David and Candice Warner reveal how mistakes made them stronger
David and Candice Warner reveal how they’ve dealt with scandal, setback and controversy to emerge stronger than ever.
Lifestyle
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When he’s not slogging balls to the boundary or raising his bat in triumph, David Warner finds inspiration close to home. He talks of role models and it’s his wife Candice who immediately springs to mind.
Between them they have dealt with scandal, setback and controversy and have stuck by each other to emerge stronger than ever.
“When you f--- up a lot you know what to do,’’ a frank Warner says.
Candice adds: “Through your mistakes is how you learn. Without mistakes you don’t have as big a growth.”
Warner, the star Australian cricket opener, is a true family man who values time with his tribe more than anything. It’s the unconditional support from former ironwoman Candice and their three daughters Ivy, 6, Indi, 4, and Isla, 18 months, which he says has helped him grow
as a person.
Candice too, has thrived off having an unwaveringly loyal husband.
“You always have the right outlook on things but sometimes you just have mishaps which can happen and at the end of the day anyone can judge, but you can’t judge until you’re perfect and unfortunately no one is perfect,’’ David says.
“I think everyone in their life will make a mistake and they’ll learn from it and they’ll learn adversity is a great thing.”
David has endured more than most at the top of his game, while Candice recently confronted her past on Channel 7’s military-style TV show SAS Australia.
In 2018 David was embroiled in the infamous ball tampering scandal in South Africa, while Candice spoke about the regret over her toilet tryst incident in 2007.
Together they have each others’ backs and are a force that have combined to give each other an enviable sense of purpose and calm.
“The thing that holds me together is my family and friends,’’ David says.
“I look at that for motivation and that’s what keeps inspiring me to be the best version of myself every day. I’ve got a lot of things that I represent, my family is the most important. You’ve got the business side of things. Cricket Australia and young kids coming through that want to play the game of cricket and that’s the most important thing.
“That’s how we feed off each other. Because Candice has come from a disciplined sport being an individual sport, having that determination to succeed and the passion for her sport sort of woke me up in a way to go, ‘you’re right, we’re playing a team sport but it’s individual so if I don’t prepare well and I’m not doing the best I can to get on the park I’m hindering the rest of the team’.
So I look to her for inspiration in what she’s done.”
Candice also feels a sense of ease knowing she has David in her corner. “We work very well as a team,’’ she says. “Individually we’ve always been good, but together we’re much stronger and we get better results as a team. We just complement one another really well.”
The Warners are unashamedly close-knit and consult each other about most life decisions.
In 2018 they bought into the St Andrews Beach brewery in Fingal as the sixth co-owners, at the urging of jockey Tommy Berry.
“He actually said if any of you boys want to go down to the brewery it’s opening Boxing Day and I said I wouldn’t be able to because of the game,’’ David recalls.
“I said I’m not going to drive an hour and a half to a venue just for a beer. I said I’ll only go down there if I can buy into it. I came down and first of all I had to ask the boss if I could put some money into it,” David laughs, “because in our relationship she’s a tight arse.”
Candice says: “No, I’m the sensible one. Generally he asks me for permission.”
David smiles: “As soon as we walked in Candice gave me a nudge and said I’ll allow you to go into this.”
David also sits on the brewery’s board and is actively involved in the daily workings where the brewery produces eight beers, three seltzers, has 7000 cider trees and is run by CEO and majority owners Andrew and Jane Purchase.
They have also invested in property, but David says the brewery has been an ideal distraction from cricket.
“You get things (offered) left, right and centre,’’ David says.
“For me that’s the beauty of this place. I’m learning as I’m going along so for me it’s a great thing to get away from cricket. The more my mind is occupied the better I reckon I play because I’m not worrying about the game because it takes your mind off things.”
Candice says it’s often a struggle for David to switch off. “I like always thinking that cricket is a fun thing for me and it’s not a job,’’ David says. “I enjoy playing the game. Look at the greats who have all retired they’ve lost that passion to go out there, it almost becomes not a game anymore.
“It still is fun and I’ve still got that passion, that drive for success.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of going out there and doing well for the team. I think that’s what’s good about being involved in a business. It’s a big team push.
“You’ve got so many different dynamics from the top down to the staff. Like coaching down to the players. Everyone is involved in the bigger picture.
“And cricket is about entertaining and putting smiles on people’s faces. That’s what I love and obviously having a family as well, I get a lot of satisfaction out of that. Not just for us but I’m a pretty generous and giving person, I like giving my time to as many people as I can. I enjoy that and I just find it really rewarding and satisfying.”
Candice can see David’s compassion and suspects he will move into coaching once his playing career ends.
This year they spent four months apart due to David’s commitments in the IPL playing in Dubai. Next year looks even more rigorous as they face up to seven months apart. There’s a tour of South Africa in February, followed by the IPL, the Test Championship, the Caribbean tour and the World Cup.
David says he struggled when Candice was away for only 10 days while filming SAS Australia. He also found it hard not being able to be a support for her when she bared her soul about her past.
“For me coming home after a day’s play and coming home to the wife is always comforting,’’ he says.
“But they went back to the camp and were woken up two hours later in the freezing cold. I can’t imagine what it would have been like. To speak on an honest term here she would have found it a lot easier there than being away from me for four months of the year and looking after three girls.
“Ten days away for me was hard enough and everyone always says you need a mother’s instinct, or a lady’s patience. From where I was in that 10 days I admired everything she has done and that reflects the character and person that my mother is and Candice is as a mother because it’s not an easy job. I found it extremely difficult being apart and that’s why I thoroughly enjoy my time at home and everything we do is together as a family.”
Ever the optimist, Candice who doesn’t employ a nanny like most might expect, says she’ll find a way to cope with any scenario.
“The way I see it you take every tour as it comes and you just assess things and you just make things work,’’ she says.
“I’ve always said David’s career is our priority and if it’s starting to affect the way he’s playing we’ll just assess everything.”
Candice says going on SAS Australia gave her a sense of relief and accomplishment. “I think what attracts people to it as a recruit is just the challenge of testing yourself,’’ she says.
“Because everyone thinks that they’re capable and everyone thinks that they’re strong but you just don’t know strong you are compared to other people.
“I think from the viewers’ point of view seeing people either being screamed at, being hurt, under pressure, failing at things, being vulnerable is quite appealing. I think for everyone it’s a win-win.”
For now the Warners are happy to be together on home soil as David recovers from a groin injury and looks forward to playing in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
One of their annual joys is the kids think Santa goes to Melbourne especially to deliver them presents each year.
In exciting news for the family, their two older girls have started to play cricket.
“They’re happy, they are both trying to impress me,’’ David says. “We’re parents who don’t push them at all. I’ve given them the opportunity to do whatever they want and they stopped gymnastics early and stopped dancing to do this. They just love being outdoors.
“From their perspective they just want to impress mum and dad.”
Candice adds: “The funny thing I find is everyone thinks we must be in the backyard with them teaching them how to do it. In fact we don’t, David spends a lot of time away. The fact they’ve just been around cricket since they were born, they watch it on TV all the time, they see daddy at training, they just pick it up.
“We’re not in the backyard all the time. We have fun and play and they’ve just been around it, they know what to do.
“When I see them hit the ball it just surprises me, they’re really good and they’ve got good hand-eye coordination and understand what they’ve got to do.”
David recently started his own YouTube channel and has 100,000 subscribers so far off the back of his popularity on TikTok. They have 15 million people following their Instagram, Twitter and TikTok accounts.
One of David’s TikTok videos broke a viewing record with about 58.5 million views.
He says he’s doing it so people get to see the real Warner family.
“It was more an experiment to put some content out there on YouTube,’’ David says.
“A lot of people see me on the field for what I am but I don’t want people just to see me, but see what me and my family are about. How we go about things in every day life. It’s chaotic.
“A lot of people talk about life and say it must be great, you’re playing cricket for Australia.
“It’s fun but the best fun is when I’m at home with the family and when I’m away on cricket tours. We open our girls’ eyes to culture, to educate them about travelling as well.
“From our point of view it’s to show people as a family what we’re like.”
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