Di Patston ‘near suicide’ as Kurtley Beale text message saga rumbles on

The woman at the centre of the Kurtley Beale texting affair said she had been driven near suicide by the scandal, speaking for the first time on Monday as the head of Australian rugby union faced calls to resign over the controversy.

Wallaby back Beale was found guilty of sending an offensive text message to ARU employee Di Patston, and fined US$38,500 by an ARU code of conduct tribunal on Friday.

But the tribunal said the evidence could not establish whether a second, more offensive text message and photograph had been sent by Beale, and he avoided suspension and contract termination.

Patston, the team business manager, resigned her position following a heated argument on a team flight from South Africa to Argentina in early October.

She spoke for the first time since her resignation over the drama, and said she had been driven to the brink of suicide by media coverage that had all but destroyed her personal and professional reputations.

She told Monday’s The Australian newspaper she was so distraught when she learned of the tribunal’s findings that she was physically ill.

“If it was one image or two or 20, what does it matter?” she asked. “They were both of very obese women in a very derogatory way. I am overweight and they were both naked with everything exposed.

“I’m not good. Life is probably the worst it has ever been. I’m alive but there have been times I haven’t wanted to be here.”