Sam Burgess’ flirty texts to mistress resurface after he admits having an affair while married to Phoebe

Flirty texts former footballer Sam Burgess sent to his mistress while married have re-emerged after he admitted having an affair during SAS Australia.

Messages sent by Sam Burgess to a woman he had an affair with in Melbourne have re-emerged after the former rugby league player admitted to cheating on his ex-wife.

Burgess, who is appearing in the current season of SAS Australia, was interrogated by soldiers on the show about all his past controversies, including his messy divorce, court appearances and a drug-driving charge.

“They found cocaine in my system while I was driving my car. Pretty embarrassing. Pretty embarrassed about that,” Burgess said on Monday’s episode. “The last 18 months, I felt like a loser. My marriage broke down. I’d just retired from sport. My ex father-in-law had taken an AVO against me. … Two days after I retired, I separated my marriage.”

“Was it already on its way out?” one of the soldiers asks.

“Yeah, a little bit, yeah. I don’t think I was the greatest husband at times. I embarrassed my wife. I had an affair with a girl – a woman in Melbourne. Yeah. It’s true. I was away on tour. Regretful that it happened.”

Sam Burgess on Seven’s SAS Australia.

News of the affair first emerged last year when News Corp obtained WhatsApp messages between Burgess and a woman from October 2017 to May 2018.

In the leaked messages, they refer to each other as “Chunky Butt”, “The Big Rig” and “Monkey”. The pair also shared photographs of themselves.

WhatsApp messages between Sam Burgess and a Melbourne woman.

The messages date back to the 2018 Rugby League World Cup when Burgess was playing for England.

In the edited version of the online exchanges, Burgess messaged the woman the day before England’s World Cup match against Australia in October 2017.

“Sorry darling, honestly can’t do it tonight. Totally against everything I do, I set all the standards and sh*t and if anyone knows or sees you coming into my room day before the biggest test match of the season I will get smashed,” Burgess wrote.

“If I wasn’t a senior player would be easier to do but I can’t.”

The flirty exchanges and texts about hotel meet-ups came to an end when the woman messaged Burgess out of the blue in May 2018 after four months of silence, referring to Instagram posts Burgess had done with his wife, Phoebe and daughter, Poppy Alice.

Sam Burgess with then-wife Phoebe Burgess at the Dally M Awards at Star City on September 28, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

“I see stuff appear on my insta feed and I have to say it really does make me question all the cr*p you fed me to clearly get me in to bed,” she wrote.

“To come in to my home and all the hours we spent talking about how unhappy you were and living separate lives … why would you do this to not only your wife but me?

“I feel like the biggest fool. How dare you.”

Phoebe Burgess posted about heartbreak on her Instagram Stories after the spilt with Sam Burgess.

Burgess married Phoebe Hooke in December 2015, and the pair welcomed their first daughter together in January 2017. After the birth of their second child in December 2018, the pair separated and reconciled, before separating again in October 2019.

While the former Rabbitohs captain retired from the NRL in 2019 due to a shoulder injury, his personal life has kept him in the headlines.

In May, Burgess pleaded guilty to three driving charges following a February 22 police traffic stop where he tested positive for cocaine. He landed two $581 fines and was ordered to complete a traffic offenders program.

The ex-footy star has since revealed he has stopped drinking completely in an attempt to change his life for the better.

In February Burgess was found guilty of intimidating his estranged father-in-law, Mitchell Hooke, as the troubles in his and Phoebe’s relationship played out publicly. However, that conviction was overturned on appeal in March.

Sam Burgess leaving Moss Vale Court earlier this year. Picture: Simon Bullard/NCA NewsWire

Burgess told Stellar in an exclusive interview last month that his children Poppy, 4, and William, 2, are the reason he is confronting his demons.

When asked about the relationship that now exists between himself and Phoebe, Burgess said he still “cares” about his former partner.

“Essentially, I still think it is the right decision for us both … I still care about Phoebe, we have two amazing kids. We just didn’t work out as a married couple.

“We should work out as parents and that, to me, is the most important thing right now. I’m trying to better myself so we can be better co-parents, which is my ultimate goal in this situation.”

Weeks earlier, his ex-wife Phoebe opened up on the aftermath of her relationship breakdown.

“I have days where I want to give up and fall apart and I just want to break – I want to go to sleep and not wake up for a while, for everything to stop, but you can’t,” Phoebe told Stellar.

“It sounds awful but being trapped in motherhood and being trapped in responsibility has saved my life.”