A high-profile legal dispute has erupted in Australia’s Supreme Court between former Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers and his estranged wife Cate Sayers, centered on a viral explicit image scandal that played out on social media platform X earlier this year. The conflict centers on an explicit photo of Luke Sayers that was posted to his personal X account in January, which also tagged one of Carlton Football Club’s major sponsors. The image was taken down just 15 minutes after it went live, but not before it sparked widespread public and media attention across the country.
Both sides have vehemently denied responsibility for the post. Luke Sayers, who has stepped away from his leadership role at the AFL club, claims he could not have uploaded the image because he was showering at the time of the post. He has previously alleged that one day after the incident, Cate Sayers made comments implying she was behind the post, saying words to the effect of “let’s see how you get out of this one”. Cate Sayers has firmly refuted this accusation, noting she was not staying at the same hotel as her estranged husband when the post went live, and has outright denied sharing the image.
The legal fight has now expanded beyond who posted the photo to include cross claims of defamation, as well as a dispute over where the trial should be heard. Luke Sayers’ legal team, led by prominent barrister Matthew Collins KC, is pushing to have the case transferred to the family court division of the Federal Court. Collins argued in court that the original X post itself constitutes a defamatory act against his client, noting that Luke Sayers faced relentless negative media attention in the days after the image was published. A separate internal inquiry conducted by the Australian Football League (AFL) cleared Luke Sayers of any intentional wrongdoing in connection with the post.
For her part, Cate Sayers is pushing to keep the proceedings in the Supreme Court, and has launched her own defamation counterclaim. She argues that a statutory declaration submitted during the investigation into the X post defamed her, with legal representatives noting that the reputational damage she has suffered extends across the entire country. Last week, the *Herald Sun* revealed that Cate Sayers had issued formal subpoenas to both Carlton Football Club and the national AFL governing body as part of her case.
During opening procedural hearings on Monday, Supreme Court Justice Andrew Watson ordered a temporary closure of the court for early closed-door arguments over whether the full trial should proceed in open court. Watson previously ordered that live streaming of the proceedings be halted, after Collins argued that heightened public and social media attention around the salacious case could complicate fair judicial proceedings. While stressing that “we don’t want to exclude the media from being able to report”, Justice Watson also shared concerns that members of the general public attending the open trial may not be prepared for the explicit nature of the evidence and legal discussions in the case.