Carlton boss Luke Sayers says he is victim of social media nude image hack

Luke Sayers says he is the victim of a social media hack after a lewd image was sent from his X account with a link to the account of a senior female executive at one of the club’s sponsors.

Carlton president Luke Sayers says his X account was hacked. Picture: Michael Klein

Carlton president Luke Sayers says a “dick pic” sent from his social media account to a high-ranking female executive at a club sponsor was the result of a hack.

The public post at 5.41pm on Wednesday went viral before Mr Sayers frantically deleted the post 12 minutes later.

The executive whose name was in the post on X was reportedly “completely shaken up”.

Screenshots of the nude image of what appeared to be a middle-aged man began circulating widely while Mr Sayers was on a family skiing trip in Italy, where he has a second home in Lake Como.

The now deleted post. Picture: X

Followers of the Carlton Football Club president, who had notifications turned on, received an alert with the photo.

Mr Sayers quickly posted “sorry my account has been hacked please ignore all posts”.

Speaking from Italy, Mr Sayers told the Herald Sun on Thursday he was “outraged” and would do anything to find the perpetrators.

“This is outrageous – I’m ­investigating and will leave no stone unturned finding out who did this to me and my family,” Mr Sayers said.

Luke Sayers' post. Picture: X

It is not the first time Mr Sayers says he has had his X ­account hacked, with the account now deleted.

The Herald Sun also asked Mr Sayers on Thursday if he knew whose body was in the “dick pic” sent from his X account, and if he had reported the incident to Victoria Police or to X for investigation.

Victoria Police said it needed more details before it could reveal if there was a complaint, while X no longer has a media team after Elon Musk took over the platform.

The AFL was also contacted for comment on if it was investigating the incident.

It is not the first time Mr Sayers says he has had his X account hacked. Picture: Michael Klein

Mr Sayers, a former PwC chief executive, has long been married to high-profile charity founder and board member Cate Sayers, with the couple sharing four daughters.

Mr Sayers and his wife are fixtures on Melbourne’s social scene. They run the charity ­Inclusion Foundation, which provides support for families of children with Down syndrome.

Mr Sayers now runs his own consultancy firm, which he named after himself. He has also been a close friend of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

Mr Sayers grew up in Rochester in country Victoria and moved to Canada with his ­family before settling in Melbourne’s southeast. He became partner at PwC at 29 and then chief executive at 42. However, his legacy at PwC was tarnished after it was revealed the firm sold secret government information for profit.

Sayers and his wife, Cate. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Sayers denied involvement in the scheme that ran under his watch in a Senate inquiry into the scandal last year. He was accused in parliament of twisting the truth as his responses to the scandal were compared with disgraced businessman Alan Bond.

Hacks are common on X, formerly known as Twitter, with millions of bot accounts floating around the site.

The X website recommends users have a “strong password that they don’t reuse on other sites” and set up “two-factor authentication” to avoid accounts being compromised.

Mr Sayers has served on the Carlton board since 2012, becoming president in 2021.

‘I’ve been hacked’

A string of high profile figures have claimed their social media accounts have been hacked after posting inappropriate content.

Christopher Pyne - Former Federal Education Minister and self confessed “fixer” claimed his then Twitter account was hacked when it liked a gay porn video in November 2017.

“I was hacked overnight! I was (sleeping) at 2am. Someone tried to hack my social media yesterday,” he said at the time.

Greg Hunt - Former Health Minster who oversaw the response to the Covid-19 pandemic claimed he was hacked in December 2017 when his Twitter account “liked” a hard core porn tweet.

Greg Hunt asked the AFP to investigate after his account liked a hard core porn tweet. Picture: Brendan Beckett

The “like” happened at 5.01am. Mr Hunt asked the AFP for an investigation. In May 2018, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the account was “not hacked in a criminal sense”.

Craig Kelly - Former Liberal MP claimed his X account was hacked in February 2024 when it shared a video titled “Horny sister seduced by her brother’s friend”.

He deleted the post and wrote: “Earlier today my account was hacked, I have reported this to Twitter and reset my password. Ugly stuff.”

Brian Houston - Hillsong founder claimed his X account “may have been hacked” after it publicly posted the phrase “ladies and girls kissing” at 11.41pm in February 20, 2024.

Pastor Brain Houston outside the White House. Picture: Instagram

The pastor who preached no sex before marriage later said: “Final comment: A number of people have had access to my social media accounts. We have concluded that someone known to me posted an unauthorized tweet in a deliberate attempt to embarrass and discredit me. Password now changed.”

Anthony Weiner - The former New York politician quit after he claimed that his then Twitter account, which had sent a Seattle woman an underwear picture in May 2011, was hacked. The Democrat politician’s staff said at the time: “Anthony’s accounts were obviously hacked.” The 21-year-old woman who received the image denied hacking his account. “All of this is so outlandish that I don’t know whether to be pissed off or amused, quite frankly,” she said at the time.