AFL legend Wayne Carey has opened up on his “emotional period” since being sacked from the media last year related to a white powder incident at a Perth casino.
Carey escaped criminal chargers after a bag — that he claims were crushed anti-inflammatory — fell from his pocket onto a gaming table in September last year, but was banned from all Crown casinos for two years.
In a tell-all interview on his new podcast The Truth Hurts alongside former Channel 9 journalist alongside Ayrton Woolley, Carey maintained his innocence in the “so-called white bag saga”.
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“Everyone knows why I am out of the media, the so-called white (powder) saga at Crown Casino … which, by the way, had nothing in it, which hasn’t been said or even shown a photo of or there hasn’t been a picture of anything,” Carey said on the podcast.
“I honestly thought: ‘Would I feel content if I walked away completely out of the media spotlight?’
“(I told myself) a couple of weeks ago, now you can actually tell your truth.”
Carey was relieved of his media duties at Triple M and eventually departed Channel 7 after being initially stood down.
The 51-year old said while he wasn’t necessarily personally affected by the saga, it took a toll on him for family reasons.
“I had a really emotional period after all that stuff came out in the media. People have got to understand that type of reporting doesn’t affect me anymore. I’ve built a wall and I’ve built a mask that is almost unbreakable,” he said.
“But who it does affect is my 17-year-old, my eight-year-old, my four-year-old and it affects the mother of those children, who I am very, very close with. It affects their families, their aunties, uncles, their nans, their pops.
“It affects all of those people so I sat down and had a really emotional period and thought how can I give my voice to my truth for the first time in my life?”
The dual premiership Kangaroo also revealed he was “really, really emotional,” “shy” and “insecure” kid growing up and explained how quickly he had to mature upon moving out of home at the age of 13.
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“I used to bawl my eyes out. On the first day at school I pooed my pants, I went home with it, I didn’t clean it at school, it went really stale,” he said.
“I got home and cleaned it out. Once I got home I think I got a smack for pooing my pants on the first day.
“I was really insecure until the age of 13 — when I left home. When I talk about this type of stuff, I don’t blame any of my behaviour on my upbringing — and I had a very indifferent upbringing — but I don’t blame behaviour on any of that, because a lot of other people had a lot tougher upbringing than I did.
“What it does highlight to me at 13 when I left home and moved in with my brother, I built a wall and a mask. And then that mask only grew over time.
“I moved to Melbourne when I was 16 and I was living with a group of young guys in Melbourne in a house with no-one really looking after (us).
“Then three or four years later I’m captain of North Melbourne, so everything happened really quickly and I was a really emotionally immature person.
“I really had no time to gather who I was, and as I said, I built this wall and this mask that no-one was ever going to hurt me.”
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Reflecting on his recent years in the media, the dual premiership Kangaroo said he was on “autopilot” and even considered departing his role.
“I thought I would step away from Channel 7 at the start of this year or the end of last year anyway because it really wasn’t something I was totally enjoying,” Carey said.
“I knew you could just go there on autopilot, you knew what you had to say … you are muzzled to what you can say, you train yourself to what you should and shouldn’t say.
“Obviously in the new world, the woke world with political correctness which you’re hamstrung by in the mainstream media. This is the first time since I was 16 that I have the opportunity to speak my truth.”
