Disgraced AFL star Ben Cousins reveals he’s living out of a backpack
FALLEN AFL star Ben Cousins has revealed he’s lost his entire fortune and is living out of a backpack during an exclusive interview.
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EXCLUSIVE
FOR years he was the “Prince of Perth”, whose explosive speed and magic hands combined with his utter charm to see his many off-field excesses forgiven.
But as he sat on a plastic chair yesterday in the foyer of a scrappy suburban courthouse after two nights in jail, Ben Cousins was friendless and getting increasingly desperate.
A cabdriver dispatched to carry him from Armadale Magistrate’s Court fled after spotting the media scrum that was waiting to shadow his passenger.
As Cousins tried to order another taxi on a borrowed phone, he started to lose his temper when police insisted he needed to clear out of their foyer.
When News Corp offered him a ride, he gratefully accepted, flashing that trademark pirate grin.
“That’s pretty funny that I am going to get a ride with someone from the media, but so be it,” he said.
Over the next 10 minutes, as he was driven to a nearby friend’s house, Cousins’ words and actions laid bare the full extent of his fall from sport’s loftiest heights.
The Brownlow Medallist and former West Coast Eagles captain seemed terribly alone.
Asked how he was feeling on his release, he said: “pretty crap”.
When it was pointed out he managed to raise a smile for the cameras, he said: “well it’s a bit of a facade really. I am having a bit of a tough time”.
At first he seemed unsure about where he wanted to go, slapping his hands on his thighs as he thought out loud.
“It’s hard to know where to go to,” he said.
“I am living out of a backpack at the moment.
“I move between three mate’s houses, spend time on different couches. There’s a lady I knock around with these days who I stay with, otherwise I just move on to another place.”
Cousins had spent two nights in police custody after he breached a domestic violence order brought by his former partner and the mother of his two children, Maylea Tinecheff.
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He is due in court again for two separate matters next week and was arrested as he played with the children, aged three and five, at a park near Tinecheff’s Canning Vale home.
In the same court on Wednesday, where he represented himself, he said he expected to spend Christmas in jail.
Cousins’ heavy use of drugs including ice, cocaine and pills, has caused a deep rift in his family. Although father Bryan attended his oldest son’s court hearing yesterday, the two avoided eye contact and Bryan left without his son.
Close family friend Eddie Natale, who runs a Perth security business, told News Corp the relationship between Cousins and his family had been “damaged” by Cousins’ drug use.
“They are having a few ups and downs in their relationship, but Bryan loves his boy.
“Bryan has done everything possible and I know Bryan would change anything at all that he could to make sure Ben was well.
“You can’t believe how much this family has struggled with this. Bryan has put his entire life into helping Ben and he’s a bloke out there searching for help, saying I want to do whatever I can to help my son survive.
“The family’s greatest fear is that they are going to get a phone call one morning saying they have lost Ben, and it’s more than they can bear.
“He just wants his son to live.”
Natale said Cousins had lost his entire fortune, including five properties.
“The guy had everything and now he’s got nothing,” he said.
But yesterday, Cousins said he was most saddened by not being able to see his children enough, and that “a lot of men” shared his experience of a court order separating them from his mother.
“I know I have my issues, but I have never been a violent or bad father,” he said.
“I love my kids, I just want to be able to see them more.”
‘HE WAS A BIT LOST’
News Corp Sarah Blake told Channel Nine’s Today Show that the whole situation was “a little bit bizarre”.
“It was a little bit heartbreaking. He actually needed help. So I offered him a lift and he quite gratefully accepted it,” she said.
Blake said Cousins had not lost any of his trademark charm.
“I think the thing about Ben is that he is, as everyone who knows him will tell you, is a really charming, lovely guy and that was certainly the effect he had on me,” she said.
“He was really lovely, really open. But, you know, a bit lost and a bit alone. I felt he was quite alone when he was talking to me. At first he didn’t really know where he wanted to go. He was a little bit nervous obviously.
“He had just walk 200m with the cameras in his face so he was a bit tense. There were still definitely elements of that lovely guy that everybody remembers from his time when he used to be in front of the cameras all the time.”
Blake also told Today she is unsure whether Cousins sees a clear future for himself.
“I am not sure that he is thinking so clearly about a way out for himself,” she said.
“I think there is no doubt about it, this is a man who is in trouble at the moment. Everybody around him who loves him has said that to me this week when I have been talking to them. I don’t know how clearly he is seeing the future for himself at the moment and I think that is a really common experience for a lot of people who are fighting drugs. A lot of Australian families can probably relate to where Ben is at the moment.”
“He did say to me, ‘For all of my issues I have never been a bad father, I have always been a good father, I love my kids, I want to see them’.”
For those needing help, Lifeline Australia can be contacted on 13 11 14.
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