Ex-Carlton boss Luke Sayers and his ex-wife Cate have divorced amid their bitter legal battle over the ‘d**k pic’ scandal that rocked the AFL in early 2025.
The warring couple finalised the end of their marriage shortly after Cate had a big win in her defamation action against the former Blues president.
It’s understood she is now in Italy as her case against Mr Sayers will proceed in the Supreme Court of Victoria despite his attempt to have it shifted to the Family Court in order to keep it secret and prevent the media from reporting on it.
The couple have four adult children and two of them, daughters Bronte and Claudia, have publicly supported their father during the court fight.
A property settlement between the pair is yet to be finalised, according to The Age.
Cate accused Mr Sayers of defaming her, breaching confidence, and committing a ‘common law tort of invasion of privacy’ through the publication of a statutory declaration when he tried to clear his name over the photo of his penis.
Luke Sayers has divorced his ex-wife Cate as her bombshell defamation action against him rolls on in the Supreme Court of Victoria
The high-profile couple have officially dissolved their marriage soon after Cate had a legal win
Two of the couple’s four children, Bronte and Claudia, have publicly sided with their father (pictured together)
She claims the AFL colluded with the businessman and Carlton to exonerate him from allegations related to the photograph.
She also alleges she was falsely blamed for posting the image through a statutory declaration he submitted to the AFL integrity unit.
According to court filings, Cate claims the declaration implied she was responsible for uploading the explicit photograph. She says it portrayed her as mentally unstable and untrustworthy.
The explicit image was posted to Sayers’ X account in January last year with a senior executive from Carlton sponsor Bupa tagged in.
Sayers strongly denied posting the image himself.
He claimed his social media account had been hacked or ‘compromised’ by a third party. He urged followers to ‘please ignore all posts’ before disabling the account entirely.
The AFL integrity unit later cleared Sayers of wrongdoing after reviewing what it described as the ‘available evidence’.
Carlton also commissioned its own independent investigation led by Christopher Townshend KC. That investigation also cleared the former club president.
Cate alleges she has been falsely blamed for the posting of the image of Mr Sayers’ penis on his X account in January last year
Cate had a victory in court in June when Mr Sayers’ attempt to have the proceedings shifted to the Family Court failed
Despite being exonerated by the AFL, Sayers resigned as Carlton president just minutes after the league announced its findings.
‘The past two weeks have been very tough for everyone who has been impacted by an unauthorised social media post,’ Mr Sayers said at the time.
‘I did not post the image, either deliberately or accidentally.
‘This decision draws a line in the sand.’
On June 3 this year, Mr Sayers lost his bid to have the case heard in the Family Court.
He challenged the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, but Justice Andrew Watson threw out the application to transfer the matter.
While Cate enjoyed a win on that count, her plans to have the matter decided by a jury failed.
The court heard she only made the request to have the matter put before a jury after she caught wind of her ex-husband’s plans to try and get the matter moved.
‘Cate does not contend that she wanted a trial by jury when she instituted her proceedings,’ the judge stated.
‘Rather, the affidavit material says that she made an election for a jury on 11 March 2026, after Luke had foreshadowed his transfer application. No explanation is given for the change of position on 11 March 2026 in her affidavit material.
Pictured: The image Bronte Sayers uploaded to Instagram in support of her father
‘Cate provides no positive basis on which she asserts the discretion to order a jury trial should be exercised in her favour.’
Mr Sayers and Cate have also reached a negotiated compromise by consent over what information must be handed over to the court by the AFL, the Carlton Football Club, AFL general manager of corporate affairs Sharon McCrohan – who was an advisor to the former Blues boss – and Julie Trainor, who is an executive at a firm Sayers founded.
In May, Bronte Sayers uploaded an image of a cake with the words ‘F**k them all’ written on it in icing to her Instagram.
Soon after, her sister Claudia shared a screenshot of media coverage about the cake post. Claudia added the caption: ‘Thanks dad for always being in our corner.’
Bronte later re-shared that message to her own followers in another public display of support for their father.
