Mitchell Pearce comes clean about ‘self-sabotaging with women’ and why he abused alcohol – and confesses he’s still not teetotal despite struggling on the drink for years
- Pearce is now playing for Catalans in France and playing a key role in steering last year’s beaten grand finalists to the top of the English Super League ladder
- It comes after a controversial NRL career that included alcohol-related incidents and the split from his fiancé days before their wedding over a texting scandal
- Pearce admits he has struggled with anxiety, expectation and alcohol dependency his entire career – but he is working on becoming better
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Former NRL star Mitchell Pearce suffered the public humiliation of being forced to cancel his own wedding because of a texting scandal. Now he has opened up and admitted he would use alcohol to manage anxiety and self-sabotage his relationships.
It has been a lifelong battle for Pearce, who has always felt the pressure to succeed after making his NRL debut when he was just 18 and came in with a weight of expectation because of his famous father Wayne’s pedigree.
Rightly or wrongly, he was rarely celebrated for any of the Sydney Roosters or New South Wales Blues triumphs, but was also the poster boy for their failures.
Mitchell Pearce and Jake Friend celebrate with the NRL trophy in the Roosters changeroom after winning the 2013 NRL grand final
Pearce has now admitted he self-medicated for anxiety issues with alcohol and self-sabotaged relationships because of his insecurities.
Pearce was fined $20,000 and suspended for one match in 2014 for an incident at a Kings Cross nightclub. As a result, he was not selected for the New South Wales State of Origin team and was ordered to attend alcohol counselling sessions by the Roosters.
In 2016 Pearce was forced to apologise and admitted he had an alcohol problem after vision emerged of him simulating a sex act with a dog at a boozy Australia Day party. He was fined $125,000 by the NRL and suspended for eight games.
Pearce and former partner Kristin Scott called off their 2020 wedding after lewd text messages between the NRL star and a Newcastle Knights staff member came to light
He hit bottom in December 2020 when he was forced to announce his wedding to former professional dancer Kristin Scott because he had been busted sending ‘flirty’ messages to a woman who worked for the Newcastle Knights.
Pearce is now with French club Catalans in the Super League, and he admitted he is working hard on himself after leaving Australia in disgrace.
‘At times I’ve felt suffocated, I came to football young; the expectations to succeed … it’s easier to manage that stuff by abusing alcohol and self-sabotaging with women or anything,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
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‘I don’t want to be like this. I’ve been to rehab (2016) … Alcohol gives you that feelgood factor but it’s not the answer.
Pearce and his then-fiancé tried to patch things up after the text scandal and axed wedding. She was spotted at Pearce’s 300th NRL game milestone when the Knights took on the Wests Tigers and was also reported to be assisting him when he was injured with a torn pectoral.
‘It was the worst year of my life,’ Pearce said at the time.
Pearce ended his NRL career after being hit by the texting scandal and suffering a serious pectoral injury
‘Stuffing up your wedding, all the shame that came with that. It’s not easy. The noise around the wedding and the families was hard. Super hard. It did make me tired by the end of it.’
However, it was not to be and Pearce said he was now single and working on himself while playing in France.
‘I’m riding a wave in France, I’m loving Europe, I’m single, the women are beautiful – meeting people from different cultures has helped open my mind and made me realise Australia isn’t always right – different cultures see things differently.
‘I’ve worked on myself, I’ve had counselling to deal with my anxiety and used to self-sabotage a lot because I didn’t think I deserved anything good,’ he said.
‘When it builds up and you keep things in, you make some misjudgements and turn to alcohol, I’m still not perfect and I’m not teetotal but I’ve got better at managing things.’
Pearce admitted he often felt alone and trapped within himself during his NRL career and would isolate and drink.
After attending rehabilitation in Thailand in 2016 and working through his Demons in France, the former premiership winner now wants a post-football career to focus on mentoring young people so they don’t experience the same situations and feelings.
‘If you get yourself in the right mindset from an earlier age you can deal with what life throws at you better.
‘It’s important to get into schools earlier to prevent battles with alcohol and getting into a vulnerable space … everyone wants to be accepted and loved.’
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