Cate Sayers has launched a defamation and privacy lawsuit against her husband, former Carlton Football Club president and PwC chief executive Luke Sayers, over a social media post that included a photo of his penis. The post, made on his X account in January 2025 during a family holiday in Italy, was deleted after 15 minutes with a claim the account had been hacked.
In court documents filed in the Victorian Supreme Court, Cate Sayers alleges that a statutory declaration signed by her husband to explain the post wrongly blamed her and contained false and confidential information about her sexual history, mental health, and relationships. The declaration claimed she had accessed his account and posted the image, and that she suffers from mental illnesses including bipolar and multiple personality disorder.
Cate Sayers’ lawyers argue the AFL cleared Luke Sayers of wrongdoing within two weeks without conducting a proper investigation. They claim the league did not interview her, forensically examine his phone or X account, or verify the medical reason he gave for the photo’s existence. The AFL’s investigation, they say, failed to follow its own protocols and was not independent or impartial.
The statutory declaration also contained 11 allegedly false claims, including that Cate Sayers was raped as a schoolchild by a teacher and his wife, and that the teacher was serving a life sentence. Luke Sayers’ lawyers have not yet responded to the latest claims, but earlier argued the declaration was true and legally privileged.
The case is expected to examine how the AFL investigates its own, with Cate Sayers’ lawyers stating the process was not conducted adequately or honestly. A letter from Luke Sayers’ lawyers in March reportedly admitted the photo was not taken for medical purposes, contradicting his earlier claim.
