Kelli Stevens’ blunt message after Wayne Carey storm

Kelli Stevens, the ex-wife at the centre of the notorious Wayne Carey scandal, has sent a message to end the saga for good.

Kelli Stevens, the ex-wife of former Kangaroos captain Anthony Stevens, has sent a message to put an end to the saga that has followed her affair with Wayne Carey.

Stevens has recently shown how she has moved on with her life after her cheating scandal with her husband’s teammate in 2002 brought the football club to its knees.

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The infamous story threatened to overshadow the family’s happy news last week when her son River Stevens was selected by the Kangaroos with pick No. 67 in the AFL Draft.

The 18-year-old is following in his dad’s foot steps after Anthony finished his career with 292 games and two premierships with North Melbourne.

Kelli last week shared a photo of herself and son River, who was sporting a blue and white North Melbourne scarf, posing for the camera after the special news.

Other photos shared showed her in the same room as Anthony on the big night.

River Stevens and dad Anthony shortly after being drafted.

Kelli Stevens took to social media after the big night to share a message she says has been a long time coming.

“I am sharing these thoughts and words as (they) have been on my mind for a while now,” she wrote on social media.

“I feel now is an appropriate time.

“The past is where it belongs………..behind us.

Kelli Stevens with her son River.

“As parents, our choices, challenges, and lessons have shaped us, but they are ours to own and grow from. They do not define our children or their journeys. They are on their own life path.”

She said simply she was a “proud mumma”.

“My son, River, is stepping into an incredible chapter of his life with the North Melbourne Kangaroos,” her post continued.

“This is his journey, his dreams, his challenges, his triumphs.

Anthony Stevens, Kelli Stevens and Wayne Carey. Photo: AAP.

“Let’s support and celebrate the future he is building for himself, free from the shadows of the past.

“Life is about learning, growing, and supporting each other to find joy and happiness.

“The future is full of possibilities, and we all deserve to move forward with hope and positivity.

“River’s proud Mumma xx.”

The infamous family drama has returned to headlines this month after the former premiership footballer was left out of a club promotional video that celebrated North Melbourne’s 100 year milestone.

The 52-year-old poured fuel on the media storm when he hit out at the “toxic shaming” he says has been directed towards him in recent years.

Speaking on Sam Newman’s podcast, Carey addressed a number of public scandals that have followed the end of his football career, including an alleged glassing incident that occurred in Miami in 2007.

He said on the podcast it was incorrect and “ludicrous” to allege he glassed his then partner Kate Neilson.

The former couple were briefly engaged in 2009, but split soon afterwards.

Neilson responded to Carey’s comments in the days that followed, claiming the footballer had “changed his story” about the incident.

“Wayne’s story about the glassing in Miami has again changed from when he did the Andrew Denton story (in 2008) saying he didn’t mean to break the glass on my face, but now he is saying he threw the glass on the ground,’’ Neilson told The Herald Sun.

“Which is all lies. He was locked up in jail for a reason. Not because he poured wine on my face. I was bleeding profusely and the FBI took photos, which I have.

Anthony Stevens embraces wife Kelli and daughter Ayva.

“So to say I was hardly a girlfriend is insulting when I lived with him for years and he flew to Tasmania and met my family, wrote about my dad in his autobiography and I was engaged to him.

“I’m extremely insulted by the downplay of all of this.”

Carey’s apparent reference to his relationship with Stevens last year also went down like a lead balloon.

A Twitter exchange took a wrong turn when the former Channel 7 commentator responded to a Twitter user’s message that he “slept with his teammates wife”.

Carey responded “3 times”.

The affair plagued Stevens for 15 years before she says she was finally able to move on.

She celebrated the birth of her third child Leni, who she shares with fitness trainer Andrew Hall.

She and Anthony share two children together, River and eldest daughter Ayva, 23.

They were divorced in 2008.

The fitness and lifestyle influencer said in 2022 she had come a long way from previous battles with binge drinking — a destructive support she used to numb the emotions from the infamous scandal.

“In Aug 2015 after experiencing almost 15yrs of my life being splashed across the media (and it didn’t stop there either) and not knowing who I was anymore, I knew it was time to get past all that heaviness and mess I was carrying and discover who I was and my beautiful shining light,” she wrote on Instagram.

Kelli Stevens now. Pic: Instagram

She also posted: “No more dulling myself. I am so stoked and happy with who I am now and what I have worked hard to achieve that I am no longer going to dim my light for others to feel comfortable.

“It is their responsibility for how they get to feel and look. Life is agreeing with me.”

Carey opened up on the scandal while competing on SAS Australia last year.

“I slept with a teammate’s wife. It’s haunted me for 20 years,” he said on the show.

“My integrity will always be questioned. I’m not trying to prove anything to the public — it’s to myself.

“People can change. They evolve. Hopefully this can help me.”

It was revealed last year Carey and Stevens were involved in a verbal stoush during North Melbourne’s reunion for the 1996 premiership team.

Carey insisted at the time the conversation was not heated.

Carey split from ex-wife Sally in 2006. The pair share daughter, Ella, born six weeks after the split was announced. Carey then began dating former model Kate Neilson.

He then became engaged to Stephanie Edwards in 2015, but separated a year later.

The pair have a daughter, Charlotte.

He also has a son, Carter, with model Jessica Paulke, with whom he split from in 2019 after dating for a year.

He split with influencer ex Catie O’Neill in 2023.