Candice Warner reveals why she spoke about ‘toilet tryst’ with Sonny Bill Williams on SAS Australia

She was savagely grilled over her ‘toilet tryst’ with Sonny Bill Williams during an interrogation on Monday night’s SAS Australia.

And on Tuesday, Candice Warner revealed on Fitzy & Wippa why she’d chosen to speak out on the show about the 2007 incident, in which she and Sonny were photographed being intimate in a hotel toilet.

The 35-year-old wife of cricketer David Warner said she’d had enough of ‘always being sledged’ following the scandal – particularly in 2018, when South African fans wore masks featuring Sonny Bill’s face in an attempt to humiliate her and rile up her husband.

‘It’s a classic case of society isn’t it Candice, where the focus was always on you and not the other person that you had that tryst with that everyone was speaking about,’ host Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald said.

‘I know that you get your back up but that’s your mechanism isn’t it? That’s how you’ve coped with that your whole life?’

Candice responded: ‘It is, because no one ever really approached me or spoke to me about it. I’ve just always been sledged, always had people yelling out or people at the cricket wearing face masks.’

In cricket, the term ‘sledging’ is used to describe the practice whereby some players or fans seek to gain an advantage for their team, by insulting or verbally intimidating an opposing player. 

Candice continued: ‘So, of course I’m gonna be that kind of person, because no one ever spoke to me properly about it – it’s kind of one of those things that it was “do we, don’t we” – so we’ll just sledge her instead.’

When asked if it was a relief to have had the conversation on the show, the mum-of-two added: ‘At the time no but now seeing it last night, yes definitely.

‘It was a huge weight off my shoulders, and growing up in Maroubra you learn to suck things up, you learn to be tough.

‘I’ve always been a tomboy and that sort of person that you just… soldier on. So for me to be able to be that vulnerable and raw – it was emotional for me to watch it back.’

Candice was asked about her version of events on Monday night’s episode, and though reluctant to discuss it, briefly touched on the ‘mistake’ that happened years prior.  

She told the show’s interrogators: ‘There were incidents in South Africa where people were trying to make fun of me, mock me, belittle me in front of my family because of an incident that happened in the past. And that they think that’s funny.’

Asked to elaborate on the fling with Sonny, Candice snapped: ‘It was just a bad mistake. I don’t want to talk about it.’ 

She was slightly more open during an on-camera interview prior to the interrogation, saying of the toilet tryst: ‘In my early 20s I made a very big mistake. It is something I am not proud of but something I can never take back.

‘I put myself in a situation where I shouldn’t have and because of that I brought embarrassment, shame to my family.’

In the interrogation, Candice at times shook with rage as she complained that she felt her family were unfairly judged.   

‘Too many people are very quick to make judgement on myself and my family. I haven’t done anything.

‘They are ill informed from some media that don’t know the entire truth about us. They call us bad people, bad parents. The hardest thing for me was being told I was a really bad mother’.   

The retired professional ironwoman admitted she is often angry and defensive, and feels she must put on an aggressive ‘front’ due to the perceived ill treatment. 

‘I am always on the defensive. People question my integrity. They used to think I was a bit of a joke. I’ve come on here to show people what myself and my family are made of. 

‘And I think I have been through a fair but. And I am still here and I am still fighting. I still have my husband’s back and for me family is all that matters.’

She was also questioned about the 2018 ball tampering scandal in which her husband David was implicated – and Candice denied he’d done anything wrong.   

‘When we came home from south Africa in 2018 when there was an incident with the Australian cricket team, there was a ball tampering incident,’ she began. 

The interrogator asked: ‘He tampered the ball? Or supposedly tampered the ball?’

Candice snapped: ‘No. That’s other people’s opinion. He’s never said he’s part [of it].’  

The former athlete was brought to the verge of tears as she admitted that while she has a supportive husband in David, she does much of the emotional labour in her family.   

‘I do [have a supportive husband]. But I feel like I’m the one who supports. I support everyone. It gives me great pleasure doing everything for my husband and my kids,’ she said, fighting off tears. 

The now-infamous meeting between Candice and New Zealand All Blacks star Sonny occurred 13 years ago, years before she met her now-husband David Warner.

The pair were photographed in a compromising position inside a toilet at the Clovelly Hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. 

After the encounter, Candice told the ABC in 2008: ‘I wasn’t in a state where I didn’t know what happened, but you don’t think of how your actions, when you’re drunk, can have an affect on your life’.   

In the lead-up to the Cricket Australia ball tampering scandal in 2018, Candice was taunted by South African fans for her brief sexual encounter. 

South African player Quinton de Kock was fined for allegedly provoking David with a sledge regarding Sonny and his wife, while South African fans wore masks featuring Williams’ face. 

Cricket South Africa was forced to apologise after two officials posed for a photograph with fans wearing the masks.  

Candice has claimed that the pressure her husband David felt to silence her critics inspired him to mastermind the ball-tampering plot.   

David was banned for one year by Cricket Australia after he helped mastermind a plot to cheat in the Third Test against South Africa in March 2018.   

The star batsman devised the plan to get rookie opener Cameron Bancroft to secretly rough up the ball with sandpaper during the March 2018 test tour.

Bancroft was caught on camera, and the pair along with Australian captain Steve Smith were banned from first-class cricket for up to a year.

Candice told The Australian Women’s Weekly that she had miscarried just a week after David apologised for his role in the conspiracy.  

‘I was bleeding. We knew I was miscarrying. We held one another and cried,’ Candice told the magazine.

‘The miscarriage was a tragic consequence, a heartbreaking end to a horror tour,’ she added.  

The mother-of-three also reflected on the scandal that made her a tabloid fixture for years – extending an apology to Sonny Bill and his family.

‘I finally received a weak apology from Cricket South Africa [for the fan taunts]. I realised they’re the ones to feel ashamed, not me,’ she told the magazine.   

‘I’d like to extend that apology to Sonny Bill. He’s a husband and father, so imagine how his wife would feel and his kids.’

Sonny Bill married Alana Raffie in 2013 and they share four children, daughters Imaan, Aisha and sons Zaid and Essa.

Candice and David married in 2015 and have three daughters, Ivy, five, Indi, four, and Isla, one.