‘Don’t remember what happened that night’: Wayne Carey drops 28-year bombshell

Wayne Carey has broken his silence on his latest AFL saga, making a desperate plea and revealing shock details about his chequered past.

Wayne Carey has called for an end to conjecture about his chequered past, declaring “enough is enough” and he won’t “live with toxic shame”.

Carey, 52, was back in the headlines over the weekend after he was strangely left out of a video released by his former club North Melbourne last Friday.

The Kangaroos forward was the glaring omission in a promotional video shared by the club on its social media channels, celebrating its 100-year history in VFL/AFL competition.

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His former teammate Corey McKernan wrote on X: “FYI North Melbourne, you do know Wayne Carey played for us, don’t you?”

He also questioned why premiership coach Denis Pagan and club great Wayne Schimmelbusch were not featured.

Wayne Carey wants the public to move on from his past.

Carey kicked 671 goals during his 13 seasons with the club and was the key piece in the Kangaroos’ premierships in 1996 and 1999.

Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton, one of Carey’s big rivals in the early 1990s, on Monday pointed out the football club is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to its connection with the former Channel 7 commentator.

“If you are trying to get your very best players that were representative of your team as players, Wayne Carey sits top of the list and I would have thought there would be a place for him in that video,” Brereton said on SEN Breakfast.

“But the club has a decision to make. Do we put that piece of footage of Wayne in there and we know we will have to defend our actions in doing so?

“And that’s the battle that they have moving forward and they’ve made a stance that, no, they

don’t want to defend their actions of putting his profile there in that commercial.”

Speaking on Sam Newman’s new podcast, Carey said the video saga was the latest instance where his chequered past had been brought up in the media.

“This is me finally saying, ‘come on, enough is enough’,” Carey said on Sam Newman’s podcast You Cannot Be Serious.

“Surely I don’t have to live … I’ve probably only got nine good summers left, Sam. Surely I don’t have to live the last years of my life living things that occurred 30-plus, 20-plus years ago.

“Surely I’m not that interesting to keep bringing up things that happened that long ago. It’s astounding.

“They’re driving my kids, their friends … the talk about violence. They are driving the mothers of my children into their graves, that’s what they’re doing.

“The vindictive nature of what continues to happen is just wrong.”

Wayne Carey will join Sam Newman as a permanent panellist on his podcast.

Former North Melbourne great and Channel 7 commentator Wayne Carey.

Carey, whose partner Jessica Paulke is expecting their second child, called on the public to move on from his past.

He revealed he spoke to North Melbourne president Sonja Hood to explain the impact the club’s video decision had had on him.

“I don’t know what you get for murder, but you don’t get this,’’ Carey said.

“I spoke to Sonja Hood and I said ‘Sonja, I just want you to know this (video) has caused a kerfuffle and people are talking about it. I don’t sit there saying why didn’t you include me, but I just have to address this constant talk about these things I’ve (supposedly) done in my life, that I haven’t’.

“I guess it’s for my health to get it off my chest, to actually say how I’m feeling and to be a voice for others and say how they’re feeling. If that’s what makes me feel a bit better then I’m going to do it.

“I’ve got to a point in my life where I can live with myself and don’t feel guilt about these things anymore.

“I decided through help and it’s only through help … that I’m not going to live with that toxic shame and that guilt anymore about these things that are written and are untrue.

Wayne Carey and Jessica Paulke at the 2018 Australian Open. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

“I guess the constant story telling and the constant headlines that get brought up after something as simple about a few people tweeting about me not being in a video and my whole history of things that haven’t happened, that continually get written about that is no fault of my own … it’s just got too far.

“You look at what Alastair Clarkson has gone through over the last few years. Chris Fagan. Guilty before any presumption of innocence is afforded to them. It’s wrong.

“I’ve got to a point where I’ve learnt to forgive myself.”

Carey said he pleaded guilty in 1996 to indecently assaulting a woman by grabbing her breast on a Melbourne street, because the Kangaroos had encouraged him to.

“I don’t have and never been charged with domestic violence,’’ he said.

“There have been two major incidents in my life, one was over 30 years ago. It was in King Street and I got the advice 30-odd years ago from the North Melbourne footy club.

“I don’t remember what happened that night. It was in the middle of the street, it wasn’t cloke and dagger stuff, I pleaded guilty on the advice of North Melbourne because we were halfway through a year where we thought we were a premiership chance.

“The charge was that I had … grabbed a girl on the boob and said ‘get a bigger set of tits’. I pleaded guilty on the advice of the North Melbourne Football Club.

“This isn’t me excuse making. I categorically don’t remember what happened that night. If I’d known that I had to live with that for the rest of my life, which I have had to do, I would be fighting that today.”

The Kangaroos great wants the public to move on from his past.

Carey also said the infamous incident where he allegedly glassed his then partner Kate Neilson was incorrect and “ludicrous”.

“An incident with a girl that I was seeing on and off, I wouldn’t call her a girlfriend … we were overseas in a restaurant and everyone says you glassed someone,’’ he said.

“You literally glassed your girlfriend. That is ludicrous, that is not accurate. Yes the glass did touch her because I was trying to throw wine, I’ve said this before publicly, I was trying to throw a mouthful of wine on her in a packed restaurant. I leant over and touched her lip.

“I then threw the glass on the ground and it smashed. “There was one incident in Port Melbourne that I have got a criminal record for … I called the police to my apartment.

“When they got there I answered the door and said you’re no longer required. The police pushed their way into my apartment and then I defended myself inside my own apartment.

“I then didn’t fight those charges either. They came in and they grabbed me in my apartment. So I resisted arrest, that is my conviction. I didn’t even throw a punch. These are factual things that have occurred.”

Wayne Carey and Kate Neilson in 2008.

The Kangaroos’ problem with Carey also came to a head in 2022 when there was an altercation between him and Anthony Stevens.

The former captain’s ex-wife Kelli Stevens had an affair with Carey, which ultimately ended with Carey being forced out of the club in a scandal that rocked the league.

Carey became part of the inaugural inductees to the NSW AFL Hall of Fame in May.

However, the two-time premiership winner was also reportedly set to become one of 10 inductees elevated to Legend status — until the AFL intervened.

Not only was Carey blocked from achieving Legend status, but after consultation with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon, the former Kangaroos skipper did not attend the gala night at all.

The NSW gala had fallen on the same weekend as the AFL honoured victims of gender-based violence at games across the league, sparking outrage in a number of circles.

There have previously been allegations of domestic violence against Carey.

He has also been convicted of assault.

Carey eventually clarified it was his decision to skip the event after speaking with Dillon.

Carey in 2022 was let go by Channel 7 after he had been escorted out of Crown Perth when a small bag containing a powdered substance fell out of his pocket.

Carey was cleared of any wrongdoing.

He has since bounced back with a popular podcast and has made plenty of headlines for his critical analysis of how the game has become soft following changes in rule interpretations and other aspects of the sport.

Originally published as ‘Don’t remember what happened that night’: Wayne Carey drops 28-year bombshell