Sam, Phoebe Burgess wedding ended with high levels of tension
As footballer big brother Luke Burgess was delivering his best man’s speech at Sam Burgess’ wedding, guests say that Phoebe Hooke’s dad Mitch told him loudly to shoosh. It’s unclear what offended Hooke senior but the relationship between the two high-profile families deteriorated from there.
Confidential
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It was at their lavish Bowral wedding reception in 2015 that the first worrying cracks appeared in the relationship between Phoebe Hooke and Sam Burgess.
As footballer big brother Luke Burgess was delivering his best man’s speech, guests say the bride’s dad Mitch told him loudly to shoosh.
It’s unclear what offended Hooke senior but the relationship between the two high-profile families deteriorated from there.
The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal there was an altercation between then Souths five-eighth and Burgess’s buddy Luke Keary and Phoebe’s brother in-law, retired rugby union player Gene Fairbanks, later that night.
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The star-studded Southern Highlands wedding finished in such a high level of tension a recovery session scheduled for the next day was abandoned.
Those close to Burgess say it was on this day, his wedding day, he sensed his marriage could be in trouble.
Three years later, it is over.
Just days before Christmas, Sam walked away from the marriage, leaving Phoebe at the couple’s Maroubra home with their new son, four-week-old William, and two-year-old daughter Poppy.
This is despite Phoebe’s public show of loyalty to her embattled husband when his involvement in a sexting scandal became public late last year.
Sam’s social media accounts were used to send nude selfies to a young woman, who claimed the Souths star had behaved inappropriately to her on social media.
Although Sam was later cleared of any wrongdoing by South Sydney, the seedy incident piled extra tension on an already shaky relationship with his wife.
Those close to Phoebe, who has remained in the family home since the relationship ended, say she still desperately wants their marriage to work and continues to hope they can repair their fractured relationship for the sake of their young children.
Those close to Sam, who has spent time at Russell Crowe’s farm in the wake of the breakup, say he is done.
It is a stark contrast to their lives presented on the couple’s social media accounts, which showcase charmed holidays to Kokomo Island, trips to the Hooke family estate in Bowral and the joy of becoming a #familyoffour.
Those close to Sam say it was Phoebe’s penchant for showcasing their seemingly perfect marriage and life on social media that caused him some frustration.
There was also ongoing tension between Phoebe and the partners of the other Burgess brothers.
Thomas Burgess’s girlfriend Tahlia Giumelli doesn’t follow the mother-of-two on Instagram, with friends suggesting that they have never been close.
And as of a few weeks ago, George’s wife Joanna and Phoebe also stopped following one another’s social media account.
Those close to Sam say ongoing tensions between Phoebe’s extended family and the notoriously close-knit Burgess clan also drove a wedge between the couple.
Friends say the two families are polar opposites — one nurtured by the rough and tumble environment of professional sport and the other born and bred in the antiques and homemade scones environment of the Southern Highlands.
Friends say the Burgess boys and family matriarch Julie began to feel inferior to the well-to-do Hookes, according to friends.
The two families never jelled, which proved increasingly problematic because the one passion both Phoebe and Sam shared was their devotion to family.
Both tribes are fiercely protective and the Burgess family in particular spend a lot of time together — even after the brothers moved out of home and were in serious relationships.
The Hookes are a family of five, consisting of Phoebe, sisters Harriet and Jemima, mother Sarah and family patriarch Mitch, who was at the helm of the Minerals Council of Australia, which ran the campaign against Kevin Rudd’s failed mining tax.
In 2016 Mitch, who mixes with politicians and high-profile business types, received an Australia Day honour for his contribution to the Australian mining industry.
Mitch and his wife Sarah raised their genetically blessed girls in a sprawling Bowral property, with the sisters attending prestigious Mittagong boarding school Frensham.
The Burgesses, on the other hand, hail from West Yorkshire, England and are proudly and unflinchingly working-class.
The boys attended Heckmondwike Grammar School, a coeducational state grammar school in West Yorkshire.
The untimely death of their father at age 45 in 2007 cemented their already unbreakable bond, so if there’s one thing the Burgess brothers know, it’s family.
“The boys are so close and they always have been,” Julie has previously said.
“Luke has always been the bossiest, Sam the happiest and Tom did all his talking for his twin George. George was the quietest.
“Their bond is still the same. It is even stronger now. Losing their father in their teens was a traumatic experience for them and it has definitely brought them closer.
“They really look after each other and they look after me now.”
Julie, known by those close to her as Mrs B, is fiercely protective of her four sons — who weigh about 460kg combined.
So much so that when Sam was embroiled in the sexting scandal in September, Phoebe is said to have received little in the way of support from her mother-in-law and the grandmother of her children.
Friends say by then, however, the marriage was already in serious trouble.
Julie, a teacher at Scots College in Rose Bay, a job she is said to have landed upon the recommendation of actor Russell Crowe, whose two sons go there, struggled to forge a bond with a daughter-in-law born with a silver spoon.
Then a family photo on Christmas Day with all the Burgess boys alongside their partners which was captioned “best one yet” spoke volumes about the relationship.
One day later, Burgess was sighted mingling with a pretty blonde on board a Sydney Harbour boat party, while his wife was at home with their newborn and toddler.
Five years after meeting Sam at an Avicii concert in Sydney, Phoebe was on the outer — and it was clear the Burgesses were sticking together.
While Sam, eldest brother Luke, twins George and Thomas and their partners Joanna and Tahlia Giumelli, Julie and her grandchildren ate as one big happy family at the Watsons Bay Boutique hotel on Christmas Day, Phoebe was understood to be at her and Sam’s marital home in Maroubra with their two children.
That intentionally public post was proof the fairytale romance between the NRL pin-up and his glamorous wife Phoebe was over.
Originally published as Sam, Phoebe Burgess wedding ended with high levels of tension
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