Brooke Warne has confessed that she still has not come to terms with the death of her father, the legendary cricketer Shane Warne, who passed away suddenly in 2022 at the age of 52. Speaking to Adelaide Now this week, the 29-year-old revealed that the passage of time has not eased her pain.
Grief as a Lifelong Journey
"Grief never goes away; you deal with grief for your whole life," Brooke explained. "You learn how to live without a part of you. It's such a weird thing. We like to say it comes in waves, and when you're going through it, it's like the waves of the ocean." She added that she still finds herself expecting her father to return home.
"You could tell me Dad could walk through my front door and I'd believe you. He's still very much present," she said. "I don't think I've accepted it yet at all, but I'm trying to do what I do and make Dad proud and do something for myself that helps me grow as a person every day."
The Night She Learned of His Passing
Earlier, Brooke had opened up about the emotional turmoil she experienced on the night she learned of her father's fatal heart attack. She was spending time with family, including her partner Alex Heath, when the news arrived. Speaking on her brother Jackson's podcast, Warnes Way, last year, she described how the tragic news came completely out of the blue.
She recalled that her father was known for hosting a Christmas Eve gathering "because the cricket players were in town." "Not for one minute did I think something had happened to Dad," she said in the emotional interview. It was Jackson who first heard the news via a phone call from Shane's manager, Andrew Neophitou.
Also present that night was her mother, Simone Callahan, Shane's ex-wife. As soon as the family learned that the cricket great had suffered a massive heart attack, everyone leapt to their feet. "We stood up, and I remember I couldn't breathe," she recalled. "And when you hear [something like] that... I felt like I had this out-of-body experience. I didn't think what was happening was happening." Sadly, Brooke admitted she had told herself her father "would be fine" as they waited for more news.
The Australian cricket icon, known as the King of Spin, died in March 2022 from a heart attack while on holiday in Thailand. He was 52 years old.
