Clarke bracing for hip pocket pain as fracas sends deal up in smoke

A wild skirmish on the Sunshine Coast is set to deliver the former Australian cricketing hero Michael Clarke a hip pocket blow far more painful than the now infamous slap landed by estranged partner Jade Yarbrough.

The Herald and The Age can reveal the collateral damage has already begun after Clarke’s romantic entanglements exploded in a blazing row in a Noosa park, ending a prospective sponsorship deal with a skincare brand within hours of footage of the incident going public on Wednesday.

Michael Clarke and partner Jade Yarbrough in happier times.Credit: Getty

Several other lucrative contracts hang in the balance, including the former cricket captain’s six-figure commentary gig for Australia’s upcoming Test tour of India.

The drama unfolded while the couple were holidaying at Noosa Heads with Yarbrough’s sister, Jasmine, and her husband, television personality Karl Stefanovic. Stefanovic works for Nine, the owner of this masthead.

A colourful array of expletives rang out over Noosa’s usually quiet streets as Yarbrough accosted Clarke over an alleged tryst with his ex-girlfriend, activewear queen Pip Edwards.

Yarbrough accused Clarke of texting Edwards to tell her she was the “love of his life” and invite her on his upcoming trip to India.

Pip Edwards and Michael Clarke debut their relationship at Randwick Races in 2020.Credit: Getty Images

Vision of the incident, taken by a bystander and leaked to The Daily Telegraph, showed Yarbrough slapping a shirtless Clarke, before he unleashed a verbal spray on Stefanovic.

The foursome had earlier been dining out with Anthony Bell, an accountant to the stars, who tried to defuse the situation.

Clarke emphatically denied any infidelity in the footage but later told News Corp he accepted responsibility for the altercation and was shattered by his actions in the lead up to it.

A Queensland Police spokesperson said it was making inquiries into the incident on Thursday.

Michael Clarke (left), who appears to be slapped by his girlfriend in the video (right).Credit: The Daily Telegraph

Clarke, 41, is expected to address the incident in more detail on Monday when he returns from annual leave to his hosting gig on Sky Racing’s Big Sports Breakfast.

A spokesperson for Tabcorp, which owns the radio station, said it did not comment on the personal matters of employees.

Clarke has been notably absent from Australia’s major television networks in recent years, but has secured work overseas commentating on international cricket tournaments.

He has been engaged by cricket’s governing body in India to commentate on the first two Tests against Australia beginning on February 9, with such contracts typically worth upwards of $US7000 ($10,160) a day.

There is speculation India’s Board of Control for Cricket may renege on the deal in a bid to distance itself from the controversy.

The board, which did not respond to a request for comment, dropped Sanjay Manjrekar from its commentary team after he made controversial remarks during a broadcast in 2019.

Following in the tradition of Brett Lee and Adam Gilchrist, who were embraced by the public in India, Clarke has plenty of fans in the subcontinent who remember his creative captaincy and bold batting against spin.

Sponsorship deals and paid social media content have provided additional income streams for Clarke, who boasts 840,000 Instagram followers.

It’s understood the prodigious run scorer’s representatives have recently been attempting to negotiate a new deal with cosmetics company Dermalogica, for which he was paid $10,000 each time he posted on social media featuring one of its men’s beauty products.

As the footage emerged, any hopes of a new deal died with it.

A Dermalogica spokesperson declined to comment on the negotiations but confirmed Clarke was not on contract with the brand.

“Dermalogica engaged Michael Clarke in January, April and June 2021 to promote our products and professional services to a male target audience,” they said.

“Dermalogica does not work with any celebrities or influencers as ongoing ‘ambassadors’. Rather we work on an ad hoc basis with a variety of content creators depending on the nature of the campaign at the time.”

Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot is understood to be paying Clarke around $80,000 a year in return for wearing their watches, which range in price from $20,000 to $300,000.

Clarke has been an “ambassador” of the watch brand since 2014, in a deal his business partner and long-term friend Bell helped orchestrate.

However, public skirmishes and scandals resulting in nationwide blanket media coverage have marketing executives at the watch company feeling increasingly anxious about its relationship with Clarke. Hublot did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

Clarke is also a regular at events hosted by luxury fashion giant Louis Vuitton and promotes the brand’s products on his social media platforms.

A Louis Vuitton spokesperson said Clarke was not one of its ambassadors on Thursday.

It was at a Louis Vuitton party in Sydney just over two months ago where Clarke posed with Jade Yarbrough confirming their relationship, effectively guaranteeing the event and its sponsor media coverage.

Celebrity endorsement deals like Clarke’s usually carry “moral clauses” prohibiting certain behaviour in the personal life of the endorser, including things like objectionable behaviour, drug use, scandal, or public disrepute. Break the contract, and the deal is off.

Aside from his life as a social media “influencer”, Clarke is also in partnership with Bell in the Elite Charters business, which rents out the high-profile Ghost family of superyachts from $3000 an hour, for a minimum of four hours. It is understood to be a lucrative business for both Bell and Clarke.

In recent months it has hosted many of Clarke and Bell’s high-profile mates on board, including Seven breakfast television personality Larry Emdur and media deal negotiator, Grant Vandenberg.

As the fallout of the scandal hit the airwaves on Thursday, Clarke was scolded by Radio 2GB hosts Ray Hadley and Ben Fordham.

Hadley told Clarke to “keep it in your pants, son”, while Fordham slammed the language used by Clarke in the footage as disgraceful.

Both Stefanovic and Bell have also weathered their own publicity storms in recent years, involving intimate details about their private lives being played out in the public domain as their respective marriages came to an end.

The cost to both was significant, Stefanovic almost lost his multi-million-dollar television career, while Bell has virtually disappeared from the powerful Sydney society ladder he had spent years scaling.

On Instagram Clarke appears a dutiful father to his daughter Kelsey Lee, whom he shares with former wife, candle designer and socialite Kyly Clarke.

There are also regular posts featuring his global travels and taste for the finer things in life, from sponsored posts promoting alcohol brands, his friend James Packer’s $250 million superyacht and sipping champagne underneath the Eiffel Tower.

However, on Thursday the account was being bombarded with jibes about the scandal.

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