Agence France Presse

Sydney, February 20:

Australia’s high-profile Test spinner Shane Warne said on Sunday he left the country to save his marriage after an affair with a local stripper.

Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker told a television interviewer he was embarrassed by the affair in 2003 and fled to Spain with his wife to escape the media spotlight. “It’s not easy to talk about, it was quite a tough time in my life, it was something that I thought was personal between my wife and I,” Warne told the Nine network programme 60 Minutes.

“I did the wrong thing and that’s something I have to live with and it’s not easy to live with, because I’m embarrassed about what I did.” Faced with intense media scrutiny after news of the affair dominated the headlines, the Warnes fled the country.

“We were angry about the 50 (media) people outside our house, we couldn’t get out of the driveway,” he said. “It was the wrong environment to try and talk and so we couldn’t really talk. We had to get out of the country, we ended up going to Spain.” Warne said that with a loving and forgiving wife along with children, the family overcame the crisis and were now solid. He said his wife Simone had conducted herself with dignity throughout the saga.