Shane Warne turned to alcohol after affair with school student led to breakup with wife Simone Callahan

Australian legend Shane Warne hasn’t been without celebrity love affairs off the field, which included Hollywood star Elizabeth Hurley.

But Warne has now revealed that he was left devastated after his marriage with wife Simone Callahan fell apart in 2005.

The former Australia leg-spinner Warne’s life was turned upside down, when wife Simone left him from England just before the Ashes series began in 2005.

The 2005 Ashes is billed one of the greatest-ever between the two side which England managed to win 2-1 although Warne remarkably took 40 wickets in five-match series.

Newspaper and tabloid stories revealed Warne had been pursuing other women behind wife Simone’s back, including student Laura Sayers and mum-of-three Kerrie Collimore. Simone decided to head home to Australia with their three children.

In a new documentary ‘Shane’, Warne admits: “I think that was the lowest. The impact on my children, they wouldn’t get to see me and that was my fault. I would go back and raid the mini bar. I was on my own on the hotel room floor, crying ‘you d***head’.”

It resulted in the end of Warne’s 10-year marriage to Simone, which had weathered cheating allegations in the past. Simone stuck by him when it emerged he’d pestered a British nurse with obscene messages, which cost him the ‘vice-captaincy’ of Australia in 2000.

Warne’s engagement to actress Hurley ended in 2013. Warne goes on to say that he has to ‘live with’ what he did to his family for the rest of my life.

“The only way I got over everything was because I was tough upstairs. I blocked everything out,” Warne said in the documentary.

Warne took 708 test wickets and scored more than 3,000 Test runs. Playing for his country meant he was away from his young children for nine months of the year, and that took its toll. “I can’t shy away, I put my family second,” Warne said.

Warne says, though, that it was his desire to be a full-time dad that persuaded him to retire from cricket in 2006. “I don’t pretend to be the perfect person, I’ve got loads of faults,” Warne concluded.

(The documentary ‘Shane’ is exclusively available on BookMyShow Stream from January 15th, 2022 for Indian fans)