Annette Sharp: Michael Slater’s rocky relationship with Melanie Livesey

One of the women ex-cricketer Michael Slater was arguing with when he was kicked off a Qantas flight two years ago was the person who got an AVO against him, writes Annette Sharp.

Two years after retired cricketer Michael Slater was kicked off a Qantas flight for being “disruptive”, it has emerged that one of the women he argued with on that short-haul Sydney to Wagga Wagga flight was the same woman who sought and obtained an AVO against Slater in October.

It would seem the pair have had a rocky relationship from the start.

Former cricketer Michael Slater’s lawyer told a court on Wednesday that his client suffers from an alcohol disorder.

Melanie Livesey, like Slater, grew up in the Riverina farming town of Wagga Wagga.

In May 2019, she and her sister Racheal made arrangements to fly to their regional hometown to attend the 70th birthday party of their father, David Benn.

Slater was to join them.

But the champion batsman was in a poor mood, it’s been alleged, when he arrived for the afternoon flight.

The veteran Nine cricket commentator, who at the time was trying to establish himself as a commentator for the Seven Network which recently acquired the cricket from Nine, was overheard having terse words with divorced mother-of-two Livesey while boarding the plane.

Slater’s comments are said to have upset his partner’s protective sister, who freely gave Slater a piece of her own mind.

The loud exchange between Slater and the two sisters soon drew the attention of fellow passengers and Qantas staff.

Slater leaving Manly Police Station.

At this point it has been reported that the retired batsman bizarrely locked himself in a toilet on the plane, refusing to emerge when flight crew requested he do so.

Slater’s manager later rejected this and a claim that airport security had to be called to escort Slater from the flight.

According to a Macquarie Radio report at the time: “(Slater’s) been involved in an extremely heated argument – this has been described as not a run-of-the-mill argument. It was yelling, it was swearing and it was only getting worse as they moved to their seats.”

Slater later offered a public apology for any “inconvenience this caused other passengers on
the flight”.

Sources have informed this column the relationship between twice-married and divorced Slater, 51, and 47-year-old Livesey was still in its early months at the time of the fracas.

The couple is said to have met in 2018 before embarking on a heated on/off relationship during which, in mid-2020, they purchased a house together in Randwick. They sold a little over a year later, in August this year, after their relationship broke down.

In October, matters escalated between the pair, prompting Slater to be arrested and charged with stalking and harassing Livesey on October 12.

A court-ordered AVO was subsequently issued.

By the time Slater faced a court on November 11, he was an inpatient at a northern beaches mental health facility where, his lawyer said, his client was seeing a forensic psychiatrist.

Slater is bipolar.

Last Tuesday he was arrested and it has been alleged that he breached the AVO by sending his ex-partner 66 “harassing and highly offensive” text messages in a 2½-hour window. He is also alleged to have made 18 phone calls in the same short period.

His lawyer told a court on Wednesday that his client suffers from an alcohol disorder.

Slater isn’t the first Australian professional sportsman to battle with the bottle.

This “disorder” and Slater’s appetite for a glamorous jetsetting lifestyle has long been an open secret in television commentary boxes, where he’s been known to hook up his equally glamorous friends.

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has said it was Slater who introduced him to his former fiancee, the model Lara Bingle.

From those commentary boxes last week came the suggestion the pandemic, which has prevented Slater from pursuing overseas commentary opportunities — putting distance between the troubled sports star and his ex-partner — may have contributed to his recent unravelling.

Magistrate Michelle Goodwin has put Slater under effective house arrest at his sister’s Sydney home, where he is banned from using or having a phone until he can be admitted to Northern Beaches Hospital for ongoing treatment.

He returns to court next Thursday.

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