Sam Burgess and wife Phoebe separate less than a month after birth of second child
Three years after their lavish Bowral wedding, South Sydney player Sam Burgess and his former journalist wife Phoebe have called time on their marriage.
It was a fairytale romance but it has lost its happy ending after just five years. NRL star Sam Burgess and wife Phoebe have split less than a month after the birth of their second child, a boy named Billy.
The couple, also parents to 23-month-old daughter Poppy, have told family and close friends the marriage is over. Rumours of a split were sparked by a social media post from Sam’s sister-in-law Joanna Burgess, partner of his brother and fellow Rabbitohs star George.
It showed Sam with his family at the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel on Christmas Day — without Phoebe.
It is believed the marriage came to an end earlier last month but the couple have vowed to keep it civil for the sake of their young children.
“Things have been bad for a while,” a source close to the couple said.
“They tried to keep it together but it all went to s..t, that’s the honest truth. It is pretty messy.”
Both Phoebe and Sam, who are usually notoriously prolific on social media, haven’t shared anything online since the arrival of their second born.
Phoebe worked as a magazine journalist before becoming a blogger and influencer when she got together with the footballer, who hails from the UK.
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The past four months have been turbulent for 30-year-old Burgess, with the star forward caught up in a sexting scandal just days before Souths’ semi-final clash with the Dragons. An investigation by the club later cleared their players of actionable misconduct.
Burgess and Phoebe met about five years ago at an Avicii concert in Sydney, going public in September 2014.
A month later, Phoebe followed Burgess to the UK for his stint playing rugby union.
They returned a year later and married on December 28, 2015, in a lavish ceremony at Phoebe’s parents’ property near Bowral.
In May, Phoebe told The Sunday Telegraph’s Stellar magazine of her husband’s devotion to their daughter.
“The moment he had a daughter, he had this amazing new appreciation for the other 50 per cent of the population,” she told the magazine.
Sources say Phoebe’s relationship with Burgess family matriarch Julie has been strained for some time.
She is also understood to have fallen out with the partners of Sam’s younger brothers, twins George and Tom, Joanna Burgess and Tahlia Giumelli.
The Burgess family used to meet weekly for Friday night spaghetti bolognaise but this stopped.
It is also understood Phoebe’s parents and family are no longer in contact with the Burgesses after last year’s scandal.
“It would have been hard for Phoebe because Julie would have completely stuck by Sam during all the cheating allegations and there’s talk she didn’t offer Phoebe much support,” a source said.
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