Sam Burgess
The NRL star lets loose amid a collapsed marriage and an AVO controversy
SAM BURGESS ISN’T licking his wounds following a fallout with his wife, Phoebe, in October. In the wake of the split, the father-of-two has escaped to Mexico where he was spotted letting loose at a wild yacht party.
The NRL star, who stripped down to a leopard-print loincloth and hat, appeared to be enjoying the attention from the women on board, at one stage dancing with a bikini babe bouncing on his shoulders in footage from the October 27 event. Burgess attended the junglethemed party with his brother Luke and Luke’s girlfriend, Arianna Vidgen, as well as The Bachelorette star Jackson Garlick, to celebrate former NRL star Sean Garlick’s 50th birthday.
Burgess seemed to be in high spirits, despite the messy split, court proceedings and career-threatening injury he’d left back at home. Just a week before the Mexican getaway, Burgess, 30, was issued with a temporary AVO filed by his fatherin-law, Mitchell Hooke, after a heated argument broke out at Hooke’s Bowral property. As a result, Burgess is forbidden from going within a kilometre of Hooke’s home or workplace. A court date is set for November 6.
Reports of the couple’s second split in 10 months made headlines only days before the incident, with word that the couple had been living apart for weeks despite Phoebe, 30, still wearing her wedding ring. Meanwhile, Burgess’ career has also come under the spotlight, with rumours he’ll be forced to retire due to a shoulder infection emerging.
While the newly single sportsman has been living it up in Cabo, Phoebe has been on mum duty back home in Bowral, looking after their children, Poppy, 2, and Billy, 10 months, and telling her fans on Instagram, “[There’s] nowhere I’d rather be.”