Alex Fevola has opened up about the devastating moment she realised her AFL star husband Brendan Fevola was having an affair with a then 19-year-old Lara Bingle.
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In a new book released by the Instagram star, titled Silver Linings, the mum-of-four revealed she “just knew” something was going on between her husband and the “young blonde model” after they met on The Footy Show’s end of year dance review at the show’s 2006 Grand Final episode at Rod Laver Arena.
“I felt a twinge of doubt. It was at that moment my heart sank. I felt sick,” Alex wrote of seeing the Tourism Australia model miming a Pussycat Dolls song after Brendan’s performance.
“I felt insane even saying it but I knew it was true. I don’t know how I knew I just did. One of the reasons I felt this was because I knew Brendan very well and he’d mentioned every other person that was featuring on [The Footy Show], but he had never mentioned her. I knew exactly why.
“It all made sense; the underlying self-doubt I’d been feeling, the distance. In a split second the dread set in, that horrible gut-wrenching feeling knowing my life was about to become very complicated.”
Alex then went on to recount the moment she confronted Lara – who is now married with three children to actor Sam Worthington – after discovering a voicemail on Brendan’s phone.
“I said, ‘It’s Alex Fevola, Brendan’s wife. Why are you doing this?’,” she wrote. “She was silent.”
“I asked again, ‘How could you do this? You know he’s married and we’ve just had a baby.’
“There was a pause and then she hung up.
“That was it. I never called back; I had all the confirmation I needed.”
Alex wrote: “To be clear, I don’t blame her, I blame Brendan; he was the one who was married … I do wish they had both told the truth instead of dragging it out.”
At the time of the scandal, Lara claimed she was no “home wrecker” and only knew of the former Carlton player’s marital status after she heard his baby crying over the telephone.
“We spoke a lot on the phone because he was in Melbourne and I was in Sydney,” she said.
“We were talking one day and I asked, ‘What’s that noise?’ and he said, ‘It’s my baby’. Then it all came out.”
She said Fevola never mentioned he was in a relationship during their brief romance.
“We met in Melbourne and then hung out in Sydney when he came up for a couple of days and that was all there was to it,” Lara said.
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Despite calling time on their marriage following the affair, Alex and Brendan rekindled their relationship in 2016, with the couple announcing their engagement that same year.
The former AFL champ is a devoted step-father to Mia, 21, and dad to Leni, 14, Lulu, 10, and Tobi, three.
Lara Bingle went on to wed Avatar star Sam Worthington in 2014 and has since welcomed sons Rocket, Racer and River.
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