Wife of former Carlton president launches lawsuit against him with allegation over lewd pic scandal

Cate Sayers, the wife of former Carlton president Luke Sayers, is suing her estranged husband for defamation, a year on from an online scandal involving the posting of a lewd photograph to his X account.

Both the Herald Sun and Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported on Tuesday evening that Cate has accused her husband of blaming her for the upload of an explicit photo to Luke’s account on January 8 last year, as well as making harmful claims about her mental health.

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In a statement to the AFR, a spokesman for Cate Sayers said: “We can confirm that proceedings have been commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria. As the matter is now before the court, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Foxfooty.com.au is not suggesting Luke Sayers has blamed Cate Sayers, or that she was responsible for the post, and only that an allegation has been made.

In the aforementioned graphic photo, the name of a senior female executive at a major Blues corporate partner was mentioned, before Luke deleted the tweet and posted saying he had been hacked and to “please ignore all posts”. He later deactivated his account.

Sayers stepped down from his role at the Blues less than a week later, noting at the time that he “deeply regretted” how family, friends, colleagues and the football club had been caught up in the matter.

Both the AFL and Carlton conducted an investigation into the incident, and found that Luke Sayers’ account was compromised at the time of the post in question.

“The Integrity Unit’s inquiries, which included multiple interviews and review of other evidence, have now concluded and the AFL has found, based on the available evidence, that access to Mr Sayers’ X account was compromised, resulting in the posting of the image (i.e. by a person not being Mr Sayers) and tagging of another person,” the league said in a statement last January.

“Accordingly, the AFL has determined that Mr Sayers did not breach AFL Rules in connection with the posting of the image.

“Once he was made aware of the post, Mr Sayers immediately acted to have the image removed and to shut down his X account.

“The AFL wishes to thank the executive who was unwittingly tagged in the post — her co-operation and assistance throughout the inquiries have been extremely helpful.”