Todd Carney has revealed he’s seven months sober.
The former NRL star’s ugly consuming drawback ruined his soccer profession and he’s now admitted it nearly ruined his life in a tall-all interview on Games Graham’s podcast.
Carney admits he has an extended method to go regardless of his huge life-style adjustments which have adopted a 30-day stint in a rehabilitation centre earlier this 12 months.
The 37-year-old’s life in recent times appeared to have stabilised following his long-term romance with former actuality TV star Suzie Bradley — however the footballer has revealed there was one other darkish aspect to their relationship.
Speaking on The Bye Round with former Bulldogs cult hero Graham, Carney has revealed his second at all-time low — and the snap determination to get skilled assist for his points with alcohol.
Carney says within the interview — trying again on the individual he was once — he can’t consider Bradley stayed with him for so long as she did.
The former Married At First Sight contestant in May confirmed she and Carney had been again collectively one 12 months after it was confirmed they’d separated.
The on-and-off couple have been in a relationship since 2019, with the pair getting engaged on in December 2020 earlier than welcoming their first youngster, a son, in March, 2021.
Bradley can also be mum to a five-year-old daughter named Baby from a earlier relationship.
Bradley shared she was heartbroken after their break up final 12 months.
Carney has now opened up on the deeply private matter, confirming Bradley walked out on him final 12 months due to his ongoing issues.
“I’d drink on weekend and then I’d wake up Sunday and I’d be like, I’m not going to do it again’. I’m feeling s***,” he mentioned.
“That happened more often than not and then I said to myself it’s time to start considering — and me and Susie were starting to talk about getting back together and things like that — and it just wasn’t happening because I was still drinking and she couldn’t be around it.”
He went on to say: “She started to question it. Not dealing with it (his behaviour). and I had my little boy and we split up for seven months and then that was a big kick in the guts.”
He mentioned he described himself as a “50-50” dad, who was solely a father a number of days of the week.
He mentioned even when his son was with him, he would really feel like “s***” due to alcohol consumed on the times when their youngster didn’t stick with him.
He says bluntly that nobody deserved to be handled the best way he handled Bradley throughout that interval of their life.
That realisation got here this yeah when he was requested throughout his keep in rehab how he would react if his daughter had grown up and was courting the kind of individual he was on the time.
“I’d wring his neck. I’d see red,” he mentioned.
He mentioned he acted “childish” in the direction of Bradley at instances and would refuse to verify when he would come dwelling after being out socially.
“No wonder she left,” he mentioned.
“No wonder she didn’t put up with it. No one should. But that’s what I thought was normal. It’s crazy to think that.”
Carney ‘pissed off’ over squandered profession
Carney mentioned in May he’s discovered peace in his life and needs athletes throughout the nation to be taught from his errors.
Carney now lives on Queensland’s Gold Coast the place he runs a concreting enterprise whereas additionally working with Men of Business, a neighborhood organisation that helps and mentors at-risk youngsters.
He has been by way of a personal hell and again to succeed in this place of getting a wholesome thoughts and physique.
Carney shot into the NRL highlight as a 17-year-old, nevertheless, his profession was derailed by a sequence of off-field incidents that noticed him sacked from Canberra and launched by the Sydney Roosters earlier than the notorious bubbler incident at Cronulla noticed him finally exiled from the NRL.
At the time somebody posted footage of Carney showing to urinate in his personal mouth on Instagram, and that was the tip of his each stellar and incident-filled NRL profession.
Looking again now it’s straightforward to see the connection between him profitable the Dally M medal in 2010 and the 2010 season being the one time he abstained from alcohol for a full season.
“Now that I don’t drink. I look back on it and I’m pissed off at myself and how I handled it,” he mentioned.
“Because I look back now and I go, well why didn’t the penny drop and go, ‘That’s it, you’ve got the rest of your life to have a beer’. But I didn’t see it that way. Now it pisses me off a little bit.
“I still talk about the bubbler and those sorts of things, but I don’t laugh too much about it. Now looking back at it, it’s stupid. That’s all it was. It eats at me now that I don’t drink, the s*** that I let go of.
The moment Carney hit rock bottom
Carney now sees a counsellor every week following his 30-days spent in rehab.
He says he was prepared to stay in the facility for three months if it was necessary.
Carney had spent time in rehab facilities during his career and had received professional help — but nothing seemed to help.
It worked this time around because it is the first time he has done it for himself.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a bizarre morning where he hopped out the shower after having a few drinks the previous night.
“I got out the shower and got ready to brush my teeth to go to work and I physically couldn’t look at myself to brush my teeth,” he mentioned.
“So I sat back on the bed and I said to Susie, like, ‘I need to make a change’. I need some help around this and how I’m feeling. She was at work and she said, just stay at home for the day. I rang work and told them, and they were really good about it.
“I needed to work out why it was that I was doing it. So I went to rehab for 30 days. I felt I didn’t need it, but I did need to go to show that I was serious about it. Not for anyone else, other than myself. So I told my close mates, my family, obviously my work place that I was going to get professional help so I would stay on that road.
“That was the first time I’d done it for myself.
“I say if I’m going to do something and I’m determined to do it, I do it. If I put the things in place that I need to do, I’m comfortable to know that when I’ll put my head to rest every night that I’ll be sober.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
