David Warner is an emotional wreck right now, says his wife Candice

The last one month in South Africa has been mentally devastating for Australian vice-captain David Warner and by an unfortunate turn of events, for his wife Candice too. And all that has left Warner in a wracked state of mind, she expressed to the Daily Telegraph following Warner’s press conference on Saturday.

“He is hurting. He is serious, seriously struggling and he’s not in a great headspace,” said Candice. Before that, about the controversial nature of the press conference, she said that it must be all so overwhelming for him to process and answer all at once. There was a huge outcry from the media after the press conference, and people demanded to know why wasn’t he answering the questions clearly.

“He’s just such an emotional wreck and I think he was sitting there hearing words but not really being able to process. If people could understand – which they probably won’t because there are so many people out there that want answers – but if they could just sympathize just slightly with the month that he’s had,” she said in support of her husband. “I’m sure there were things he wanted to say but he just couldn’t get it out,” she added.

The de Kock spat and the ball-tampering took a lot out of Warner

The sequence of events started with the on-field spat with Protea keeper Quinton de Kock. Words were exchanged near the dressing room staircase, and both the parties were fined, with Warner issuing a public apology to the fans. But things took an ugly turn when a bunch of fans chose to bring up the infamous Candice Falzon – Sonny Bill Williams tryst by wearing masks of the to the stadium during the second test. A chunk of the social media, as usual, joined in on the mockery, though many of them called it out as well.

Even though the incident happened way back in 2007, such antics by the South African fans were in a bad taste and was certainly very disconcerting for the Warner family. Candice admits having broken down in the face of such unexpected humiliation. She even went to the extent of taking the blame of the events on her – “I feel like it’s all my fault and it’s killing me – it’s absolutely killing me,” she said in the interview.

Not asking for sympathy

“I never want to do a ‘poor me’ story or anything like that whatsoever. But Dave would come home from the game and see me in tears in the bedroom, and the girls just looking at their mum, it’s been heartbreaking. When we were in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Dave would come home and, yes, I always put on a strong front and I turn out to the games.

“But seeing them wearing the masks, to have people staring and pointing and laughing at me, to have the signs, to have, you know, the songs made up about me, I would have to sit there and cop that,” she says. The whole fiasco took a toll on Warner as he tried to keep his family safe. “He had to just cope with it, he was protecting me as much as he could and protecting the girls.”

In the wake of the ball-tampering saga, a lot of teammates have reportedly alienated themselves from the vice-captain, and that has been the final nail in the coffin, she thinks. “I think that’s what’s been really hurtful.”

Candice also denies the reports of them being estranged from the rest of the team as a couple. “There’s been all these reports that we’re such a divisive couple, that we divide the team and things like that. But we’ve hosted numerous barbecues at our home, not just for the players but their partners, support staff, and we did that a couple of times. He’s always going to dinner with the boys when his family’s not around.”

Candice Warner also slams all the allegations about her being the only WAG still left in South Africa and says that is so not the case. “All these reports, why I was the only one left in South Africa and all that is total rubbish because there’s a handful of girls – Tim Paine’s wife, Pat Cummins’ partner – there’s a heap of them still there.”

No one can deny that this has been a really taxing month for the couple and her final words perfectly reflect the whole situation from their perspective – “There’s been so much fabrication on this and it’s just, I personally have had enough.”