Shane Warne to reveal all on his biggest scandals

Some would argue that Shane Warne has garnered just as much of a reputation off the cricket pitch as on it, in the two and a half decades since the spin bowler first burst onto the public arena.

His sexting scandals and high-profile breakups have seen him regularly make front page news – not to mention the persistent speculation around his plumper than usual lips.

Well, now the ‘king of spin’ is setting the record straight, and will be delving into all the aforementioned dramas and more, in his new book No Spin.

The 49-year-old told the Daily Telegraph on Saturday that despite the bad press he’s attracted over the years, he has “nothing to be ashamed of”.

“I think I’m misunderstood,” he told the paper, “Yeah sure, I’ve made some silly decisions and made some mistakes over the years.”

“We all do that. But it doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.”

We can also expect Warnie to speak candidly about some of his lowest moments in cricket as part of the autobiography, including the 12-month drug ban he received after testing positive for a slimming substance in 2003.

At the time, the cricketer protested that he was in no way a drug cheat, and had only taken the diuretic – which he said was given to him by his mum – to look better in front of the cameras.

“I have never taken any performance enhancing drugs and I never will,” he said at the time, “It [taking the drug] had nothing to do with cricket or trying to mask anything. It had to do with appearance.”

By the time than ban was handed down, Warnie was no stranger to scandal.

In the early noughties he’d weathered a storm of negative publicity after his marriage to Simone Callahan was shaken by a sexting saga involving a British nurse.

Warnie was accused of sending explicit text messages and leaving obscene voice mails for nurse Donna Wright, whom he met at a nightclub in the UK, and was stripped of his vice-captaincy.

He and Simone, who were married for a decade and share three children together, eventually split in 2005, the same year the sports star was caught up in another sexting escapade.

In the months that followed, Warnie’s love life was regularly made headlines, and interest only intensified when he started dating actress and model Elizabeth Hurley.

PDAs were the pair’s speciality and they were rarely photographed at events where they weren’t seen smooching. Unfortunately however, it all came to an end in 2013 when they called off their engagement.

Warnie, who will no doubt delve deeper into the romance in his new book, has previously described their love story as instant and chaotic.

“We hit it off straightaway. Fell in love, got engaged,” he told The Mirror.

“This knockabout Aussie with this English rose and WHAT THE HELL? How did you two meet?
“And boom! It sort of exploded. Everywhere was chaos.”