Israel Folau opens up about his drugs and booze hell – as he reveals a shocking secret about his defection to the AFL
Controversial footy star Israel Folau has revealed he hit a ‘dead end’ during his time with the Melbourne Storm as he got into drugs, alcohol and womanising for the first time in his life.
The 35-year-old code-hopper also came clean about his stunning switch to play AFL in 2011, announcing that he never wanted to play the sport and only defected from the NRL because of the size of his paycheque.
Folau – who is now playing rugby union in Japan after his headline-making scandal with the Wallabies – broke into first-grade rugby league with the Storm in 2007, when he was just 17 years old.
He made the move down south from his home in Brisbane and was soon exposed to a whole new way of life in Melbourne.
‘When I left school and went to Melbourne, that was the first time I got introduced to drinking and doing everything, like hooking up with girls and getting on drugs,’ he told the Ebbs and Flows podcast.
‘I got caught up in all of that.
‘I look back now at that point in my career and I was going through a downward spiral.
‘There were so many things off the field that no one knew … what was happening behind the scenes.
Folau was just 17 when he joined the Melbourne Storm in 2007 (pictured) – and he was soon exposed to a very different world compared to what he was used to at school in Brisbane
The code-hopping star was a huge success on the field but struggled off it as he hit a ‘dead end’ while he sampled drugs and alcohol.
‘[I was] getting into alcohol, into the women, into the drugs, and I just hit a dead end, I was just so lost and empty.’
Folau said he had ‘everything I wanted’ at the time, but still felt there was something missing – and that was religion.
The famously staunch Christian turned it around when he ‘couldn’t stop crying’ as he sang during a church service, and dedicate himself to god.
In 2010 he shocked footy fans across Australia by making a stunning switch to play AFL with the GWS Giants – and now, for the first time, he has made a stunning admission about the defection on a rumoured $6million, four-year deal.
‘I didn’t want to do it,’ he confessed.
‘The main reason why I went [to the AFL] was purely just to help my family financially.
‘I went back and forth with my parents and particularly my old man [father].
‘I didn’t want to go, it was something I just never wanted to do.
‘I wrestled with that for a long time [but] at the end of the day the money was too good to refuse and I went purely on that once choice.’
His two seasons playing Aussie Rules were one of the low points of Folau’s long career as he ‘hated’ the experience after only signing on to set up his family financially
Folau played 13 games over two years with the Giants in one of the worst periods of his long footy career.
‘I was rocking up to training and hating going there, I just wasn’t enjoying it,’ he said.
In December 2012 he made another stunning switch, this time to rugby union with the NSW Waratahs.
He excelled and became a mainstay for the Wallabies, but Rugby Australia sacked him from the squad following a controversial social media post on Twitter in which he infamously wrote ‘homosexuals will go to hell’.
In a humiliating backdown to spare the sporting body a lengthy court battle after Folau sought $14million, Rugby Australia, the star and NSW Rugby announced that they had reached a settlement in their long-running stoush in December 2019.
RA said it did not support Folau’s controversial post, but ‘acknowledges and apologises for any hurt or harm caused to the Folaus’ after his sacking.
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