Christie Whelan Browne slams SAS Australia for casting former co-star Craig McLachlan

Christie Whelan Browne has lashed out over news her former co-star - previously accused of sexual assault - will star in SAS Australia.

Channel 7’s reality tv series SAS Australia has casted Craig McLachlan. Picture: Tim Pascoe

Christie Whelan Browne has slammed the move to put actor Craig McLachlan in the cast of SAS Australia.

The brutal military style Channel 7 show is renowned for its redemption storylines and has previously come under fire for featuring the likes of Wayne Carey and Sam Burgess.

Whelan Browne tweeted that she is “so f … ing sick of this shit”.

“How do we feel about someone who was charged on multiple sexual assault charges being put back on TV and being referred to simply as a ‘controversial figure’?” Whelan-Browne tweeted on Monday.

Christie Whelan Browne is furious that her former co-star will appear in SAS Australia. Picture: Getty Images

“I also saw a post saying he was the ‘winner’ of that case. But if you bother to read the judgement – he was acquitted on a technicality and the judge WHO HEARD THE EVIDENCE, believed it happened. I am so f … ing sick of this shit.”

In 2018, Whelan Browne, along with two other female cast members, put forward allegations of indecent assault against McLachlan, the star of their 2014 production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

McLachlan denied the allegations and in 2020 a criminal trial found him not guilty.

Actor Craig McLachlan with partner Vanessa Scammell.

In 2021 he launched defamation proceedings against the ABC, Fairfax Newspapers and Whelan Browne, but dropped the lawsuit several days into the trial, saying “I cannot continue to place my family under that strain, and my own mental health will not withstand the continuing pressure”.

SAS will be McLachlan’s first television employment in five years with his partner Vanessa Scammell saying it had been a race against the clock to get his fitness up to scratch before departing for filming in the Middle East. He recently underwent abdominal surgery.

Last year Channel 7 came under fire for using AFL legend Carey, namely by his ex Kate Neilson and radio host Lauren Phillips.

Burgess, who passed selection and declared the winner, revealed his issues with addiction and admitted to cheating on ex-wife Phoebe during their marriage.