New text messages filed in the Victorian Supreme Court show ex-Carlton president Luke Sayers emotionally urging estranged wife Cate after the AFL’s early-2025 “d**k pic” scandal. Cate, who has launched a defamation action, alleges he falsely implied she was re
When Luke Sayers asked to meet Cate Sayers in London, she refused — furious and demanding space.
“No. I am furious with you. I need space. Find another hotel,” Cate texted on January 22 last year, as the pair exchanged messages while they were in Europe.
The dispute is now playing out in the Victorian Supreme Court, where court documents and an affidavit filed in support of Cate Sayers’ defamation case reveal the emotional back-and-forth between the ex-Carlton president and the woman he is now estranged from after the explosive “d**k pic” scandal.
The scandal. which led to Luke Sayers stepping down as president of the Carlton Football Club and later being cleared by the AFL integrity unit. erupted in early 2025 after an explicit image appeared briefly on Sayers’ X account during a family trip to Italy in January last year. The image was removed within minutes, and it tagged a female executive connected to major Carlton sponsor Bupa.
Cate Sayers is alleging that Luke Sayers falsely implied she was responsible for posting the image from his X account. Her defamation action also accuses him of invading her privacy and alleges he falsely implied she was behind the publication of the photo.
Luke Sayers, meanwhile, maintained from the start that hackers compromised his account. He stepped down as Carlton president shortly after the AFL cleared him of wrongdoing following the integrity unit investigation.
The affidavit includes the couple’s exchange on January 22, showing Luke pleading for connection even as Cate pushed back. She told him she couldn’t return to Australia, writing: “I don’t think I can ever return to Australia.” She also wrote that she needed to step away from the media chaos.
“Wondered why I just received a swuillion messages from people in oz,” Cate wrote. “Read the media … You are once again cleared – you looked after yourself well but your media people have left it on me – thanks.”
Luke responded with emphasis that, after the AFL’s clearance, he believed the situation should be settled.
“Babe no no no … it couldn’t have been clearer in the statement,” he replied. Cate then challenged how he framed the explanation.
“Ffs read the statement. No. You didn’t say a hacker or an unrelated person to you had access. The world thinks I posted it. Thanks,” she wrote.
Their texts show a sharper conflict developing beneath the public narrative. When Luke used the term “unauthorised” to describe the post featuring the photo in the statement he made when he stepped aside from Carlton, Cate rejected his framing.
Luke argued the wording referred to a hacker. Cate countered that “A hacker is a criminal you file a police report against.”
Even with that anger on full display, Luke’s messages turned intensely personal — he told Cate he had tried to reach her and said he loved her.
“I have tried to call you. I love you,” he wrote.
Cate’s reply was not softened by his tone.
“It breaks my heart how you are feeling. Nobody we know thinks in any way you did it, that’s all that matters.”
She urged the two of them to block out the noise.
“We must both ignore the media and restart as if it’s 2020. We are no longer in the public eye babe.”
But when Luke asked again about meeting, the request crashed into Cate’s insistence on space.
“Please cate….where r u? My heart is breaking that you are so angry,” Luke wrote after asking to meet in London.
“No. I am furious with you. I need space. Find another hotel,” Cate replied.
The messages continued with Luke trying to turn the focus back to accountability and their relationship. He wrote that he had “given up work” and believed he “f***ed up 5 years ago and made the wrong call,” adding he wanted “to right the wrongs.”
“I love you,” he wrote.
Cate, however, accused him of treating her as the collateral damage of the account controversy.
“You saved yourself and again dumped me right in it as the person who accessed your account,” she texted.
Luke insisted the allegations about her were wrong and said he had been hacked.
“Cate that is not true. Nobody I know thinks you had anything to do with it. I was hacked. I’ve said it repeatedly,” he replied.
He then pushed back on the idea that the couple was being fractured by public claims, writing: “Its all crap. The bottom line is we are together, we are one, and we are re setting how it should have been five years ago. I love you.”
Across the exchange, Cate also expressed the lasting impact the fallout had on her.
She wrote: “Read the media narrative. I am gutted and don’t think I can ever return to Australia now. But you can! So well done you And your team of supporters making sure you’re ok.”
The court case has now moved beyond private messages into strategy and procedure. On May 18, the Victorian Supreme Court heard that Luke Sayers wants the defamation matter switched to the Family Court — a move expected to dramatically curtail reporting on the dispute.
The court was told both parties would likely face intense cross-examination if the case proceeds to trial, with credibility expected to become a major battleground.
Cate Sayers has also sought court orders compelling the AFL and Carlton to hand over internal communications related to the scandal and the fallout from the explicit image that briefly appeared on Luke Sayers’ X account.
The request could force senior league officials, club figures and advisers to produce emails, messages and internal documents tied to the integrity investigation and its handling from the outset.
Her filings describe an attempt to show that the AFL’s integrity investigation may have been compromised. Court documents reveal she is now seeking access to communications between AFL executives, Carlton officials and members of Luke Sayers’ inner circle as part of that effort to support her case.
MISRYOUM Sports News Luke Sayers Cate Sayers Carlton Football Club AFL integrity unit Victorian Supreme Court defamation action X account Bupa scandal Italy trip family trip hackers cross-examination Family Court