How a lewd photo scandal destroyed a Melbourne It couple

In the golden years, Cate Sayers was one half of Melbourne’s It couple.

Now, the estranged wife of former PwC chief executive, Carlton president and mercurial business personality Luke Sayers says she’s become something of a pariah.

“Cate has been shunned and avoided by persons she knew and had relationships with, who are involved with the AFL, Carlton, the game of AFL generally and others who knew Luke and Cate,” her lawyers wrote in court documents filed as part of a bombshell lawsuit filed by Cate Sayers against her husband.

The potentially bruising legal battle all links back to a photo apparently of Luke Sayers’ penis, which appeared briefly on the internet last January in an X post that tagged a general manager at Carlton sponsor Bupa. In the year since, Luke Sayers has stepped down from the Blues despite being cleared of wrongdoing by an AFL investigation, and rebranded his eponymous consulting firm Sayers Group as Tenet Advisory.

But Cate Sayers alleges the damage to her reputation has been more personal. In January, she launched legal proceedings against Luke Sayers in the Victorian Supreme Court, alleging that he had defamed her, and breached her confidence and privacy in a statutory declaration made to the AFL during its investigation into the lewd photo scandal.

Her legal team, helmed by top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou, and her frequent collaborators Giles George, had sent a concerns notice to Luke Sayers before Christmas, but received no response, prompting them to commence proceedings.

For weeks, the details of Cate Sayers’ allegations remained suppressed by the Victorian Supreme Court, despite her legal team and media wanting them to see the light of day. But on Thursday afternoon, the court released the statement of claim hours before Carlton began their season with a 63 point drubbing at the hands of the Sydney Swans.

Cate Sayers claims she was defamed by the statement because it implied: “Cate suffers from mental illness and has been prescribed medication by her doctors which she periodically refuses to take, such that her denials about posting the explicit photo from Mr Sayers’ X account cannot be trusted.”

She claims that by “shamelessly publishing” information that falsely portrayed her as unstable, erratic and suffering from mental illness, Luke Sayers caused serious harm to her reputation.

“The information was used to present her as unstable, untrustworthy, erratic, mentally disturbed and/or presenting as a live risk to her own safety,” the court documents claim.

The statement of claim also alleges that Luke Sayers supported his evidence to the AFL by disclosing details of his wife’s private life, including her sexual history.

Sayers said these disclosures amounted to a breach of her confidence, causing “significant distress, hurt and embarrassment”. She is seeking damages.

Luke Sayers is yet to file a defence, and his spokespeople declined to comment.

While Cate Sayers alleges that she’s been shunned, and the subject of “substantial gossip” within the AFL community in Victoria, her estranged husband remains an influential figure, despite last year’s scandal.

An affable optimist and relentless networker, Luke Sayers’ connections are the ultimate tell of just how small a town Melbourne can be, one where the line between mate and business associate are often blurred. The Sayers Group might have been rebranded, but Luke remains an executive director, despite whittling down his shareholdings to just 1.3 per cent late last year.

Helloworld boss and former Liberal treasurer Andrew Burnes was a major backer of the Sayers Group. So is billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox and his son David.

Radio host, and adman Russel Howcroft, brought to PwC by Sayers, and then onto his new firm, is a partner and increased his shareholding late last year. The pair are regular lunch buddies. Square Peg co-founder Paul Bassat, has been Commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) since 2012, his brother Andrew is a significant investor in Sayers’ new outfit and president at the St Kilda football club.

Hawthorn president Ian Silk is chairman of Tenet Advisory & Investments. Former Labor MP Jaala Pulford is on the board. Paul Howes, the top unionist and ALP apparatchik turned KPMG consultant has just commenced as chief executive, as part of Tenet’s post-Sayers rebrand. Former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, once Carlton’s number one ticket holder who had Sayers on speed dial, has spoken with him less often of late.

But the remarkable resilience of Sayers’ network was on further display at a “thank you” lunch held at South Yarra power dining establishment France-Soir last year, after the scandal appeared to have subsided. Guests included Daniel Andrews, Eddie McGuire, ex-Qantas boss Alan Joyce and former AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.

The only woman present was Sayers’ communications advisor Sharon McCrohan, a hard-nosed media operative with formidable connections and pedigree thanks to her stints with various state and federal Labor leaders, and the CFMEU, where she became a close confidant to the union’s now-disgraced boss John Setka.

Within months of the Sayers probe winding up, McCrohan had a new job as the AFL’s executive general manager of corporate affairs and communications. Despite not being on the initial shortlist of external headhunter Temple, she got the job because the top brass were so impressed with her work for Sayers, The Australian Financial Review reported.

McCrohan’s work for Sayers was impressive. In 2023, she advised him through the tax avoidance scandal that engulfed PwC. While Sayers was in charge when one of the firm’s partners misused confidential government information, he denied any knowledge of the wrongdoing.

Three years on, Sayers is at the centre of a far more personal scandal. If the matter goes to court, it will drive a wedge between a once close-knit family. Two of the couples four daughters – Bronte and Claudia Sayers – have publicly backed their father, and promised to give evidence to support his defence. Sources close to Sayers suggested he would never allow it to come to that.

It would also cause significant discomfort to the AFL, whose internal investigation into Sayers is now the subject of intense scrutiny, and the Melbourne power players who’ve stood by him. None of those people want their private discussions subpoenaed, or aired in court.

The flaccid penis, posted on Sayer’s account, spent just 13 minutes on the internet. The damage will last for years.

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