Woman at centre of Carey’s infamous AFL affair builds new life

The woman at the centre of the AFL’s most infamous cheating scandal has undergone a body transformation and lives a new life.

The woman at the centre of the AFL’s most infamous cheating scandal has built a new life and undergone a complete body transformation.

Kelli Stevens, the former wife of North Melbourne champion Anthony Stevens, has shown off how she has moved on with her life following her affair with football icon Wayne Carey in a cheating storm that brought the Kangaroos to their knees in 2002.

The scandal has returned to the public eye this month following a series of revelations from the 50-year-old as he features in the new series of SAS: Australia on Channel 7.

Carey labelled his affair with Stevens “the biggest regret of my life as an adult”.

“One of the biggest stories was when I slept with a teammate’s wife,” Carey said on the show.

“It’s haunted me for over 20 years. I was in self destruction mode and I guess my life started to unravel.”

Kelli and Anthony Stevens, who was the captain of the club at the time of the scandal, divorced in 2008, six years after her affair with Carey.

Anthony Stevens embraces wife Kelli and daughter Ayva in 2004.

She has previously said the secret relationship with Carey has plagued her ever since. In 2015, she said she finally did something about it.

Stevens is now proudly sharing her journey on social media where she promotes her life as a women’s advocate, fitness trainer, mindset coach and online marketer. She is the proud owner of an F45 gym.

She is in a long-term relationship with fellow fitness trainer Andrew Hall and the couple have a daughter, Leni, together. Stevens also has two children with her ex-husband.

With a shredded physique and black hair, she is almost unrecognisable.

As reported by the Herald Sun, in 2020 she wrote on social media: “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.”

Anthony Stevens with his wife Kelli.

Stevens posted on Instagram over the weekend that she has also come a long way in her previous battle with binge drinking — a result of wanting to numb emotions following the cheating scandal.

She wrote last week: “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. This year is all about creating Magic, Gratitude, Pleasure and Wealth.”

Publicly, Anthony Stevens stayed silent for years about being betrayed by Carey before finally going on the record with veteran AFL journalist Mike Sheahan in 2015.

Carey spoke in 2016 about how he moved to mend his rift with his former teammate ahead of the 20-year reunion for the Kangaroos’ 1996 premiership-winning team. The pair met privately in Melbourne before the big event to sort out their differences.

“As we know, Stevo said on Open Mike a little while ago that he thought that I hadn’t properly apologised so that is where it started,” Carey told Triple M.

“A heartfelt apology. That’s where it started and that’s where it ended.

“You’ll never forget (the affair) and it’s something that will live with me forever, as I’m sure it will a lot of people, which is still sad and I still live with that.”