruption watchdog headquarters in Elizabeth St last Friday.

Gladys Berejiklian with Daryl Maguire.

It is not clear whether the documents relate to Operation Keppel, the inquiry into Mr Maguire, or the document-shredding scandal, where a senior policy adviser in the Premier’s office revealed to an Upper House inquiry how she had disposed of notes relating to grants handed out as part of the Stronger Communities Fund.

The revelations were referred by the Upper House to ICAC.

The corruption watchdog is also investigating the property interests of sidelined minister John Sidoti, who stood aside more than a year ago, with no decision so far on his fate.

Both the outstanding report into Mr Maguire and the grants scandal have left several state government ministers pondering the future of their boss, who has won public praise for her management of COVID.

Ms Berejiklian told ICAC she’d had a “close personal relationship” with Mr Maguire.

The Premier later told The Sunday Telegraph that she’d been in love with him and that she had one day hoped to marry him.

But, after the extent of Mr Maguire’s alleged business dealings were revealed at the corruption hearing, the Premier declared she felt betrayed by him and was “never going to speak to him again”.