Grand final superstar Nathan Cleary opens up on his romance with the Matildas’ Mary Fowler
Nathan Cleary and Mary Fowler are in a high-profile sporting relationship. He blew their cover by plonking himself in the front row for a Matildas match last year. Hardly his greatest cloak-and-dagger move.
Nathan Cleary was falling for Mary Fowler. Head over football boots. She, for him. And together they were falling for the oldest trick in the book. Totally and completely underestimating the stratospheric interest in a high-profile sporting relationship between an NRL superstar and a Matildas starlet.
Cleary is the polite, square-jawed, 26-year-old main man for the Penrith Panthers in Sunday night’s NRL grand final against the Melbourne Storm. Perhaps becoming the greatest league player of all time in the process.
Fowler is the 21-year-old soccer sensation currently playing for Manchester City in England. Perhaps destined to replace Sam Kerr as the finest all-time Matilda. They’re two very nice young humans who have found romance since they were first spotted canoodling in a Perth park before a Matildas match against Chinese Tapei last year.
I was in the wild west at the time, and it was all rather comical. Cleary was trying to keep it under wraps, only to plonk himself in the front row of the grandstand at HBF Park, where Blind Freddy could see he was watching with a fluttering heart. The arrival of Cupid’s Arrow couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d shouted from the rooftop of the stadium, “I love Mary Fowler and I think she loves me!”
Now it’s grand final week and we’re discussing Australian sport’s greatest love story before the NRL decider.
Cleary is an understated and likeable young fellow. To the suggestion his choice of seating at that match in Perth wasn’t exactly his most sterling cloak-and-dagger move, he blushes and responds, “I know, I know. It was a bit of a shock. I was probably naive to it early on. It’s been interesting. It’s been a journey to dive through.
“Obviously, I’ve known that my footy has always been in the spotlight but then the attention on the personal life was something new. We’re dealing with it pretty well now, I think. It’s just what comes with it and you just control what you can control. I constantly tell myself that. Have all that in check and try to stay off social media as much as possible.”
Cleary and Fowler seem rock-solid. It’s nice, right? They’re popular Australians. They bring us fleeting explosions of joy via the happy medium of sport. Who wouldn’t be jolly for them?
Cleary was accustomed to the spotlight when their romance was first reported. Fowler, less so. Her profile had only just gone through the roof during the Matildas’ rousing run through the Women’s World Cup. The blink of an eye later, she was in the gossip and social pages for having a kiss and a cuddle with Cleary.
“It all just happened and I thought, ‘Oh, OK’. I had to deal with that but I felt a bit sorry for Mary at the time,” Cleary says.
“Just with her personal life being in the spotlight, too, and all the added attention she had on her. We’ve spoken about it. It’s just about controlling what we can control and not worrying too much about it.”
Two people. Both sportspeople. So, in between reciting poetry, sipping red wine, watching sunrises and sunsets and watching re-runs of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet in between re-runs of Cleary’s heroics in the Panthers’ 2023 grand final, and Fowler’s goals for the Matildas, do they talk about sport?
“Sort of,” Cleary says. “It’s interesting to discuss how different things work in different sports and just getting a different point of view. It’s good to just have someone there to talk to.”
Cupid has conjured quite the collaboration.
“Wholesome times,” was Fowler’s caption to a series of Instagram photos during a holiday with Cleary this year.
Cleary is an old hand at celebritydom but really, Fowler is the bigger name. Nationally, the Matildas have a higher profile than the Panthers. Globally, soccer dwarfs rugby league.
“We talk about all that quite often but she’s got a pretty level head on her shoulders, that’s for sure,” Cleary says. “For her, it’s all blown up so quickly after the World Cup last year and obviously us two and all that. I’m always checking in on her but she owns it well. It’s been a meteoric rise for her, that’s for sure, but she’s very humble and down to earth.”
So’s Cleary. He’s the introvert’s introvert. Why was he so blissfully and comically naive about the public interest in a high-profile sporting relationship between an NRL superstar and a Matildas’ starlet? Because he’s so bashful he sort of forgets anyone is watching him.
“Honestly, I could have the most enjoyable day not even leaving the house,” he says. “You know what I mean? Just being able to have a day there to just chill and not talk to anyone … I don’t really like going and seeking the attention and stuff like that … just being able to be in my own little world.”
