Phoebe Burgess doubles down after explosive interview

After an explosive interview about her troubled marriage and and the NRL’s culture, Phoebe Burgess is making sure her message is heard.

Phoebe Burgess continues to share messages of support that have come flooding in after an explosive interview where she opened up on her troubled marriage to Sam Burgess and took aim at a culture in the NRL she says doesn’t do enough to stamp out disrespect towards women.

Phoebe and Sam married in 2015 but split up in 2019 as he battled substance abuse issues and also cheated on her. Speaking to The Weekend Australian, Phoebe slammed the former footy star’s recent appearance on reality TV show SAS Australia, calling it “a carefully curated comeback show” to help repair his image.

Former Souths star Sam admitted on SAS he turned to drinking and drugs during his marriage, and Phoebe pointed the finger at the NRL for not doing enough to address his issues and help him get better.

“There were things that the club knew that I didn’t,” Phoebe said. “I was kept in the dark in my own marriage.

“I want to challenge some very powerful people to look at their own behaviour, to look at the way they handled the situation, the role they played in all of this.”

In a video released as part of her interview with The Weekend Australian, Phoebe added: “I spoke to someone in the NRL the other day and said, I have been quiet a really long time. I’ve been almost complicit. I’ve actually been helping you do what you do.

“I’ve been there. I’ve heard things that are wrong and said nothing. I’ve helped make things go away, I’ve helped the cover-up narrative, I’ve been there for the toxicity. I’ve seen it. It’s not working for you and I’m not going anywhere.”

Phoebe said the NRL needs to “come up with a better solution to how your institution, how your players, how the people who work for you are treating women”.

The couple in happier times. Photo: Instagram.

Phoebe has shared dozens of messages of support on her Instagram Story in the days since her interview.

The 32-year-old re-posted one message on Tuesday morning calling her interview “brilliant and courageous”, and also highlighted another post that said: “Phoebe Burgess got publicly shamed for her ex-husband’s misdeeds. He got a shot at redemption.”

One Instagram post Phoebe shared on her own page praised the influencer for telling her story with “grace, dignity, bravery and humility” while another added: “Thank you for being so courageous for so many women, and for those of us who have been threatened or discarded by high profile humans and their web of enablers, that fiercely protect them in order for the ‘show to go on’.”

Plenty of people encouraged others to read what Phoebe had to say.

Phoebe re-posted dozens of messages like this,

Last week Sam was crowned the winner of SAS Australia. During the series, he opened up about the regrets he had as a husband and father to his and Phoebe’s two children:

“I don’t think I was the greatest husband at times,” Sam said on the program. “I embarrassed my wife. I’d had an affair with a girl, a woman in Melbourne. That’s true. I was away on tour, and regretfully that happened. Which would have been … it would have been a tough place for Phoebe to be.”

Sam retired at the end of the 2019 NRL season because of a debilitating shoulder injury. Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to three charges after being found to have cocaine in his system while driving.

The pair were once the glamour couple of the NRL. Picture: Christian Gilles