Candice Warner reveals 'toilet tryst' with Sonny Bill Williams pushed her 'so close' to ending her life
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
MAROUBRA, AUSTRALIA: Candice Warner broke down in tears as she opened up about the devastating moment when she was on the verge of taking her own life as a result of the aftermath of her "toilet tryst" with Sonny Bill Williams. The 38-year-old WAG said she stood on a cliff at a famous suicide spot and considered jumping off after the controversial hook-up in the Clovelly Hotel bathroom was made public in 2007.
"I just thought, "This is it." I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take the headlines. I couldn't take disappointing my parents. I couldn't take it all. It was all too much," she told The Sunday Project. Candice, who is married to Australian cricket star David Warner, said before taking the step she called her brother, Pat, who rushed to her rescue. "From then on, Pat would come to my home and check in on me daily, and I felt I needed to get to that point to move on to some degree," she continued, according to Daily Mail.
READ MORE
'It is really real for me'
Candice continued by claiming that her treatment after the fallout was "fair" and reflected the "doubled standard." "It is really real for me. It is the pain that I caused my family. It is the pain and hurt - like, it was so deep. Most women were treated like that. For men, it was high-fives and "tell me all the details" but for women we were pigeonholed to be a certain person or a certain type of person," she noted, adding, "It still blows my mind to this day how I was forced to apologize for a pash that I had - a drunken pash that I had on a night out."
Last week, the Iron Woman described how her life was "ruined" after her hook-up with the Rugby star started dominating the headlines. "I got so close to ending it," she told Stellar Magazine, adding "the only thing I did wrong was go into a place I shouldn't have been. That was it. Yet it ruined my life. It ruined parts of my family's life – years we can never get back." Candice added that she fears telling her little girls about the tryst when they are old enough.
'One day I'm going to have to explain to my girls'
"It's so hard to put into words without bursting into tears because it was so painful. It still is. One day I'm going to have to explain to my girls what it's all about. That's heartbreaking," she said. Candice and David, who got married in 2015, share three daughters Ivy Mae, 8, Ivy Mae, 7, and three-year-old Isla Rose. She said that she lost work and "no one respected her" after she was photographed in a compromising position with Sonny. Her "toilet tryst" photographs were first released by Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd media firm.
Previously addressing the controversial incident, Candice said she had hard dealing with the humiliation at the age of 22. "I was almost suicidal. I went through a hell of a lot at such a young age. I got to the point where I literally couldn't take it anymore," she told The Daily Telegraph in 2020. She is presently preparing for a marketing blitz for her autobiography Running Strong, for which she has already received an $80,000 advance.