Mary Fowler opens up on the life she has planned for herself and Nathan Cleary

Matildas and Manchester City football star Mary Fowler has laid out the long-term plans she has with Nathan Cleary - and their future includes kids, adoption and a hobby farm. WATCH THE VIDEO

Matildas and Manchester City football star Mary Fowler has laid out the long-term plans she has with her beau, Nathan Cleary, and their future includes kids, adoption and living in a home full of animals and growing their own crops.

Fowler is currently in England and has plenty of time to think about life after football as she recovers from surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament she ruptured in her right knee in April.

While Fowler, 22, may be 17,000km away from Cleary, with no plans to play football in Australia “any time soon, if ever”, she has openly discussed the ultimate goal of returning home to start a life with the Penrith Panthers halfback.

“I really want to have a big family,” Fowler told the Keegan and Company podcast.

“The only dream I have at the moment is to be a mum and have heaps of kids and be in a space where they can play outside a lot.

“We can do the gardening and feed the animals together and to be able to run wild in the place; be in the mud.”

Mary Fowler has outlined her future plans with Nathan Cleary. Photo: Instagram

“If I had the set-up for that, it would be a dream.”

Cairns-born Fowler four siblings — Caoimhin, Seamus, Ciara, Louise and Mary. Nathan is the eldest of the four Cleary kids — with his sisters Indiana and Milaya and brother Jett.

As for how many children for Fowler and Cleary?

“I would love to have two or three kids of my own and then adopt,” Fowler said.

“I don’t know how many I would adopt, it’s a long process. But in an ideal world I would like to adopt siblings. I would bring all of them into the home.

“The dream would definitely have a lot of outdoor space because I would love to have lots of animals. I’m not as bothered about what the house would look like, I just want to have space for a garden set-up to grow my own crops.

“I really want to have a whole range of animals. It’s very random and I’m trying to convince Nath that it would be a good idea. I really want to get a cow, some little goats, maybe a pig, some geese and I also really want to get a Great Dane.”

Speaking on the Keegan and Company podcast, hosted by former NRL player Keegan Hipgrave, Fowler gave an insight into how she and Cleary survive their long-distance relationship.

Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Football phenom Mary Fowler. Picture: Scott Gardiner/Getty Images

“Long distance sucks – I don’t recommend it,” she said. “From the get-go with Nathan, it was like ‘I’m not going to be playing football in Australia any time soon, if ever’.

“We would really like to be with each other now but it’s also kind of nice that we both still focus on our careers, get the most out of them, and then look forward to the time when we are going to be able to be with each other. It helps that we’re both busy.

“The hardest part about long distance is when something bad happens and you’re not able to be there with the person. We both really hate that. The amount of times just having a hug would solve your (problems), but we can’t do that.

“We just enjoy having deep conversations. It has just worked for us, having phone calls and quality time on the phone. We have gotten really good at communicating. I think we see a lot of positives about being in a long-distance relationship before you transition into being together.”

While she has become accustomed to speaking about Cleary, Fowler and Cleary were at pains to keep their relationship private in the beginning.

“I hated it,” Fowler said of the media attention.

“I am very private about certain parts of my life and I think my dating life is a big one. I won’t even tell my family or close friends if I’m seeing someone. I only want them to know if it comes to something.

Mary Fowler on the Keegan and Company Mental Health podcast. Picture: YouTube/Keegan and Company

“It was a new experience for me – that people would be that nosy about your private life. I didn’t even know there was interest there. It took me time to get used to that. It started to make me second-guess how easy or hard this was going to be.

“We agreed not to read the stuff and have our moments. It’s going to be annoying but it wasn’t the worst thing in life. People have bigger problems to deal with. If someone is going to be there for 10 minutes taking pictures then so be it. That’s their job.”

Midway through the podcast, Hipgrave played a recorded message from Cleary to Fowler with the four-time Panthers premiership-winning halfback saying: “I tell you this a lot but I’m so proud of you. I love you, I miss you lots. Love you babes.”

Fowler spoke about how she and Cleary met at an Adidas promotion in Sydney, having already followed each other on social media.

“We knew of each other but I had never watched rugby before so I didn’t know how much of a big deal he was in Australia,” she said. “It is really weird but I only went because I heard he was going. I don’t know why.

Mary Fowler and Nathan Cleary are in a long-distance relationship. Picture: Instagram

“I didn’t want to act like I was too excited. We both wanted to speak to each other but we were both so shy so we didn’t. We didn’t flirt at all while we were (later) texting. We just had fairly deep, genuine conversations about the way we think about life. We dived into a lot about psychology, it was a really interesting chat.

“So in my head, it was like, 'if nothing comes of it, you’re an interesting guy and it would be good to have you as a mate’. It was nice that it started that way. I don’t think I could do long distance with someone that wasn’t interesting to talk to.”

Fowler has begun her ACL recovery and been buoyed by conversations and inspiration from Cleary.

“Nath was the first call. He is really supportive and is really chilled about things. We’re both similar in the sense that whenever anything bad happens to us, we give ourselves time to feel bad about it, but then (realise) there are worse things that could happen,” Fowler said.

“We always say: ‘Someone else out there has it worse’ and that helps us snap out of us feeling like we’re the victim. We spoke about the positives. I really like that about him.”

Originally published as Mary Fowler opens up on the life she has planned for herself and Nathan Cleary