W
Willie Talol'd
Guest
A TEARFUL Candice Falzon has spoken for the first time about her scandalous tryst with rugby league star Sonny Bill Williams in a Sydney hotel toilet last weekend.
"I've made a mistake and I'm very, very sorry about it,'' Falzon said yesterday.
"I'm conscious of my image as a sportswoman and I've got a responsibility to young people. Young girls look up to me.''
But the ironwoman said the toilet incident had been taken out of all proportion, and despite pictorial evidence to the contrary maintained there was nothing much in it.
"Nothing happened, It's been blown out of proportion,'' she said.
The incident that led to the profound embarrassment of both Falzon and Canterbury star Sonny Bill Williams began last Saturday.
It was the Easter long weekend and the star forward had helped his team trounce the Rabbitohs the night before.
Bulldogs players, including Williams, Willie Mason, Ben Roberts and Reni Matua, decided they would have some late afternoon beers at one of their favourite haunts - the Clovelly Hotel, which was already packedwith drinkers escaping the rain.
As word spread that the party-loving crew were settling in for a session at the Cloey, the usual hangers-on arrived.
Among them were members of the Bra Boys gang and a few Bulldogs fans, but what the locals noticed most of all were the young women who attached themselves to the group. Said one: "At first it was just the boys, but after a while, the girls started arriving and the night got pretty wild.''
And by the end of the night, the reputation of one of those young women would be in tatters, and Williams was at the beginning of one of the worst weeks of his life.
"I got the first text message about 10pm,'' says one local who was at the pub.
"It said Candice Falzon had followed Sonny Bill into the toilets upstairs at the pub and everyone knew about it. The next message I got was an ... um ... action shot.''
The grainy mobile phone photograph, which showed Falzon and Williams inside the toilet cubicle, was soon being widely circulated and when it was published on The Daily Telegraph's website, it attracted a record number of hits.
While it was a humiliating turnof events for Williams, 21, it was devastating for Falzon, 22.
And yesterday Falzon revealed that her parents had been a huge support to her since the story and the incriminating picture began circulating.
"I love my parents - they've been such a fantastic support,'' she said.
Earlier yesterday, a fragile Falzon had been in hiding. Her agent Max Markson said: "She is very fragile about this and is terribly embarrassed. She has left Sydney with her mum and is very, very upset.''
Falzon has dated a number of football players. Among her former flames are fringe Wallaby Matt Henjak, NRL player Braith Anasta and Sydney FC player David Carney.
She was also recently photographed kissing Little Britain star David Walliams on a Sydney beach and was earlier rumoured to have been dating tennis ace Marcos Baghdatis and actor Daniel MacPherson.
And after the tacky toilet tryst with Williams, it emerged she had been seen early Sunday morning at a nightclub in Kings Cross with Bulldog Ben Roberts (who bares a remarkable resemblance to his mate, Williams).
Witnesses said the pair had been "dancing and kissing near the bar ... it was all very much out in the open'' until they left at 3am.
Williams would not comment on the story during the week, but he was said by friends to feel humiliated by the fact the incident had been made so public.
His relationship with his girlfriend, fellow Kiwi Genna Shaw, was said to be in serious trouble - to the point where a source said he had spent all Wednesday morning buying up copies of newspapers in his area in a futile attempt to stop her learning of it.
Shaw, who was photographed recently with Williams at the opening of the controversial Bra Boys film, was not available for comment last week.
Details about her were scarce, although one report described her asa former Auckland bar manager who has been in Sydney less than a year.
Sources said the pair had experienced a difficult week but that she had decided by yesterday to stick out her relationship with Williams.
She must be a very patient woman. As one Clovelly local reveals, Williams is continually approached by available and attractive female fans.
"The footy players are here all the time, so the locals are used to them. They know they won't get hassled, so they seem to like it here,'' he said.
"Sonny Bill is a good bloke. He's a pretty good drinker too - he doesn't get offensive, but he does get on it.
"And when he does he's pretty interested in any girl in the place.Not that you can blame him, he's always pretty much surrounded by girls, they just don't leave him alone.''
However, his love-life wasn't the only thing ensuring that Williams was in the news last week.
The story of the dalliance broke the same day that league's favourite son Andrew Johns announced he was retiring, and some observers laid part of the blame for that on the shoulders of Williams.
Although doctors say the tackle by Williams that saw Johns suffer concussion during their opening game of the season wasn't responsibile for Johns's career-ending injury, others were quick to point the finger.
Williams suffered harsh criticism in the wake of that tackle and referred to it in a website column he wrote last week.
"I'll be telling the grand-kids that I played against him, but maybe not about the last game that I played against him,'' Williams wrote about the newly retired Newcastle player.
"I already felt bad after getting sent off against him in round one, and then I felt guilty all over again when I heard he was retiring.
"Instead of being one of the last guys to play against him in one of his last games, I've got a memory I'd rather not have.
"I've apologised for that though and we made up and moved on,'' he said, in a closing line that could well apply to all of the past week. Williams did not return calls from The Sunday Telegraph last week.
"I've made a mistake and I'm very, very sorry about it,'' Falzon said yesterday.
"I'm conscious of my image as a sportswoman and I've got a responsibility to young people. Young girls look up to me.''
But the ironwoman said the toilet incident had been taken out of all proportion, and despite pictorial evidence to the contrary maintained there was nothing much in it.
"Nothing happened, It's been blown out of proportion,'' she said.
The incident that led to the profound embarrassment of both Falzon and Canterbury star Sonny Bill Williams began last Saturday.
It was the Easter long weekend and the star forward had helped his team trounce the Rabbitohs the night before.
Bulldogs players, including Williams, Willie Mason, Ben Roberts and Reni Matua, decided they would have some late afternoon beers at one of their favourite haunts - the Clovelly Hotel, which was already packedwith drinkers escaping the rain.
As word spread that the party-loving crew were settling in for a session at the Cloey, the usual hangers-on arrived.
Among them were members of the Bra Boys gang and a few Bulldogs fans, but what the locals noticed most of all were the young women who attached themselves to the group. Said one: "At first it was just the boys, but after a while, the girls started arriving and the night got pretty wild.''
And by the end of the night, the reputation of one of those young women would be in tatters, and Williams was at the beginning of one of the worst weeks of his life.
"I got the first text message about 10pm,'' says one local who was at the pub.
"It said Candice Falzon had followed Sonny Bill into the toilets upstairs at the pub and everyone knew about it. The next message I got was an ... um ... action shot.''
The grainy mobile phone photograph, which showed Falzon and Williams inside the toilet cubicle, was soon being widely circulated and when it was published on The Daily Telegraph's website, it attracted a record number of hits.
While it was a humiliating turnof events for Williams, 21, it was devastating for Falzon, 22.
And yesterday Falzon revealed that her parents had been a huge support to her since the story and the incriminating picture began circulating.
"I love my parents - they've been such a fantastic support,'' she said.
Earlier yesterday, a fragile Falzon had been in hiding. Her agent Max Markson said: "She is very fragile about this and is terribly embarrassed. She has left Sydney with her mum and is very, very upset.''
Falzon has dated a number of football players. Among her former flames are fringe Wallaby Matt Henjak, NRL player Braith Anasta and Sydney FC player David Carney.
She was also recently photographed kissing Little Britain star David Walliams on a Sydney beach and was earlier rumoured to have been dating tennis ace Marcos Baghdatis and actor Daniel MacPherson.
And after the tacky toilet tryst with Williams, it emerged she had been seen early Sunday morning at a nightclub in Kings Cross with Bulldog Ben Roberts (who bares a remarkable resemblance to his mate, Williams).
Witnesses said the pair had been "dancing and kissing near the bar ... it was all very much out in the open'' until they left at 3am.
Williams would not comment on the story during the week, but he was said by friends to feel humiliated by the fact the incident had been made so public.
His relationship with his girlfriend, fellow Kiwi Genna Shaw, was said to be in serious trouble - to the point where a source said he had spent all Wednesday morning buying up copies of newspapers in his area in a futile attempt to stop her learning of it.
Shaw, who was photographed recently with Williams at the opening of the controversial Bra Boys film, was not available for comment last week.
Details about her were scarce, although one report described her asa former Auckland bar manager who has been in Sydney less than a year.
Sources said the pair had experienced a difficult week but that she had decided by yesterday to stick out her relationship with Williams.
She must be a very patient woman. As one Clovelly local reveals, Williams is continually approached by available and attractive female fans.
"The footy players are here all the time, so the locals are used to them. They know they won't get hassled, so they seem to like it here,'' he said.
"Sonny Bill is a good bloke. He's a pretty good drinker too - he doesn't get offensive, but he does get on it.
"And when he does he's pretty interested in any girl in the place.Not that you can blame him, he's always pretty much surrounded by girls, they just don't leave him alone.''
However, his love-life wasn't the only thing ensuring that Williams was in the news last week.
The story of the dalliance broke the same day that league's favourite son Andrew Johns announced he was retiring, and some observers laid part of the blame for that on the shoulders of Williams.
Although doctors say the tackle by Williams that saw Johns suffer concussion during their opening game of the season wasn't responsibile for Johns's career-ending injury, others were quick to point the finger.
Williams suffered harsh criticism in the wake of that tackle and referred to it in a website column he wrote last week.
"I'll be telling the grand-kids that I played against him, but maybe not about the last game that I played against him,'' Williams wrote about the newly retired Newcastle player.
"I already felt bad after getting sent off against him in round one, and then I felt guilty all over again when I heard he was retiring.
"Instead of being one of the last guys to play against him in one of his last games, I've got a memory I'd rather not have.
"I've apologised for that though and we made up and moved on,'' he said, in a closing line that could well apply to all of the past week. Williams did not return calls from The Sunday Telegraph last week.
